Atari ST & Multisync Monitors

[jblenkle]

Hoping someone can give me some advice. I haven't used my Atari 1040ST much over the last few years, but I'm starting to get back into it.

 

A couple of years ago I bought a cable from Best Electronics that allows you to hook the ST up to a multisync monitor which I also bought from another source.

 

The thing works great in LOW and HIGH resolution, but when displaying in MEDIUM resolution, some of the text on screen looks scrunched and some letters look like they disappear all together.

 

Is there any fix for this? Can I adjust something on the monitor so it displays correctly? I am hesitant to play with any monitor settings until I know for sure, so any guidance with be appreciated!!!

[bfollowell]

I had the same issue with my Best cable. Since then, I've determined that while VGA works OK for low and high resolution, it just doesn't work all that well for medium, at least for me. Honestly, the best I've ever seen either color mode look is by using one of Cool Novelties RGB to SCART cables. You could probably get a decent SCART to HDMI converter from Amazon or ebay, but I use the cable with my OSSC and the picture is just unbelievable. I've never seen my Atari put out a better picture on any display that I've ever used it on, including the old Atari SC1224.

 

I've heard from others that the Best cable doesn't really work as well as other options, like the ST2VGA switches that mount right onto the monitor port, then you plug your own basic VGA cable into that. I've never had any experience with one of those though, so I can't say for sure. All I can say is that, using the same cable, I had the same mediocre results with medium resolution.

 

[jblenkle]

2 hours ago, bfollowell said:

I had the same issue with my Best cable. Since then, I've determined that while VGA works OK for low and high resolution, it just doesn't work all that well for medium, at least for me. Honestly, the best I've ever seen either color mode look is by using one of Cool Novelties RGB to SCART cables. You could probably get a decent SCART to HDMI converter from Amazon or ebay, but I use the cable with my OSSC and the picture is just unbelievable. I've never seen my Atari put out a better picture on any display that I've ever used it on, including the old Atari SC1224.

 

I've heard from others that the Best cable doesn't really work as well as other options, like the ST2VGA switches that mount right onto the monitor port, then you plug your own basic VGA cable into that. I've never had any experience with one of those though, so I can't say for sure. All I can say is that, using the same cable, I had the same mediocre results with medium resolution.

 

OK, thanks for those other options. I'll keep them in mind, but where my ST sits now I'm kind of stuck with the existing set up. Even with the slightly out-of-whack medium resolution, I like my multisync monitor a lot better than the ST's Atari monitor.

[ParanoidLittleMan]

When we talking about pure, passive cables, so no any conversion of video is done, it can not have so big influence on picture quality. Especially not described crunched text in medium res. Bad cable can cause less sharp pic. For some monitors is recommended to add resistors on RGB lines to get proper contrast and brightness. And cable can not much more.

If medium res. looks bad as described, it is monitor self - A/D converter is not good enough for medium res. of Atari.

User can make it little better with setting width and hor. pos.  If contrast is too high best is to add resistors of about 100 Ohms in line to RGB lines.

 

 

[jblenkle]

21 minutes ago, ParanoidLittleMan said:

When we talking about pure, passive cables, so no any conversion of video is done, it can not have so big influence on picture quality. Especially not described crunched text in medium res. Bad cable can cause less sharp pic. For some monitors is recommended to add resistors on RGB lines to get proper contrast and brightness. And cable can not much more.

If medium res. looks bad as described, it is monitor self - A/D converter is not good enough for medium res. of Atari.

User can make it little better with setting width and hor. pos.  If contrast is too high best is to add resistors of about 100 Ohms in line to RGB lines.

 

 

Yeah, I read some of that info someplace. But any modifications like adding resistors, etc. are beyond my feeble skills. I tried adjusting the horizontal on the monitor as that seems to be the way the text is scrunched, but it didn't do much good. I probably should try the vertical too, just in case. I will try that in the morning.

 

I just learned how to adjust the settings on the monitor tonight as it has a weird little switch to toggle through the settings and it took me a while to figure it out.