Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2018 March 18

= March 18 =

Connecting an Amiga to a modern monitor
I just found my old Amiga 500 and 1200 computers in my father's basement. I'd like to see if they still work, but I no longer have an Amiga monitor. Can they be somehow connected to a modern monitor with a VGA and DVI input? J I P &#124; Talk 22:29, 18 March 2018 (UTC)
 * The distinction between "monitor" and "TV" is blurred these days, but for old computers it's usually easier these days to connect them to something TV-like, rather than something like a modern monitor. Most old TVs like this can be connected fairly easily to a SCART connector, and even SCART can then be connected to HDMI with a fairly common adapter. SCART is RGB (each colour gets its own wire) which gives a notably better image than composite video. Note that PAL / NTSC conversion might be needed if you're using US computers in Europe, but TVs are fairly flexible about that nowadays. Here's some YouTube on doing this for Amigas, but most computers of that vintage will be similar.  Andy Dingley (talk) 00:13, 19 March 2018 (UTC)
 * Our articles on the Amiga 500 and the Amiga 1200 say they came with an RF adaptor port that was PAL and NTSC capable. You should be able to find a suitable cable to allow connection to the antenna input of a TV. I don't know whether current TVs have such capability, but old pre-digital TVs shouldn't be hard to find. The Atari 520ST and up models had the same RF adaptor and I successfully used my 520 with a standard TV (audio as well). All that was necessary was to tune the TV to channel 36. Akld guy (talk) 19:54, 19 March 2018 (UTC)
 * My 2000 and 4000 both had composite out, from memory. I distinctly remember using the 4000 to test multiple video modes on video monitors because I could change frequency and resolution easily. My assumption is that the 500 and 1200 didn't have composite out. There is an adapter (the Amiga 520 Adapter - still on EBay) that converts the standard Amiga video output to composite (and RF if you want to go that route). Then, you can use composite on must televisions. Even my new TV with 4 HDMI connections has a composite input. 71.85.51.150 (talk) 15:45, 20 March 2018 (UTC)