Sweet vintage RGB tv pick-up. TV experts, what do I have?

[nintendodork]

Off-topic here, but what Rock Man 2 is that?! \\\

I was wondering the same thing.  That Rockman sprite looks really detailed and more like an SNES sprite than the Rockman 2 sprite.

[lobdale]

Yeah that is definitely a pirate/hack of Rockman 2.

[satoshi_matrix]

both of those are off the Powerpak.

Rockman 2 replaces the Megaman sprite with one that mimics the Megaman X sprite. it makes the game look really cool. The Gradius II screen is from the graphically enhanced hack that a prolific Japanese hacker made. I found both about a year or so ago.

[satoshi_matrix]

Here's a little video I made of this tv http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ttd8D2wvWTM

[Xious]

This is gorgeous. Is the bezel actual silica glass, or Plexiglas? I have displays that use both, but silica glass is far less common. I agree that the 'vents' look like speaker grilles and that the seem to have a dust-door. This looks to be a studio-display, or studio-quality display, probably for broadcasting purposes. It would have been very expensive new, and is still quite costly today. What a beautiful find...

I love the elegance of the remote control docking area too. Simply lovely.

RGB (Text) and TTL (CGA) were display methods used on early RGB computer systems and some broadcasting systems. TTL was digital, 16/64-colour, and the Text display is, as I recall, analgoue RGB. TTL used fixed colour ranges, whereas analogue RGB allowed any using part of the video spectrum.

The TEXT mode however, may also be a different form of digital RGB that used tri-colour or special monochrome modes for sharper on-screen textual displays. This is also not uncommon for monitors at the time. That odd port could probably be adapted to a range of systems, including early PC and Commodore systems that support TTL output, such as the Commodore 128 and IBM 8088 PC, or some Apple II and Apple II systems (with digital RGB cards).

I think the other connections are YM and VS, which are for Y-signal (halftone, luminance--and I think the video signal mask as well, but maybe not) and Vertical S-Curve (gamma correction). That 8-pin connector is for TTL-in: Most systems had a DE-9 TTL video port, so I presume this display had a range of adaptable cables--again possible for special broadcasting usage--though normally TTL is a 9-pin or greater connection. This is the fairly standard DE-9 CGA-16 TTL port pinout:
Pin 1 - GND / CE
Pin 2 - GND / CE
Pin 3 - Red
Pin 4 - Green
Pin 5 - Blue
Pin 6 - Green Intensity | or | General Intensity
Pin 7 - Blue Intensity | or | Luma / Monochrome
Pin 8 - Horizontal Sync
Pin 9 - Vertical Sync

I will presume that this 8-pin port forgoes the second CE/GND pin and ties them together. You can probably contact Panasonic directly to request a manual for the operation of this display, which may have the pinouts in it, or possibly even a repair manual which will give you detailed technical specifications.

Here is another pinout used (rarely) that would connect via an 8-pin DIN to the system:
1.  Special TEXT signal
2.  Red video signal
3.  Green video signal
4.  Blue video signal
5.  Intensity signal
6.  Signal ground
7.  Horizontal or Composite sync.
8.  Vertical sync.

This may be in use here as well.it.s hard to say without either a manual or physical examination; I'm not really familiar with this quasi-SCART-ish 8-pin RGB connector. 
You can also order a reproduction service manual for this display from thus website in printed or PDF format.

I hope this is all helpful. Overalll, a brilliant find.

[satoshi_matrix]

new video showcasing more of this awesome tv.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctnFFU9FXJ8

[son_ov_hades]

That video is great! I'm so jealous of you having that tv.  I wished you would have shown some modern systems on it though, I'm intrigued as to how they'd look.

[satoshi_matrix]

What would you like to see? Any games in particular? i can easily do a follwo up video.

[son_ov_hades]

Oh idk...some fps maybe? I actually really like how modern games look on crts.

[lobdale]

That tube is baller.

[satoshi_matrix]

Xious your info is helpful, but TTL is a digital format of RGB, which makes it usless for my needs.

I need to get RGB (TEXT) working so I can use analog RGB systems like my PC10 RGB ppu'd AV Famicom, SNES,and possibly Genesis.

I have European SCART cables for the SNES and am hoping I can adapt that or something else to work on this beautiful old tv.

I've been told "The YM input switches RGB to half-brightness, for video overlay use. The YS input is used to activate the RGB input. You just use 75 ohm terminators to activate the necessary modes."

I tried this using a RCA composite male plug that I cut and split and soldered a 47ohm resistor to (ghetto terminator) and although not quite 75ohms as asked for, it still didn't do anything. I should have noticed something I would think.

I know neither are RGB, but I've also tried hooking up component video and composite video to each of the RGB channels while supplying composite video (or component Y) to the sync input, but the TV seems to ignore the RGB inputs altogether. It instead syncs to and displays the composite video in full color and the component Y luma signal in grayscale, but nothing happens through the RGB channels.

I think I should try with a clean composite sync signal devoid of video information in case the TV senses the video and disables the RGB but I don't have any means to get such a signal from my gaming systems.

I know I can build a simple circuit with a LM1881 to strip the sync from the composite video but I <insert favorite reason for not doing it here>

I should add I don't get a rolling picture if I don't connect the sync, just a black screen.

Help?

I purchased the thoroughly useless manual. Maybe you guys will find something useful in it? here. http://www.megaupload.com/?d=IGZAO5UN
-------------------------

[tonev]

fix the link megaupload is dead

[satoshi_matrix]

Yeah. Unfortunately, the link died with megaupload. I might still have it somewhere though.

[Drakon]

you have a crappy old tv 

Seriously though man I have no clue

[Parodius Duh]

cool! those screen protectors are common place on high end panasonic models from 1982-1987. Mines a smaller, completly different model and has one too. I had a 2nd as well but the protector was unfortunately snapped off... Anyway, this is definitely an awesome CRT tv score, which is an absolute necessity for the vintage gamer!