How to hook up Atari to tv?

[Sheepz]

I am now the proud owner of an atari 2600jr. I have a switchbox and all of the hookups but I have no idea how to hook it up. I have a very modern tv and I read that you can buy some thing from radioshack that hooks to the switchbox that hooks to the tv. Need your help guys I'm confused .

[brojamfootball]

I am now the proud owner of an atari 2600jr. I have a switchbox and all of the hookups but I have no idea how to hook it up. I have a very modern tv and I read that you can buy some thing from radioshack that hooks to the switchbox that hooks to the tv. Need your help guys I'm confused .

 

Atari output is what looks like a single RCA plug. The one plug contains video and audio both, not the separated as the audio and video jacks are on your current generation TV.

 

There's a little inline adaptor that turns the RCA-looking plug into standard 75ohm cable tv plug(same as the wire that your cable TV enters your house with). You can score one on Ebay or maybe Radio Shack also(call first) for just a few bucks.

 

Also possible(from the same outlets) is to get a game/TV switch that outputs the same 75ohm connection.

 

If your television doesn't have a standard 75ohm jack on the back, you're kind of out of luck, without using some kind of converter box or doing a modification to the Atari itself.

 

Hope that helps. You can look on any search engine for more info and you will find tons.

[Ian Primus]

I am now the proud owner of an atari 2600jr. I have a switchbox and all of the hookups but I have no idea how to hook it up. I have a very modern tv and I read that you can buy some thing from radioshack that hooks to the switchbox that hooks to the tv. Need your help guys I'm confused .

 

You need a 300 ohm to 75 ohm mathing transformer to use that switchbox. Here's what it looks like connected to the switchbox.

 

You can get the black connector (300 ohm to 75ohm matching transformer) at Radio Shack. An alternative, you can get an RCA to F connector adapter, which replaces the switchbox entirely.

 

There's another matching transformer that connects to the screw terminals marked "Connect to Antenna" on the switchbox. It had the two screwleads on one end, and an F connector recepticale on the end, that you can screw your cable connector into.

 

-Ian

[Zwackery]

If you have extra coax inputs, just buy a coax to female RCA adaptor like you see here:

 

http://www.atariage.com/store/index.php?ma...;products_id=42

[+Nathan Strum]

There's an earlier thread that covers this in-depth. I posted some instructions here.

Edited March 10, 2009 by Nathan Strum

[Ian Primus]

Here's a couple more pictures on how to connect the switchbox. The first one is on the back of the TV in my bedroom. It's an older model with the standard twin lead antenna termninals. The switchbox screws onto the VHF terminals. There is the other sort of 300ohm/75ohm matching transformer attached to the switchbox. A Nintendo RF adapter is screwed into that. Aplogies for the glare on the adapter. it's hard to get behind the TV.

 

 

Here's a more modern TV, a small 12" jobbie that I use for testing. OK, so "modern" is a bit of a stretch, this is still late 80's, but it has the standard 75ohm F connector. This is the same sort of switchbox, just with the 300ohm to 75ohm matching transformer, plugged into the set's input.

 

 

A nicer method is the F connector to RCA adapter, available at Radio Shack. I don't have one that's easy to show you right now. The only problem with this is that you lose your "switching" ability.

 

-Ian

[+Nathan Strum]

Here's the adapter:

 

 

And you can switch sources by buying an A-B switch:

 

 

Works much better than the original Atari switchbox.

[Sheepz]

So I can get a converter so that my RCA plug will plug right into my cable thingy that the cable line is plugged into? Then I can ditch the switchbox?

[Ian Primus]

So I can get a converter so that my RCA plug will plug right into my cable thingy that the cable line is plugged into? Then I can ditch the switchbox?

 

Yes. Radio Shack sells the adapter for a few bucks. The only problem then is that you'll have to manually plug and unplug the Atari/cable TV to switch, or buy an external cable switchbox. Again, Radio Shack should have those. The picture is generally better with this option, since you won't have as much interference. Those old switchboxes leak RF like a sieve.

 

If you use the existing swithbox, you need two different matching transformers to wire it in line with a cable TV signal, and plug it into a modern TV. But then you'll be able to switch. The picture might be fuzzier too.

 

I use the switchboxes in a few places simply because I already have a bunch of them, from accumulating video games for the last fifteen years. That, and if you have a really old TV, they're easier.

 

One thing nobody has mentioned - since you have the Atari 2600jr, you'll need an RCA cable to connect it. Avoid the really cheap ones, be sure you use a halfway decent coaxial RCA cable. The cheap ones lack the shielding necessary for RF video, and the picture will have interference.

 

-Ian

[Zwackery]

Depending on how "very modern" your tv is, you may find that you can just put the adaptor on an unused coax input and then leave the Atari attached to that, switching over to that input with your television's remote. My tv has 2 coax inputs and 3 HDMI inputs, and with HD I'm using the HDMI ports, so the coax is just sitting there unused, except for older video games I want to run in.

[Linkz1]

Unfortunately, my TV does not have extra coax or HDMI inputs, so I had to purchase the RCA to coax adapter for the cable and an R/F swtich. It works pretty well, the only negative is that occasionally there can be static in the picture if the R/F has interference. Overall, it's pretty nice to have this setup, it's relatively cheap (cost about $15 total) and you don't need to fiddle around with cables every time you want to play your Atari.

[bohoki]

Unfortunately, my TV does not have extra coax or HDMI inputs, so I had to purchase the RCA to coax adapter for the cable and an R/F swtich. It works pretty well, the only negative is that occasionally there can be static in the picture if the R/F has interference. Overall, it's pretty nice to have this setup, it's relatively cheap (cost about $15 total) and you don't need to fiddle around with cables every time you want to play your Atari.

 

 

i wonder why they just didnt have an f connector on the atari (and others) if it is just a cable connection broadcasting on channel 3

[Benzman66]

Unfortunately, my TV does not have extra coax or HDMI inputs, so I had to purchase the RCA to coax adapter for the cable and an R/F swtich. It works pretty well, the only negative is that occasionally there can be static in the picture if the R/F has interference. Overall, it's pretty nice to have this setup, it's relatively cheap (cost about $15 total) and you don't need to fiddle around with cables every time you want to play your Atari.

 

 

i wonder why they just didnt have an f connector on the atari (and others) if it is just a cable connection broadcasting on channel 3

 

Because back when Ataris were made, VERY few tv sets had a 75ohm (f type) connector. Most tvs back then had 300 ohm (twin lead) connections.

Edited March 11, 2009 by Benzman66

[Nukey Shay]

Yup...nobody I knew had them. Everything was twin lead. Then VCR's switched from being those huge top-load monstrosities to front-loaders...and twin leads went away.