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From: prindle@NADC.ARPA@sri-unix.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.micro
Subject: TV surgery
Message-ID: <12106@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 17-Sep-84 15:41:31 EDT
Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.12106
Posted: Mon Sep 17 15:41:31 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 25-Sep-84 07:24:55 EDT
Lines: 21


You can make an excellent B&W monitor out of one of those cheap ($75) 12" TVs
(I did it with a Panasonic).  An isolation transformer is a must - you can
make one out of two Radio Shack 24 volt transformers (the big ones, about
$6.89 each) tied back to back.  By tapping in one transistor away from the
picture tube cathode, adding bias and level controls, and feeding in the
(truly hefty) luminance signal from a Commodore 64, I got a high quality,
high contrast (adjustable) monochrome display far better than most monitors
I've seen on display for more bucks.  The secret of this cheap mod to the set
(4 wires: GND, +10V, Luminance in, and Luminance out ),
is that the Sync and Audio still take the RF modulator path!!  Sure, the
screen shifts about 1/4 inch to the left (the sync is slightly delayed), but
the display is great.  I suppose you could make a similar mod to a color TV
to feed raw luminance and chroma in, but you'd need a lot bigger isolation
transformer, and more complex surgery; too much for me, I just bought a
1702.  

P.S. It seems a whole new industry has been spawned from personal computing.
I have seen no less than 3 companies now advertising TV receivers without
display (sort of like a VCR sans CR) to put the Hill Street Blues right there
on your computer monitor!