Suggest a scan converter.

https://www.diyretroarcade.com/products/vga-r … for-arcade-blue

Maybe not THAT one, but something similar. There are many such products out there. EGA is TTL video signals, where VGA is Analog video signal. EGA and CGA have different sync signals.

Back in the day, there were special monitors that could do anything-- like NEC Multisync II and pals. (used to own one!) These days, just get a scan converter.

HOWEVER-- reading more into it, it sounds like you have an EGA monitor on the way, but no EGA video source. (why??)

To my knowledge, there are precisely ZERO PCI EGA cards out there-- so you will need some system with ISA slots, and an EGA video card. Somehow.

A CGA monitor is just a glorified TV set with a slightly better CRT tube, really.
It's like a SCART television with a digital filter (TTL) mounted onto it, essentially.
(As far as the electronic goes, the biggest achievement was the conversion of the yellow colour to brown.)

In reverse order, the same was done internally with PET/C64 hybrid computers, so they couldn't produce grayscale on internal green monitor, but just absolute black/green.

An EGA monitor, by comparison, is a real PC monitor.
That's why only a few users own one, it was more than just a TV or the equivalent to a Commodore 1084s monitor. So it's rare. 😝

In addition to TV mode, an EGA monitor has its own, non-15 KHz mode (21 KHz) and can display 640x350 on an EGA card.
It also decodes the intensity lines for red/green/blue, so it's rgbRGB (digital) rather than RGB (digital). It can display up to 64 colours, simultaneously. Except for the original IBM EGA monitor, maybe.

wierd_w wrote on 2023-09-15, 05:54:

Suggest a scan converter. https://www.diyretroarcade.com/products/vga-r … for-arcade-blue Maybe not THAT one, but something simi […]
Show full quote

Suggest a scan converter. https://www.diyretroarcade.com/products/vga-r … for-arcade-blue
Maybe not THAT one, but something similar. There are many such products out there. EGA is TTL video signals, where VGA is Analog video signal. EGA and CGA have different sync signals.
Back in the day, there were special monitors that could do anything-- like NEC Multisync II and pals. (used to own one!) These days, just get a scan converter.
HOWEVER-- reading more into it, it sounds like you have an EGA monitor on the way, but no EGA video source. (why??)
To my knowledge, there are precisely ZERO PCI EGA cards out there-- so you will need some system with ISA slots, and an EGA video card. Somehow.

i do have an ibm5150 various old pcs but they all either have battery damage or dead psus so hopefully i can get something going soon to atleast test it
but beyond that was also wondering how you could color calibrate it if you can't run calibration software through it might be able to setup something to display relevant test patterns?

Jo22 wrote on 2023-09-15, 06:30:

A CGA monitor is just a glorified TV set with a slightly better CRT tube, really. It's like a SCART television with a digital fi […]
Show full quote

A CGA monitor is just a glorified TV set with a slightly better CRT tube, really. It's like a SCART television with a digital filter (TTL) mounted onto it, essentially.
(As far as the electronic goes, the biggest achievement was the conversion of the yellow colour to brown.) In reverse order, the same was done internally with PET/C64 hybrid computers, so they couldn't produce grayscale on internal green monitor, but just absolute black/green.

An EGA monitor, by comparison, is a real PC monitor. That's why only a few users own one, it was more than just a TV or the equivalent to a Commodore 1084s monitor. So it's rare. 😝
In addition to TV mode, an EGA monitor has its own, non-15 KHz mode (21 KHz) and can display 640x350 on an EGA card. It also decodes the intensity lines for red/green/blue, so it's rgbRGB (digital) rather than RGB (digital). It can display up to 64 colours, simultaneously. Except for the original IBM EGA monitor, maybe.

yeah I've got a stack of old pcs I'm verrry slowly going through so hopefully ill have something that supports ega soon otherwise i dunno how id go about fully testing it, but hoped there was an easier option to use a modern pc

Re: XT video test

Jo22 wrote on 2023-09-15, 06:36:

Re: XT video test

ah brilliant that will help a lot, thanks. i know for VGA theres the old NEC Test Pattern Generator floating around that I've used on a win98 and my main win10 rig, i think it also supports win95!
think the main requirements for a colormieter would be gamma, colour temp, rgb and secondary cmy but I'm still learning how to use it on a regular vga crt at the moment, i figured it would be more difficult for these older colour limited displays