4 ms·

That may have been true on the average American CRT receiving its signal via RF or composite, but a high quality RGB CRT is very clear. Here is a random example

by city41 7y ago

That may have been true on the average American CRT receiving its signal via RF or composite, but a high quality RGB CRT is very clear. Here is a random example: https://i.imgur.com/qVkhCpH.png https://i.imgur.com/qVkhCpH.png Sure, at home basically nobody had nice RGB monitors, but arcades did. If an arcade monitor was in good condition and well maintained, it delivered a clear, and quite pixelated, picture.

rasz 7y ago
In Europe almost every TV had SCART (also caller EURO) connector with RGB input since eighties. My first 386 PC used TV connected over RGB to VGA card with VGATV.COM TRS loaded to reprogram CRTC for 15KHz. Today you can use CRT Emudriver or Soft-15kHz to do this on modern hardware.
- KozmoNau7 7y ago
  The vast majority of SCART-connected devices used composite video, not RGB. I used a very nice B&O CRT TV for my retro games for a long time, and there was a definite difference between composite, s-video and RGB. Composite is how I remember all games looking when I was a kid. RGB is a huge step up in quality, that most people didn't have, because all pack-in cables were composite only.
  - laumars 7y ago
    You've made this point a few times in this thread and I don't agree with it. My rebuttal: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21912698 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21912698
- weinzierl 7y ago
  > In Europe almost every TV had SCART (also caller EURO) connector with RGB input since eighties. Yes, in the eighties SCART was common, at least our family TV had a SCART connector back then. Still, from what I remember, most kids just used the cinch cable to connect the output of the integrated RF modulator to the antenna input of the TV. Why? Because that cable came with the home computer and you didn't have to bother your parents to buy you an extra cable. Another reason is that the coax cable was long and flexible compared to the SCART cables I have in mind. At least that is what I remember from the era of 8-bit home computers - like Commodore 64 and Amstrad CPC - way before the 80386.
  - laumars 7y ago
    > At least that is what I remember from the era of 8-bit home computers - like Commodore 64 and Amstrad CPC - way before the 80386. It was also common for micro computers to have RGB monitors as well. In fact the Amstrad CPC example you give specifically shipped with either a green or colour monitor and the DIN cable you'd connect from the CPC is actually a pre-VGA RGB cable. The BBC Micro also used RGB as well (with the same DIN layout at the CPC -- though Amstrad were inspired by the BBC Micro so it shouldn't come as a huge surprise the connections are the same). You're right that Commodore were often hooked up via RF but those computers did also support RGB albeit not every owner invested in a monitor. The only 8 bit micros I can think of which only supported RF was Sinclair machines (eg ZX Spectrum) but those were intentionally cheap devices aimed at the bottom of the market.
    - rasz 7y ago
      C-64 was sadly S-video only. Amiga was RGB tho.
growlist 7y ago
Exactly. My Philips CM8833 Mk2 + Amiga combo was super sharp.

by city41 7y ago

rasz 7y ago

In Europe almost every TV had SCART (also caller EURO) connector with RGB input since eighties. My first 386 PC used TV connected over RGB to VGA card with VGATV.COM TRS loaded to reprogram CRTC for 15KHz. Today you can use CRT Emudriver or Soft-15kHz to do this on modern hardware.

KozmoNau7 7y ago
The vast majority of SCART-connected devices used composite video, not RGB. I used a very nice B&O CRT TV for my retro games for a long time, and there was a definite difference between composite, s-video and RGB. Composite is how I remember all games looking when I was a kid. RGB is a huge step up in quality, that most people didn't have, because all pack-in cables were composite only.
- laumars 7y ago
  You've made this point a few times in this thread and I don't agree with it. My rebuttal: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21912698 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21912698
weinzierl 7y ago
> In Europe almost every TV had SCART (also caller EURO) connector with RGB input since eighties. Yes, in the eighties SCART was common, at least our family TV had a SCART connector back then. Still, from what I remember, most kids just used the cinch cable to connect the output of the integrated RF modulator to the antenna input of the TV. Why? Because that cable came with the home computer and you didn't have to bother your parents to buy you an extra cable. Another reason is that the coax cable was long and flexible compared to the SCART cables I have in mind. At least that is what I remember from the era of 8-bit home computers - like Commodore 64 and Amstrad CPC - way before the 80386.
- laumars 7y ago
  > At least that is what I remember from the era of 8-bit home computers - like Commodore 64 and Amstrad CPC - way before the 80386. It was also common for micro computers to have RGB monitors as well. In fact the Amstrad CPC example you give specifically shipped with either a green or colour monitor and the DIN cable you'd connect from the CPC is actually a pre-VGA RGB cable. The BBC Micro also used RGB as well (with the same DIN layout at the CPC -- though Amstrad were inspired by the BBC Micro so it shouldn't come as a huge surprise the connections are the same). You're right that Commodore were often hooked up via RF but those computers did also support RGB albeit not every owner invested in a monitor. The only 8 bit micros I can think of which only supported RF was Sinclair machines (eg ZX Spectrum) but those were intentionally cheap devices aimed at the bottom of the market.
  - rasz 7y ago
    C-64 was sadly S-video only. Amiga was RGB tho.

growlist 7y ago

Exactly. My Philips CM8833 Mk2 + Amiga combo was super sharp.