Color issues with an 800 on LCD TV through AV composite?

[Gunstar]

I recently got an 800, NTSC. I owned one years ago when I was still using a CRT screen, so this is my first foray into an 800 on an LCD TV.

 

It is an earlier model 800 that had a CTIA chip in it, which I already upgraded to GTIA, but I also swapped back the CTIA and also tried another GTIA just to make sure it wasn't the first GTIA I put in, no difference. I also swapped the Antic just in case, still no difference.

 

I did just do Jac's 800 cartridge port mod so that The!Cart works on it, but I wouldn't think that would have anything at all to do with this color issue. That and upgrading to GTIA are the only things I've done.

 

I have two LCD TV's I've tried the 800 on, and in both cases I only get a B/W picture with vertical lines. But, if I connect my composite AV out to my video2VGA converter, I get full, normal color with the 800 on the same 2 TV's through VGA.

 

Are there any known color issues with 800's and LCD TV's? I'm completely baffled.

 

If there are no known issues, then my only guess is the 800 is sending out a very weak chroma signal that the LCD TV's can't pick up on their own, but my video2VGA converter can detect it.

 

Of course neither of my modern LCD TV's have S-video inputs, so I'm stuck with composite going to them, but I also tried chroma/luma RCA output with an old video cable I have, and a two-to-one video "combiner" cable, but I still get B/W that way too. If I didn't know better I'd think it was a PAL signal on an NTSC TV, except for the vertical height is NTSC, but I know it's an NTSC 800 and both my TV's can handle PAL and NTSC signals anyway. Pics below.

 

The first pic is the B/W picture I get via composite AV on both my LCD TV's. The second pic is composite through my VGA converter on the same TV's. And the third is S-video through my VGA converter on the same TV's. Of course the pictures are from the same TV, but it's identical on the other one too. Don't mind it if the colors look "off" as I've been playing with the pot on the 800 to see if it was an issue and I have to properly re-align it still.

Edited November 24, 2018 by Gunstar

[Rybags]

Some modern TVs and video devices have problems with the old computers.

First up, they expect an interlaced signal but ours isn't.

And other aspects of the signal like scanline duration and frames per second are slightly off spec. Old analog TVs didn't really care, there's all sorts of variance you can get away with, just look at all the 2600 games with different # of scanlines that work fine.

 

Sometimes the colours will be out or missing. Sometimes the pixels will be well out of focus. Sometimes noise that you'll barely see on a CRT gets amplified into an ugly mess on an LCD.

It comes down to having to try it out. Sometimes S-Video might look crappy but composite might look OK.

[_The Doctor__]

wow terrible decode on the LCD's who made them, I want to avoid them. Shortcuts for sure.

[Gunstar]

Sony and Toshiba. Both less than 5 years old. I bet you never expected at least that first name to an answer...

 

I still have an old 19" CRT, but it takes up the entire table I had in mind for the 800. I think I might try an old trick with a new twist...the old through the VCR, only with video at both ends instead of RF...

 

I've got plenty of 80's equipment that the composite video works fine through these LCD's, this 800 is the first not too, which is what had me stumped after going over the 800 and finding no faults (and it working through the converter).

 

I think it's just since it's a real early 800 that had CTIA etc. my 1200XL works fine through these LCD TV's. But I use the VGA converter for it and it's upgraded video. So straight to AV for my 800, at least until I do a video upgrade to it to make it worth buying another converter. Current output isn't all that great even with the converter, my 1200XL with SV 2.1 is crystal clear through it.

 

I'm pulling your leg, of course, both are $50 Walmart units, one is Vizio the other Sceptre. Just cheap 20-21" units. Both are made in China, the quality we've come to expect from China, of course.

Edited November 24, 2018 by Gunstar