Gadzooks! I actually found something locally!

[eightbit]

I live on the east coast (NJ) and when it comes to vintage computer ANYTHING....well it has been pretty dry here for many many years...

 

But after searching the model of the Atari ST display for some time on the FB marketplace (not to mention Craigslist...etc) one came up. In box and "untested"...for $200. Yeah right. I countered at half and the seller lowered to $125. I could have lugged my ST the hour away to really test (and that is probably the best thing to really do) but it was raining and I didn't care for the bother. I figured I would just take the $125 chance and if it did not work hang on to it and hopefully find out what was wrong one day.

 

But happy day indeed. Not only is it in literally like new condition...but it works just like new. No yellowing, no dirt, nothing. The monitor was set almost perfectly too...just needed to turn the H.POS a slight tick. 

 

Picture is outstanding, sound is LOUD (I am keeping it low as to not damage the speaker...but this sucker does indeed crank).

 

Glad I found one of these. I realize it is only 12 inches, but something about small crisp displays really gets to me. I love these!

[+DarkLord]

Lucky you! Congratulations. 

 

[eightbit]

20 minutes ago, DarkLord said:

Lucky you! Congratulations. 

 

 

Yeah, it only took searching "SC1224" and "Atari Monitor" daily for about three years...lol

 

[Paul Westphal]

If it is made by JVC, then you have THE BEST SC1224.

[masteries]

An excellent monitor!

[+DarkLord]

I wholeheartedly agree, JVC is the best of the SC1224's. Goldstar and

Samsung are the other two.

 

However, I have a JVC model. I don't think the SC1224 in the OP's picture

is the JVC version. 

 

But...that being said, the monitor looks to be in really good shape, with

a nice picture and is still an excellent find! 

 

[Atari8guy]

That's the Goldstar one in the pic.

[eightbit]

The picture really is superb. I did notice a few days later on the lower right side of the plastic bezel what I thought was a scratch is actually a hairline crack in the plastic. Oh well, not a big deal (and not very noticeable as I didn't catch it for days)...and the monitor otherwise is clean and works perfectly. Can't win em all I guess. At least I have one that works

[Ppyo]

How can you tell if your monitor is made by JVC, Goldstar, or Samsung?

[+DarkLord]

You can google for pictures...

 

The Goldstar model is shown by the OP.

 

Here's the Samsung:

 

 

And finally, the best of the lot, the JVC:

 

 

HTH's. 

 

[oky2000]

It's hard to tell from pictures but if you put two or more monitors side by side then the lightest grey CRT tube (when turned off) will be the lower quality monitor in terms of contrast in general. 

 

Most branded monitors were absolute rubbish, bargain basement TV quality, like the Commodore 17xx or the Amstrad CPC colour monitors for example. The Phillips tube in the 1084S was acceptable, the Goldstar tube in the 1084D/1084SD was utter rubbish. 

 

Wasn't there also a Thomson colour monitor sold with the original 520ST or on the stands at shows around launch time?

 

I had a 1986 Sony Trinitron TV with SCART cables back then (100% R/B gun convergence over 100% of the screen on my Workbench/GEM desktop) but Quintrix (Panasonic) Diamondtron (Mitsubishi) and some JVC portable TVs from the mid 80s were good too from what I remember from my TV engineer days. Some time in the early 1990s Trinitrons started to fail the Red/Blue convergence test (red/blue fringing on left/right of the MTV logo in the corner and real crap looking when used with Workbench 1.x on my Amiga). The weird angular cut off corner silver cased Trinitron tubes of early 2000s are utter rubbish and should be avoided on ebay etc at all costs unless you have gone blind and won the national lottery  . Think I have the same SC1224 as the thread starter not the JVC one but it came with one of my Mega STs anyway.

Edited July 5, 2022 by oky2000
typo

[+GoldLeader]

I thought these looked familiar...Funny,  I don't have an Atari computer,  but back in the 90s I bought a Roland Sampler and it was in a rack case, with other gear, hooked to an Atari Monitor...So, now I know I got the Samsung Model. 

