Dead Plus... What to do? — #7

Post #7 by Bunsen

Source Forum	68kMLA
Category	Hardware
Post Date	Mon, 23 Nov 2009 - 23:53
Original URL	https://68kmla.org/bb/threads/dead-plus-what-to-do.19079/

Post

I was curious if anyone had electrically modified the power and CRT circuitry to take signals from another source. Like... if I were to install a TV tuner in the base, could I rig the video circuitry to the signal outputs on the tuner? Of course I don't just mean a TV tuner... could anything at all be connected up? Just a curiosity.

You may (or may not) find relevant information and/or inspiration in the MPxPlayer and EvilTim's other projects.

It really is possible to interface a PC to any kind of fixed frequency CRT monitor, it's just a matter of getting the video timings right.
VGA compatible PC graphics cards are extremely flexible when it comes to generating unusual video resolutions. It's the software which is the tricky part. I think it would be much easier to do this sort of thing with Linux (Xorg) than MS-DOS...

I don't recall whether it was that hack, or one of his other CRT hacks, but IIRC he also converted a monochrome CRT to greyscale by feeding the intensity level into where the brightness knob used to be.

Myself, I wonder if doing that, and some analogue board hacking a la the Color Classic a/b hacks, would be an even simpler way of getting VGA (or greater) greyscale, than Stuart Bell's Poor Man's Greyscale.