130XE connected to Y Pb Pr TV inputs?

[6BQ5]

My Samsung TV has Y/Pr/Pb component video inputs. Can I connect my newly acquired 130XE to these? Im a little confused if I can or cannot and what cable I would need.

 

The composite video output I am using now shows vertical banding and the quality is generally a little smeary.

[_The Doctor__]

depends on the TV, sometimes the yellow/green input acts as composite input. Dual function, I use a y switch box to mine and use it both ways.

[Rybags]

You might be able to connect composite or luma to the Y input but you'd get a monochrome display and the interference problem would probably not get a lot better.

[6BQ5]

Hmm ... ok, this sounds like a no-go then?

[Rybags]

The best stock video from the Atari is S-Video but it's disappearing from most devices in favour of HDMI and Component YPrPb which itself is also on the way out.

 

Composite video A/V seems to have survived despite being the second worst option in terms of quality. But any stock Atari except the 400 can supply it and it's not too far away from S-Video in quality so maybe just settle for that.

[pixelmischief]

Composite video A/V seems to have survived...and it's not too far away from S-Video in quality so maybe just settle for that.

 

Rybags! You know as much about the Atari 8-bits as anyone. How could you say that! S-Video provides a SUBSTANTIALLY clearer picture. There's quite a bit less interference, better color saturation, and less bleeding at the edges.

[darwinmac]

I have seen S-Video and it looks a lot better. However, it is still easy to find monitors (particularly LCD) that support composite. Since I own an XEGS, I dont really have any other choice unless I looked into a video upgrade. Since I dont have the space for a CRT (or the willingness to have a monitor that was likely to need repair soon), I put up with composite video. For games, I can see a difference. The real difference in S-Video, for me, is reading 80-column text. I cannot even do that with composite video.

 

At this point, composite video is my choice.

 

Bob C

Edited December 22, 2018 by darwinmac

[Rybags]

It varies among machines but generally the jump from composite to SVideo is underwhelming compared to the jump from RF to composite.

 

Another possibility of course is a converter box to take SVideo and turn it into something else such as component, RGB @ 16 KHz or RGB @ 31 KHz, or HDMI.

[+Larry]

I think the difference is the southern vs northern hemisphere thing...

 

Actually, I've heard this POV before, and never really found it to be true. I've got a lot of different Ataris -- and on virtually all of them (NTSC), the S-video is dramatically clearer and with better overall pictures. In fact, even with video mods, S-video still is much better. But Australia is PAL, isn't it? That might make a difference?

 

-Larry

[flashjazzcat]

S-video is much better on PAL machines as well.

[Rybags]

Maybe since the PAL colour clocking is at 5:4 instead of 1:1 it's a bit less prone to clock based harmonic interference?

[+Nezgar]

Not so familiar with PAL myself - but does s-video on PAL restore chroma changes for every single scan line? Or still the same every 2 scan lines?

 

Ability for NTSC to have the full color pallete on every scanline can normally be seen as an advantage, except in the case of GTIA 16 shade/16 colour modes to interlace/blend luma/chroma (APAC/Colourview style). Those modes don't look so good on real NTSC displays.

[6BQ5]

I decided to start scouring eBay, Amazon, and my local craigslist for a 20" or smaller TV / monitoring with S-Video inputs. Seems like that's the best way to go.

 

Just curious, do any new screens have S-Video or do all new screens omit this input? My 55" Samsung is about 6 - 7 years old and it doesn't have it.

[+Larry]

How do the upconverters do? S-video to HDMI -- anyone using one of those, and have some screen shots?

 

I'm still using S-video with my All-In-Wonder capture card. It does a great job, but I can't use it with Win7 or greater. Keeping an XP system running is becoming more and more difficult with each passing year. So I'm now actively looking for a good alternative. All of the WinTV models (which support more modern versions of Windows) that I've looked at are using signal buffering, which really kills their use for a hobby computer or older gaming system.

