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From: bryce@COGSCI.BERKELEY.EDU (Bryce Nesbitt)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: RGBI Monitor
Message-ID: <8707230136.AA12265@cogsci.berkeley.edu>
Date: Wed, 22-Jul-87 21:36:21 EDT
Article-I.D.: cogsci.8707230136.AA12265
Posted: Wed Jul 22 21:36:21 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 25-Jul-87 01:54:16 EDT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: Institute of Cognitive Studies, UC Berkeley
Lines: 39
Keywords: C128

In article <614@madvax.UUCP> richc@madvax.UUCP (Rich Commins) writes:
>
>	I have a friend with a commodore 1903 color monitor (the kind that
>was made for the commodore 128).  It is RGBI.  Do you know whether or not
>it would work with an Amiga?  With the new lower priced amigas, he is a
>little bit tempted, particularly if he didn't have to buy a new monitor.

It will work, but the results won't be as "colorful" as you might hope.  You
could interface it one of two ways:

1> As a composite monitor.  Advantages: no special cable required.
   Disadvantages: A color composite picture does not look as good as color
   RGB.
2> Build a cable to go from the Amiga's RGBI output pins to the monitor's
   input.  Advantages: The picture will be clearer than the first method.
   Disadvantages: RGBI stands for "Red" "Green" "Blue" "Intensity".  One
   bit is available for each.  This makes for a maximum of 15 colors
   (Black half-intensity is the same as Black full-intensity).  For use
   with the Amiga this means fiddling with colors so things look ok.
   The "PopColours" program from March, 1987 "The Transactor" is highly
   recommended for this purpose.  (You could type it in from the magazine,
   download it from a BBS or purchase the new Transactor Amiga disk)
3> Buy a conversion kit.  WARNING: THIS IS ONLY A RUMOR!!!  A company is said
   to be preparing a kit to convert the 1902 into a RGBA monitor.  Don't ask
   for details because I don't know any more than I have already told you.
   Don't expect high quality, but you might just be surprised.

The Amiga has lots of ways to view it's output.  But the best is, of
course, RGBA (Red-Green-Blue-Analog) which lets you see all 4096
possible colors.  In the absence of this, the methods listed above should
give good results.  I'd recommend method 1 or 2 until either method 3
becomes reality or your friend saves enough pennies to upgrade to a better
monitor.  (Probably by then a multi-sync type)

-----------------------------
|\ /|  . Ack! (NAK, EOT, SOH)
{o O} . 
( " )	bryce@cogsci.berkeley.EDU -or- ucbvax!cogsci!bryce
  U	"Success leads to stagnation; stagnation leads to failure."