jswilko Posted July 6, 2003 Share Posted July 6, 2003 I have just got my old Atari 2600 out of the loft, set it all up, had to repair the on off switch but I can't get it to tune in to the tv correctly. the picture is there but its not fully focased and not fully in colour. Tried it on 2 tv's any ideas?? JOHN Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe C. Posted July 6, 2003 Share Posted July 6, 2003 Make sure both are set to channel 3, or both to 4. That might be the problem Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jswilko Posted July 6, 2003 Author Share Posted July 6, 2003 Sorry, what do u mean, i have auto searched the tuning and it does not lock on to the signal, I have to manual tune to get a bit of a signal. What do u mean about ch 3 or 4? John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe C. Posted July 6, 2003 Share Posted July 6, 2003 On your Atari there is a switch that says channel 3 or 4. Put it on ch. 3 and put your Atari switch to ch. 3. Other than that I'm not sure what else to tell you. I'm not quite sure what your problem is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockman_x_2002 Posted July 6, 2003 Share Posted July 6, 2003 It could possibly be a bad switch box. Might want to test it with another system of some kind and make sure it is in working order. Also, make sure that you are using one of the manual setting switch boxes: the old kind with the "TV / Game" selector. Auto switch boxes sometimes don't want to work that well with older game consoles. Anyways, if you are getting a signal, but it isn't that good, there's a nice place to start. Might not hurt to try another video cable too. In any case, good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hanglyman Posted July 7, 2003 Share Posted July 7, 2003 like rockman says may be switchbox, those things suck especially old dirty ones try sliding the tv/game switch back and forth and try to find a good spot if you really want a good picture and can solder try the composite hack, it's pretty easy the difference especially on some games can be stunning or if your not up for that you might try a "Female RCA to RF adapter" you can get em at radio shack, or at the AtariAge store($3), they work much better than those darn switchboxes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Mitchell Posted July 7, 2003 Share Posted July 7, 2003 How are you connecting your Atari to the TV? You cannot plug it directly into a modern TV. Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted July 7, 2003 Share Posted July 7, 2003 How are you connecting your Atari to the TV? You cannot plug it directly into a modern TV. BTW: Did they change the TV connectors in the US? Here in Germany we are having those coax-cables as long as I can remember. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMila75 Posted July 7, 2003 Share Posted July 7, 2003 We still have the coax connection but I know of some folks who have tried to plug the Atari cable into a composite AV input on the more modern TVs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jswilko Posted July 7, 2003 Author Share Posted July 7, 2003 A bit more info:- I'm in the UK - PAL TV On my atari there is a hole on the underside that is labelled A and B, but there is no switch on the pcb. Coming out of the atari is a lead with a RF plug on it can I not just couple this to the back of the TV? What is the composite hack?? What is the switchbox, am I missing a part? Sorry for all the questions, just want to get it working!! JOHN Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ApolloBoy Posted July 7, 2003 Share Posted July 7, 2003 A bit more info:- I'm in the UK - PAL TV On my atari there is a hole on the underside that is labelled A and B, but there is no switch on the pcb. Coming out of the atari is a lead with a RF plug on it can I not just couple this to the back of the TV? What is the composite hack?? What is the switchbox, am I missing a part? Sorry for all the questions, just want to get it working!! JOHN I'm gonna help you out here by answering your questions... Q1. You can't plug the RF cable directly into the TV. If you did, you wouldn't get a picture. Q2. The composite hack allows you to hook up the Atari to the A/V inputs on your TV so you can get a better picture and sound quality. It requires you to solder some stuff on the PCB, so you should only try it if you know how to work a soldering iron. Q3. The switchbox is a small metal box that lets you switch between RF signals. Move the switch on the box to "Game" or "Computer" if you're gonna play the Atari. Move it to "TV" if you wanna watch TV. However, most switchboxes won't hook up directly to modern TVs so you'll need converters. However, because the switchbox is made out of metal, it picks up interference from nearby RF signals. I would suggest not using a switchbox, and instead, I would suggest you use a female RCA-to-male coax cable adapter because they offer a crystal-clear picture and sound. Hope that explained it for you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Mitch Posted July 7, 2003 Share Posted July 7, 2003 A bit more info:- I'm in the UK - PAL TV On my atari there is a hole on the underside that is labelled A and B, but there is no switch on the pcb. Coming out of the atari is a lead with a RF plug on it can I not just couple this to the back of the TV? What is the composite hack?? What is the switchbox, am I missing a part? Sorry for all the questions, just want to get it working!! JOHN I'm gonna help you out here by answering your questions... Q1. You can't plug the RF cable directly into the TV. If you did, you wouldn't get a picture. Q2. The composite hack allows you to hook up the Atari to the A/V inputs on your TV so you can get a better picture and sound quality. It requires you to solder some stuff on the PCB, so you should only try it if you know how to work a soldering iron. Q3. The switchbox is a small metal box that lets you switch between RF signals. Move the switch on the box to "Game" or "Computer" if you're gonna play the Atari. Move it to "TV" if you wanna watch TV. However, most switchboxes won't hook up directly to modern TVs so you'll need converters. However, because the switchbox is made out of metal, it picks up interference from nearby RF signals. I would suggest not using a switchbox, and instead, I would suggest you use a female RCA-to-male coax cable adapter because they offer a crystal-clear picture and sound. Hope that explained it for you! I think you missed the part where he said he was in the UK. They don't use a switchbox, it plugs directly into the RF slot on the TV. Mitch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JB Posted July 8, 2003 Share Posted July 8, 2003 Just a thought... Try turning the Atari on THEN flipping the TV to the appropriate channel. Some auto-tuning sets won't "center" themselves in the channel if there's no signal, so if you tune the TV then turn on the Atari you'll get a crappy mis-tuned signal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spirantho Posted July 9, 2003 Share Posted July 9, 2003 Hi, We do use switchboxes over here - not sure if the Atari came with one, but I know Intellivisions and many others do. Thing is we don`t need them - the connector is the same usually as the TV connector so we can just bypass them. @ JSWilko: You have two solutions. One is to hack apart your Atari and twiddle with knobs - there are some potentiometers in there (variable resistors in layman speak) which can be twiddled. The other is to make me an offer for my composite modded Atari 2600 6-switcher which I'm going to be eBaying soon. No PSU but then you already have one - just the basic Atari VCS but instead of the RF lead coming out there's two phono sockets - video and audio. Let me know if you're interested (PM me or use my email address: IanG@remove.amiganet.org (remove the word "remove"!)) or if I can help any. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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