[TGB1718]

When I bought my 520STM, I purchased a Tandy TV/monitor that had a SCART input, don't know

the underlying make, but it was very clear and sharp.

[Paul Westphal]

Did Hitachi make the first SC1224? I thought the progression went : 1) Hitachi, 2) JVC 3) Samsung 4) Goldstar?

[+DarkLord]

Hmm, I didn't know anyone besides JVC, Samsung, and Goldstar made the SC1224.

 

Personally, I've never seen a Hitachi brand SC1224, but then, there's a lot of things

I've not seen...  

 

[Lynxpro]

On 7/4/2022 at 1:10 PM, DarkLord said:

You can google for pictures...

 

The Goldstar model is shown by the OP.

 

Here's the Samsung:

 

 

And finally, the best of the lot, the JVC:

 

 

HTH's. 

 

 

The best of the SC1224s. The best Atari ST color monitors though would arguably be the PS3000 and the later SC1435.  

Edited July 30, 2022 by Lynxpro

[Lynxpro]

On 7/5/2022 at 4:29 PM, oky2000 said:

It's hard to tell from pictures but if you put two or more monitors side by side then the lightest grey CRT tube (when turned off) will be the lower quality monitor in terms of contrast in general. 

 

Most branded monitors were absolute rubbish, bargain basement TV quality, like the Commodore 17xx or the Amstrad CPC colour monitors for example. The Phillips tube in the 1084S was acceptable, the Goldstar tube in the 1084D/1084SD was utter rubbish. 

 

Wasn't there also a Thomson colour monitor sold with the original 520ST or on the stands at shows around launch time?

 

I had a 1986 Sony Trinitron TV with SCART cables back then (100% R/B gun convergence over 100% of the screen on my Workbench/GEM desktop) but Quintrix (Panasonic) Diamondtron (Mitsubishi) and some JVC portable TVs from the mid 80s were good too from what I remember from my TV engineer days. Some time in the early 1990s Trinitrons started to fail the Red/Blue convergence test (red/blue fringing on left/right of the MTV logo in the corner and real crap looking when used with Workbench 1.x on my Amiga). The weird angular cut off corner silver cased Trinitron tubes of early 2000s are utter rubbish and should be avoided on ebay etc at all costs unless you have gone blind and won the national lottery  . Think I have the same SC1224 as the thread starter not the JVC one but it came with one of my Mega STs anyway.

 

Wait... what???  I mean, I have no love for Commodore but that's the first time I've seen someone claim their house branded monitors were rubbish. The 1702 was manufactured by JVC. And it's always been highly sought after by lots of Atari 8-bit computer fans or for retro gamers with composite mods to their various consoles [or even NES owners].

[+DarkLord]

21 hours ago, Lynxpro said:

 

The best of the SC1224s. The best Atari ST color monitors though would arguably be the PS3000 and the later SC1435.  

 

I respectfully disagree, unless the PS3000 is the JVC brand, then I would agree, because of the built in floppy drive.

 

The SC1435 is bigger, has stereo inputs, and a stand.

 

Nevertheless, it's picture is of lesser quality than a JVC brand SC1224.

 

So I stand by my original assessment - the JVC brand SC1224 is (still) the best of the lot. 

 

 

[youxia]

The tech specs mattered most in 80/90s. In 2022 the best CRT monitor is the one that works without some big flaws caused by age and mishandling.

[Lynxpro]

6 hours ago, DarkLord said:

 

I respectfully disagree, unless the PS3000 is the JVC brand, then I would agree, because of the built in floppy drive.

 

The SC1435 is bigger, has stereo inputs, and a stand.

 

Nevertheless, it's picture is of lesser quality than a JVC brand SC1224.

 

So I stand by my original assessment - the JVC brand SC1224 is (still) the best of the lot. 

