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[SirGraham]

Hi.

I have recently purchased a second hand A4000T as follows:

Tower case: Micronik
CPU: 68060, 50 mHz
Motherboard: Micronik 6960 Rev 4.0
Video: ImpactVision 24 and CyberVision 64/3D (includes scandoubler module)
Memory: Unknown but I saw three cards by opening the tower.
Hard disc: SCSI but size is unknown. Possibly 4.6 gb

Also has two disc drives and an read only CD-ROM, UltraPlex 40max, and Workbench 3.1

I'm now about getting a monitor. I'd love to get one that allows the enhanced resolutions of one of both graphics cards. I've tried several PC monitors like Philips 105S, TFT's and even a couple of TV's.

I can hear the Amiga booting and see the hard disk LED on and off and, a while after, the workbench desktop appears.

Plugging the normal output of the CyberVision 64/3D, with every monitor tested, the image is not stable and the left and right sides of the screen move. Plugging the scandoubler output only one image is perfectly displayed with an image of a burning CPU and a text: Light my fire. Does anybody know why this happens? With the scandoubler, almost any PC monitor should work, shouldn't it?

Tests with ImpactVision 24 have given me no image at all.

I have NOW the chance to buy a Commodore 1942 monitor but I don´t know if I can use it with any of both graphics cards (I'd love to have the enhanced resolutions) or I will have to plug it into the back video output of the tower case (limited to AGA video modes).

Please, any ideas?

Thx

[danbeaver]

Oh Boy! I don't where to start.

But you just want answers about a monitor. Most modern monitors (should have a VGA AND DVI input) will work with the video card. With the native A4000D motherboard (sorry, it appears you have a "towerized" A4000 desktop) video output -- that 23-pin D connector -- you need a monitor that synchronizes down to 15 KHz. The scan doubler brings that up to 31KHz or standard VGA. The CyberVision card is your video ReTargeted Graphics board and can handle higher frequencies in the normal PC computer range. The ImpactVision 24 is a "Frame Grabber" board and is best left out of this discussion for now.

With your hardware I would forget the CBM 1942 monitor and get a multi sync monitor that can handle all of your video output. A recent discussion on the boards (this forum I believe) brought to light a Dell SR2320L & ST2320L monitor that sells in the 150 USD range off *Bay, is flat screen, 23" and looks great in 1920 X 1080 resolution (for other uses). The CBM monitors should handle games and trouble-shooting, but aside from Toaster work or perhaps showing Frame Grabber stuff, they are useless to me. Now if you only ever plan to play games, then sell off most of that system. Otherwise, get a good monitor, an Amiga "The Basic's" manual or book (or a lot of time taking notes off the web), a copy of Amiga OS 3.9 (or a CSPPC accelerator and OS 4.1), and start asking lots of questions on these forums. Please don't ask the same question on all the forums, it gets redundant as some of us read them all.

[zipper]

Your screenmodes need some fine tuning. Are you using CybergraphX? Then the tool is CGXMode (or something like). Load a mode and look how it works in test mode and do some fine tuning to get rid of flickering. The scandoubler outputs nothing when you are using a RTG mode - it's just for PAL/NTSC modes.

[danbeaver]

Yes he is using CyberGraphix to "drive" your CyberVision card; hence the flaming boot logo.

[SirGraham]

What really warms my head is that any SVGA monitor SHOULD work with the CyberVision but the fact is that it doesn't. Why? The card sends a 31kHz signal and most monitors can handle such a frequency. According to what I've read on many sites on the Internet I should have no problems with all this having a CyberVision with a scandoubler module. For example, here http://www.amigahistory.co.uk/monitor.html

In 1990 I owned an A500. No hard disk nor external disc drive and 1 mb only (because I expanded years later). Danbeaver, it's true I want my new Amiga for games but I have bought it in order to see many great applications I missed or use just a little like Imagine and such, a good C/C++ compiler, Deluxe Paint and more. It would be wonderful to see them running. I need them.

Are you telling me any multisync monitor will work? That would be really good. Will Dell SR2320L & ST2320L work with my machine? Imagine ordering a monitor, pluging it and getting the same unstable image.

What's CybergraphX? I don't know what is loaded when booting but, of course, Workbench 3.1

[Matt_H]

@ SirGraham

I don't have experience with the IV24, but it sounds like you can just plug a monitor in there and you'll be set. Remember that most modern LCDs don't display 50Hz signals and that PAL video is 50Hz. The Dell monitor described above *is* 50Hz capable. But also note that unless you're using the framegrabbing capabilities of the IV24, it's sort of redundant as a display card.

Now, the Cybervision. If you've got a monitor attached to the IV24, you're going to have a second monitor (or a switchbox) attached to the Cybervision. More accurately, you should have the monitor attached to the scandoubler. The "Light my fire" screen you're seeing is probably a CyberGraphX bootlogo. CyberGraphX is, essentially, the driver package and API for the Cybervision card. Normally, the bootlogo should disappear when the Workbench appears, but I suspect the previous owner was running this system with a monitor attached to the scandoubler AND a monitor attached to the Cybervision. That means that some screens (such as the bootlogo) aren't closing automatically.

Look for a program called CyberGraphX. It's a configuration tool to set some environment variables for the CyberGraphX driver system. It's usually found in SYS:Tools or SYS:Tools/Commodities.

