Current best S-video /picture improvement mod for 800XL?

[Frankie]

Did anyone looked on eBay? I tried, but could not find it

There are 2 left on eBay right now.

[Louis]

There are 2 left on eBay right now.

 

Stil can't find it :-(

Maybe it's blocked for my country?

[Frankie]

 

 

Stil can't find it :-(

Maybe it's blocked for my country?

 

End time: Jan 29, 2013, 6:11:27 PM EST

 

 

View item:

Hopefully this gets you there

 

http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-53200-19255-0/1?ff3=4&pub=5574883395&toolid=10001&campid=5336500554&customid=&mpre=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fitm%2F181065800333

[Louis]

End time: Jan 29, 2013, 6:11:27 PM EST

 

 

View item:

Hopefully this gets you there

 

http://rover.ebay.co...tm/181065800333

 

Found it!

But unfortunately does not ship to my country (The Netherlands).

And contacting the seller seems not available:

"We're sorry we couldn't find an answer for you. Unfortunately, this seller is not able to respond to your question. We suggest reviewing the item again to see if your answer is in the seller's listing"

 

It's a sad day

 

We're sorry we couldn't find an answer for you. Unfortunately, this seller is not able to respond to your question. We suggest reviewing the item again to see if your answer is in the seller's listing

[+orpheuswaking]

I can shoot him an email if you like... See if he can set you as an approved bidder, however he may just outright block all international...

[Louis]

I can shoot him an email if you like... See if he can set you as an approved bidder, however he may just outright block all international...

 

Yes! I would like that! :-)

[mimo]

Strange that he lists international shipping , but with no prices, and has blocked messages from international bidders.

To be honest I can't be bothered to jump through hoops for this so one customer less I'm afraid.

[+orpheuswaking]

@louis - I had asked him a couple of questions and he mentioned he would PM you here at AA once he has his next batch ready to go.

Edited January 21, 2013 by orpheuswaking

[low_budget]

Sorry everyone that has sent me PMs about the Atari s-video mods I haven't answered.

 

Back in October I had a run of v2.1 boards made, assembled a few and sold them, then demand seemed to stop. I've been working on my NES PCB repro project lately and had this on the back burner.

 

I've had lots of requests for the v2.1 Atari s-video mod lately, so I ordered enough parts to assemble the boards I have and will sell them as I assemble them until I run out. I have about 20 boards left, so once they're gone I will probably not make more.

 

Assembled PCBs are $32 + shipping

Kits are $22 + shipping.

 

sorry mimo, looks like you were trying to contact me for a while. I'll PM you when I have some s-video mod boards ready. I PROMISE!

I used to do a lot of international shipping before the post office made it a pain in the ass recently. The customs forms are nuts.

[chevymad]

I posted earlier in this thread after doing one kind of video modification. Later I went further and the video got better but I still wasn't happy. Today I installed low_budget's v2.1 board. After some initial problems(broken resistor on the board) I got it up and working correctly. Best picture yet!! I'm very happy. I have my 800xl hooked up via svideo to my Vizio flat screen and it looks great. Colors are bright and clear, text is easily readable. This is how I remember my Atari looking.

[electronizer]

I recently acquired a late model Taiwan 800XL. It looked like it had fallen off a table while in use, since the 7-pin DIN power connector and the RCA plug for the RF cable were pretty badly bent. In addition, there was a nice chunk broken off of the top case at the corner near the power switch. However, as there were no loose parts rattling around inside, I bent back the power plug as best I could and boldly turned it on. It works like a charm! Other than the damage to the case, it's one of the cleanest Atari 800XLs I've seen.

 

I decided this would be a good machine to mod, vs. my original Hong Kong 800XL that I grew up with (many happy memories ). My original 800XL was hooked up to a color monitor via the composite cable, and as I recall, the picture was pretty good.

