[cctalk] Re: Silly question about S-100 and video monitors

Hence the short text lines on "home" computers. The TRS80 used an RCA TV, converted into a monitor. (presumably bulk purchased before the tuner was installed). OB_irrelevant: In the TV sitcom "Married With Children" in many seasons, on the Bundy kitchen counter was a [off white, instead of gray] TV of that model. When I bought my TRS80 ($400, instead of $600, by buying without the "monitor" and cassette player), I used a CCTV composite monitor. I added an RCA jack, to use instead of the 5-pin DIN. I upgraded the RAM and ROM, added another key (Michael Shrayer's "Electric Pencil" needed a Control key), added Joe Garner's add-in board for reverse video and lower case, switched to a tri-state LED, and put Riv-Nuts in the base, so that the CPU and Expansion Interface were bolted to a thin piece of plywood. When the exterior paint was getting worn, I repainted it blue. Dave Sparks, the RS repair technician, was happy to ignore any mods that he understood, so he didn't void the warranty. When his boss objected, he said that since I had brought it in with an intact warranty label and paint on the screws, he assumed that I had done all of the mods through the vent slots, without opening it ("boat in a bottle" :-) -- Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin(a)xenosoft.com On Wed, 30 Aug 2023, Mike Katz via cctalk wrote: > The probem with RF Modulators is that due to the National Television > Standards Committee standards for American television there wasn't enough > bandwidth to display 80 characters x24  lines (or 25 lines with status). > Generally 64 x 16 was the maxmimum that would be readable on a standard black > and white TV set.  Any higher resolutions would either cause the characters > to "tear" or lose horizontal or vertical sync completely. > > That is why monitors were used.  They were not bound by the NTSC standards > and were generally made for 80 x 25 or (even 132 x 25 with a smaller > character set). >