Best monitor for MEGA65?

Hi ZeHa ,

for my setup at home i use a Sony Bravia KDL 20B4030. it displays PAL via HDMI with sound at 576p crystal sharp picture
biggest issue with HDMI, you won't find them with 4:3, so either you stretch the picture or you have to live with the black bars left and right:
(That's how i do it and tbh, i got used to it ) One good thing with HDMI, you don't need extra set of speakers.

deft can tell you, what display we are using for the update videos.

VGA you have a higher chance to find some in 4:3, but the issue there is, if they work in 480p
I am using a cheap display with extra control board, which works nicely with PAL VGA but it's also no 4:3
An old CRT is the question if it supports 480p/576p

In our discord, someone just asked exactly the same question.

Quite clearly: Only a real tube device shows an authentic picture!

Hi ZeHa ,

just some feedback, at discord they were discussing the same question and one person posted the link to the following

website that offers quite interesting displays for a quite OK price.
https://www.beetronics.de/15-zoll-monitor-bnc-vga-hdmi

Up to 15" you're able to get them in 4:3. Bigger than 15" they only offer 5:4

I can't tell you anything about them, but they look very good.

Ahh, Paul also replied: i attach his comment:
- Paul: MEGA65 is 720x576 or 720x480 only native.-

I only own a Nexys board and not a "real" DevKit, so I have to use the VGA connector (Nexys has no HDMI).

First I use an old 19" VGA monitor

Belina 1905 G1

(shows the C64 mode)

At the moment I use an also old 19" VGA monitor

Eizo Flexscan S1921

(shows 320x200 bitmap mode)

I prefer 4:3 ratio because I don't like a black bar left and right beneath the picture.

If you have an old VGA monitor anywhere in your house, just use it!

Zitat von ZeHa

Okay great, so both of your monitors Snoopy use 1280x1024, and the image looks very clear. No squished or aliased pixels. That's good to know, so this resolution is probably very usable (and of course often used with those old VGA TFTs)

EDIT: Oh wait a second - on that second screenshot, are those lines supposed to be perfectly vertical? can you tell me the name of the program?

The screenshots is from this example by umueller-wsw , see here:

Sprites, BOBs and MOBs on the MEGA65

I had switch on the scanline option from the MEGA65 (Nexys, to be correct). So the "white lines" are scan lines, the blue ones are from the little program and I think they are also vertical.

Zitat von adtbm

Hi ZeHa ,

just some feedback, at discord they were discussing the same question and one person posted the link to the following

website that offers quite interesting displays for a quite OK price.
https://www.beetronics.de/15-zoll-monitor-bnc-vga-hdmi

Up to 15" you're able to get them in 4:3. Bigger than 15" they only offer 5:4

I can't tell you anything about them, but they look very good.

Ahh, Paul also replied: i attach his comment:
- Paul: MEGA65 is 720x576 or 720x480 only native.-

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i just called the company and they said:
- those resolutions should be supported
- in the case, that it doesn't work, the customer has the option to send it back postage free.

Zitat von ZeHa

but maybe you could provide a screenshot of that program taken from the emulator for comparison?

Zitat von ZeHa

Maybe you could run the same program on your Belinea monitor to complete the test?

I can do it tomorrow. Today there is sadly not enough time for it.

I just found the original, unscaled photo from the Eizo screenshot. Just to be sure it's not an artifact of the downscaling of the picture.

Be aware: It's big!

Ich benutz schon seit zwei Jahren einen Benq 912BL für die Retromaschinen. Super Teil, hat DVI und VGA. Kann 50 Hz.

The monitor adtbm mentioned is this one https://www.beetronics.de/15-zoll-monitor-bnc-vga-hdmi

Note that the product number is 15VG7M while mine still has 15VGM. I use it as a test screen for old consoles, because it accepts quite a lot of signals and inputs. Speakers are builtin, but they are only functional, not good, much like PC internal speakers. There is a 3.5mm audio out jack, though. From what I remember the monitor has 16ms lag, but I played through Wonder Boy on the Master System MiSTer-Core without issues, in the screen's native resolution of 1024 x 768. It is a matte IPS panel that has good color reproduction.

Now, it accepts 720x480@60 and 720x576@50 without hassle, it then just has a noticeable bit of ghosting, but I take that as a free CRT effect

I took some photos for you, that I attached, but to be able to post them I had to reduce their resolution to 1/3rd etc. Should still be good enough.

Procedure: I took screenshots from Xemu, set to PAL or NTSC with "show full borders" active and cropped the screenshots to the correct size. I then added a note in the upper left of what resolution it is. A Pi400 set to the respective resolution then displays the screenshot in fullscreen to hopefully perfectly mimic the output of a Mega65 in PAL or NTSC via HDMI. The bottom yellow bar is optional information that the monitor shows on button press. The black mark on the screen is damage that happened during taking of these photos and has nothing to do with the screenshots or quality of the image display. Ce la vie.

Note that when you decide to buy such a monitor that it only comes with a mount that needs to be screwed into place. Beetronics offers a fitting vesa standard stand for the monitor.

I hope this information is useful, I certainly regard this my best 4:3 option for the Mega65 so far.

Zitat von adtbm

just some feedback, at discord they were discussing the same question and one person posted the link to the following

website that offers quite interesting displays for a quite OK price.
https://www.beetronics.de/15-zoll-monitor-bnc-vga-hdmi

"OK price"? More than 320 EUR for a 1024x768 15" monitor?

You have to pay for such monitors something around 10-30 EUR second hand on ebay.

Zitat von Snoopy

You have to pay for such monitors something around 10-30 EUR second hand on ebay.

exactly, used, 2nd hand at Ebay. This one is brand new with waranty in a steel case.
i think we are looking what monitors will work on the MEGA65 the price is the next topic.

And as we can see, this monitor would probably work perfectly.