LCD monitor hacking "development" thread

[drugkito]

Uploaded new version of LCD Monitor Setup Disk (0.4) over here: https://www.amibay.com/threads/lcd-monitor-guide-lcd-monitor-setup-disk.2447180/
Screen setup apps have been completely reworked and are now available in width of 720, 704, 680 and 640 pixels, PAL and NTSC, non-interlaced and interlaced.
Apps displaying interlaced screens are in support of MStar based monitors and are useless for Realtek ones.
Should work on all Amiga models. If it does not, old 0.3 version is still available.
Disk now also included MonitorTest program, which one can use instead of ScreenMode Prefs, especially useful on OS 3.0 and 3.1 which are missing the Test button.

 

[drugkito]

A word or two about the modified Dell P1917S, a MStar chip based monitor.
Modding it's firmware hasn't really been a fun ride, however it's now done. Reprogramming the thing with Arduino is not done yet. Haven't even looked into it - not sure when or if it might become available.

Anyways, a short comparison with so far modified Realtek based monitors, which all more or less behave very similar:

On the positive side, Dell (MStar) can be made to consistently support smaller view windows than 720x288 in both PAL and NTSC, hence multiple firmwares have been made which support 640, 680, 704 and 720 width for both PAL and NTSC. Realtek based monitors can do the same in PAL but not in NTSC. Reason laying in the fact they need at least 240 visible scan lines to measure the signal and already at 704 px width number of scan lines falls down to 238 in NTSC. MStar appears to need only 200 scan lines. At 640 px width we have 216 scan lines visible in NTSC so it's still good. I personaly prefer 704 or even 680 px wide setup.

Other positive thing is it propely digitizes even super hires, unlike Realtek ones, so shres screens look good, without missing pixels or anything.

It can also be made to sync to some stuff Realteks were not able to. For instance Euro36 mode and programmed modes used in BC Kid and DynaBlaster. Euro36 interlace is not supported though and programmed modes in BC Kid and DynaBlaster kept loosing sync occasionally so support got dropped.

Interlace is subjectively worse than on Realtek models and there's also one other major culprit related to interlaced screens. MStar considers interlaced as separate video mode. This has two negative implications. First is that interlaced screens also need to be setup separately before use (hence bunch of interlaced setup screen apps on the new version of setup disk) and the other one is that monitor takes a bit of time to switch between the modes, which can be annoying in games/demos which switch between progressive and intelaced modes during runtime, e.g. Pinball Fantasies and such. Realtek does no such thing and switching is instant (there's no switching really).

 

[drugkito]

Been toying a bit with Playstation 2 today...

MStar chip - 1st image, Realtek chip - 2nd image

Something could be done I suppose. A lot more effort would have to go into this though. Not even sure if people over here might find it particularly interesting.
Anyone intimately familiar with intricacies of PS2 video modes out there?

 

[rabidgerry]

A word or two about the modified Dell P1917S, a MStar chip based monitor.
Modding it's firmware hasn't really been a fun ride, however it's now done. Reprogramming the thing with Arduino is not done yet. Haven't even looked into it - not sure when or if it might become available.

Anyways, a short comparison with so far modified Realtek based monitors, which all more or less behave very similar:

On the positive side, Dell (MStar) can be made to consistently support smaller view windows than 720x288 in both PAL and NTSC, hence multiple firmwares have been made which support 640, 680, 704 and 720 width for both PAL and NTSC. Realtek based monitors can do the same in PAL but not in NTSC. Reason laying in the fact they need at least 240 visible scan lines to measure the signal and already at 704 px width number of scan lines falls down to 238 in NTSC. MStar appears to need only 200 scan lines. At 640 px width we have 216 scan lines visible in NTSC so it's still good. I personaly prefer 704 or even 680 px wide setup.

Other positive thing is it propely digitizes even super hires, unlike Realtek ones, so shres screens look good, without missing pixels or anything.

It can also be made to sync to some stuff Realteks were not able to. For instance Euro36 mode and programmed modes used in BC Kid and DynaBlaster. Euro36 interlace is not supported though and programmed modes in BC Kid and DynaBlaster kept loosing sync occasionally so support got dropped.

Interlace is subjectively worse than on Realtek models and there's also one other major culprit related to interlaced screens. MStar considers interlaced as separate video mode. This has two negative implications. First is that interlaced screens also need to be setup separately before use (hence bunch of interlaced setup screen apps on the new version of setup disk) and the other one is that monitor takes a bit of time to switch between the modes, which can be annoying in games/demos which switch between progressive and intelaced modes during runtime, e.g. Pinball Fantasies and such. Realtek does no such thing and switching is instant (there's no switching really).

