RF Revisited

videogame ramblings

Entry posted by Nathan Strum in Atari 5200 7 hours ago

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Sometime back, I blogged up a blog about RF.

In it, I mentioned that I use a Sony TU-1041U tuner to convert RF to composite video. You can also use an old VCR to do the same thing, or buy a questionable modern RF demodulator online.

Note: it has to be a demodulator. Not the more common modulator, like Radio Shack used to sell. (Ah, Radio Shack... how we miss you.)

Here's mine, next to my 7800 for scale:

Besides being much more compact than a VCR, it's just much, much cooler! Also, the picture quality is excellent. (Although garbage in, garbage out, so you still need good RF going into it.)

It still kind-of needs its own space though, since the 7800 doesn't really fit on top of it:

But you can actually just stash it away somewhere, unseen. You never need to adjust anything with it, so it doesn't even have to be readily accessible. Although because it's cool looking, I usually have it sitting out where I can see it.

I was looking up prices for these on eBay again recently, and found Sony made another tuner. A consumer model. Waaaaayyyy back in the early 80's.

And since the price was right...

Oh, yeah! The Sony VTX-1100R, baby! Now that is a proper piece of 80's electronics. I didn't take a picture with the front door open, but rest assured, there are more buttons and a couple of dials inside.

This was some very early home AV-system-centric gear. It has two RF inputs (for cable/TV/games), three sets of composite + stereo inputs, three sets of composite + stereo outputs, plus MPX jacks for future (probably never realized) surround sound gear.

Oh, and one of the outputs includes component. Yeah. Component. I haven't looked up what kind of Frankensteinian cable would be needed for it though. Will have to do some digging.

Man... I'd hate to imagine what this cost back in the day.

I picked it up for $35. The listing showed it as a VTX-1000R, but it's actually a VTX-1100R. I'm not complaining that the lister got the model wrong (I didn't pick up on it in the pics anyway), but I don't think they were paying a great deal of attention, since the two "issues" they mentioned were both explained in the manual (which is easy enough to find online). That helped me knock the price down a little.

Once I looked up the manual, I realized I was going to need the remote, too. Fortunately, another eBay listing had one:

They just don't design stuff that cool anymore. Yes - that's all stainless steel. Not plastic. It actually cost more than the tuner did, and the seller left some corroding batteries in it (from 2011). :roll: Fortunately, there was no permanent damage, and I was able to clean it up and it worked with fresh batteries just fine.

Now, the tuner itself is HUGE. Huge, and heavy. The way they used to make home electronics!

How huge? Well... it's big enough to sit one of these on top, with room left over!

I should probably look up the weight limit on my table... :ponder:

They look like they were made for each other! And almost certainly, This isn't the first time someone has paired these together. Although it may very well be the first time in the last 40 years.

And yes – I actually have a 5200 now, thanks to a very generous donation from Chris Walton (along with a near-complete library of vintage games for it).

So I've decided to *try* working my way through the 5200's library and blog about it. I don't know if I'll make it or not. The first thing I have to do is get the controllers working (or working better). Of the three included with it, one appears to be near-new, and "seems" to work okay, but I'll have to try out some more games to find out for sure (plus, I've got a Test Cart on the way from AA by way of PRGE - thanks again Chris!)

Oh... right, so after all that - how does RF look?

Well, the VTX tuner doesn't actually work. :roll: It's "stuck" on Aux input, and the channel display isn't working at all (40-year-old technology FTW).

So, back to eBay, and another $15 for an original service manual. Another project, for another day.

Meanwhile, I'm using the TU-1041U, and the RF actually looks great! Very crisp, and the graphics (so far) look great. How the games play... that remains to be seen.