[geeks] Creator 3D graphics on a Sony 400PS

[Charles Shannon Hendrix]

Sun, 08 Aug 2004 @ 10:10 -0500, Mike Hebel said:

> Two things of note from the PDF files:
> 
> 1) It says the monitor has Synch-On-Green.  If this is accurate you're 
> going to have a hell of a time getting it to work on Sun.

I'm not sure I understand.

All VGA monitors support composite sync-on-green.  It's part of the
spec.

However, VGA also supports horizontal and vertical sync signals.

> 2) It notes in one of the manual pages that if you use it as a generic
> DDC monitor you _must_ use the VGA input not the BNC.

DDC is an information channel, and has nothing to do with the monitor's
sync ability.

I didn't think Sun video cards used DDC at all, so I don't understand
why that would be a problem.

DDC is queried by the video driver code to set up timings automatically.

I deliberately bypass DDC on my Linux/XFree86 setup because I want to
run 1400x1050x85 which required a manually computing timing line.

The monitor has no problem syncing it, but the DDC information tends
to be Windows centric.  Lot's of valid timings that are not common in
the Windows world are never reported by DDC.  Some monitors also (gasp,
shudder) tell lies over the DDC channel.

> These things lead me to believe that the monitor is going to have a   
> synch-on-green problem using the BNC connectors.  Probably because    
> the BNC connectors have different input circuitry.                    

You mean that they only accept VGA signals?

Is the Sun Creator's signal some kind of special RGB analog signal?

> Basically the multisynch is only on the VGA side and you have to      
> force it on the BNC side.                                             

No, multisync works on either side.

> If your experience tells you differently then so be it but I think
> you're secretly dealing with a different beasty than you think you
> are.

This particular monitor has never been used with Sun video.

It's also the last monitor I bought, in 1998.

In the past though, I've used quite a few Sony multisync monitors on
Sun, SGI, and other workstations.

I used to have one of the converter cables, but it was for an SGI.

I had a little conversion adapter for Sun video, but from what I read
it's only purpose was to tell the Sun video card to output a certain
mode.  I don't believe it had any electronics in it.  It was basically
13W3 on one side, and VGA on the other, and just enough space in the
middle for a set of 3 or 4 DIP switches.

Video is not critical on this particular machine, but I really would
like to see it running in video mode, if only to get an idea how well it
would do as a programming desktop.



-- 
shannon "AT" widomaker.com -- ["It's a damn poor mind that can only think
of one way to spell a word." -- Andrew Jackson]