Atari 800 weird monitor color issue - can it be fixed?

[TapperP]

So I've been enjoying running my Atari 800 on a Sony PVM-2030.

 

Then today I noticed there is something weird going on with colors in S-Video. Some colors are kinda missing, or some shades of colors. Using composite the colors are all there, but S-video is just so much nicer and cleaner.

 

Here are 2 photos showing what I mean:

 

Sony PVM-2030 *COMPOSITE*

 

Sony PVM-2030 *S-VIDEO*

 

At first I was afraid my Atari 800 had a video output problem, but then I tested using my Dell 2001FP monitor, and as you can see below the colors are all there in both composite and S-video (S-Video image is brighter but I think that's normal):

 

Dell 2001FP *COMPOSITE*

 

Dell 2001FP *S-VIDEO*

 

All photos are of the same Atari 800 using the same video cable, only the monitor and input type changed.

 

What is wrong with the S-video of my Sony PVM-2030, and is there a way to fix it?

Edited June 21, 2020 by TapperP

[Rybags]

Getting a not found error on all those pics.  Easy way is to just upload the JPGs into the post then add rather than linking to something else.

 

The URLs in fact have 2 filenames each and stripping either one still gives the error.

[_The Doctor__]

@Rybags? I see all the pictures... in fact I saw all the pictures 20 minutes ago, and still see them now, though the links have changed. What happened?

Edited June 21, 2020 by _The Doctor__

[TapperP]

1 minute ago, Rybags said:

Getting a not found error on all those pics.  Easy way is to just upload the JPGs into the post then add rather than linking to something else.

 

The URLs in fact have 2 filenames each and stripping either one still gives the error.

They're there now, I was just editing the post and deleted the images. 🙂

[_The Doctor__]

odd, I saw them then and now... but it's always a good idea to put stuff directly in the site, half the links here are now dead these days as sites close or drop out of existence...

[TapperP]

Apologies about the pictures. What happened is I deleted the first set and uploaded new smaller sized ones. They should all be there now. Thank you.

[Rybags]

Make sure the computer isn't in attract mode (press a key).

 

Possibly a connection is wrong, like composite instead of luma?

A better test subject would be a colour bar program also.  Makes it much easier to diagnose.

[TapperP]

6 minutes ago, Rybags said:

Make sure the computer isn't in attract mode (press a key).

 

Possibly a connection is wrong, like composite instead of luma?

A better test subject would be a colour bar program also.  Makes it much easier to diagnose.

It is exactly the same image being output in all 4 cases. No attract mode or anything. It's from "My First Alphabet," and old educational program.

 

I will try to find a color bar test, but this image really demonstrates the issue in practice.

 

EDIT: any color bar test you can recommend?

Edited June 21, 2020 by TapperP

[_The Doctor__]

It's pretty clear the Sony has issues, I've never really been a fan of most of their stuff. A had a buddy all excited about his SONY tv , on of the alphabet soup named units that makes it sound all impressive. None of his games machines or computers ever looked good on it and there were issues with the picture in picture and other modal issues. The only thing that looked decent on it was some weird sony proprietary music and video thing. He woke up after falling for the sales pitch a couple of years later, yep, once again.... That monitor class television also sucked and he also bought some Sony mini disc player for digital audio... that didn't last long either...

I'm sure Sony made some good stuff, but a list of what was actually good vs what was crap wasn't forthcoming at the time... I skipped all those issues by simply not rolling the Sony dice.

[TapperP]

I found a copy of SALT and here is another good comparison. The composite image shows all 8 gray levels from black to white, but the s-video does not.

 

What is going on here with the Sony PVM-2030 S-video? It's not the Atari 800 or the video cable, because on the Dell monitor it looks normal on both composite and S-video.

 

Composite:

 

S-Video:

Edited June 21, 2020 by TapperP

[TapperP]

Solved the mystery.

 

So... looks like it simply was a loose connection. It kinda cleared up on its own after pulling and reseating the s-video cable into the PVM.

 

Err... nevermind... 🐵

 

BTW I tried to edit the original post to reflect this but it won't let me now. Thank you to all and sorry for wasting anyone's time. I feel silly now.

Edited June 21, 2020 by TapperP

[_The Doctor__]

so perhaps a cleaning and possible solder touch up on the svideo jack on the pvm.  sony and rca used some brittle solder alloys at times, add age and you might have hairline fractures not making perfect connections.