captainthin

I've used my nes without a problem on channel 3 before, but not since setting up the Atari. I'll give your suggestion a try this weekend sometime. Thanks Anybody have an idea as to what's causing the problem itself? A work-around will be great, but if there's a permanent fix that would be better.

I've used my nes without a problem on channel 3 before, but not since setting up the Atari. I'll give your suggestion a try this weekend sometime. Thanks Anybody have an idea as to what's causing the problem itself? A work-around will be great, but if there's a permanent fix that would be better.

You're right, of course. It switches between 2 & 3 (miswrote that in my previous post). But it's between channels 3 & 4 that I get the signal briefly.

Hi all, Apologies if I'm posting this in the wrong place (just signed up). I recently acquired an Atari 2600, and have been having a few difficulties that I'm hoping you might be able to help me with. I first set-up the system using a switchbox. Couldn't get the tv to lock-on to the signal at first (switched between channels 3 & 4 on the console without success). When I tuned to those channels on the tv, I'd just get static—except for a brief period when I'd see the picture. In other words, if it the Atari was set to channel 3, and I had the tv tuned to channel 3, I wouldn't see a picture. But if I then pressed channel-up on the tv (ie, went up to channel 4), I'd get a brief flickering of the Atari signal before it fell back into static. Eventually I got the idea to use the auto-tune feature on the tv to see if it could lock on to the signal that way, and success! Had crystal clear picture and colour. Only played it for a few minutes each day over the next few days (as I had a lot going on). But the first day I had with time to sit down and really play, I noticed that after awhile the picture/colour went a bit fuzzy. Thinking the tv had simply "lost" the signal again, I auto-tuned it. No success this time. I can still see the signal when I switch between channels 3 and 4, but I can't make the darn tv lock on. I thought maybe there was an issue with my switchbox, so I just waited patiently until my rf-to-coax converter arrived (I'd already ordered one online). Once it arrived, I replacedt the switchbox with it and tried again. Still see the signal between channels 3 and 4, but I can't get it to lock on when I auto-tune the tv. Any ideas what the problem might be? Could it be that the output from the Atari has "wavered" over the past number of years, so that's it's not a clear 3 or 4 anymore (but somewhere in between). Anything you can think of to correct that signal output? The tv I'm using is not particularly new; it must be getting on 13 years old by now. Tried also setting it up on my 1-year old digital tv upstairs, but can't get any signal at all on that (I think I've heard somewhere along the line that really new tvs have trouble with Ataris). Thoughts?