Well 3 LED TV brands later trying to get a 1080p native screen that can do double duty in my office as a modern montor and sync up
cleanly to an Apple-1, I give up... I am swapping my Sol-20's Sanyo VM4209 with the 24" Toshbia 1080p LED TV/monitor I had finally settled on.
It seems I can get the cheaper LCD 720p native TVs to work like the ones Best Buy sells (they suck as monitors for my mac) but the better quality TV's can't sync on the signal from the Apple-1. I can use my cheap china made composite to VGA adapter to work with all the TVs but I don't want to rely on that setup. I even tried a video modulator and that was no good also.
So moral to the story... Make sure if you really want a flat screen for your Apple-1, Mimeo or Newton make sure you have a good return policy with the store you buy the TV from. Also if bringing one of these systems up and you don't get video,
Don't dispair it could be your monitor/TV.
Same goes for the Apple II crowd, my Sony Plasma from the late 1990's syncs up fine with Apple-1 and Apple II systems but my Sony from 2 years ago and this new toshiba....
NOPE.
And I have never had a problem with my Briel Replica-1 syncing to any TV at all.
Cheers,
Corey
The Samsung LT22B350 is a 22 In 1080P TV/Monitor that works extremely well with the Apple 1, I have used it on several Apple 1's, one of which would not even synch well on a Monitor ///. It is not good for the Apple II because it picks up the color burst. That monitor uses the Y input of composite video as double duty for the composite input and has no S video. It can be useful to know that there are three possible composite inputs on modern TV sets. One is of course the composite input but the Y input on Composite is normally a Black and White composite input and one of the signal pairs on the S video is also Black and White composite. I have one LCD TV that tries to do color with the Apple II on the composite input but works perfectly (in black and white) with the S video input. You may have to wire up the S-Video to RCA cable, L-COM used to sell them but I don't see them there any more. Other Samsung models may be worth a try.
wsander
In fact there are several more options availiable....
Another point to think about today with modern LCDs is the fact that most of them have the option to
switch between NTSC, PAL and SECAM by software switch in setup of the TV. This option should be checked out...
Dependent to the TV -model it might be set to specific decoding or probably have an "auto"-option.
In case a "auto"-option is availiable - it usually would be set by factory to "Auto"
- and that might be not the best choice....
The sync is picked from a complex videosignal by the falling egde of the "footline" of that signal and the
"auto"-option might make a wrong decision....
in such case it might be recommended to set the decoding in the setup of the TV manualy to "NTSC" decoding
to ensure better capture of the sync-sigmal....
and another point is, that some TVs also offer the VGA-input as "PC"input....
in such case it must be checked if there is in the setup of the TV for this input a option to set specific
rates for vertical syncing to 15kHz or not....
of course using that VGA-"PC"input would also require the demand to make a special cable with several
resistors to split of parts of the signal to the requesting lines.... there have been several publications in the
internat availiable for such adapting cables
( some of them also instead using the FBAS line of the "SCART"input )....
in most cases that adaptors have been used with old Atari computers to get them running their display at the
SCARTinput of Flatscreens....
In fact if you decide to use such a setup with the Atari SCART hack there might be some minor changes needed...
and of course if the SCART input is used - it is mandatory to setup the direction of the Signal by the
"switching"line of the SCART to 12V or to 0V depending to the direction of the input - if it is used as
input or output !
sincerely speedyG
Well I decided to bite the bullet and get a Samsung. I was walking though Best Buy and they had a sale. It may not appear to support composite on first glance but it works as stated by Wendell using the "Y" as input fom the component. My plexiglass case just doesn't look right with a vintage monitor.
My only issue with the Samsung is that it has less HDMI ports and no VGA, but it worked first time with the Apple-1 video signal, so I am happy.
Cheers,
Corey