 

Here is the stock composite signal of the Taiwan 800XL on an LCD TV. Nice and blurry:

 

 

Here is the stock s-video (no chroma) signal on the same TV. Nice and vertical band-y:

I read through the Super Video 2.1 mod and decided to start by performing the simple mod suggested by Faicuai in one of the early posts to this topic, restoring the missing chroma signal (no pick-off resistor) and lifting one end of C54:

Here is the upgraded s-video signal:

Finally, I connected the luma only via the composite input on the TV:

The S-video picture is much improved over the original composite version, but there are still some shadows visible to the right of the white dots and lines on the football field. I'm guessing the shadows are coming from the chroma circuit, since they are absent in the luma signal. However, the only additional parts of the Super Video 2.1 mod I see that affect the chroma circuit are the chroma pick-off resistor, and the 1K resistor that goes from C55 to R58 to provide negative feedback to the color amp. Interestingly, S-V 2.1 says that this negative feedback resistor "reduces color shadows somewhat."

Any thoughts/opinions on whether it's worthwhile to perform either or both of these additional mods?

 

Edited February 26, 2016 by electronizer

[+DrVenkman]

For anyone else who sees this thread looking for options, there's now also this (I have two on order myself and will probably eventually get another couple):

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/246613-new-video-upgrade-coming-soon/

[Airshack]

Five years later is there a good S-Video or VGA mod for the Atari 800XL?

[dkerfoot]

Here is the updated thread to DrVenkman's post: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/260267-the-uav-rev-d-video-upgrade-thread/

[+DrVenkman]

Here is the updated thread to DrVenkman's post: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/260267-the-uav-rev-d-video-upgrade-thread/

 

And let me add, in my book Bryan is *THE* guy for analog video on the Atari 8-bits. His UAV boards are fantastic. I've got three of them (two older Rev C boards and a newer Rev D) with a fourth on order. They give *EXCELLENT* S-video output.

[ApolloBoy]

Simius's SOPHIA RGB/component board is the way to go these days.

[+DrVenkman]

Simius's SOPHIA RGB/component board is the way to go these days.

 

After reading your own posts about installation, along with everyone else's questions about wiring up cables, etc ... Just, no. UAV boards slide right in place of the 4050 chip on most Atari models, you only have to solder a handful of wires to existing points on the Atari board, and you can use existing monitor jacks for composite or S-video.

 

And besides, if you connect your machine to CRTs as God and Jay Miner intended, you don't need RGB ...

[ApolloBoy]

After reading your own posts about installation, along with everyone else's questions about wiring up cables, etc ... Just, no. UAV boards slide right in place of the 4050 chip on most Atari models, you only have to solder a handful of wires to existing points on the Atari board, and you can use existing monitor jacks for composite or S-video.

Honestly I didn't mind the extra work (I used to do a ton of NESRGB installs years ago so desoldering chips isn't too bad now), and the amazing picture quality was well worth it.

 

And besides, if you connect your machine to CRTs as God and Jay Miner intended, you don't need RGB ...

Except that I am using a CRT.

[seastalker]

Hey Everyone. I tried the earlier easy 3 step Faicuai method and got mixed results and wondering what I am doing wrong.

 

I clipped out C56.

 

"Solder Chroma-signal wire from R67/R68 junction" - Does this mean to put the wire to touch R67 or R68 or BOTH (right in the middle of them)? (Currently between both based on online pics)

 

I got a decent signal, but the picture was in black and white. If I pushed the leg of C54 back down to its former joint, the ready prompt turned back to blue. I tested that "live" which may have been a bad idea... I only get B&W now even IF I put that leg back. I removed C54 completely for now. How do I get color back? I've tried with both NTSC and PAL Antic chips swapping out in case it was a PAL issue.

Edited June 25, 2017 by seastalker

[Faicuai]

Hey Everyone. I tried the earlier easy 3 step Faicuai method and got mixed results and wondering what I am doing wrong.

 

I clipped out C56.

