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Yellows are greenish on Atari 2600 (S-Video modded)


skooter

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I have an Atari 2600 with Longhorn S-Video/Composite mod.

 

The yellows are kind of greenish on it. See picture below:

 

post-40035-0-45957500-1488566225_thumb.jpg

 

This is using Composite output on CRT TV. Things get worse when I use S-Video output on Framemeister and LCD TV:

 

post-40035-0-83747600-1488566730_thumb.jpg

 

And this is from another Atari 2600 I have, with RF:

 

post-40035-0-43284300-1488566434_thumb.jpg

 

It looks better, but also not quite right.

 

I already adjusted the tint trimpot on both of them, but it won't help.

 

Is there anything else I can do to make them better?

 

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There can be a very strong lean towards green for the Atari consoles under a modern display, unfortunately. The adjustment for "more red/less green" on the display may need to be quite significant to obtain a palette closer to a CRT; a comparison example has been posted.

 

The pot inside the 2600 is not a tint/hue control; rather, it adjusts the number of degrees separating the various hues and is highly sensitive. If you own a Harmony cart, the easiest way to set this pot (if misaligned) is to utilize the Color Bar Generation from VideoSoft. The ROM image is attached to this post. Within the first minute or two of powering on a cold (Powered off for at least 45 minutes) console, ensure the bottom border color matches the top border color.

 

Color Bar Generator.bin

 

When the border match is achieved, the degrees of separation is ~25.7, and the Hue 1 range (very closely) matches the Hue 15 range. In turn, the console then is displaying a palette of 120 colors.

 

Some additional console warm-up will occur thereafter*, resulting in a degrees shift that is slightly greater. Ideally, a setting between ~25.7 and ~27.7 degrees. That setting places Hue 15 between the hues of 1 (Gold) and 2 (Orange), as described in the Stella Programmer's Guide, a 'Light Orange', ultimately providing a 128 colors palette for the console.

 

*NOTE: This can be observed by continuing to run the Color Bar Generator image, the bottom border will become a darker/richer brown color than the top portion automatically.

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At no time for a PAL console is there an instance where two entire hue ranges are (near) exact and should match.

 

Although there is a warm-up and shifting of colors that does occur for both regions, the hue order and number of colors is substantially different between an NTSC and PAL Atari 2600 console. There is not an equivocal NTSC Hue 15 for PAL. There is an additional 3 'rows' of grayscale values, for a total of 4 'rows' under PAL, as opposed to just 1 'row' under NTSC.

 

The color test program from Eckhard Stolberg (attached) displays the color palette for either the PAL or NTSC system.

 

Color Test (26-09-2002) (Eckhard Stolberg).bin

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Thanks, Trebor.

 

I've applied your method on my S-Video modded Atari 2600, which is on the LCD TV.

 

Then I left the console off for about an hour and tried the Color Bar Generator again to see if it was right.

 

I don't think I got it right yet because it took around a minute until the borders matched, and then the bottom one started getting brown. Also, the red looks a little too magenta. I got all this on a video I'll upload later.

 

Now I'll wait until the console gets cold and try to adjust it again. It's difficult to get it right because it has to be done in only half a minute.

 

Also, I'll try the same with the unmodded console on the CRT TV tomorrow. I didn't mention it before, but the unmodded one is PAL-M. Perhaps the palette isn't the same?

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