Ikegami monitor a lemon?

[Stilton]

I just got an Ikegami TM20-16R monitor off eBay - supposedly should work great with RGB (see http://www.ikegami.com/br/products/sdtv/tm2016.html ). However, after soldering together an SCART to BNC adapter (I have SCART cables for all my game consoles), I get a dark, rolling screen. It obviously looks like the signal is too low.

So yes, I am getting all the parts I need to build a CXA-based RGB amplifier. But while I'm waiting for them to arrive here, I'm a little concerned. Shouldn't a broadcast video monitor be able to handle game console RGB output? Or am I missing something here?

I should mention that composite video works great, and I haven't tested svideo or component yet.

According to the specs, the flavor of RGB the monitor takes is: Non-composite (0.7Vp-p nominal), positive polarity, one (1) set (requires external sync), and the connectors are "terminated 75 ohm". This all seems very standard to me, but am I missing something?

Stilton

[kendrick]

Rest easy. The equipment you got is the kind of thing they hook up to digital gear in television broadcast control rooms. The sync rate is right for RGB output from Playstation, Genesis, Super Nintendo, and Neo Geo gear. The fact that it also accepts component input is a nice bonus too. Take some pictures once you have it running.

-KKC, making trouble on other gaming blogs...

[viletim!]

Stilton,
You mentioin that your monitor "requires external sync". This might be the cause of the problem. SCART doesn't use TTL sync but instead sends a composite video signal containing sync information. The display device (usualy a TV) is expected to strip the sync from the composite video signal.

A lot of pro monitors I've seen can sync from the composite video while displaying the RGB video but many won't. If yours is like this then you can build a simple sync stripper circuit using the LM1881 IC and feed you monitor the required TTL sync signal.  

[Stilton]

Thanks for the info, viletim! I just now hooked up my LM1881 circuit and, well, the screen still rolls and is still dark, BUT the rolling is strictly vertical and not completely spasmodic.

So it looks like I'll need a CXA amp for RGB and composite sync. But I am amazed at how well this simple fix worked!

Other weird stuff: I can't seem to get component to work. I'm not splitting composite sync from luma or anything - I'm just using straight up YPbPr from my DVD player.

Also, svideo works great from the same DVD player, but I'm getting unstable images around high contrast areas or sprites from my Japanese FZ-10. Weird!

[viletim!]

It should just work....no need to amplify anything. There must be a problem somewhere. This sounds a bit like the ground isn't connected. Cheap SCART cables often only connect one or two of the ground pins in the SCART plug. Are you sure you've connected one?