Amiga Screen

[jeffimix]

Okay so I am like so close to buying an Amiga. Just have to send the guy his money, and he'll ground ship me an A2000. Now it'll come with keyboard and mouse, but.... no monitor.

Can the Maiga use: LCD? OLD Packard Bell monitor I have ( think 386 old)? should I ask my friend to borrow his commodore64 screen? (And it makes such a ncie TV) I've heard of flicker fixers, when do you need one? Would it be best to just buy an old Amiga monitor? (more money... sniff...  :-(  )

And  Ad said it'd come with a cable for monitor. I have plenty of wire hookups, and all sorts of connection type switchers, would it work on a TV (in the short run)

[odin]

Does the A2000 have a graphics card? If not, you'll not be able to use and LCD screen (or any VGA input based monitor for that matter).

The basic A2000 only has a native Amiga RGB output, you'll a modulator if you wish to connect it to a TV using a composite (cinch) connection or using RF modulation (horrible image quality). The best solution for using it with a TV would be an Amiga RGB->SCART connection (if your TV HAS a scart connection ofcourse). I don't know if Amiga shops still sell those cables and neither do I know any schematics :-/.

A flicker fixer makes it possible to use flickerfree interlaced screenmodes on a TV, ie bigger resolution with out interlace flickering. A scandoubler is a device which connects to the Amiga's RGB port and 'doubles' the frequency. The frequency then is ~28kHz (is it?), which is about the right frequency for connecting it to a bogstandard VGA monitor (and with that probably your LCD screen). Be wary that it isn't _exactly_ the right freq for VGA, so picky/older monitors still might not work.

IMHO the best solution would be getting an old graphics card for the A2000 if you want to do some stuff in Workbench. If you just want to play old games you're content with using a TV I'd guess.

[jeffimix]

For Sale : Amiga 2000, 2MEG, 40 MEG. No monitor but has video cable, keyboard, and mouse. Not sure what Kick or WB is on it. Lots of misc. software. Working condition.

Thats what Ive got from AmiBench, so perhaps this question is premature, I could of course always bug the guy selling it but meh.

25$ and 20$ shipping and handling

But would a commodore 64 monitor work on it then? It has the RGB ins I belive...

[odin]

Have a look here. Check under 'monitors', possibly your C64 monitor is listed there.

[vortexau]

jeffimix asked:

...But would a commodore 64 monitor work on it then? It has the RGB ins I belive...

If by "commodore 64 monitor" you mean a 1702, then THIS has Composite and Y-C. Then a connection to the A2000 Mono-Composite port will yeald a monochrome video picture.

Another "commodore 64 monitor" such as the 1901 would be needed, but THAT may be RGBI, not the A2000's RGB-Analog available at the D23 port.

Standard Amiga (15.6kHz) monitors include the 1084 and the Philips 8833.

ZorroII GFX Cards output VGA, as do Video-Enhansors (Flicker-Fixers) fitted in the (internal) Video Slot.

[Desler]

If you havnt bought the 2000 yet, I would strongly recommend you to buy either a 1200, 3000 or 4000.
These come in a very nice pricerange and all of them can use a standard vga monitor if you get a vga slot transformer (not entirely sure about the 3000 but its such a nice machine)

[MrZammler]

These come in a very nice pricerange and all of them can use a standard vga monitor if you get a vga slot transformer (not entirely sure about the 3000 but its such a nice machine)

The 2000 is also a nice machine, and easily expandable. Anyway, on the quote, the 3k already has a VGA out, and built in flicker-fixer and scandoubler. All the native modes are displayed on a standard VGA monitor.

[jeffimix]

Thanks all. I don't think the machine'll have a graphics card already, but I'll probably buy one. Do the old VooDoo cards have VGA out? It depends on if I can find a VGA out or Monitor cheaper. I have one old graphics card... but its got a big huge socket split in 4 parts, I don't think it'd work. The C64 monitor has two sets of two connection ins, so it'd go mono . Are any pins o the motherboard that I could stick a wire connector (no card just plug) on?

[samdu]

but I'll probably buy one. Do the old VooDoo cards have VGA out? It depends on if I can find a VGA out or Monitor cheaper.

Whoa. Slow down dude. You won't be able to use a VooDoo card in the 2000 without some sort of bus adapter (there are several, but I can't think of their names off the top of my head). No Amiga thus far has either AGP or PCI slots. The 2000 should have several Zorro (II?) slots and I think two video slots. Unfortunately (at least now-a-days), these are not standard video slots. I agree with the poster above who recommended trying to get a 1200/3000/4000 instead of the 2000. The 2000 is a good machine - built like a tank - but for what it sounds like you're going to do, it's going to cost you more in add-ons than it would be worth.

===============================================

I did some looking around and found some prospects for you:

4000

3000

Another 3000

1200 Bare in mind that I think you'll run into the same monitor issue with a 1200 that you would with a 2000.

Here's a 1084 monitor that you could use with the 2000.

[jeffimix]

/me slows down and decides a proper monitor will be best. After having browsed around at all the stuff out there.

[ShadesOfGrey]

If you want to use the A2000 with a VGA monitor, but can't or won't by a Zorro II based video card (they can be prohibitively expensive).  Then might I suggest you look into getting a used flicker-fixer and/or scan-doubler (de-interlacer).  A flicker-fixer/scan-doubler (FF/SC from here on out) will take the RGB signal, de-interlace it and bump the frequency up to 60Hz (most mult-scan VGA displays still sync this low - NPI).

I used one on my A2000 for quite a while before I bought a video card (the rather disapointing GVP Spectrum 28/24).  While I'd never want to go back to just a FF/SC permanently.  A FF/SC will allow your A2000 to drive a VGA display 'acceptably'.

You can find out a bit more about many such devices here (along with a lot of other Amiga hardware).  Keep in mind that not all the devices on that page are FF/SC's.

[jeffimix]

The VGA monitor I have spare is, in fact, set to 60Hz, 43 interlaced for 1024 X 768. I'm still open to some type of converter/card, whetever ends up being cheaper (monitor or add-on) as long as it works, its okey doke, in fact a second hand microway flicker fixer may be just what I need.(or similiar ofc) Standard PC slot is on Amiga2000, correct... Old pc card would work, it would need bridge board though, probably more than a native card...

[odin]

A PCI/ISA/AGP card wil NOT work in a standard A2000, there are (expensive and cumbersome) solutions to make ISA cards work in an A2000 tho. An Amiga 2000 also does not have a VGA port out of the box. You need a Zorro 2 based videocard if you wish to add a GFX card to your A2000.

[QuikSanz]

An A2000 is a good computer. It's the only computer I've actually owned exept for the A500 I upgraded from, a looong time ago. display options are getting a little slim these days. The spectrum 128 is not bad, it does have a pass thru for std amiga screens but you will have to have a SD/FF, the card will then automaticly switch modes.
A Picasso 4 on the other hand has a built in SD/FF, they are getting to be rare now but they can provide higher resolutions than Spectrum, Max res for me on Spectrum in tru / hi color seems to be 800 X 600. On Pic4 you can go up at least 3 more notches. Now don't expect blazing speed here the 2000 has a sloow bus but you can play DOOM
on a  full screen with a decent accelerator. I have both cards on my sys to support 2 monitors. Check profile to see the stuff that is stuffed into this crazy thing.

Good Luck
Chris

PS if you get the A2000 I might be able to supply you with a 030 40Mhz combo accelerator card.

[odin]

@jeffimix:

You might find this interesting. It tells you how to hack an A520 into giving you SVHS output.