2600 jr. - Block artifacts at edges: Dot Crawl?

[Daddelretro]

I have 3 PAL Junior Consoles from different years.

They all show block artifacts at edges. I tried different cables, power supplies, two tvs (5 and 10 years old) and a smalll external RF receiver.

I modded one to AV Composite.

Nothing brought any improvement.

I'm wondering if this is "dow crawl"? Nothing is crawling, it's avery static patterm.

Thanks for any support to understand and/or get rid of these artifcts.

 

[alex_79]

That's normal, although the LCD makes it a bit more evident than a CRT. It's the PAL equivalent of the color bleed that you get on NTSC consoles.

S-video would make it less noticeable, but it would be still visible on areas with different colors but similar luminance.

If you flip the TV-TYPE switch to B&W in "Pitfall" you'll see that artifact disappear.

 

[Daddelretro]

Is there any kind of mod with which this can be avoided or reduced?

[+-^CrossBow^-]

S-video output pretty much eliminates this issue, assuming you install or have installed a UAV. Although this will also be more or less obvious based on TV or equipment used. An example is that when I plug most composite signals directly to the composite input on my game room LCD, then I don't see the blocks as much as I see severe bleeding or ghosting on the edges. Through my Extron, I see the blocks. But on S-video I do not.

 

The RGB upgrade for the 2600 systems will prevent this as well, but that is a more costly solution but very impressive output.