Monitor with BNC connector

[anandtechxhen]

I got an old monitor(HP 98752A) only with three BNC connectors. What kind of graphic card can drive it? I am looking for some cheap solution. Because my computer is old(P III 600) and the monitor is free.

Thanks a lot

 

[Peter]

The Matrox Mystique was about the last commonplace VGA chip that does sync-on-green. This hasn't been documented, but apparently can be enabled by a registry tweak in Windows. The Linux drivers supports it by regular driver option. I've personally been using the latter with a 20" DEC monitor for quite a while, before I figured out how to modify the monitor for separate-sync.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Hmm? I didn't realize that the Mystique could do that too, I've been using Millenium cards to drive sync-on-green CRTs. Btw, which DEC 20" are you using? Mine are a couple of DEC workstation tubes, that are really Sony GDM-1961 (1960?) models. One of those similar Sony models actually supported seperate H/V sync, but just didn't have the extra BNCs soldered into the back signal input panel, and the other model didn't support them at all. My model is the one that didn't support them. :\ Picture is nice and sharp though, but dang, those things are heavy.

If anyone needs some assistance setting up the drivers, I'll try to help. At least with the millenium, you would have to: 1) hack the MGA.MON text monitor description file to add the timing parameters for the Sony CRT, 2) use Matrox's DOS-mode software to read in that text file and generate a binary config file specifically for your attached CRTs, 3) using W2K's out-of-box MGA drivers, make a registry tweak to get the driver to load the data from the binary-compiled version of the MGA.MON file, which you also should copy to \WINDOWS or \WINDOWS\SYSTEM or something. Note that doing things this way, you will not be able to use Matrox's newer drivers, nor their desktop-management tools, although you can actually run those drivers in parallel with the out-of-box drivers, if you're careful, because none of the binaries' filenames overlap.

The key ability to support sync-on-green, is actually part of the discrete TI 302x RAMDAC included on the board, not the Matrox chip. Matrox doesn't "officially" support this capability, which is really and truely too bad, because Matrox is basically the "king of 2D", and easy support for workstation-class fixed-freq/sync-on-green CRTs would just enhance their market position there, I think. Interestingly, my Creative Labs Permedia2 PCI card also contained that same TI RAMDAC, but I have no idea how to mod the Permedia drivers to get it to work.

 

[cbehnken]

Originally posted by: VirtualLarry
Hmm? I didn't realize that the Mystique could do that too, I've been using Millenium cards to drive sync-on-green CRTs. Btw, which DEC 20" are you using? Mine are a couple of DEC workstation tubes, that are really Sony GDM-1961 (1960?) models. One of those similar Sony models actually supported seperate H/V sync, but just didn't have the extra BNCs soldered into the back signal input panel, and the other model didn't support them at all. My model is the one that didn't support them. :\ Picture is nice and sharp though, but dang, those things are heavy.

If anyone needs some assistance setting up the drivers, I'll try to help. At least with the millenium, you would have to: 1) hack the MGA.MON text monitor description file to add the timing parameters for the Sony CRT, 2) use Matrox's DOS-mode software to read in that text file and generate a binary config file specifically for your attached CRTs, 3) using W2K's out-of-box MGA drivers, make a registry tweak to get the driver to load the data from the binary-compiled version of the MGA.MON file, which you also should copy to \WINDOWS or \WINDOWS\SYSTEM or something. Note that doing things this way, you will not be able to use Matrox's newer drivers, nor their desktop-management tools, although you can actually run those drivers in parallel with the out-of-box drivers, if you're careful, because none of the binaries' filenames overlap.

The key ability to support sync-on-green, is actually part of the discrete TI 302x RAMDAC included on the board, not the Matrox chip. Matrox doesn't "officially" support this capability, which is really and truely too bad, because Matrox is basically the "king of 2D", and easy support for workstation-class fixed-freq/sync-on-green CRTs would just enhance their market position there, I think. Interestingly, my Creative Labs Permedia2 PCI card also contained that same TI RAMDAC, but I have no idea how to mod the Permedia drivers to get it to work.

I have one of these beasts laying around that is labeled a Sun. Could you do me a big favor and zip the files up I'm going to need? My brother has a mystique that I could have...

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: cbehnken
I have one of these beasts laying around that is labeled a Sun. Could you do me a big favor and zip the files up I'm going to need? My brother has a mystique that I could have...

It's definately not that simple. You'll need to obtain the full freqency specs for your monitor, which is likely not difficult if you just look up the model number on the internet. The DOS config program is downloadable from Matrox, as part of their driver set for DOS. The registry edit I'd have to look up again, I don't have it handy myself. But given those three elements, you should be able to make it work with W2K at least.