Best Monitor for PicassoII Card

[Pat the Cat]

What's your budget and desired screen area?

You playing the Garden, vehicular mount or is this for a static A2000 on a desktop?

There is a big choice when it comes to "best monitor".

Picasso II like every other kind of video signal generator. It can do different res at different refresh rates to a hardware output, and you can get any kind of interface you like with video. If you can afford it.

Edit: Hmmm... have you got a Pablo?  Pablo gives you an SVHS output, and FBAS output, but only in PAL modes. You can timebase lock the output to other video formats though.

And it might be you can connect two monitors to the beast. So maybe not one big monitor, but 2 smaller ones, which can do max resolutions of the video outputs, could be a better solution.

http://amiga.resource.cx/exp/picasso2

My technical German is very poor, but I'll have a go.

[Pat the Cat]

Well, here's how it goes. You've got two VGA outputs, which give you either output from the card, or just output from the Amiga's native graphics. You can actually swap which one is mapped to which output, which I guess is handy if one of them is damaged.

You can also rig the Amiga's native output to a BNC (BriberyNCorruption phono style connector, although that will probably take an extra cable you might not have. You don't really need this, it doesn't insist on PAL (Pablo does).

Not all Picasso IIs might support these options. There are a few variations.

It's nice to be able to control a framebuffer without the controls (The amiga native output) being visible on the 24 bit display. There is also probably an alpha channel option in there somewhere, and proably fading and toggling screens around (controlled by software, probably with an ARexx port for automation).

You don't necessarily want to have to run 24 bit graphics mode all the time. That means loading Workbench or another operating system fully. If you are playing games through the native chipset, don't bother loading drivers for the card, it's just a waste of resources, because madame blitter Agnus does not talk to 24 bit cards. If you are playing games with RTG 24 bit output, or using 24 bit applicatoins, or you just want a reource heavy but beauriful Workbench, it's a different story.

And pages 18-24 of the manual go over the resolution versus refresh rate issue in substantial technical detail, but appear to confirm the English language web reference.

Whether those refrersh rates match what you can get your hands on for a display or displays is the crucial issue, really.

[Pat the Cat]

The second DB15 port is for a switched pass-through input from the Amiga's native graphics output.

That is correct, as is the option for a phono output (not sure if the 24 bit card outputs that way, but probably switchable).

However, the OP did not demand that they be limited in any way, shape or form.

And sometimes, they will likely be running software that may not like RTG, or just doesn't use it anyway.

I know video, Mike. And I know why VGA is sometimes NOT the prefered option. Nor is permanent reliance on an Picasso card very sensible. What happens if one output channel dies or is damaged? Or the whole card? Mid way through a live performance, when the system is close to the gig, and the operator is maybe a 100 meters away?

The show must go on, but you wouldn't believe how hairy that can be.

[Pat the Cat]

They're not bad cards, really, but I could never get the input on the switcher to play nice with the output from my Indivision ECS (I wanted to use only a single monitor for all screenmodes - the PII is not a scandoubler - if you feed it 15KHz input, it will output 15KHz, unlike the more advanced PIV cards).

Of course you couldn't. Not without running both sets of the video chain (P2 and Indi ECS) in perfect sync, either with a 4:2:2 mixing desk, or by TBC'd them to the same clock, or by a number of other routes.

You cannot just click one set of analog video signals to another. Not without glitching at the very least. THAT is why you control with one side, and the public side, the display side, doesn't see the controlling bits, just the public output. This stuff was designed to output, but not necessarily LIVE. It could take days to generate 1 frame of 24 bit data with the 3D tools and CPUs around in Amigas at the time. They weren't designed to play GTA 2 or later, that's for sure.

Anyway, the OP wanted routes to HDMI. I'll go examine them, please. Or somebody else can tell the guy.

EDIT: Heck, loads. Check the specs, make sure they'll take the inputs (Amiga or card graphcis) and you can have two displays.

Or a wall of 28 projectors illuminating, say, the Empire State Building. Will cost ya a bit more though.

