Minimizing jailbar/vertical lines on 2600?

[Osgeld]

anything not dedicated is going to suck (ie usb or etc) but they should be fine for NTSC video, just dont pay a pile of money for one

[rednakes1]

Yeah I realized that, but don't think I need a fancy one, just something 'good enough' for this old system.

[Keatah]

The problem is either: (a) there were some Ataris that were 'faulty' to begin with, or (b) there are components that degraded over the past 30+ years. Or all of the above

 

Likely built with components that were/are now, close to the edge in tolerance. It's not really a failure, moreso a degradation. And back in the day RF was in use, and everything was new, and the TV's themselves may not have been as sensitive to noise - it just got downed out by other noise that was then filtered by the TV.

 

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It's kinda weird, but back when emulators first came out with scanlines and NTSC artifacting and blargo tv effects I think I went overboard on the settings and had them turned up too high. It was a cool godsend in that I didn't have to look at razor sharp edges and a perfectly sterile pixel-exact image.

 

And shortly after that I said hey wait, I don't remember NTSC CRTs using RF looking this bad!

 

And so then I turned down the effects and sharpened the image, but not full-on filterless razor edged. And then I said to myself "now we're cooking with gas!". I had achieved what is comparable to what I remember. Not necessarily precisely how it was.

[atari-dna]

 

 

Have you tried a ferrite core?

 

Question on the ferrite core (apologies for awakening a zombie thread):

 

What's the best method for installing the core on one's RF cable: Nearest the end of the cable, closest to where you're plugging into the television F-Jack, or closest to where the wire first exits the 2600? I'm guessing nearest the Television input. Can anyone confirm?

[RamrodHare]

I put the ferrite at the end closest to the Atari (Jr.) Works great for me.