Flatscreen issues

[zebracorp]

I had my 7800 hooked up to a Trinitron for years and it worked perfectly. Yesterday I moved it to an old 2010 Sanyo flatscreen. I used the same RF cable and adaptor (those 50 cent thingmies, yes, I know not to use the system’s native “rf switcher”) as my Intellivision II, and it worked well.

 

On the flatscreen, the 7800 games have a slightly blurry image. Especially noticeable on text, it’s like you’re at the eye doctor and it’s hard to read. It dances up and down rapidly as well as a more severe tick every 30 seconds or so. Playable, but ugly.

 

But my Harmony 2600 flash cart doesn’t do this. Its image is super stable. It’s impressive. It looks great.

 

Any ideas as to what the deal is? Any fixes out there? Thanks!

[+-^CrossBow^-]

So are you saying this only happens when playing a 7800 game? 

 

But blurry results on a flat panel aren't unusual with most older console through the RF. Some can look really good like a few 2600s, Intelly 2s, and Colecovisions I've had connected to my setup. 

 

All I can advise is that you plug in a 7800 game and have it up and running and then try and use your TVs channel scanner again. Or...look to see if you can fine tune it digital in your menu options? I have that ability with my Sony and I believe my older Samsung had this as well.

 

There is of course...AV modding as another option. 

[zebracorp]

Yes, just the 7800 games. The image dances up and down rapidly making it look a little blurry. The Harmony cart was fine and both are fine on the Trinitron.

[+Stephen Moss]

Some sets have a gaming mode, if your does switching to that may help, as may switching to 4:3 ratio (1.33:1 decimal equivalent).

 

Remember, modern wide screen sets are often upscalling the images and trying to stretch them to widescreen format which may not result in a clear 1 original pixel = 4 pixels and thus teh aliasing will account for some fuzziness. Additionally modern sets are often running at frame rates of 200Hz or more whereas the original consoles were designed for mains derived 50/60Hz which may result in a little instability in the image if syncing produces slight shifts in the image position.

 

Perhaps there is a RF to HDMI converter you could use but HDMI converter usually require composite/RGB inputs so as -^Crossbow^- said if you cannot manually fine tune you may have to AV mod it. I appreciate there may be a desire to keep the unit in original factory condition but the reality is that as older CRT display disappear it will become harder to use units without AV modifiction.

It is not just 2600 era systems that have this problem, even my PS2 does not look as good and a little fuzzy on both my Wide Screen TV or widescreen HD Monitor as it does on my old 14inch 4:3 LCD TV