 

"Solder Chroma-signal wire from R67/R68 junction" - Does this mean to put the wire to touch R67 or R68 or BOTH (right in the middle of them)? (Currently between both based on online pics)

 

I got a decent signal, but the picture was in black and white. If I pushed the leg of C54 back down to its former joint, the ready prompt turned back to blue. I tested that "live" which may have been a bad idea... I only get B&W now even IF I put that leg back. I removed C54 completely for now. How do I get color back? I've tried with both NTSC and PAL Antic chips swapping out in case it was a PAL issue.

 

Howdy!

 

Looks like you never got an answer!

 

What Atari model and Mother Board revision are you working on? 800XL, Hong-Kong, Rev.C, for instance?

 

You really don't need to do that much to extract decent s-Video (and/or composite) output from these machines with minimal effort, though... (as long as keeping internals mostly intact is your goal).

 

 

Cheers!

[seastalker]

Actually, yes, a Rev C Hong Kong Fully socketed 800xl exactly. I got rid of my rf adapter and 2-3 selector switch before any problem. I also think I may need to turn my NTSC color timer to possibly fix it. I got a UAV board as well which may supersede things but I am open to any ideas that may fix or where I learn from.

[Faicuai]

Actually, yes, a Rev C Hong Kong Fully socketed 800xl exactly. I got rid of my rf adapter and 2-3 selector switch before any problem. I also think I may need to turn my NTSC color timer to possibly fix it. I got a UAV board as well which may supersede things but I am open to any ideas that may fix or where I learn from.

 

Lifting / de-coupling C54 will disable chroma response in COMPOSITE output... but should not alter Y/C output at all, assuming you had enabled chroma-signal (on monitor port) as originally described. If you experience chroma-loss on Y/C by interrupting C54 signal, you have another (deeper) problem and, yes, it may be TV/Monitor sync/timing related.

 

Now that you have already de-gutted the machine, I suggest you to continue with the UAV path, as it seems the least intrusive and simplest option of those that do modify original HW specs / configuration (e.g. once installed you cannot revert to normal operation without making physical changes, again).

 

I HIGHLY recommend those who intend to operate on LCD setups (which I definitely prefer over CRT, for several reasons, except Sony PVN-series), to get a good, powerful Video-Processor (from DVDO), and future-proofing your setup independently from any screen you choose. Vertical Banding, Color Response, Black-Point / White-Point, input and output aspect-ratio, PAL vs. NTSC, Artifact-vs-non_artifact output, time-base correction, sharpening, etc... are ALL taken care of by it, WITHOUT ANY non-backward-compatible HW modification on Atari.

 

Cheers!

[seastalker]

Yes, I thank you all the same for your easy 3 step method, even if I failed at it. I hope to adjust the NTSC timing, but must find the time to mess with the board more. It has a different issue (maybe power switch) that needs addressing first.

 

I've heard of DVDO but most products look to be HDMI based. Which product of theirs do you suggest for Atari hardware?

[Faicuai]

Yes, I thank you all the same for your easy 3 step method, even if I failed at it. I hope to adjust the NTSC timing, but must find the time to mess with the board more. It has a different issue (maybe power switch) that needs addressing first.

 

I've heard of DVDO but most products look to be HDMI based. Which product of theirs do you suggest for Atari hardware?

• I would recommend the DVDO iSCAN HD or HD+, the latter being capable of running HDCP stream / interface with your screen (DVI to HDMI conversion is absolutely not a problem, and achieved with tiny, in-line adaptors).
• You can chase those on e-Bay, and wait for a good price / auction.
• I personally bought an iScan v2 (only analog output), iScan HD and iScan HD+ for $50/average, as well as iScan VP50pro for handling my legacy video, including my Sony SLV-R1000 sVHS and SL-2100HF 15th Anniversary Betamax.
• I use the iScan HD every-day. The VP-50pro is an overkill for retro-gaming, and much more expensive, though.

Cheers!

[scitari]

Here is a side-by-side comparison of composite and S-Video. S-Video rocks.