Egan Ford

Hello all,

I am looking for the smallest possible monitor capable of crisp 80
column mode. CRT, LCD, etc... not picky. Are there monitor specs or
terms I should be looking for?

Thanks.

Michael J. Mahon

Egan Ford <datajerk@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> I am looking for the smallest possible monitor capable of crisp 80
> column mode. CRT, LCD, etc... not picky. Are there monitor specs or
> terms I should be looking for?
>
> Thanks.

The 9" //c monochrome monitor is great.

Size isn't the critical parameter--it's resolution, and the ability of your
eyes to see its resolution. A tiny hi-res display with a lens, fitted to
glasses could work beautifully.

For crisp 80-column display, you want a monitor with 10MHz or more video
bandwidth, and a screen resolution of at least 800 pixels across.

-michael - NadaNet 3.1 and AppleCrate II: http://home.comcast.net/~mjmahon

Michael Black

On Sun, 16 Oct 2011, Michael J. Mahon wrote:

> Egan Ford <datajerk@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hello all,
>>
>> I am looking for the smallest possible monitor capable of crisp 80
>> column mode. CRT, LCD, etc... not picky. Are there monitor specs or
>> terms I should be looking for?
>>
>> Thanks.
>
> The 9" //c monochrome monitor is great.
>
> Size isn't the critical parameter--it's resolution, and the ability of your
> eyes to see its resolution. A tiny hi-res display with a lens, fitted to
> glasses could work beautifully.
>
>
Somehow those never went very far. I remember the articles, I guess
basically LCD screens fitted to glasses, they were portrayed as the next
big step in display. And there is value there, a less obtrusive screen,
and technically shouldn't be expensive. But here we are 20 years or so
later, and virtually nobody talks about them.

Michael

Michael J. Mahon

On Sun, 16 Oct 2011, Michael J. Mahon wrote:
Egan Ford <datajerk@gmail.com> wrote:
Hello all,
I am looking for the smallest possible monitor capable of crisp 80 column
mode. CRT, LCD, etc... not picky. Are there monitor specs or terms I should
be looking for?

Thanks.

The 9" //c monochrome monitor is great.

Size isn't the critical parameter--it's resolution, and the ability of your
eyes to see its resolution. A tiny hi-res display with a lens, fitted to
glasses could work beautifully.

Somehow those never went very far. I remember the articles, I guess
basically LCD screens fitted to glasses, they were portrayed as the next
big step in display. And there is value there, a less obtrusive screen, and
technically shouldn't be expensive. But here we are 20 years or so later,
and virtually nobody talks about them.
Michael

They are still around, but I only cited them as an example. They were/are
almost all LCDs of relatively low resolution, and that type would not be
useful for text.

What would work well is a small (1") CRT display with very fine focus, but
that would be a DIY project.

Glasses-mounted displays are still useful for virtual reality headsets, but
widespread use will depend on tiny laser displays produced at low
cost--something that's about to happen.

-michael - NadaNet 3.1 and AppleCrate II: http://home.comcast.net/~mjmahon

Kevin Dady

On Oct 16, 1:22*pm, Egan Ford <dataj...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> I am looking for the smallest possible monitor capable of crisp 80
> column mode. *CRT, LCD, etc... not picky. *Are there monitor specs or
> terms I should be looking for?
>
> Thanks.

I keep looking at 5-9 inch TV's which are available at every thrift
store, to modify the inputs and internal adjustments but have not done
so yet, as far as what type ... I usually have the worst luck on LCD,
small LCD's typically lack the resolution or if they do have it cost
out the yazoo, Their scaling works fine on video, but not so well on
computer graphics as it really just a rough guess of real pixel
position on an analog scale to a hard set pixel X/Y location.

Michael J. Mahon

Kevin Dady wrote:
> On Oct 16, 1:22 pm, Egan Ford <dataj...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>Hello all,
>>
>>I am looking for the smallest possible monitor capable of crisp 80
>>column mode. CRT, LCD, etc... not picky. Are there monitor specs or
>>terms I should be looking for?
>>
>>Thanks.
>
>
> I keep looking at 5-9 inch TV's which are available at every thrift
> store, to modify the inputs and internal adjustments but have not done
> so yet, as far as what type ... I usually have the worst luck on LCD,
> small LCD's typically lack the resolution or if they do have it cost
> out the yazoo, Their scaling works fine on video, but not so well on
> computer graphics as it really just a rough guess of real pixel
> position on an analog scale to a hard set pixel X/Y location.

Exactly.

Any small monochrome CRT with decent focus can do a great job on
80-column text and graphics if video is fed directly to the internal
video amplifier. Most of these small TV sets were portable, and so
run from a 12v power supply. So any wall wart with enough current
capacity isolates them from the AC line, allowing for very simple
tapping into the video (and audio) circuits.

-michael

NadaNet 3.1 for Apple II parallel computing!
Home page: http://home.comcast.net/~mjmahon/

"The wastebasket is our most important design
tool--and it's seriously underused."

David Chiu

On 10/16/2011 11:22 AM, Egan Ford wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> I am looking for the smallest possible monitor capable of crisp 80
> column mode. CRT, LCD, etc... not picky. Are there monitor specs or
> terms I should be looking for?
>
> Thanks.

Didn't people used to hang Apple IIc off PS1 LCD panel?

Egan Ford

On Oct 16, 1:47*pm, Michael J. Mahon <mjma...@aol.com> wrote:

> The 9" //c monochrome monitor is great.

This is what I ended up with. I picked one up last night.

> For crisp 80-column display, you want a monitor with 10MHz or more video
> bandwidth, and a screen resolution of at least 800 pixels across.

Thanks. I am still on the lookout for a 9"-11" studio monitor, but
the IIc monitor will do for now.

magnusfalkirk

On Oct 17, 9:06*pm, David Chiu <n...@nowhere.org> wrote:
> On 10/16/2011 11:22 AM, Egan Ford wrote:
>
> > Hello all,
>
> > I am looking for the smallest possible monitor capable of crisp 80
> > column mode. *CRT, LCD, etc... not picky. *Are there monitor specs or
> > terms I should be looking for?
>
> > Thanks.
>
> Didn't people used to hang Apple IIc off PS1 LCD panel?

Yes, that's what I did: http://blackfletch.freeservers.com/appleIIc.htm

Dean