[Coco] Modern monitors that work on CoCo 3 and MM/1

[Allen Huffman]

> On Mar 6, 2025, at 4:04 PM, Andrew Ayers via Coco <coco at maltedmedia.com> wrote:
> 
> I'm sure you'd agree that there is still merit in the need for such adapters, simply because there are likely tons of LCD monitors retro-tech people own and use that don't have "FreeSync" in them.

For sure, no one here should EVER discourage any new development of any kind. I know every time sound hardware comes up, there is always push back from too many choices. Yet, here we are years after all of that, and still really don’t have anything to show for it except a few games that used them.

> While I don't need any such adapter today (if anything, I have way too many such "adapters" in some form or another), if I did have such a need, I don't think I'd go out and buy a new monitor instead of an adapter, unless the monitor was cheaper, and I knew for certain it would work with the system(s) I already have.

That’s the other thing — there are FreeSync monitors at Best Buy starting at $89, and that’s cheaper than just buying the FPGA solution I use ;-) But REAL retro folks will only use CRTs anyway so they aren’t lacking for desk space.

> I think this "FreeSync" technology definitely warrants further review and experimentation, though.
> 
> I also noticed that there's also something called "GSync" out there, but I have no idea if it is the same kind of thing, or whether it allows what is being seen with "FreeSync".

I will been on alert for it. I am not even sure what we are looking for. Just a monitor that can go down to 15Hz,and then we have to do whatever to make the proper sync in the cable?

> I think all of these "sync-ing" technologies should probably be documented and tested for "retrocomputing" and "retrogaming" purposes, as much as possible...

From my digging, the Atari Jaguar was a similar 15Hz signal and there are all kinds of solutions for that (Atari ST was too, so maybe that’s why Jag was the same?). But, some of $300+ boxed, and cheap ones don’t handle 80 column text well.

We do need a mega chart. This problem has been faced by Atari, Apple, Commodore, etc. users since none of our machines hook up to a modern VGA or HDMI or DVI or Thunderbolt monitor.

		— A