# FreeVGA - Product Recommendations for Video Developers
Pure VGA/SVGA hardware programming (registers, identification, and otherlow-level stuff.)
Author: Joshua Neal
Keywords: VGA SVGA hardware video programming

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Hardware Level VGA and SVGA Video Programming Information Page
Product Recommendations for Video Developers

Introduction
This page is to provide hardware recommendations for those implementing the information on this site. There are no recommendations for video cards, as the goal is to increase programmer support for all cards, existing or otherwise, rather than try to influence people to buy a specific video card implementation. I will, however recommend hardware, other than the video cards themselves that are helpful in the development of software for video cards in general. Monitors are a strong issue to me, both for safety concerns, and financial concerns, as it is usually advantageous to buy an new, indestructable monitor than to burn through many cheap, expendable monitors.

Monitors Recommended
For a monitor to be recommended it must meet all of the following criteria:

- It should be able to tolerate improperly formed video inputs for an extended period of time without the possibility of being damaged. It should also be tolerant to extremely frequent mode changes. Damage due to this kind of operation should not be excluded by the standard manufacturer's warranty. This is critical due to the replacement cost of high-performance monitors, and due to the possible safety and fire hazards failing monitors may cause.
- It should be able to synchronize to a wide variety of properly formed signals, including both standard and custom video timings. This important for developing the modes required for special applications.
- It should handle the maximum frequencies/resolutions that can be generated by current and future (to a reasonable extent) video chipsets.
- It should be compliant to all levels of display to host communication and power mamagement so code can be developed that implements these features of the video hardware.
- If the monitor allows the picture controls to be saved/restored on changes in mode, it should be allowed to defeat this feature so that the generated video timings can be adjusted to minimize the visible effects of mode change.
- It should be currently available on the market and covered by manufacturers warranty for the period of time required to develop the desired application.
- It has been put through my own personal monitor torture tests, as well as operated for an extended period of time under conditions related to video software development.

The following monitors have been evaluated by myself personally, and have been determined to meet all these criteria.

- At this time, there are no monitors that I have determined meet all these criteria.

Monitor Failures
This section lists monitors that have either died for me while testing, or have died for others in a fashion that would imply that the programmer was responsible for their failure. This does not imply that the programmer was at fault, as these things naturally happen when developing drivers. I strongly recommend the purchase of one of the recommended monitors, to avoid damaging a valuable monitor

Compaq VGA (not SVGA) -- I do not know the model specifically. It was a fixed frequency model, and the horizontal circuitry was damaged. The problem was repeatable after repairs were made, so I believe that the monitor can be damaged by normal mode testing. I have met others who claim to have experienced this same problem. Not recommended.

CTX CMS-1561LR -- The problem with this monitor occured when driving the monitor at the high end of its frequency envelope. The monitor synced to the frequency, but may have been slightly overdriven. The horizontal output transistor and some capacitors were replaced and the monitor was restored to working order. The problem has not been repeated, so ordinary failure is likely.

NCR MBR 2321 -- This one comes from a friend in Fayetteville, AR, whose monitor blew caps while writing a svgalib video driver. The explosion from the capacitors shattered the rear of the picture tube, damaging the monitor beyond repair. Not recommended due to the catastrophic nature of the failure. The operation being performed when the failure occurred was frequent mode changing.

Test Equipment Recommended
There are certain pieces of test equipment that can come in handy when working with video cards. This can be especially important when verifying that the video signal being generated is, in fact the one intended by the programmer. Failure to do this can cause catastrophic failure when the driver is used in conjunction with a fixed-frequency or other monitor that can be damaged by improper inputs.

- At this time, I cannot recommend any test equipment other than a good frequency counter, as this is really not in my area of expertise. If you can help me in my research into this, I would be greatly appreciative.

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All pages are Copyright © 1997, 1998, J. D. Neal, except where noted. Permission for utilization and distribution is subject to the terms of the FreeVGA Project Copyright License.