Amiga Monitor w/emulator?

[zedrein]

I'm certain this subject has been done to death, so please bear with me as I'm new to it. Basically I recently happened across a old Commodore 1084 monitor, I've been planning to use it with my old gaming consoles for RGB picture. As I'm sure most of you know, the 1084* accepts a 15kHz RGB signal, whereas VGA computer cards put out a 31kHz sync--I've heard of a program called "Soft 15kHz" that allows windows to display 15kHz video...I was just wondering what it would take to hook my 1084 display to my PC. Will I have to make a cable with one VGA connector on one end and a Commodore 1084 connector at the other while running soft 15kHz software? Please let me know if this can be done, and the specifics of doing this. I would love to play emulated Amiga games on a REAL Commodore monitor!

*=The 1084 is also interlaced signal only whereas most PC video cards are progressive scan.

[Harrison]

I hadn't heard of this "Soft 15kHz" software before.

Before this software the only ways were to install a special graphics card designed for the retro arcade cabinet market that can output the lower frequency resolutions. Or to output using a graphics card with a S-Video/Composite output (which a Commodore monitor can accept).

This Soft 15kHz software looks interesting. I found this page at http://wiki.arcadecontrols.com/wiki/Soft-15khz which gives some information about it. It warns that the software only works after Windows has loaded, so you would need to load using a standard monitor, and then run the software to switch to the Amiga monitor. With a graphics card that has dual monitor support this is quite easy to do as you could just hook up the Amiga monitor to the second monitor output on the graphics card, leave it off until you need the display, then load up the Soft 15kHz software and use the monitor, while maintaining the main PC display at the same time.

[FatAgnus]

I don`t know why you make things so hard ;)

If your PC has an S-Video Output(4-Pin to Cinch Red, White and Yellow), you can just connect that to your 1084 Monitor!

I connected various consoles(back then the N64 - and now the Wii) and it works fine.

So if you happen to have a VGA Card with an svideo output just use that and be happy.

Soon i will be connecting my Archos 5 IT to my 1084S Monitor - when i just get that darn emulator for android ;)

(Sorry i did not look at the Date of this thread...)

[Harrison]

Interesting method. I'd not considered using S-Video to connect from a PC to a 15Hz Amiga/retro monitor, mostly because the monitors are RGB, so the cleanest method is logically to try and get an RGB signal to the monitor. But recently using S-Video for a better picture has been utilised more and more the the retro world.

Could you do a quick schematic for me on how to make such a cable to connect S-Video to 1084S monitor? Do any resisters need to be placed within the cable on any of the lines? When I recently made up a couple of Atari ST to SCART cables I had to put some resisters in to reduce the brightness being output for example.

[FatAgnus]

There is nothing special needed Harrison!
When you look at the back of your 1084S(or just a 1084) you will see, that everything is already there!
This Monitor Type also operates at 50/60Hz (that is why PAL and NTSC Consoles work with this nice old Monitor)
When some old games needs 15Hz(or 15Frames per Second for that matter) you can just adjust the framelimit to that value, to get the desired framerate.
I also use this Monitor for my Mame machine (which is also connected sometimes to this Monitor - just for the retro effect ;)) and getting correct speeds is often vital, but you don`t need a special monitor. I think the most emulators are fine in regard of speed and frame options nowadays.

I will post pictures of my old 1084S hooked up to my little archos. i just need one more post to post the links ;)
PS isn`t it wonderful that this old antiquated hardware still works fine after all these years? What else works so good after all this years? Even my old Amiga 500 still works! Which is amazing. My old 286 frome the same time died long ago....