Colecovision hardware questions

[Swainy]

Guys, I recently bought two Colecovision's. One is a Canadian model that has been modded with the A/V mod. This works fine on my newer flatscreen TV's but will not display a colour picture on my Sony Trinitron CRT. I'm guessing this is because it's NTSC. It's a bit strange as my other consoles allow my to run games at 60hz RGB on the same TV but there you go.

 

The second model is a PAL model that has not been modified, however this only displays a black & white picture no matter what TV I try it on. Any suggestions?

Edited June 22, 2016 by Swainy

[cdn2a]

Most newer flat screens will switch between Pal and NTSC automatically. Older TV's wont.

The Canadian coleco is the same as the USA one and is composite only. NO RGB.

 

The VDP's are different between PAL and NTSC models.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Instruments_TMS9918

[mightywiz]

if you look in the cartridge slot and off the right side is a capacitor that the cartridge could hit if it's in the wrong position. (brown disc w/legs out the bottom into the circuit board).

 

if the cartridge hit it and broke, or snapped a leg off it will cause no color.

 

something to check.

[Swainy]

Cool cheers guys. I thought that was the case with the Canadian model, what threw me was that my Sony Trinitron can obviously display an NTSC signal but I'm guessing only when it's receiving an RGB signal.

 

A friend of mine is going to check the PAL model over.

[phoenixdownita]

...t my Sony Trinitron can obviously display an NTSC signal but I'm guessing only when it's receiving an RGB signal.

 

Just to be clear there's no PAL/NTSC when using RGB, only 50/60Hz.

RGB is a color standard in which the 3 components travel separately in absence of any further modulation, while PAL/NSTC are color standards in which the colors are modulated together and either sent as luma/chroma separated (for SVideo) or together with the chroma component further modulated on the high frequencies of the luma (for composite signal) for compatibility with the old B&W signal.

 

So, many TVs can display RGB at 50/60Hz (albeit in NTSC land RGB never was popular hence many manufacturers completely ignored the standard), many PAL TVs can also display PAL60 (that is a PAL signal running at 60Hz, and no, it is not NTSC just because it runs at 60Hz) and quite a few can also display proper NTSC (at 60Hz), very few NTSC TVs instead can handle PAL, let alone PAL60, and afaik I have not seen a single TV set NTSC or PAL able to run "NTSC50" (which you get when you slow down an NTSC console at 50Hz).