Mac Video Monitors: updated April 2019
If you have corrections or updates to this document, let me know.
This information is not guaranteed to be complete and may have errors.
Check Apple's Web site or other Web pages for more information. My
Mac Web home page is via this link. for links to other
Mac pages on my site. Prices for Apple monitors I may have in stock are
on my Mac parts page. - Herb Johnson
Here are some specifications and descriptions of various Apple brand
monitors:
M1050 Mac II 12" Hi-Res Monochrome Display M0298, 12" 640x480 76dpi
Horiz 35kHz, Vert 66.67Hz
M0297 Mac II 12" RGB Monitor M1296 M1299, 12" .28mm 512x384 64dpi
Horiz 24.48KHz, Vert 60.15Hz. Good with Mac LC series, IIgs
M0400 Apple Hi-Res Monochrome Monitor 13" 640x480 76dpi
The monitors below are good for the Mac II series, Quatra/Centris,
or later Mac systems.
M1299 Apple 12" color monitor, 512 X 384 64dpi
????? any Apple 13" or 14" color monitor, 640 X 480 69dpi
M1297 Apple Color Hi-Res RGB Monitor 13" .26mm 640x480 69dpi
Horiz 35kHz, Vert 66Hz.
M1212 Apple Color Display 13" .26mm 640X480 69dpi
Horiz 35kHz, Vert 66.7Hz
M9103 Apple Basic Color Monitor 14" - 13" .39 640X480 69dpi
M1595 Apple Color Basic Monitor 14" - requires cable adaptor
M1787 Apple Color Plus 14" Display M2346LL/A - 14" .28 640x480
M4222 Apple Multiple Scan 14 Display (Chassis CM0200)
M2001 AudioVision 14 Display M5814LL/A
M1212 Mac Color Display 14" M1198 - 13" .26 640x480 70dpi
M9101 Performa Display 14" - 13" .39 640x480
M9102 Performa Plus Display 14" - 13" .29 640x480
M1030 Mac Full Page Monochrome (Portrait) M0404 - 15" 640x870 80dpi
M2943 Apple Multiple Scan 15 Display M3089LL/A, multiple modes
M2978 Apple Multiple Scan 15 Display, apparently with HD-15 VGA-type connector?
* 640 x 480, 60 Hz (VGA), 800 x 600, 60 Hz (VESA), 800 x 600, 72 Hz (VESA)
M1298 Mac II 16" Color Display M1044, 832X624 70dpi
M2494 Apple Multiple Scan 17 Display
M4436 Apple Multiple Scan 1705 Display
M2942 Apple Vision 1710AV Display (M3323LL/A)
M0404 (Rev. A), Macintosh Portrait Display, 13W3 one coax pin
640 X 870, horizontal: 68.850 kHz, vertical: 75 Hz
M1030 (Rev. B), Macintosh Portrait Display as above
M0402 Mac Two Page Monochrome M1025 - 21" 1152x870 77dpi
M1823 Apple Multiple Scan 20 Display, multiple modes
M3502 Mac II 21" Color Display M5812 1152 X 870 79dpi
The following is from Apple's TIL (Tech. Info. Library Q&A):
Macintosh video cards and circuitry detect the kind of monitor attached by
checking three sense lines in the display connector. The monitor considered to
be attached (and the memory allocated to accommodate it) is dependent on which
lines are pulled low during card initialization.
The simplest way to fool the Macintosh into believing that a larger monitor is
attached is to build a terminator for the video port that sets the sense lines
appropriately. For example, to simulate a 640 x 480 pixel monitor, sense lines
2, 1, and 0 (pins 10, 7, and 4) should be 1, 1, and 0 (where 0 is grounded and
1 is free). [Adaptors sold by some third parties provide ways to selectively
connect or ground these lines. - Herb]
Neither the Macintosh IIsi nor the Macintosh LC is designed to support 24-bit
video. The on-board video hardware and the video driver on the Macintosh IIsi
are only designed to support 1, 2, 4, and 8-bit video. Putting more memory in
the SIMMs or any hacks you might come up with will not get 24-bit video on
the on- board video hardware.
