(hd)tv/monitor choice w/ VGA (rgb?) in.

[grey]

Hi there,

I've been eyeballing various displays for, I guess years now since the last of my 1084S's bit the dust and I've kind of wandered away from the RGB console obsession for a while.  At any rate, in the meantime I've kind of passively been looking at various HDTV's which have VGA inputs (e.g. Monivision, Sampo, Princeton Graphics, Loewe, CTX, Proton) and claim to sync to PAL & NTSC scan rates.  

In particular, Sampo models explicitly mention 15Khz sync rates in their specifications, and interchange RGB with VGA with regards to their D-sub 15 inputs.  Sampo even had an older 16:9 flat 34" tube that didn't use a line doubler, so presumably input sources would be pretty native to their output.

So my question is - has anyone tried one of these types of sets to see if they might actually qualify as a new generation of multisync monitors?  The sampo's in particular look like they might be the most promising for these sorts of applications just due to the details gleaned from their specs, whereas some of the other vendors are pretty clear on accepting VGA inputs - but then I might as well just go with an XRGB-2.

Does anyone have any experience with any displays such as these, or thoughts?  They seem close to the modern meca for RGB afficionados, but they can be spendy, and hard to find.

The most recent Sampo model for reference is here:
http://sampoamericas.com/001/productitem.php?id=37

Other vendors particular products not mentioned for the sake of brevity.

[Tom61]

Typically the VGA/RGB port on HDTV's only take a couple of resolutions of VGA. PAL and NTSC sync rates are refering to thier Composite or S-Video ports.

I don't recall anyone explicitly mentioning a Sampo though, so maybe they will. Get one from store with a good return policy if you're really adventurous and try it.

[grey]

Thanks for the response, it sort of confirms my suspicions about most of these newer displays.  I might still go ahead and get one (currently waiting to hear back from Sampo regarding where this model can be found or purchased, I guess it's new) - since it seems to support a pretty wide range of formats (like 720p) as is, and worst case scenario with respect to RGB is that I would buy an XRGB-2 I guess.

There are some newer LCoS RP HDTV's out now that support 1080p natively and have DVI inputs, but while I know that VGA signals can be split out from a DVI adapter, I've never thought about using an adapter to take VGA-> DVI and if the display would be OK with displaying an analogue source.  So that, coupled with the fact that the LCoS hdtv's are about 4X pricier, and apparently are dependent on a bulb which might have a MTBF lifetime in the 1000's of hours, make me think that going with a nice CRT is still ideal.

So, what are RGB fiends using these days for native RGB displays?  C= 1084's still?  They seem awfully darned small and prone to failure now I would think, even if they're cheap.  Or have most started to go the way of scan convertors a-la XRGB-2?

Are there any other scan convertors worth looking at?  Like, still accept RGB inputs, but maybe output to DVI or something?

Just curious to see what people are doing now.  If I end up getting that Sampo unit, I will definitely report on the results.

Seems that there should be more products that cater to this field, especially now.  Heck, I can only seem to find one VGA capture card even, which is pretty pitiful.  I understand that video production houses mostly use SDI nowadays, but even then they still must grab from source material a lot, and I would hope they'd be trying to capture RGB signals (e.g. for vidgame commercial or whatever) rather than anything else.

Hmm, looks like I jumbled in about four different thought processes, hope I don't confuse anyone too badly.

[Tom61]

So, what are RGB fiends using these days for native RGB displays? C= 1084's still? They seem awfully darned small and prone to failure now I would think, even if they're cheap. Or have most started to go the way of scan convertors a-la XRGB-2?

I use an arcade monitor (in an arcade machine) personally. I suppose you could buy an arcade monitor and build a frame around it. You can also buy a chassis that turns a dead TV into a RGB arcade monitor from a place called 8liners.

If you get the monitor and it doesn't take 15kHz RGB, you could get an RGB to Component transcoder box (if you manage to find one).