TV_Text now with 40x30 Display

Baggers · 2009-05-02 20:43

Hi All,

Here's my quick modification of Parallax's TV_Text_Demo ( and TV_Text and TV ) which·or's two alternate scanlines data to half the font height, so you can display more text on screen.
in this demo ( it's set to 6Mhz clock and pin group·24 for TV but that's changeable obviously [noparse]:)[/noparse] ) it sets a display up of 40 Columns x 30 Rows, in NTSC, in Interlaced mode. so screen res is 640x480.

Just to let you know I've posted it in the OBEX

http://obex.parallax.com/objects/452/

Enjoy.

Baggers.

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Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) · 2009-05-02 21:39

That looks nice!

-Phil

Baggers · 2009-05-02 22:33

Cheers Phil [noparse]:)[/noparse]
yeah, it looks better on the real thing, although I've never really been "happy" with interlaced mode, but for 16x16 font 640x480 it looks great [noparse];)[/noparse]

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·

Rayman · 2009-05-03 00:35

Looks great!

KPR · 2009-05-03 01:40

What about colour?

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Ole Man Earl · 2009-05-03 03:50

Looks GREAT on my AutoPilot S/W
Thanks!

Cluso99 · 2009-05-03 06:05

Nice one baggers

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Baggers · 2009-05-03 09:52

Cheers guys [noparse]:)[/noparse]

KPR, it works with colour too, it's practically a direct copy of TV.spin and TV_Text.spin but with a few minor changes, see attached pic.

Ole Man Earl, glad you like it·with your AutoPilot S/W [noparse]:D[/noparse]·after all, it's there to be used!!

Baggers

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Coley · 2009-05-03 10:41

Hey Baggers,

just been playing around with this and managed to get usable 50x32 in PAL mode

Coley

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Baggers · 2009-05-03 11:39

Thanks Coley, yeah, the most I got before my display started to judder was 54x35 in PAL and 44x30 in NTSC.
If any others want to get >40x30 you need to change MAXCOLS and MAXROWS in TV_Text_Half_Height.spin [noparse];)[/noparse]

I've also made a few additions [noparse]:)[/noparse]

You now start it with

· text.start(pingroup,palntsc,interlaced,width,height)

you can also do

· text.ink(pen)

to save doing out($0c) and out(pen) pen colour being any from 0-7

I've also added

· text.inkblock(x,y,w,h,pen)

which will leave the text intact, but change the colour of the block ( there's no size checks, so don't do crazy numbers or it'll·overwrite other buffers or code etc )

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Post Edited (Baggers) : 5/3/2009 11:48:19 AM GMT

RossH · 2009-05-04 00:11

Great work Baggers.

I'll include this in the next release of Catalina. That release will allow C programs to run from external RAM on the Hydra, but I was really suffering from the lack of a reasnable resolution text display. The Hydra Xtreme RAM card uses the same I/O pins as the VGA output, so I have no alternative but to use the TV output while running XMM programs. After getting used to 125x64 it's hard going all the way back to 32 x 16!

Being able to use 40x30 (maybe even 50x32) will be a great improvement.

Keep it up!

Ross.

Baggers · 2009-05-04 10:28

Thanks Ross [noparse]:)[/noparse]

The more it gets used the better!

Baggers.

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·

b.p.m. · 2009-05-05 18:34

uh... what's the password for the zip file?
or... what do i change in the Demo program to
set it for Demoboard operation?

thanks blake

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Baggers · 2009-05-05 18:42

blake,

There isn't a password for the zip fle.

To set it to demo board operation in TV_Text_Half_Height_Demo.spin
Change
_xinfreq = 6_000_000
to
_xinfreq = 5_000_000

I can't remember off-hand the pin group for TV on the demoboard, I'm assuming 12.
If so, then change
text.start(24,0,1,40,30)
to
text.start(12,0,1,40,30)

let me know if this works, ( or doesn't! ) [noparse]:D[/noparse]

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·

b.p.m. · 2009-05-05 20:06

thanks baggers,
i tried your demo program on my Demoboard with
the modifications you suggested and it worked
perfectly; even on my 5" B/W crt monitor (i got it
for 2 bucks at a church bazaar, what the hey, it
saves me from disconnecting my TV from everything
and moving it to my work table every time i want to
test something). i think i'll try it with Propdos and
any other text based video programs i've downloaded.

thanks for the quick reply,
blake

p.s. for some reason the zip package i downloaded from
the thread requested a password when i tried to extract
the files (never seen that before). so i tried the download
from the Obex and no password hassles.

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Baggers · 2009-05-05 22:38

weird, and thanks for the tip on passwords, I'll probably upload it again tomorrow [noparse]:)[/noparse]
glad it worked out for you, especially on the 5" monitor [noparse]:)[/noparse]

Enjoy.

Baggers.

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·

jazzed · 2010-11-05 12:49

@Baggers,

what's the easiest way to adjust the screen vertical start position in the driver? My monitor does not have a vertical position adjustment and the only way I can see the top line for now is by reducing the number of rows displayed.

Thanks in advance.
--Steve

Baggers · 2010-11-05 14:09

jazzed wrote: »

@Baggers,

what's the easiest way to adjust the screen vertical start position in the driver? My monitor does not have a vertical position adjustment and the only way I can see the top line for now is by reducing the number of rows displayed.

Thanks in advance.
--Steve

Jazzed, the easiest way to adjust the screen vertical start position in the driver is to modify TV_Half_Height.spin

near the top in the CON section add

' Set this value to the offset you want to move the display up/down
' Don't use negative number, as you set it's direction later in the PASM code.
' If the display stops fails to sync anymore then this value is too high
' for the res settings you're trying to use, you may have to reduce the Row count by 1. 
  VBOFF = 1

then on line ~99 should be

                        mov     x,vb                    'do visible back porch lines
                        call    #blank_lines

change to

                        mov     x,vb            'do visible back porch lines
                        add     x,#VBOFF    ' use ADD to move it down, or SUB to move it up
                        call    #blank_lines

then at line ~150 should be

                        mov     x,vf
        if_nz_and_c     add     x,#1
                        call    #blank_lines

change to

                        mov     x,vf
                        SUB     x,#VBOFF        ' use the opposite of what you used above
        if_nz_and_c     add     x,#1
                        call    #blank_lines

Hope this helps

Cheers,
Baggers.

jazzed · 2010-11-05 19:12

@Baggers.

Thanks. That allows me to move the vertical offset with some limits.

For example, I can use 28 rows with VBOFF < 9 (which is better than I had), 29 rows with VBOFF < 6 for example. Larger VBOFF values won't allow printing text but the background is fine. Same goes for 30 rows with any VBOFF value - as you predicted.

I'm happy with 28 adjustable rows

TV_Text now with 40x30 Display

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