The on-board video hardware on the Macintosh LC is capable of supporting 16-bit
video on the 12" monitor, but it is still limited to 8-bit video on the 13"
monitor. If you try to put 1-MB of VRAM into the video RAM SIMM, you probably
will not be able to boot the machine. At best the machine will only see 512K of
the VRAM. So, on the Macintosh LC the video hardware and the video driver only
support 1,2,4,8 bits on Apple's 13" monitor and 1,2,4,8,16 bits on Apple's 12"
monitor. Upgrade old Macintosh II ROMs to use with 8*24 GC card.
What are the pinouts for the Macintosh II video card and IIci built-in video
connector?
Here are the pinouts for the Apple 13" RGB and 12" Monochrome monitors for
Macintosh II video cards and IIci built-in video:
12" B/W
Pin Signal Description 13" RBG 15" B & W
-- ----- ---------- ------ ---------
1 RED.GND Red Video Ground RED.GND n/c
2 RED.VID Red Video RED.VID n/c
3 CSYNC~ Composite Sync CSYNC~ n/c
4 MON.ID1 Monitor ID, Bit 1 ID1.GND n/c
5 GRN.VID Green Video GRN.VID n/c
6 GRN.GND Green Video Ground GND.GND n/c
7 MON.ID2 Monitor ID, Bit 2 n/c ID2.GND
8 n/c n/c n/c
9 BLU.VID Blue Video BLU.VID BLU.VID
10 MON.DI3 Monitor ID, Bit 3 n/c ID3.GND
11 C&VSYNC.GND CSYNC & VSYNC Ground CSYNC.GND VSYNC.GND
12 VSYNC~ Vertical Sync n/c VSYNC~
13 BLU.GND Blue Video Ground BLU.GND BLU.GND
14 HSYNC.GND HSYNC Ground n/c HSYNC.GND
15 HSYNC~ Horizontal Sync n/c HSYNC~
shell CHASSIS.GND Chassis Ground CHASSIS.GND CHASSIS.GND
`0' means that the line is grounded inside the monitor to provide information
to the Macintosh IIci as to what kind of monitor is connected. If no monitor is
connected to the IIci's built-in video port, then the port is automatically
disabled at startup.
ID3 ID2 ID1 Monitor Type
--------------------------------------------------------
0 0 0 Unsupported
0 0 1 15" B&W Portrait Monitor (640x870)
0 1 0 RESERVED for use by Apple
0 1 1 Unsupported
1 0 0 Unsupported
1 0 1 RESERVED for use by Apple
1 1 0 Mac II 12" B&W, 13" Hi-Res RGB (640x480)
1 1 1 No external monitor connected (automatic)
--------------------------------------------------------
----end of reference------
Here are some typical pinouts for Apple monitors.
Apple color High Res RGB monitor:
1 - red gnd
2 - red video
3 - comp H and V sync
4 - mon ID bit 1
5 - green video
6 - green grn
7 - mon ID bit 2
8 - unused
9 - blue video
10- mon ID bit 3
11- csync gnd
12- unused
13- blue gnd
14- unused
15- unused
Apple mono 12" monitor:
1 - unused
2 - unused
3 - comp H and V sync
4 - mon ID bit 1 grounded
5 - mono video
6 - mono grn
7 - mon ID bit 2 open
8 - unused
9 - unused
10- mon ID bit 3 open
11- csync ground
12- unused
13- unused
14- unused
15- unused
Here's my hand-traced connections for two of Apple's 13W3 cables. - Herb Johnson
590-0621-A - 13W3 with ONE coax connector, to DB-15
weight 11 ounces, 6 foot long
thinner cable than 0615
590-0615-A - 1313 with THREE coax connectors, to DB-15
weight 14 ounces, 6 foot long
thicker cable than 0621
Connector scheme of cable (male pins)
DB15: top row 1 to 8 left/right, bottom 9/15
13W3: A3, A2 on left, A1 on right
top row 1-5 left/right, bottom 6-10
590-0621-A (1 coax)
DB15 13W3
3 1
4 7
7 8
9 A1
10 3
11 2 6 9
12 4
13 A1 shield
14 5
15 10
590-0615-A (3 coax)
DB15 13W3
1 A3 shield
2 A3
3 1
4 7
5 A2
6 A2 shield
7 8
9 A1
10 3
11 2 6 9
12 4
13 A1 shield
14 5
15 10