[Pat the Cat]

Okay, (1) please stop talking down to me, and (2) you are wrong.  There is one video input on the Picasso II, which is used for the passthrough video input from the native Amiga graphics chipset (or from a compatible scandoubler),

OK, but would you please stop talking down to me too? You ever used anyhing BUT picassos when it comes to video?

Would you please stop talking down to the original poster? They asked a quesion, without giving real personal usage requirements. Maybe a 24 inch monitor is a little bit large for them.

The manual looked to me like it had two outputs. I posted the pics to show my sources. How accurate that is, or what further options it gives them, is still conjectural at this point.

You've obviously never owned one of these cards, so go google it.

PS - I have the manual in English, too.  :p

That's true Mike, I haven't. You don't need to own stuff to Google it and form an opinion.

Now, have you ever had a true analog video mixer? Mixed flawlessly between muliple sources? That's what you wanted to do, but if you didn't know how, or couldn't get the hardware at the time, fair enough.

Ever tried to run a VGA signal 50 meters? That's kind of tricky. Same with HDMI. Phono can travel further, and SVGA is good up to that sometimes, but you probably didn't know that, either.

Hows about SECAM? Or automated VTR capture / playback / mixing?

You owned a couple, OK. You got something better, fair enough. GFX cards have their uses and abilities, but if you got one performer, it's not the same thing as working with orchestras, you dig the metaphor?

[Pat the Cat]

True.  A wrong opinion, perhaps,  but an opinion nonetheless.  :lol:

So, what is wrong with the opinion that you can wire up one, two, or as many monitors as you want, to a P2? Bearing in mind, you can do such nice things with an input, as well as have whatever choices you want when it comes to displays?

Think outside the box, and I asked you nicely to stop talking down to me. Answer the question instead. And let's see what the OP actually wants to do, with their system.

"Best" depends on application. Please be patient, if you want an informed opinion, or at least, a variety of opinions from different information sources, let the OP give some input on that "what are your plans, needs and wants" issue. From their perspective, it's far more important to them getting informed options. As opposed to one option and a P1ssing contest.

[Pat the Cat]

Again, failed to answer my question. What is a reasonable expectation of distance of the run of a VGA cable?

Let's see you fail to answer that one too. Let's see who knows more about Monitors and video and connecting them Mike. Let's have fun.

Oh that's right, you have fun by lashing out at people. And I haven't lashed out at you.

You may think I have. You may feel I have You may post I have. Just do what the hell you like, Mike. Keeping on pouring scorn, and bile on. Flame me. Tell the world how Mike never made a mistake, always did what he wanted to do, with video. And the Amiga. And other people's felelings, and inquiries, and honest debate.

It's not getting the poor sod who asked a question about reaching a better system, but it's making you feel better, so go for it.

[Pat the Cat]

Well, you can plug a monitor into the input line on the PII if you want, but as the manual itself states, it won't work.  But good luck with that! :lol:

No Mike, the correct answer was, you can plug any number of displays into a display adaptor, with the right conenctions and hardware. It's called "Television". You might have heard of the concept.

You could call it "hardware to distribute analog video signals to multiple displays", but there's any number of ways of doing it.

One, two, a million, any number, if you can afford the hardware. And of course, if have a separate input, as you pointed out, and the card and separate input source are synced, you can mix between them them. Not on the P2, but hey, I've already said, you need extra gear to mix between 2 analog sources. Right? Right. And someimes, you want that Amiga display - you might not want it from the P2, but it's not like the P2 turns it all off. It doesn't. Just doesn't like to switch or mix with it very easily.

Easily solvable, with the right video hardware. But Mike never used extra hardware. Because he didn't know you can do that. And he still doesn't believe you can.

That's right. Mike doesn't believe you can do TV with an Amiga. Well, not just an Amiga.

But it helps.

[Pat the Cat]

After reading this thread I still don't know. Is it long enough to form a noose and hang myself with? :lol:

Correct answer is - it depends on the cables construction materials and design, the output levels from the video source, and the amount of ambient electromagneic interference, but about 6 meters is considered the limit, unless you start building in amplifiers and transmitters.

Let's see if the anyone agrees...

http://www.cablechick.com.au/blog/cable-length-guide/