Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!rex!ukma!phoenix
From: phoenix@ms.uky.edu (R'ykandar Korra'ti)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.introduction
Subject: Re: Is RF Modulator Output OK?
Message-ID: <1991Mar22.150740.10229@ms.uky.edu>
Date: 22 Mar 91 15:07:40 GMT
References: <63328@bbn.BBN.COM>
Organization: El'n'tk National Spaceport, Mission Control
Lines: 32

In article <63328@bbn.BBN.COM> gonzalez@BBN.COM (Jim Gonzalez) writes:
>I'm considering [holding] off on the 1084s and trying to live with an RF
>modulator... and an old color TV I have.
 [Notes about not using HiRes/Interlace mode]
>will this arrangement really cost me anything in display quality?
     Yes it will - no question. You'll have to work at it to get a readable
display. The best I found for text on a TV when I was playing around with
it (I had a monitor, but it was monochrome; fortunately, those days are
gone!) was black text on a light blue screen. Blue doesn't have as many of
the chroma problems which plague NTSC, and black doesn't have any chroma
at all, of course. :-)
     Anyway, combined with a good font (say, pearl.font, which is a clean
san serif 80 column font which I prefer strongly over Topaz), you will get
a readable Workbench screen. If all your applications live there, you'll
be alright. It won't be great, but it'll be readable. Anything that changes
colours on you, however, could result in unreadable text. Red is particularly
awful.
     Peter remarks about interlace; I found on some televisions that
turning on interlace _without_ increasing resolution (saying in 640 by
200, but adding double-scanning) actually improved picture quality
without adding mentionable flicker. (Use SetLace for this; it's not
included with the system, but is available here and there) In one case,
it was required; the TV wouldn't handle the RF signal without interlace
turned on.
     However, regardless of what you do, it won't be as pretty as it should
be. If your TV isn't of a particularly high resolution, it'll look awful.
Good luck.
                                                        - R'ykandar.
-- 
          R'ykandar Korra'ti | Editor, LOW ORBIT Science and Fiction
             "I hate you, you timepiece from Hades." - Plucky Duck
         phoenix@ms.uky.edu | editor@lorbit.UUCP | ukma!lorbit!editor