7800 Video Mod Advice

[yelever]

Just bought a 7800 from ebay that came with 57 games also came with a 2600 all for 20 bucks plus shipping and came across this great site whilst searching for another problem with the 7800 power switch which is getting resloved when parts arrive. Anyway I was wondering which video mod to get as have seen 2. 1 is on ebay which doesn`t have s-video and the other is Longhorn`s mod. I don`t use s-video as I run most of my consoles on my monitor using a game box from amazon. So I was wondering which would give the best quailty from the RCA outputs? I`ve read that some people have had problems with colour on mods so thought this would be the best place to get info.

[mimo]

can you link to the ebay one please

[HammR25]

It's probably this one:

 

eBay Auction -- Item Number: 300456536911

[mimo]

Eek if it is that one then seriously build yourself the one that can be found in these forums

[yelever]

Eek if it is that one then seriously build yourself the one that can be found in these forums

My soldering skills aren`t great plus the only place to buy the components here is radioshack.

[Rex Dart]

Honestly, it doesn't take great soldering skills, and so few parts are required that radio shack MAY have what you need (for once!). Also, since you're able to buy online, you might check out BG Micro for parts.

 

edit: That kit on ebay REALLY looks like somebody just slapped together the same mod that's described in our 7800 forum here & jacked up the price by $25.

Edited August 26, 2010 by Rex Dart

[Longhorn Engineer]

There is my mod but it is mainly for S-video. I like how on the ebay one the transistor isn't even soldered correctly and is just hanging there.

 

LHE video mod

[Underball]

Honestly, it doesn't take great soldering skills, and so few parts are required that radio shack MAY have what you need (for once!). Also, since you're able to buy online, you might check out BG Micro for parts.

 

edit: That kit on ebay REALLY looks like somebody just slapped together the same mod that's described in our 7800 forum here & jacked up the price by $25.

It's exactly the same mod from on here. For $29+ shipping, he should offer to install it for you too. That mod costs about $6 to build from parts at Cellphone Shack, and takes about 15 minutes to assemble, in total.

[yelever]

I think I`ll go for the Longhorn mod as it replaces a chip but heard about waiting times can take upto 2 months to arrive.

[Rex Dart]

Right, and somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but I've heard a bit about the composite output on his s-video mod having a bit of a delay or lag, or some funky issue. Of course, you can always add an s-video to composite convertor to the mod's s-video output.

[Longhorn Engineer]

Right, and somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but I've heard a bit about the composite output on his s-video mod having a bit of a delay or lag, or some funky issue. Of course, you can always add an s-video to composite convertor to the mod's s-video output.

 

The delay is there in all mods. The main problem is the OR-chip the 7800 uses for the Luma lines. Mods that use the older OR chip suffer from far worse bleeding and delay. Of course when using a CRT style TV the effects are minimal.

[Rex Dart]

Hey LH, enjoying the "coldfront"?

[Underball]

The Easier Composite Video Mod from This Thread doesn't have any more delay than using the factory installed RF on your 7800, because there's no filtering logic OR chip in the middle. It's merely an amplifier for the line level video and audio straight off the 7800 mainboard. It doesn't do S-Video, but honestly it looks just as good, since every S-Video mod I've seen seems to have some kind of filtering lag to it.

Edited August 27, 2010 by Underball

[kenfused]

 

The delay is there in all mods. The main problem is the OR-chip the 7800 uses for the Luma lines. Mods that use the older OR chip suffer from far worse bleeding and delay. Of course when using a CRT style TV the effects are minimal.

Does the 8bit domain mod have the same issues? Mine using composite (haven't tried svideo) has colors kind of ghosted to the right. It is worst with greens, blues are a little bad, other colors are not quite as bad. Its not really a smear, its almost like a dimmer copy of the pixels. Are there any other known issues or installation issues that could cause it? It has done it in two different 7800's i have had it in. I was also wondering if maybe the color signal could be too strong. I did do one slight mod to fix the pokey volume on it but the color issue was there before an after.

 

The 5200 8bit domain board which i got second hand looks great on the same monitor.

 

 

--Ken

[Longhorn Engineer]

My mod actually has less delay then the OR chip inside the 7800 does. The simple composite mod does indeed use the old OR chip.