On the Environment tab, make sure "NOPASSTHROUGH" is disabled. On the Tooltypes tab, make sure "PASSTHROUGH" is enabled. This means that native, scandoubled Amiga video will come through that port *and* video from the Cybervision will be passed through. It allows you to use a single monitor to display Amiga and RTG video, dependent only on which screen is frontmost. You'll need to reboot once these settings are saved.

The next issue is the garbled display you're seeing. I agree with zipper, the configuration of your Cybervision's screenmodes is probably not correct for whatever monitor you're using. The tool for fixing this is CGXMode, normally found in SYS:Prefs. Once you get that open, I suggest picking one of the default sets from the Settings menu. Those are "safe" presets that should work with almost any monitor capable of the refresh rate indicated (use 31KHz to be absolutely safe).

But before you do that, I suggest opening SYS:Prefs/Screenmode. What mode is currently selected? You may want to pick a native mode, such as NTSC (make sure to "Use" and not "Save" for this test), to verify that the scandoubler is working.

[danbeaver]

I'm going to let Matt_H handle your questions, my orientation is askew

[SirGraham]

The situation right now is the next one: I've plugged monitor Philips 105S into the scandoubler module (CyberVision) and an LG Flatron L1919S into the other port of that card. The first monitor stays with 'Light my fire' and the other shows the workbench correctly or almost.

I've changed the resolution to 1280x1024x8 and the Philips monitor shows the workbench as the other is all black.

Everything seems to be more logical now. I'm looking for CyberGraphX

[SirGraham]

I've found CyberGraphX. I want to have just one monitor on the system. I've enabled the variable on the second tab from the left but can't remember its name. I don't know whether it's NOPASSTHROUGH or PASSTHROUGH.

The problem now is that I just get the image with 'Light my fire' and nothing more. Even if I plug two monitors, that image appears in both and I can't go any further. I can't load Workbench.

What can I do? Removing the "bridge" connecting the scandoubler module of the Cybervision with the other could do the system to boot?

I can't do anything now.

Please, help.

Thx.

[SirGraham]

Hi, again!!!

Everything is ok again. What I've done is to remove that bridge of the Cybervision, plug the Philips monitor in the scandoubler port and the Amiga has booted up with only one monitor. I've made no changes in CGXMode

By the way, I have NOPASSTHROUGH to enabled and PASSTHROUGH to disabled. Should it be the other way round?

Thank you very much for your help.

Salutes from Spain.

[Matt_H]

Originally Posted by SirGraham

Hi, again!!!

Everything is ok again. What I've done is to remove that bridge of the Cybervision, plug the Philips monitor in the scandoubler port and the Amiga has booted up with only one monitor. I've made no changes in CGXMode

By the way, I have NOPASSTHROUGH to enabled and PASSTHROUGH to disabled. Should it be the other way round?

Thank you very much for your help.

Salutes from Spain.

Yes, it should be the other way around. Then you can re-attach the bridge cable and should be able to switch transparently between Amiga and Cybervision graphics modes on a single monitor.

[SirGraham]

Hi, again.

I wrote something wrong in my last post. NOPASSTHROUGH and PASSTHROUGH are both enabled. The bridge is removed and you say it should be plugged for the signal pass from the CyberVision through the bridge TO the scandoubler? Is that?

I'm using now a TV LG 50PG1000 with the Amiga. It only displays PAL video modes, not CyberVision ones. Why? Besides, that PAL modes aren't ok: a vertical line has in and outs.

No tried mode works with CGXMode.

Thanks.

[zipper]

Check if your TV supports some PC modes - usually they are in the manual. And if there is some input selection for those modes.

[Matt_H]

Yes:

NOPASSTHROUGH should be disabled
PASSTHROUGH should be enabled
The bridge cable should be connected

Then with the monitor plugged into the scandoubler you should see all of your screenmodes on that monitor.

(Unless the previous owner changed the jumpers on the scandoubler. But let's not consider that for the moment.)

Please try the above configuration and report back.

[SirGraham]

Hi again.

NOPASSTHROUGH is now disabled, PASSTHROUGH is enabled and the bridge is on. This way, CyberVision should send the signal to the scandoubler and this one to the connected TV.

Please, note that I can plug the bridge in two ways, with the red line of the grey wide cable to each side. However, I have appreciated no changes between them. In the pic, that line is seen easyly and is now closest to the back of the tower.

Here are my tests:

1.- In order to install the bridge, I had to remove ImpactVision 24 card. Under this situation, I booted the computer and saw better than before: vertical lines are really vertical. This is the best image so far.

2.- I decided to install ImpactVision 24 and switching on the computer. I couldn't believe when I saw that I had a worse image quality: vertical lines had in and outs again. So, I removed again the ImpactVision.

I have uploaded a file containing an image of the card. The half bottom is the scandoubler. You can see the bridge by the center of the image and a couple of jumpers in two red circles.

Scandoubler manual says both jumpers, JP1 and JP2, should be closed for one monitor configuration. They are that way, aren't they?

I've been trying several modes with CGXMode successfully so I can choose now between PAL and Cybervision modes in ScreenMode. I have now my desktop at 1024x768x16 bits. I have PERFECT images on my TV. Wonderful!!!

Now, the question: what ImpactVision 24 is for? A frame grabber? What does that mean? That I can record everything displayed on the screen? How much would people give me for it? 150-200$ or so? I have never seen that card on sale on the Internet.

I have to try to reinsert the ImpactVision to see what happens, but I'm a bit tired. Aren't supposed these cards are independent?

Thank you once more.