Finding the ultimate monitor for the Atari VCS

[panzeroceania]

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So most of us have read Fudoh's review on the Sony BVM-20F1U, and I've since picked one up and I'd have to agree it's the best RGB CRT monitor I've ever used, and I couldn't be happier with it.

Recently though I've been thinking about consoles that simply don't have RGB, or even component output that could be trans-coded to RGB, consoles like the Atari VCS.

Now the VCS can be modified to output a more separated signal, that is, Y/C (S-Video) instead of RF or comp-video, and you can read about that here:

http://gamesx.com/wiki/doku.php?id=av:2600_s-video_mod

one thing I've been looking for for awhile is a monitor that properly decodes video as a YIQ signal, rather than a YUV signal. Why YIQ? because it is the exact color space used in NTSC, which is used in the USA and Japan where most of these consoles are designed. YUV is very close, but to get it right, I'd prefer actual YIQ decoding. Wikipedia had this to say:

Very few television sets perform true I and Q decoding, due to the high costs of such an implementation. Compared to the cheaper R-Y and B-Y decoding which requires only one filter, I and Q each requires a different filter to satisfy the bandwidth differences between I and Q. These bandwidth differences also requires that the 'I' filter include a time delay to match the longer delay of the 'Q' filter. The Rockwell Modular Digital Radio (MDR) was one I and Q decoding set, which in 1997 could operate in frame-at-a-time mode with a PC or in realtime with the Fast IQ Processor (FIQP). Some RCA "Colortrak" home TV receivers made circa 1985 not only used I/Q decoding, but also advertised its pros along with its comb filtering as full "100% processing" to deliver more of the original color picture content. Earlier, more than one brand of color TV (RCA, Arvin) used I/Q decoding in the 1954 or 1955 model year on models utilizing screens about 13 inches (measured diagonally). The original Advent projection television used I/Q decoding. Around 1990, at least one manufacturer (Ikegami) of professional picture monitors advertised I/Q decoding.

Generally I've found (as with the BVMs) that professional gear is generally the best to go with, so Ikegami mentioned at the end of that quote would be a logical place to begin. Now just about any professional monitor handles "video" but how many of them decode as YIQ, and even more, do so through a Y/C (S-Video) port.

here is a list of several monitors and their specs on Ikegami's site:

http://www.ikegami.com/br/products/hdtv ... rame1.html

in this list, only one monitor is sited as coming with a Y/C (S-Video) port. and that is the TM15-70R

http://www.ikegami.com/br/products/sdtv/tm1570.html

I'm sure they have made countless other monitors with Y/C but it's a good starting point as it is listed on their "HD" monitor page. That said the lines it can resolve is less than a lot of other monitors they make.

I was curious if you guys know of other monitors that have a Y/C port that are professional build and in fact decode the Y/C signal as YIQ, as opposed to YUV. I need to call ikegami and ask them a few more questions about their monitors, as well as browse through their manuals, but I though I would ask you guys also for input.

a question for Fudoh:

The wikipedia quote mentions a "Fast IQ Processor (FIQP)" Have you ever heard of these, and if so what device would it be used in conjunction with, and where would you buy one?

[cools]

Doesn't the VCS have games that are specifically designed for the artificating found on an NTSC/RF display?

[Crafty+Mech]

The best display for an Atari VCS is a 70's television tube via an RF modulator.

Extra points if the picture in one of the corners is dark or discolored.

[panzeroceania]

Doesn't the VCS have games that are specifically designed for the artificating found on an NTSC/RF display?

some games yes, but certainly not all. and the VCS isn't the only system that doesn't have RGB. and there are a few medias outside of gaming too. I'm not really too nostalgic about inferior video formats, but I do think it's important that I find a display that natively decodes proper NTSC with actual YIQ color space decoding, This also applies to Intellivision, Colecovision, Sega SG-1000, NES, and many more.

I'm not a huge fan of Y/C (S-Video) but it is the most separated standard for NTSC video, as YPbPr (component) is not used in NTSC and at that point you might as well do RGB.

Y/C is as good as NTSC gets. It would be really cool to find a set that does it for NTSC, and one that is calibrated for NTSC-J, but standard NTSC is the primary objective.

[Fudoh]

Only because Ikegami did at one point offer a monitor with a YIQ decoder I wouldn't jump to the conclusion that they still offer it or did offer it in more than one particular display back then.

Can you show me an example for the differences between YIQ and YUV decoding on the same signal ??

From my understanding YIC encoding was obsolete in the 70s already, so I see no reason to see YIC as the proper way to decode NTSC. You would have to make sure first that Atari developers ever used YIC monitors in the first place, or if the Atari graphics processor even uses YIC encoding to start with.

And even if all of this was the case, compared to all the people playing Atari on the TVs through RF with atrocious hue settings on the TV sets back then, you'd be a quantum leap ahead playing through s-video on a Sony PVM or BVM set. Is going the extra 0.001% really worth the extra effort ?

Do you have a s-video decoder board in your BVM ?