 

-Larry

[6BQ5]

I've seen some threads here where people posted photos of the display being fed with different signals. These were not screen caps but real photos. All the converters seem to add some sort of noise into the image, usually vertical bar patterns. Every photo of S-Video fed display looked super clean.

[manterola]

How do the upconverters do? S-video to HDMI -- anyone using one of those, and have some screen shots?

 

I'm still using S-video with my All-In-Wonder capture card. It does a great job, but I can't use it with Win7 or greater. Keeping an XP system running is becoming more and more difficult with each passing year. So I'm now actively looking for a good alternative. All of the WinTV models (which support more modern versions of Windows) that I've looked at are using signal buffering, which really kills their use for a hobby computer or older gaming system.

 

-Larry

It depends a lot of the quality and features of th converter. I first got a cheap one and it really s*cks. Then an ambery branded converter and it has a lot of good features but depending on the refresh rate and output resolution you can see interlaced images...but it was good enough with lot of controls. Finally I was lucky enough to find a 2001fp Dell monitor with svideo input and I settled with that.

[Osgeld]

S-video is much better on PAL machines as well.

 

I have noticed this before, my old 65XE NTSC the difference was marginal, my current 65XE PAL is night and day difference using the same TV... I sold my NTSC model back in 2015 so I cant put them side by side ...

[JR>]

How do the upconverters do? S-video to HDMI -- anyone using one of those, and have some screen shots?

 

I'm still using S-video with my All-In-Wonder capture card. It does a great job, but I can't use it with Win7 or greater. Keeping an XP system running is becoming more and more difficult with each passing year. So I'm now actively looking for a good alternative. All of the WinTV models (which support more modern versions of Windows) that I've looked at are using signal buffering, which really kills their use for a hobby computer or older gaming system.

 

-Larry

Have you tried putting an old VCR between the Atari and the newer capture cards?....lol

[Kyle22]

My 800 has beautiful S-Video. Currently using a Gateway 24" LCD monitor. It sucks because there is no audio, but I have both the Atari and the Windows XP machine connected to a Boston Acoustics Surround / Sub system with 4 speakers. 2 on Atari, 2 on Windows.

 

When I connected a Fire Stick to the HDMI input, it shows a nice picture, but NO sound. I am using BT headphones for now, but the battery life is very poor. 1 hour if I am lucky.

 

I need to get a BT speaker with a power input so the batteries never die. (for the FS only).

 

Basically, I just press the input select buttons to switch between Atari and Fire Stick. Nice compact set up, but sucks because of no audio on the monitor.

 

TLW in 80 columns is very readable on it.

 

Edit: SDX CON 64 looks really nice as well.

Edited December 27, 2018 by Kyle22

[atariry]

I have an old Samsung UE46B7020. There are two jack sockets on the back for composite/audioL/AudioR and another for Y/Pr/Pb.

I have connected my 800 via composite video and the picture quality is very poor. Where certain colour combinations appear there is a horrible grid pattern.

I have been unable to get luma/chroma to work. Using luma alone, there is some colour bleed(?).

[atariry]

I have just bought a mint Atari 800XL (from Ebay - where else?). The thing that interested me (apart from being described as mint) was that it was a NTSC version. Note: I am in the UK. I connected it up to the above Samsung TV using the composite video lead. Although the Samsung TV is an older model it displayed the NTSC picture correctly. Although the connection was only composite video, the picture quality was much much better than the picture quality I get from my 130XE PAL system. I was using a Missile Command cart and the difference between NTSC and PAL is like night and day. Now if only I could get S-Video to work on this TV, the NTSC picture would be even better!

 

The other thing which I was expecting, was that the game played much faster on the NTSC 800XL than it did on my PAL 130XE.

[hueyjones70]

I bought a converter that has composite and s-video inputs and converts to a VGA output. That gives me a pretty good picture on my element flat screen TV. I haven't tried it on a computer monitor yet.