Junior model 2600 connected to flatscreen through RF

[English Invader]

I recently got my first flatscreen television thanks to a very generous hand-me-down from my grandfather and I couldn't have asked for more in terms of input options - 3x HDMI, 2X RGB, VGA, composite, component, S-video and, of course, RF. It's a real swiss army knife and I've been hooking up my retro systems to it with mostly favourable results.

 

This is where the 2600 comes in. It's fine for games with bright coloured backgrounds like Pitfall! and River Raid but virtually unplayable for games with dark backgrounds like Yars' Revenge. For some reason, the brightness isn't bright enough and I haven't managed to find a suitable setting to remedy the problem.

 

I have a perfectly good CRT television that I can use but I want my systems to have a future beyond CRT when CRT becomes less available and the more we know about the limitations of LCD the more chance we have of remedying them.

 

Anyone here have any success running the 2600 on a flatscreen? And if you had any problems along the way how did you overcome them? It would also be great if someone could tell me how to fix the brightness problem with the 2600.

 

Thank you in advance.

[mojoatomic]

Depending on the model, you might find a "game" setting in the inputs - should take care of your luminance dropout issue.

[English Invader]

Depending on the model, you might find a "game" setting in the inputs - should take care of your luminance dropout issue.

 

The Game setting is only available in 16:9 and isn't available at all in analogue mode.

[fluxit]

Keeping the manufacturer and model of the TV a secret doesn't help.

 

Perhaps you have a 'dynamic lighting' setting or something similar? If so, turn it off.

[English Invader]

It's a Panasonic TX-L32X20B.

 

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll give it a go.

[fluxit]

Per page 32(numbered 31) of the manual, it looks as though "Power Save(*not* Standby Power Save,)" found in the "Settings, Other Settings" menu might be the relevant option to disable. It is implied that this function is available in analogue mode. On the other hand, page 34(33) makes it seem as though the default setting is "Off" so I don't know if it will help.

 

Keep in mind that as a TV with a fluorescent back-light, this function may save you as much as 40 watts, so if the picture is acceptable to you when not playing Atari, you might want to only disable it when gaming if it seems to be useful.

 

Alternately; in case the display problem is related to something obscure, you might want to try the "Shipping Condition" option to return the TV to its default settings. This is available in the "Setup, System Menu."