What's a good Atari 8-bit monitor to get?...

[flashjazzcat]

As an experiment, a couple of years back I took my VBXE 130XE to my parents' house, where I'd left an nice-looking silver Thompson portable CRT with a SCART input. I won it at work about eight years ago in a raffle and never used it. The RGB picture was deplorable, owing to the coarse dot pitch.

[jk40001]

Would anyone recommend this monitor? Not a cheap option but I need something my wife would permit to have on my desk...

[Zap!]

So what true computer monitor does it all? Right now I'm going to have to say I really like the features of the 1084S-D1 best. RGB, composite, chroma/luma, and stereo (a must). Does any monitor have all of this plus s-video, in a larger frame?

[Kyle22]

I am using a Sharp Aquos 13B2UA LCD, using S-Vid (split Luma/Chroma) and it works well. NOT as good as a real CRT like a 1084S, but I bought it used for $10.00... So, for the price, it works well. It has multiple inputs, so I can have my original Xbox (hacked, with emulators and big HD) connected at the same time.

 

My 800 looks nice on it, artifacting isn't the best in GR.8 games, but I can type a document using FJC's The Last Word using the SDX soft 80 column driver, and it's nice and clear.

[Knimrod]

FYI to anyone considering an LCD TV for use as an S-video monitor... After searching local second hand stores for an S-video compatible monitor I could use with my trusty old Atari 800, I settled on and purchased a Sharp Aquos 19" 16:9 TV. I made a cable from an old S-video cable and MIDI cable I had laying around. I was really disappointed in the quality initially. The colors were okay but the image was really washed out and too bright regardless of the brightnest/contrast settings on the TV. After discussing this issue with my old friend, ClausB, we seemed to recall that the luma signal was always a bit "hot" on the Atari 800 and he suggested a simple experiment using a resistor in series with the luma signal. I tried several values and saw a marked improvement. I ultimately settled on a 100 ohm resistor and now, the video display is simply outstanding. I'm very satisfied with the quality.

 

Initially, I did some research here and noted that a lot of the LCD TVs with S-video inputs were considered incompatible with the Ataris. Perhaps this simple resistor fix would make them useable.