Acer KA242Y: pretty nice!

[stween]

For years I've had a 27" monitor hooked up to my bench, with VGA and DVI inputs only. It's never been great with ST low/med on its inputs, but recently I installed an rgb2hdmi in the STE I have here, so it was time to get an HDMI-capable screen!

I cross-referenced what was available today at a nearby store with the 15khz wiki, and I picked up an Acer KA242Y G0bi. A similar model number is listed on the wiki from years ago, so I figured I had a decent chance of a hit ... and actually it works much better than my old screen!

I've modified no settings, this came up pretty good on first boot.


VGA:

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The same machine, same screen, but over HDMI:

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[Steve]

That is EXTREMELY impressive! I've never seen a standard monitor output a 15Khz Atari signal so cleanly! What aspect ration options do you have with it? Also what other machines can you test it with, do you have TT/Falcon by any chance?

[agranlund]

That's crazy good compared to the old BenQ I have hooked up to my ST :)

[stephen_usher]

Looks like they're about £80 in the UK, so not very expensive. I may get one for the Amiga A1200 as that looks ideal.

[stween]

That is EXTREMELY impressive! I've never seen a standard monitor output a 15Khz Atari signal so cleanly! What aspect ration options do you have with it?

There's a "wide mode" option with "full" and "aspect" ratio options; I took all the photos on "full" before I found it, but "aspect" seems to work well on the Falcon to stop stretching the display. It doesn't seem to do much on the STE. That's not a comprehensive test of all modes though, so I can dig deeper if you're interested.

Also what other machines can you test it with, do you have TT/Falcon by any chance?

Great point; let's do a little tour. STE then Falcon.

Obviously some of the moire patterns in these photos are some combination of the desktop pattern and my phone camera and image resizing, but almost all of these modes are remarkably clean. The only one that's weird is ST high. There's a clock option in the screen settings which I can nudge between 0 and 100 and it doesn't take away the pattern on ST high.

ST low, you've already seen above.

ST medium:

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ST high:

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Falcon

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Falcon

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Falcon

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Falcon

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Falcon "ST med"

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Falcon "ST High": nicely turns up much cleaner than the real ST high!

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[Steve]

Very nice :) 👍

I wonder how it handles non-standard resolutions/frequencies using programs like Centscreen / Videlity. I've been using the Dell u2410 due to its excellent tolerance to strange frequencies, but of course that monitor is getting old and harder to find replacements.

Are you familiar with these resolution enhancers, and if you are would you test them out? Cheers

[Badwolf]

My old NEC multisync doesn't do too bad a job on progressive modes (although nothing as good as this!), but it absolutely wets the bed on the Falcon's interlaced modes.

Does this cope with the Falcon in RGB mode and interlace on?

Cheers,

BW

[stween]

Very nice :) 👍

I wonder how it handles non-standard resolutions/frequencies using programs like Centscreen / Videlity. I've been using the Dell u2410 due to its excellent tolerance to strange frequencies, but of course that monitor is getting old and harder to find replacements.

Are you familiar with these resolution enhancers, and if you are would you test them out? Cheers

My old NEC multisync doesn't do too bad a job on progressive modes (although nothing as good as this!), but it absolutely wets the bed on the Falcon's interlaced modes.

Does this cope with the Falcon in RGB mode and interlace on?

Cheers,

BW

If either of you have pointers for software for me to try, I'm happy to give it a whirl.

I have a Falcon to VGA cable here, so as I understand it I don't have a quick way to kick it into RGB mode without modification or picking up a replacement.

[Badwolf]

I have a Falcon to VGA cable here, so as I understand it I don't have a quick way to kick it into RGB mode without modification or picking up a replacement.

Ah, yes. If it doesn't have a switch it'd need a bit of tinkering with.

I don't know if there's a clever software hack (like you can with ST Mono mode) to bypass the hardware VGA signal.

Sorry. Never mind, then!

BW

[stephen_usher]

I've just bought the UK version of the monitor, the Acer KA242YE, which is selling in Argos for £84 at the moment.

So far I've only tested it with the Falcon...

IMG_4085.jpeg

I've run every demo I have and the monitor is able to cope with every possible strange video mode the demo writers have thought of without it missing a beat. Other 15KHz capable VGA monitors have struggled or barfed on the output, including my Microvitec CRT (Acorn badged) which usually handles anything.

I'll try it with the Amiga A1200 in the next few days.

However, from this first test it looks like an excellent "retro" capable display.