Philips CM8833-II

[The Chugnut]

Hey guys,

I've dug out my old Philips CM8833-II monitor and I plan to use it as a second monitor for MAME32 while I save up for real cabinet components. 
Some of you might remember this monitor back in the Amiga/Atari ST days.

I've tested it with a freeview box using the composite in. All was hunky-dory.

My graphics card has two DVIs sockets (which can be converted to traditional VGA for CRTs and such like), and one VIVO socket.

So I wacked the adapter that came with the card into the VIVO socket, giving me a choice of S-video in, S-video out, and component.
From what I understand, I can just use the Yout of the component set to feed composite out. Which I've done.

On boot up, everything seemed fine. The bios logo and Windows logo appeared in full colour... lovely job!
Once in Windows however, the picture's in black and white. I cannot for the life of me work out what it is.
In the nVidia control panel, it's set as using composite out. The resolution is set at the lowest (640x480) that it will allow. However, the monitors supported resolution is 640x256 I think. Since it didn't give me a list of PAL or NTSC resolutions, only 'monitor' ones.


As you'll no doubt understand, composite isn't my desired input for that monitor anyway. I can also feed analogue RBG into it via a 9-pin D connector. My question is; any ideas what would be the best way (if any)? Can I do any of these?:

S-Video to Analogue RGB?
Component to Analogue RGB?
VGA to Analogue RGB?

It can also switch from Analogue RGB to TTL (9-pin D). I'm pretty sure that's of no use is it?

Making the lead up isn't the problem, I've easy access to 9-pin D connectors and the like... it's getting my head round a method 


So yeah, if someone could shed some light on the black and white problem, that would be great! If someone could poke me in the right direction to get a top picture out of it that would be super fabby! 

[esaelectrionics]

Ive got a commodore 1084s and want to use it
in the same way, best thing to do is to wire up the
red - blue - green and sync to the right inputs on a d-sub
connector. VGA  ->  DSUB.

the input pins for philips/commodore monitor are :-
-------------
TTL RGB
---------------
pin no.                 
1  ground
2  ground
3  red
4  green
5  blue
6  intesnsity
7  n/a
8  h.sync
9  v.sync
   _______
   \ . . . . ./   5 4 3 2 1
    \ . . . ./      9 8 7 6
     
-------------------
Analog rgb
--------------------
1  ground
2  ground
3  red
4  green
5  blue
6  n/a
7  composite sync
8  n/a
9  n/a

sounds like your video driver under windows is not working right to me,
just try re-installing your video card driver and changing pal-ntsc, or try to change
your leads. i would not use composite anyway or tv out as its not as good quality as
a pure rgb signal.

you must be carefull because windows sends out a 30khz signal, this is only really of use if you want to use advancemame, or setup powerstrip/util to output at 15khz before connecting up to use mame32
 

[The Chugnut]

Hi man, thanks for your reply!

That's exactly the lead I've just made up after spending all afternoon going through archives and service manuals.
As a test I set it up with Powerstrip on my second machine - It works really well... but not as a second output on my main machine. Too much hassle trying to get a second monitor to anything under 640x480 and 15KHz.

It's still a job well done as it'll make an awesome monitor for a bartop!!! 

As for the black and white problem with composite out, it's a known problem with nVidia cards (S-Video out suffers from it too) - couldn't find a solution. I went through every variation PAL, NTSC and Mix... all the same. Tried it on a 14" TV too and got the same result.

Like I said before, composite was my least desirable choice but it should of been a no brainer! 

Anyway, pulled out an old Hitachi 21" CRT, wacked it on it's side (I'm a shoot 'em up addict)and it's a pretty decent picture for the time being.

Again, thanks for the replay, much appreciated