Recycling Broken VHSes and Betas into mini RF to Composite adapters?

[tripletopper]

I've got the number one use for that broken VCR.  Most of the reasons why the VCRs are broken is because the tape mechanism somewhere is broken.

 

You know what still works well?  The NTSC tuner input and AV output.

 

If someone knows how to run the TV circuit and just chop off the tape player without affecting the TV circuit, you could make nice Mini ntsc tuners (or pal tuners or whatever tuners wherever you are in the world)

 

A lot of modern TVs are just skipping the ntsc coding.  It has no idea what to do with an Atari 2600 plugged into it.

 

Luckily retrotink.com has some good converters to HDMI.  They are all tested to add at most 100 microseconds, when a typical 60 HZ frame is defined as 1666 microseconds, and I know VCR tuners only leave a slight adjustment that could only be felt in light gun games that don't have calibration, IE just the NES, SMS, and 7800 gun games.  Do not use one from a DVD recorder because those add a significant enough amount of lag that it throws off light guns totally and doesn't even register a shot,  and may even add an extra frame of lag or 2.  Probably because it has to digitize the video which adds the lag.

 

The smallest ntsc tuner I have that could convert to composite video is an 8 mm Sony VCR deck.

 

If someone knows how to build such a mini tuner I'll donate a donor VCR and put in some money towards it if it could be significantly miniaturized, mainly by chucking the tape deck.

 

I don't know if they made non-digitized S-Video, Component, SCART, RGB, or VGA VCRS.

 

I would use an MTV box but the Chinese menu is so wonky and I can't tell what's going on half the time, and that's when it's in English.  It's always stuck on AV mode  though nothing is plugged in the AV.

 

I guess I could live with the tuner in the 8 mm VCR deck.  But don't throw out your VCRs if the tuner cards are good.

 

No one makes ntsc tuner cards anymore as far as I could tell except in retro communities.  This is probably the easiest source to get them.

[godslabrat]

For quite a few of those VCRs, the circuitry to convert RF to AV took up a considerable amount of space, and required the power supply of the VCR to function.  You could start hacking out unneeded parts, but by the time you did that, you'd likely have spent a nontrivial amount of money.

 

Converting the signal is a good use for an old VCR and a favorite trick for retro gamers going way back... but you're likely stuck with the physical box.

[CPUWIZ]

Toss it, buy a converter.  And I am moving this, has nothing to do with Atari.

[tripletopper]

Okay I didn't know how integrated the tape drive was with the tuner.

 

But the Sega Game Gear Tuner interfaces via cartridge slot and an external aeriel antenna.

.there's also an antenna hole and an AV hole on The Game Gear Tuner.

 

If you consolize a Game Gear, then one plugs in  the tuner, it should give you a low ping way to VGA, HDMI, or whatever the Consolized Game Game goes out to with systems that natively have only RF Out, which includes 2600, 5200, and 7800.

 

I couldn't find a "capturing and outstreaming" section in Atari Age.  I tried to do that.  But since all Atari consoles until Jaguar were RF only, this is an appropriate place