This is still sounding like great work to me. The Dell does seem like it could be a useful convert, I'm not sure if the interlaced issues are going to effect too many users. I've my GBS board for that anyways.

 

[drugkito]

MStar based Dell P1917S can now also be reprogrammed with an Arduino -> over here.
640, 680, 704 and 720 pixel wide PAL & NTSC firmwares are available as standard - you can choose whichever you prefer while applying the patch.

I had to rewrite parts of the Arduino code and stop using the shitty Arduino Wire library as well and come up with something of my own for I2C communication. Reading and writing should now be somewhat faster as well.
Anyway, make sure to grab the latest MonHack archive (MonHack_2025-08-06_01.zip) if you'll be working with Dell P1917S.
Older MonHack archive (MonHack_2024-11-23_01.zip), which is known to work well for Realtek chips, is still available - just in case this new version is acting out. Should work fine but you never know.

 

[drugkito]

Turned out MonHack_2025-08-06_01 had some issues with some Realtek monitors.
Should be fixed now.
Latest version available here, older ones removed.

 

[drugkito]

Monitor Setup Disk updated to 0.4.1.
Version 0.4 had issues with 720 px PAL setup screens on OCS Amigas. ECS and AGA machines were not affected.
Should work properly now on OCS machines as well.

Older 0.3 version still available just in case. Note that 0.3 cannot be used on Dell P1917S monitor for instance, only on Realtek based ones.

 

[papa_november]

I just got done digging through a giant gaylord full of Dell 2001FPs that had been e-wasted. I had to test each and every one because it's mostly a crapshoot whether you're going to find a rev that does 15k or one where they patched it out. Even then, it's 15k isn't great as it forgets the screen position each time. A way to hack them all so they all support 15k would be a godsend. Unfortunately they're pretty ancient and heavy, and need a stupid power brick on top of that. Do any of them still turn up in Europe?

There's other monitors that make good hack targets that aren't as clunky - I can remember encountering a number of monitors by Dell and HP that were 4:3-ish with composite & s-video inputs, that even did PAL & NTSC on those inputs, and yet were frustratingly incapable of 15 or even 24 khz on the VGA input. For years I wondered why nobody bothered trying to hack monitors to get 15k support and finally here we are.

You might want to look into a test pattern generator that can be programmed to mimic the output of an Amiga or ST or other system. That way you don't have to have the original hardware on hand to test. Many of the Extron VTG series TPGs can have new modes uploaded to them via ethernet or serial.

I'd be very curious to see how these monitors might handle other RGB or explicitly trisync systems. If you can get them looking this good with an Amiga or ST, chances are they'll work OK with others.

 

[Mathieu67]

Hi,
I can't find the firmware download link for the Acer V176L.
Is it available Somewhere ?
Regards.

 

[drugkito]

Hi,
I can't find the firmware download link for the Acer V176L.
Is it available Somewhere ?
Regards.

D

Offered Thread 'LCD Monitor Modification Service - for Amiga and Atari ST/STe'

Nov 2, 2024

I'm offering a modification service for your LCD monitor to make it (more) Amiga or Atari ST/STe compliant.

After the mod, monitor should support at least OCS/ECS/AGA PAL, NTSC, DblPAL, DblNTSC, Multiscan, Euro72 and Super72 modes natively - meaning you don't need a scan doubler, just hook your Amiga to the monitor directly. RGB to VGA adapter is still required. Original Commodore or after market ones are fine. Watch out for adapters with bandwidth filter having a filter locked in to a certain cutoff frequency, as some available even over here.

For the Atari ST/STe, Color 50 Hz...

• drugkito
• Replies: 58
• Forum: Services

• 
• 

 

[marcepan]

Hello, I’ve just obtained a Fujitsu B19-6 monitor. Is your firmware compatible with this revision?

 

[drugkito]

Hello, I’ve just obtained a Fujitsu B19-6 monitor. Is your firmware compatible with this revision?

I don't think so. AFAIK B19-6 is not Realtek based.

 

[marcepan]

I can check it and take a picture of the board if that helps.

 

[drugkito]

I can check it and take a picture of the board if that helps.

You can do the initial check with dumper.exe from the monhack archive. It should tell you whether its realtek or mstar or something else