130XE Video Upgrade

[ShosMeister]

Well, after reading a lot about the horrible video coming out of my 130XE, I decided to take on the video upgrade as mentioned here (XEGS Video Upgrade). If you look through the thread, you'll notice instructions for upgrading the XEGS as well as the 130XE.

 

After finishing the upgrade with a couple of minor chages - created other parallel circuits due to missing resistors - I managed to get it done and after turning it on, I had a wonderfully crisp and clear gray screen :(

 

No worries. I remembered reading that most people had to adjust the video potentiometer in the machine to get it looking good again. I needed to turn mine fully CW to get any color back into the display. With that, and adjusting the video preferences (saturation, hue, etc.) of my capture card software (Virtual VCR), I managed to get it looking kinda okay. I have these very annoying vertical lines and can't seem to get rid of them.

 

Has anyone else attempted this and did you have better results? I've tried attaching a small file with the screens but it didn't work. I'll try again later.

[tjlazer]

I don't know why people mess with the 130XE's video, it has great video IMHO.

[Gunstar]

I don't know why people mess with the 130XE's video, it has great video IMHO.

I said the exact same thing for years until I decided to go ahead and do the supervideo XE upgrade finally once when I had the XE open for other mods anyway. It's true that it's video is quite sharp, possibly the sharpest of all Atari 8-bits, but they screwed up more on the color side of things, and so the color is much more "washed out" or faded looking than it should be. With the Supervideo XE mod the color is now also vibrant, yet still sharp. it shows up best on demos and artwork using the special 256 color interlaced graphics, but everything has much more brilliant and sharp color. I never had a problem with my XE's Chroma/lumina s-video before the upgrade, but I wouldn't want to go back now! Now on the other hand. XL's have even worse video, so it's a no-brainer why people upgrade their video output. The 800 is probably the only machine that has perfect chroma/lumina as is.

[ShosMeister]

I can tell you that the video before I started was very washed out and now it is very crisp so I wouldn't know why anyone would not do the upgrade.

 

I'm going to double check my component installation later today, but, does anyone have any ideas on why I have the problem noted above? I've very comfortable with soldering and such after 10+ years doing electronics repair in the USAF so I'm pretty sure about that, but, I'll double check that as well.

 

Now if I can just get the upload of the images to work so you could see what I'm talking about

[+Larry]

I can tell you that the video before I started was very washed out and now it is very crisp so I wouldn't know why anyone would not do the upgrade.

 

I'm going to double check my component installation later today, but, does anyone have any ideas on why I have the problem noted above? I've very comfortable with soldering and such after 10+ years doing electronics repair in the USAF so I'm pretty sure about that, but, I'll double check that as well.

 

Now if I can just get the upload of the images to work so you could see what I'm talking about

 

Perhaps the 130XE video is a case of beauty lying in the eye of the beholder? I've had more than a dozen XE's, and none have been what I would call "washed out." Now the vast majority of 800XL's -- that is "washed out." And blurry, too.

 

After doing the SuperVideo 2.1 upgrade on an XL and seeing the dramatic results, I decided to upgrade my already-good 130XE. Boy was I disappointed! All that I could see was I had succeeded in overdriving the video output. And those vertical "stripes" became so much more prominent.

 

The Fix: I ended up making a little box with two small pots let me selectively attenuate the video before going to my monitor. I still use that today, so that when I switch computers, I can re-adjust the video as I like it.

 

-Larry

[puppetmark]

Well, after reading a lot about the horrible video coming out of my 130XE, I decided to take on the video upgrade as mentioned here (XEGS Video Upgrade). If you look through the thread, you'll notice instructions for upgrading the XEGS as well as the 130XE.

 

After finishing the upgrade with a couple of minor chages - created other parallel circuits due to missing resistors - I managed to get it done and after turning it on, I had a wonderfully crisp and clear gray screen :(

 

No worries. I remembered reading that most people had to adjust the video potentiometer in the machine to get it looking good again. I needed to turn mine fully CW to get any color back into the display. With that, and adjusting the video preferences (saturation, hue, etc.) of my capture card software (Virtual VCR), I managed to get it looking kinda okay. I have these very annoying vertical lines and can't seem to get rid of them.

 

Has anyone else attempted this and did you have better results? I've tried attaching a small file with the screens but it didn't work. I'll try again later.

I have upgraded several 130XEs without issue. Sounds like the problem is on the color side. Do you have a TV or monitor you can try the 130XE on? It could be the video capture card doesn't like something. Double check the polarity of the 10MFD tantulum Capacitor and make sure the positive side is connected to the transistor, and the negative side to ground. Alos, check the resistance of R202, and 205. MAke sure you are gettting 75 ohms or something close to that. What resistor values did you put together for them? I would make sure you don't have a bad resistor in your circuits.

Edited March 3, 2007 by puppetmark

[ShosMeister]

Here's a screen shot - I hope.

[ShosMeister]

I double checked the two caps just to make sure I had the polarity correct - even looked them up on the web - and they are both correct.

 

The two parallel circuits I created due to lack of resistors, I corrected by getting the 330 and 120 ohm resistors (had to buy a 100 pack to get them).

 

Cleaned up a couple of other solder connections and all looks good. Could not get another DIN-5 (I was using an old one from an old cable) so we'll have to wait on that.

 

Does anyone know the resistance of the color potentiometer? I'm wondering if it could be off as it looks pretty corroded. Maybe I could replace it.

[ShosMeister]

After thinking about the lack of composite and given the fact that I was using the composite output prior to any of this, I figured either a component had failed (which didn't make sense) or I had done something wrong.

 

I had reversed the blue and yellow wires on the DIN-5. Now, although I still have the vertical lines on the S-Video (which may be the capture card), the composite looks awesome.

[Mathy]

Howdy ShosMeister

 

Could you please insert a hard return before and after including a picture?

 

That way, the picture starts on a new line and so does the text following it. And it's easier to see, what piece of text belongs to which picture.

 

Greetings

 

Mathy

[puppetmark]

I double checked the two caps just to make sure I had the polarity correct - even looked them up on the web - and they are both correct.

 

The two parallel circuits I created due to lack of resistors, I corrected by getting the 330 and 120 ohm resistors (had to buy a 100 pack to get them).

 

Cleaned up a couple of other solder connections and all looks good. Could not get another DIN-5 (I was using an old one from an old cable) so we'll have to wait on that.

 

Does anyone know the resistance of the color potentiometer? I'm wondering if it could be off as it looks pretty corroded. Maybe I could replace it.

Glad you are making progress. The color pot is 500 ohms. THe Vertical lines on s-video could be the capture card picking up the composite sync clock. it bleeds into the color circuit but most monitors and TVs ignore it.

[ShosMeister]

Thanks again for all the help. Just to update: Went through all of the components again and all is fine now. Have not replaced the color potentiometer yet. Decided to use the composite out as it's much cleaner. A small amount of artifacting but huge improvement. It will work for now until I can afford a capture card - one capable of handling the 60fps of the Atari. Suggestions for a good inexpensive one?