[Coco] Introducing the next generation of Color Computer, the CoCo-X

[Frank Pittel]

On Thu, Mar 21, 2013 at 01:09:01PM +1100, Mark McDougall wrote:
> On 21/03/2013 6:44 AM, Frank Pittel wrote:
> 
> > Also the "cheap" hdmi to dvi converters are actually expensive!
> > Another interesting thing I discoverd is that not all converters work
> > with all monitors and some monitors don't work with hdmi converted to
> > dvi period!
> 
> Interesting. DVI should be electrically compatible with HDMI and
> converters are nothing more than 2 connectors wired back-to-back. You just
> need to make sure that (a) the DVI signal is actually DVI-D and (b) the
> converter matches your signal type (single/dual link etc).

It was frustrating and expensive. The monitor in question has vga and dvi inputs.
I have used it with dvi and dvi-d and it's always worked. After buying more converters
than I'd like to think about I never did get my PI to work with that monitor. I got 
a different monitor and it works with the PI and all the converters I have. No idea
what the incompatibility is. I tried both active and passive converters. Something
to keep in mind.
 
> > I agree that in the long run vga is a dead end.
> 
> VGA is of course much easier to implement than DVI/HDMI. For the former
> you simply need some sort of DAC (resistor network or video DAC) but for
> the latter you require a transceiver chip (with its clocking and support
> circuitry) and it usually requires some sort of power-up configuration via
> a serial link.
> 
> I would concur that VGA is well and truly on the way out. Having said that
> though, this is a hobbyist project and all those "useless" VGA monitors
> are probably going to land on some hobbyists desk so... a good match?

For now displays with a vga input are common and even when new displays don't
have them anymore there will be millions of them in circulation making them
cheap and easy to get.

The Other Frank