Suggestions for good stand-alone RF modulator/PAL converter for 2600?

[CaptainBreakout]

So after moving to a new place I'm hoping to unpack my 2600 collection, especially since my son is getting to be old enough to enjoy them soon.

 

Although I've modded Ataris in the past, I most recently had the best luck with a stock 6-switcher that went through an old Toshiba VCR and into a flatscreen. I thought I could do better than that tho, except I'm trying to avoid modding my current Atari, so I'm looking for something external.

 

I have some PAL games too, and I'm hoping there's something like a signal converter/cleaner that exists that might be an easy thing to get on ebay.

 

Anybody use something like a stand-alone RF modulator or PAL converter for their 2600? What do you use?

 

[jhd]

Does your 2600 not have an RF modulator built-in?

 

I have seen stand-alone modulators to connect modern gaming hardware to vintage TVs; they are not terribly common.

 

I am not familiar with PAL hardware/software -- it is very unusual to see anything at retail in North America.

[CaptainBreakout]

Ee you're right. I guess what I need is like a reverse RF modulator. Something that sends channel 3 into av outs. Ive used a VCR in the past but thought there might be something more compacted and in-line.

 

I guess I could always get a coax to RCA adaptor and put it on the TV Jack of a flat screen.

 

But PAL... Looking on eBay there are a lot of cheap PAL converters, but they need a composite input, at least the ones I've seen. So I'm still looking for something that can take an Atari's signal and change it to the good old yellow, red and white RCA jacks.

[alex_79]

You need a NTSC demodulator/ external TV tuner (They were used to watch TV on a video projector or plasma TV without built in tuner). The VCR is the cheapest solution, though.

If you're using a PAL game in a NTSC VCS, a PAL-to-NTSC converter won't work.
The output of a NTSC 2600 will always have NTSC color encoding and channel freequency, even when using a PAL cartridge, but the framerate will be 50 Hz (because in the 2600 that aspect of the video signal is controlled by the software in the cart). I don't think that a video converter exists which can handle such a non-standard signal.
Even in that case, the colors would be wrong, because PAL and NTSC TIA chips have a different palette. There's no way to overcome that unless you mod your console with the 2600RGB mod, which completely bypasses the TIA color generation circuitry (you still have the problem of the 50Hz framerate that most NTSC TV cannot accept)