 

 

 

JVC built the PS3000. The only downside to it is that it has that curse-ed internal SF354 instead of an SF314.

[+DarkLord]

12 hours ago, Lynxpro said:

 

JVC built the PS3000. The only downside to it is that it has that curse-ed internal SF354 instead of an SF314.

 

Gotcha. Then I'll roll-back to my first line, since it is a JVC brand and has the floppy drive, I'll put it a notch above

the standard JVC SC1224.   

 

I was aware that it used the single-sided drive but is there any way to replace that (assuming a person could even

get their hands on one of these near mythical beasts)?. It seems like  I recall a message thread somewhere where

someone was trying to do that...

 

Thanks.

 

[Lynxpro]

14 hours ago, DarkLord said:

 

Gotcha. Then I'll roll-back to my first line, since it is a JVC brand and has the floppy drive, I'll put it a notch above

the standard JVC SC1224.   

 

I was aware that it used the single-sided drive but is there any way to replace that (assuming a person could even

get their hands on one of these near mythical beasts)?. It seems like  I recall a message thread somewhere where

someone was trying to do that...

 

Thanks.

 

 

Yeah, that thread was from a few years ago. I can't remember of the same guy added stereo speakers to it or if that was a different person modding an SC1224 with speakers...

[TGB1718]

The only monitor "Atari" make was the High Rez mono monitor, for colour

I bought a Phillips CM8833 monitor originally for my 8 bits and then on my ST

I have to say the picture is outstanding, still working today

 

[oky2000]

8833 is a good solid Phillips monitor I t

On 7/30/2022 at 11:14 PM, Lynxpro said:

 

Wait... what???  I mean, I have no love for Commodore but that's the first time I've seen someone claim their house branded monitors were rubbish. The 1702 was manufactured by JVC. And it's always been highly sought after by lots of Atari 8-bit computer fans or for retro gamers with composite mods to their various consoles [or even NES owners].

You name it I've probably got it in mint low mileage condition or new old stock and used many of them side by side.

 

The picture quality on all my 1702s is warm (unlike Sony/Panasonic with blueish greyscales) and has duff contrast in use due to the medium grey tube fitted in them, about the same as the cheapest portable TVs of 1983, you need the S-Video input for C64 breadbins but that's the only advantage as most portable TVs only do composite + SCART RGB (part of the teletext board overlay display in TVs anyway) so for machines that don't have RGB video you've got a bit of a trade-off. If you want better/sharper composite video you need to use the 64C over the original breadbin BUT then you have to have the broken 8580 SID to play games on.

 

The Commodore 1902 by comparison is almost as dark as my KV14 Sony TV tube when turned off and has a sharper image than the 1702.

 

The 1084S is a good solid option if a little too warm in grey scale colours for me and you might as well get a CM8833 (both my 1084S units have Philips tubes) if you plan to use non Commodore machines on them but better than a 1702 for sure. Never had the 1902 and 1084S side by side. 

 

The 1084D/SD is some Goldstar budget tube in there and some anti-glare type 'solution' on the tube. I don't have a similar looking 1081 monitor.

 

I would never spend 300 bucks on a mint condition 1702, you could get 2 or 3 superior 1980s Sony KV14 units or similar for that price, with the added bonus of SCART RGB for other things like MD/SNES/PC Engine/Amiga/ST/Archimedes use not just 8bit machines with comp/s-video. 

 

(I also have 40+ C64s so it isn't an age related modulator type problem on either side, age related issues can usually be adjusted out by boosting or linking an old CRT tube but mine are all in decent condition and I have many duplicates of monitors and TV models I like). 

[oky2000]

On 7/31/2022 at 9:06 PM, youxia said:

The tech specs mattered most in 80/90s. In 2022 the best CRT monitor is the one that works without some big flaws caused by age and mishandling.

Not really, you just need to take your glasses with you when you check your ebay/craigslist purchases to make sure they aren't knackered. I have 10+ mint condition TVs and monitors, seek and yee shall find :)