Can you turn an old tv into a cga arcade monitor??

[gizmo1990]

I've been looking into getting hold of a 19" CGA CRT but they seem to be like gold dust.

On my wanderings I came across this place http://www.8liners.com/datatech/monitor.html

Can anyone tell me if this proceedure is actually true? It seems kinda wishful thinking to me but would be great if were true!?

And if indeed this does work, jost how dangerous would it be for a novice to attempt?

Any advice greatly appreciated.

[M.Lanza]

I've done it. It's not too bad.

It's not really all that dangerous either, as long as play attention
and not try to half-ass it.

Considering how cheap crt t.v.'s are these days, it would be
best to use one as new as possible, which shouldn't be too hard.

[dataman19]

I think the more accurate phrase would be "can you turn a TV set into an RGB Monitor?"
..
Answer i "yes" - the TV still has to break the composite video and sync into a Red, Green and Blue Signal to feed the CRT.  The sync is the only real issue and nothing that can't be fixed with a few 2N3904 transistors.
...
Ahhh... the good ole 2N3904.  The do all transistor of all transistors...
..
But I digress...
...
If you inject the Red Green Blue and Sync into a TV chassis at the correct point - you have an RGB Monitor.
...
Dave

[BLASTEROO]

In my understanding you can achieve that in three ways:

1- use the scart input on the back of the TV (if available). You need to build VGA to scart cable. Scart is a European standard:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=77370.0

2- Hack the chassis and feed the rgb directly to the PCB (this might make sense if you live in the US and Scart TVs aren't available)
Do a google search

3- Buy an arcade chassis and replace the original TV chassis, maintaining the tube.
http://www.8liners.com/datatech/monitor.html

I hope this helps

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

On my wanderings I came across this place http://www.8liners.com/datatech/monitor.html

Can anyone tell me if this proceedure is actually true? It seems kinda wishful thinking to me but would be great if were true!?

3- Buy an arcade chassis and replace the original TV chassis, maintaining the tube.
http://www.8liners.com/datatech/monitor.html

I hope this helps

[deega]

In short: yes.

I started my project by trying to find WHERE on the TV chassis to tap for direct RGB input.  In my case, I couldn't find any documentation for the TV on a chip used in my RCA TV, so I gave up this idea due to ignorance.  I think now I may have some better luck with this.

I called 8liners and he said the tube I wanted to use would not work with his chassis.  In fact, he said he never heard of a tube with my yoke values.  There are a BUNCH of tubes with the same yoke values as mine.  Caveat emptor.

I picked up an old second hand chassis, replaced the caps, hacked a VGA cable, got it working, had geometry problems.    The picture is not as perfect as I'd like.  I posted re: the geometry problems here if you want to see what you may be facing.  I figure I spent about $55 + shipping total for the chassis, matching yoke (just in case), and caps.  Time spent: untold hours of fiddling, troubleshooting, and learning.  If I weren't a tinkerer, I'd say the $200 w/ shipping for a new monitor from 8liners is a damned good deal; he should be able to relay a box without issue.  There's a recent thread on these monitors here in the forum.

Good luck! 

[PaTrYcK]

Yes, is possible and work fine, this is the guide for built cable RGB-SCART, here see the good image quality:

http://digilander.libero.it/venturi1975/index.html#A82

Here how built it:
http://digilander.libero.it/venturi1975/index.html#A5

Sorry, only italian language...