gsrel Posted May 13, 2015 Share Posted May 13, 2015 (edited) I have an AV modded light sixer running component video (no svideo on my tv) w/ Harmony Encore cart w/ Sharp LED I have a few questions: 1) Correct me if im wrong but isnt one supposed to adjust the Test Pattern screen's top and bottom section to as close a color as possible? Ive seen images online where the bottom shows darker than the top while others say to match them. 2) There seems to be blue and yellow/green color bleeding on the test screens and games, is this a common problem?3) Kaboom and Pitfall seem too green? How does one get correct color representation? (I suppose this goes back to question 1) Edited May 13, 2015 by gsrel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Papa Posted May 13, 2015 Share Posted May 13, 2015 There is a knob in the system to adjust color, I think. Also, this may just be that the original 6-switch VCS systems have darker, sharper graphics than the later systems. I've noticed that the colors on my heavy sixer are different than on my four switch system! This also goes for the 7800. It could just be the original color scheme!?! On this page it shows pictures on how to use a flathead to adjust your color potentiometer.. http://www.2600connection.com/faq/vcs_system/faq_atarivcs.html#hardware8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+save2600 Posted May 13, 2015 Share Posted May 13, 2015 Screw that test pattern nonsense! Recently calibrated the colors on my composite modded 7800 using 2600 Pac-Man (basic red/green/blue) and these 7800 games: Commando - title as gold (foreground) and brown (background) as you can get it Jr. Pac-Man - baby blue in the upper outline on the title Joust - baby blue and darker blue in the body of your ostrich …excellent results through and through on ALL games afterwards. Well, as good as the 7800 can possibly output that is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gsrel Posted May 13, 2015 Author Share Posted May 13, 2015 (edited) There is a knob in the system to adjust color, I think. Also, this may just be that the original 6-switch VCS systems have darker, sharper graphics than the later systems. I've noticed that the colors on my heavy sixer are different than on my four switch system! This also goes for the 7800. It could just be the original color scheme!?! On this page it shows pictures on how to use a flathead to adjust your color potentiometer.. http://www.2600connection.com/faq/vcs_system/faq_atarivcs.html#hardware8 Yes, I did that to adjust the image in the Test Pattern screen. On the sixer one needs to open up the unit to get to the adjustment pot. TITLE PAGE - contains the copyright notice "copyright © 1983 Video Soft", indicating that this program is protected under Title 17 United States Code. This screen also contains the color adjustment pattern for the Atari VCS ™ color generation circuits. The VCS generates audio and video signals using digital electronics. The color phase angles are generated by delaying the color signal until the desired phase angle is selected. An adjustment potentiometer is placed on the VCS console circuit board to adjust the 360 degree delay so that it is the same as 0 degrees. Although we do not recommend that you void any warranty on your game console, the potentiometer (the only one) can be adjusted so that the top half of the colored box is as close to the same color as the bottom half. The color generation circuits can then correctly produce colors from 0 to 360 degrees. https://atariage.com/manual_html_page.html?SoftwareID=934 Edited May 13, 2015 by gsrel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SeaGtGruff Posted May 13, 2015 Share Posted May 13, 2015 1) Correct me if im wrong but isnt one supposed to adjust the Test Pattern screen's top and bottom section to as close a color as possible? Ive seen images online where the bottom shows darker than the top while others say to match them. 2) There seems to be blue and yellow/green color bleeding on the test screens and games, is this a common problem? 3) Kaboom and Pitfall seem too green? How does one get correct color representation? (I suppose this goes back to question 1) Ah, the color adjustment question! Yes, the manual for Atari's test cartridge does state that you should set the color pot so the top and bottom colors are the same. However, if you do that then you're setting hue 15 to be the same as hue 1 (or 360 degrees apart), which means the 2600 will display only 120 different colors, not 128! I've never messed with the color pot myself, but it's my understanding that a tiny fraction of a turn results in a big change, and thus it's very difficult to set hues 1 and 15 to be exactly the same color. In that case it seems like the instruction to set them to be the same was probably intended to serve as a general guideline to help make sure you end up in the right ballpark, rather than a strict rule. In other words, if you try to make them the same then chances are that the best you'll be able to do is get hue 15 close to hue 1 but not exactly the same. In that case hue 15 will end up being either (a) somewhere between hue 1 and hue 2, or (b) somewhere between hue 14 and hue 1. If you end up with situation (a) then hue 15 will have more of a brownish tinge; but if you end up with situation (b) then hue 15 will have more of a greenish tinge. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+save2600 Posted May 13, 2015 Share Posted May 13, 2015 Or you could just calibrate it by observing actual games and have been done with it by now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SeaGtGruff Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 I always used to display all 16 hues and luminances onscreen at once (in GTIA mode on an Atari XE computer) and then adjusted the brightness, contrast, color, and tint on the TV until hue 1 was yellow, hue 15 was brown, and I could easily distinguish between all 16 luminances. The color pot was unknown to me back then, and even if I'd known about it I probably wouldn't have messed with it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gsrel Posted May 14, 2015 Author Share Posted May 14, 2015 Thanks everyone for the response. In regards to the blue and green/yellow color bleeding in my images, is this normal? what is the cause? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SeaGtGruff Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 In regards to the blue and green/yellow color bleeding in my images, is this normal? what is the cause? Yes, it's normal with NTSC television signals. Look up "artifacts" or "artifacting" for an explanation. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cwilkson Posted May 16, 2015 Share Posted May 16, 2015 You'll get better color results using the CyberTech Color Bars cart. Search the forums - the .BIN for an older version should be available. Curious...how are you getting component outputs? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trebor Posted May 17, 2015 Share Posted May 17, 2015 I have an AV modded light sixer running component video (no svideo on my tv) w/ Harmony Encore cart w/ Sharp LED 3) Kaboom and Pitfall seem too green? How does one get correct color representation? (I suppose this goes back to question 1) SeaGTGruff nicely described the results of adjusting the color pot. While most hues are impacted to some extent, the most noticeable impact of this adjustment is to Hue 15, and he broke it down beautifully. Hue 14 is noticeably affected too, but to somewhat of a lesser extent. For Pitfall!, Hue 1 is the main consideration and that is not impacted by the color pot adjustment. It is directly impacted by the display device it is on and the hue/tint setting of that device. Overall, the same Atari 2600 console will often produce "greener" leaning Hue 1 colors on a modern (LED, LCD, Plasma) display when compared to a CRT (Ditto for the 5200 and 7800). See the example posted here comparing Pitfall! along with some color bars under the 2600. Overall: Hue 15 - Impacted primarily and heavily by the color pot. The color pot adjusts the color phase shift degrees of the system. Hue 1 - Impacted by hue/tint setting-type of display device it is on. The color pot adjustment does not impact it, which means the degrees of color phase shift has no affect on it. A console will experience some color palette changes as well while it 'warms up'. That is mostly evident when the console displays some greens becoming brown(er) over time automatically. Those are the Hue 14 and (especially) Hue 15 values demonstrating the end result of the color phase shift of the console, auto increasing anywhere between 1-3 degrees. See a thorough explanation and breakdown here. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gsrel Posted May 19, 2015 Author Share Posted May 19, 2015 Thanks everyone for the replies.. I should have said Composite NOT Component in my initial post. Apologizes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cwilkson Posted May 19, 2015 Share Posted May 19, 2015 Thanks everyone for the replies.. I should have said Composite NOT Component in my initial post. Apologizes Ah. OK. I was excited for a minute. I thought their was a second 2600 with VGA or component outputs. I'll return to lurking now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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