Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!mcgill-vision!bloom-beacon!bu.edu!bu-cs!mirror!frog!lmrc!hassinger
From: hassinger@lmrc.uucp
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware
Subject: (Non) Square Pixels?
Message-ID: <4687@lmrc.uucp>
Date: 5 Feb 90 20:48:00 GMT
Organization: Liberty Mutual Research Center, Hopkinton, MA
Lines: 28

A posting today reminded of an issue that I have not seen discussed very much.
The issue of the lack of "square pixels" on the Amiga.  I think it was
suggested that just getting the right monitor would solve the problem for the
case in point.  I don't know that that is a real answer.

Perhaps you can buy a monitor with a suitable aspect ratio and certainly you
can adjust the aspect ratio of many monitors so the pixels appear square.  So,
how do you even decide if the Amiga pixels *are* square or not?  You have to
refer back to some standard display format.  In the Amiga case it seems obvious
that the reference should be a standard NTSC television format.

I think I am correct that the pixels are not square on a normal 1084 or on a
normal television monitor.  Does anyone other than me care about this?

The case I have noticed is to take a brush in DPaintIII and use it to create a
rotating animation - a simple spinning title for example.  Displayed on my 1084
or recorded to tape and played back on a standard television monitor it seems
to distort as it rotates.  I think because of the non-square Amiga pixels.

Can others confirm this observation?  Am I missing something to avoid this
problem?  If I am right, would it be something appropriate to ask be addressed
in a new generation Amiga design?  Say in a post-3000 design that was going to
have a new generation of custom chips and other significant extensions of the
present hardware and software designs?

Bob Hassinger
...uunet!ccavax!lmrc!hassinger  or hassinger@lmrc.UUCP
508-435-9061