computer monitor?

Lorin Millsap · Post by **Lorin Millsap** » Sat Jan 30, 2021 12:12 am

Well, that's something i do not completely understand.
Let's say we have an old 15" LCD and the resolution is a typical 1024x768.
1024-640 = 384 and 768-480 = 288 and those leftover pixels could be filled with the border colour.
Thus we have a fixed 640x480 resolution and a left/right border of 192 pixels + top/bottom border of 144 pixels around it.
Couldn't VERA handle that automatic "resolution filling/fitting"?

Your screen handles that.

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m00dawg · Post by **m00dawg** » Sat Jan 30, 2021 2:18 am

Reminds me I should get a CRT before the prices keep going up ? With all the "retro" stuff coming out, guessing there's gonna be a run on these things (there already is I suppose). I'm sure X16 will be just fine on an LCD but I do think 640x480 just looks so much better on CRTs, which I suppose makes sense given how they work.

SlithyMatt · Post by **SlithyMatt** » Sat Jan 30, 2021 3:34 am

The people who helped me move a few years ago were dumbfounded that I'd want to keep my 20" Trinitron monitor. They have no idea what a treasure it is.

EMwhite · Post by **EMwhite** » Sat Jan 30, 2021 3:58 am

This reasonably sized lcd has 'all' the inputs and a pretty good review by Chris Torrence (Apple ][ guy). Might be suitable for the "> 10" but not huge" use case. See here:

Here is the link to ReActive Micro:

https://www.reactivemicro.com/product/reactivemicro-12-lcd-display/

Cyber · Post by **Cyber** » Sat Jan 30, 2021 5:26 am

5 hours ago, Lorin Millsap said:

Why would you need a CRT? Any LCD with a VGA input will work. No need to overcomplicate it.

Of course it will. But what we are talking here is crisp pixel-to-pixel display of an image. Very geeky stuff, which is hard to achieve using LCD. I know that not that many people bother with this.

Cyber · Post by **Cyber** » Sat Jan 30, 2021 5:40 am

5 hours ago, Lorin Millsap said:

On 10/22/2020 at 7:37 PM, DoubleA said:

Well, that's something i do not completely understand.

Let's say we have an old 15" LCD and the resolution is a typical 1024x768.

1024-640 = 384 and 768-480 = 288 and those leftover pixels could be filled with the border colour.

Thus we have a fixed 640x480 resolution and a left/right border of 192 pixels + top/bottom border of 144 pixels around it.

Couldn't VERA handle that automatic "resolution filling/fitting"?

Your screen handles that.

Sorry, DoubleA, but VERA could not, would not and should not handle that. Like Lorin said, your screen (monitor) will handle that.

The truth is, your monitor will likely just stretch VERA's 640x480 output over 1024x768 screen. I, personally, never seen a monitor, that will do automatic border around output image to make it pixel-to-pixel result (I'm not even sure that such automatic calculations is possible on the monitor side). I've seen monitors that have manual adjustment of such border, but they are rare (at least in my experiance).

Cyber · Post by **Cyber** » Sat Jan 30, 2021 5:49 am

On 10/22/2020 at 8:46 PM, DoubleA said:

Hm, but if the monitor doesn't do it's job, the device could compensate that. E.g. most of those mini retro consoles offer some decent scaling performances (even with CRT effects).

I agree with team, that device should not do this. Besides, it will rise the cost and complexity of X16. So people who need this may use separate upscaler connected between X16 and monitor, like Perifractic adviced:

On 10/22/2020 at 9:02 PM, Perifractic said:

If you're still stuck for choices you can use any HDMI display by connecting the X16 to a RetroTink or similar upscaler.

TomXP411 · Post by **TomXP411** » Sat Jan 30, 2021 11:21 am

5 hours ago, Cyber said:

Sorry, DoubleA, but VERA could not, would not and should not handle that. Like Lorin said, your screen (monitor) will handle that.

The truth is, your monitor will likely just stretch VERA's 640x480 output over 1024x768 screen. I, personally, never seen a monitor, that will do automatic border around output image to make it pixel-to-pixel result (I'm not even sure that such automatic calculations is possible on the monitor side). I've seen monitors that have manual adjustment of such border, but they are rare (at least in my experiance).

A good LCD actually will do exactly that. All of my monitors have 1:1, 4:3, and full screen scaling modes.

BruceMcF · Post by **BruceMcF** » Sat Jan 30, 2021 12:36 pm

@Cyber To be clear, yes, it's not a setting to automatically do a pixel perfect display, it's just a setting of how much of the physical screen to use. 2560x1440, 1920x1440, and 1440x1440.

Given the parts overlap between modern LCD monitors and TV's and the ubiquity of 4:3 settings on LCD TV's, it would be surprising if a 4:3 setting was not available, but it is worthwhile to get a PDF of the manual and double check before purchase.

Sadly, no colored border.

Cyber · Post by **Cyber** » Sun Jan 31, 2021 4:24 am

16 hours ago, TomXP411 said:

All of my monitors have 1:1, 4:3, and full screen scaling modes.

15 hours ago, BruceMcF said:

Given the parts overlap between modern LCD monitors and TV's and the ubiquity of 4:3 settings on LCD TV's, it would be surprising if a 4:3 setting was not available, but it is worthwhile to get a PDF of the manual and double check before purchase.

Well, may be it's something with my country, but most wide monitors I encountered did not have 4:3 setting. TVs - yes, they always have 4:3 mode, but it's a rare feature for monitor. And pity this feature is not demanded by consumer, so it won't be specified in specs. So I tend to be on the safe side and double-check things.

And I'm actually happy to hear it's not a worldwide problem, because I see you guys don't seem to have this issue. )