ZXvid on a monitor?

[oscar]

I recently bought a ZXvid via sellmyretro and it arrived a few days ago. So I spent this Saturday fitting it. The fitting was complicated by two things; firstly, it seems that the Australian variant of the ZX81 hardware is slightly different in the RF department, and secondly, I'm crap at soldering

Anyway, I eventually got it working, and once I spent some time fine-tuning the ZXvid I now have a MUCH better picture than the standard ZX81. And I have suprisingly few injuries as a result. Although I did manage to screw up the keyboard overlay when reattaching it, luckily I had a spare that I bought from RWAP some time ago, so all is well.

The picture is displaying nicely on my Panasonic LCD television via a composite input, however if I try to use my Dell LCD monitor I can't get any picture. My monitor (Dell 2007WFP) has a composite input which according to the spec sheet is meant to accept PAL or NTSC, but it fails to display anything when I try it with the ZX81/ZXvid. So I guess this means that all composite signals are not created equal? Can anyone shed any light on this? I'd really like to be able to use a PC monitor via a composite input, as using a telly isn't always convenient.

[Paul]

The Sinclair Computers create their composite video not the the official specifications but quite close to them. Most tv sets accept anything close to the official specifications but monitors are often much more sensitive.
Zxvid makes the signal closer to the standard. But the timing is still an issue.
The only way to find out if it works is trying out. So take your zeddy to the dealers and test it.
The only other possibility is to use a composite to VGA (of hdmi) converter. This digitizes the composite signal and recreates it to the exact standards. These are often very tolerant on their inputs.
HTH
Paul

[oscar]

Ah, that makes sense. Thanks for the explanation.

I might try a composite to HDMI converter, it sounds like that might be a good approach.