RF Appreciation Thread

[youxia]

2 hours ago, juansolo said:

Going completely off on an aside here, but on a properly calibrated BVM, scanlines are utterly black and it looks amazing. There's no bleed at all like there is on a domestic TV.

A little bit of bleed is actually a good thing. After all, you want your image to be uniform, not slashed by a series of heavy scanlines creating a "window blinds" effect. The obsession with thicc scanlines is entirely a modern hype thing. Back then no consumers had PVMs, a colour composite set would be a luxury, and not all the art was created on monitors (which could vary in quality as well).

 

They do help of course, just as the never-mentioned shadowmask/aperture, but all in moderation.

[juansolo]

I think it's regional also, as in the UK and Europe we've had RGB computers/consoles/TVs since the mid 80's, so we rarely used RF from that point forth. Once SCART became commonplace most TV's supported RGB. We've got France to thank for that really where they mandated it.

[youxia]

RGB, and especially SCART, was (still is )  a blessing here in Europe, but it was more dependent on how deep your, or your parent's pockets were. In my neck of woods people who could afford monitors such as 1084, or had a swanky SCART RGB TV all for themselves, were in minority. Also not all the machines could output to TVs, eg C64/Atari 8 bit were stuck with S-Video (which was still a step up from composite/RF of course).

[Avenger75]

About prefering RF output, sometimes you have no other choice than plugging an AV mod.

When I finaly found the PAL light sixer I was looking for at a very good price, and discover that the RF module was not working as well, giving bad video, and very strong permanent parasite noise, I had no other choice. And the result of the composite AV mod is great on a CRT.

 

I have the Atari 7800 version sold in France with a scart output in RGB (not the best it seems) and on some LED TV the image rolls  a litle.

On a CRT,  I prefer the light sixer composite output than the 7800 scart output, for the VCS games.

[hizzy]

I guess I was/am pretty shocked by the RF quality. I only have used modded atari consoles the last 5-6 years and have horrible memories of RF. Plugged in my Atari with RF last week and I was shocked I didn't go blind!  It is quite serviceable. A stark difference from my memories of RF quality. 

[Rogerpoco]

23 hours ago, Crazy Climber said:

Just picked this bad mama-jamma up yesterday. 13" Emerson Color TV

I just had to retire my Emerson that I have used for about four years now, it was "greenscreening" on me, replaced it with a slightly more modern Sharp, still kinda old.

My 2600 looked perfectly fine on the Emerson, almost good, but is grainy on the newer Sharp.

Back to the thrift store, I suppose.

Man, I LOVED my Emerson, it had the little yellow stick to adjust the contrast and stuff, felt really old school!

 

I would have said I was an "If it's RF, use RF" purist, so to speak, but I recently got a modded Coleco, and am stunned at how great it looks, it does have me thinking to have mods done on more of my older systems.

If it's A/V or better, I tend to use my flatscreen, but until now, I definitely prefer my RF signal, on systems that are RF.

Edited April 2, 2021 by Rogerpoco

[hasanc]

On 3/29/2021 at 7:23 AM, Karl G said:

@Nathan Strum has a pretty good blog article on how to clean up the RF signal. I know a lot of people prefer RF for the authentic look with the "softer" look of the fuzziness, and the color artifacting.

Thanks for the link! I’m restoring an Atari 2600 Jr and after recapping, replacing power/video connectors and reflowing solder joints, I tried the Blue Jean Cables suggested by @Nathan Strum on his blog. The video signal now looks really good and I haven’t yet put the RF shield back in place! The fuzziness also brings back good memories, so I’m going to keep it as it is ?

Edited May 31, 2021 by hasanc