CollectorVision Phoenix - No video

[+Sargon]

I have a CollectorVision Phoenix system, which I purchased brand new from CollectorVision in November 2018.  I only tested it out very briefly when I received it, and I think I updated the firmware at one time, but when I attempted to play a game today I can't get any video out.  I have tried it with 3 different games, and I can hear the game audio playing through my TV speakers using HDMI, but the video is either gray boxes, or a garbled green screen.  One time I saw it display a firmware revision number (I didn't pay attention to the number itself), and another time it booted to a Phoenix logo.  It doesn't seem to be consistent on what video output gets displayed, except that it never displays the game video.  I tried running it through an HDMI switch and also bypassing the switch entirely.

 

I don't even know where to start with this.  Do I need to revert the firmware?  Is there a compatibility problem with my TV?  Is something wrong with the Phoenix hardware itself?  Can anyone help?

 

 

[zaphro72]

Have to tried booting i to the Atari core to see if you get picture then?

[+Sargon]

Have to tried booting i to the Atari core to see if you get picture then?

I have never tried any other cores, but I don't think so, because most of the time I don't get any Phoenix splash screen or menu whatsoever. It just powers on right to the garbled screen.

What is strange is that the results are inconsistent. Usually I get the garbled green screen or gray boxes, but occasionally I do get a screen with the Phoenix logo and the game audio in the background. On very rare occasion, I have been able to get games to work, but they show up in a tiny window in the center of my display, with no rhyme nor reason for why it actually worked.

I tested the Phoenix on my other TV and it worked fine, so I'm thinking this is an HDMI compatibility issue with my Sony OLED TV. I have read about others having problems with certain TV's, but I assumed that had been fixed. Based on some other posts I read, I have ordered an HDMI to HDMI + audio extractor, and I will try inserting that to see if it makes any difference. Outside of that, I'm not sure what else to try though.

Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk

[zaphro72]

11 hours ago, Sargon said:

I have never tried any other cores, but I don't think so, because most of the time I don't get any Phoenix splash screen or menu whatsoever. It just powers on right to the garbled screen.

What is strange is that the results are inconsistent. Usually I get the garbled green screen or gray boxes, but occasionally I do get a screen with the Phoenix logo and the game audio in the background. On very rare occasion, I have been able to get games to work, but they show up in a tiny window in the center of my display, with no rhyme nor reason for why it actually worked.

I tested the Phoenix on my other TV and it worked fine, so I'm thinking this is an HDMI compatibility issue with my Sony OLED TV. I have read about others having problems with certain TV's, but I assumed that had been fixed. Based on some other posts I read, I have ordered an HDMI to HDMI + audio extractor, and I will try inserting that to see if it makes any difference. Outside of that, I'm not sure what else to try though.

Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk
 

Ya the compatibility issue was why I asked about booting into the Atari core. You have to do it blind on startup before the Phoenix splash screen but the Atari core has higher tv compatibility in comparison to the Colecovision core so it is a good way to test if your Phoenix is working, but wince you had another tv it worked on you know it is working.

 

Do you happen to have an OSSC in your setup? My Samsung tv doesn't recognize the Phoenix on its own, but when it shares an un-powered USB switch with my OSSC and I turn the OSSC on before the Phoenix the TV is able to lock onto the OSSC signal and then it will display the Phoenix when I turn it on. I know a very convoluted way to deal with the problem but it happened to be things I had here and I stumbled upon it randomly

[+Sargon]

1 hour ago, zaphro72 said:

Do you happen to have an OSSC in your setup? My Samsung tv doesn't recognize the Phoenix on its own, but when it shares an un-powered USB switch with my OSSC and I turn the OSSC on before the Phoenix the TV is able to lock onto the OSSC signal and then it will display the Phoenix when I turn it on. I know a very convoluted way to deal with the problem but it happened to be things I had here and I stumbled upon it randomly

I do have an OSSC, but I may have found another solution that works better.  I haven't had a chance to fully test it yet, but I'll report back in a couple days.

[+Sargon]

Can you explain your OSSC solution?  I'm not following which device is sharing the USB switch with the OSSC, and how that impacts the Phoenix video?

 

My alternate solution ended up working somewhat, but it is very finnicky.  I am using an mClassic scaler in retro mode connected to the Phoenix.  It mostly solves the garbled graphics issue, but still with very inconsistent results.  Sometimes it will load fine, sometimes the picture will be shifted up or down, and frequently I will get a lot of noise in the picture.  I have found that if I unplug the USB cable that powers the mClassic and plug it back in, then it will re-sync with my TV again.  If I do that enough times (sometimes 2, sometimes 10), I'll eventually get the video to a playable state.  But I still don't understand at all why I'm getting different results every time.

[zaphro72]

5 hours ago, Sargon said:

Can you explain your OSSC solution?  I'm not following which device is sharing the USB switch with the OSSC, and how that impacts the Phoenix video?

 

My alternate solution ended up working somewhat, but it is very finnicky.  I am using an mClassic scaler in retro mode connected to the Phoenix.  It mostly solves the garbled graphics issue, but still with very inconsistent results.  Sometimes it will load fine, sometimes the picture will be shifted up or down, and frequently I will get a lot of noise in the picture.  I have found that if I unplug the USB cable that powers the mClassic and plug it back in, then it will re-sync with my TV again.  If I do that enough times (sometimes 2, sometimes 10), I'll eventually get the video to a playable state.  But I still don't understand at all why I'm getting different results every time.

So my solution is that I have the OSSC sharing the same un-powered HDMI switch as the Phoenix and then have the HDMI cable run from that switch to the TV. I turn on my OSSC and the TV recognizes its there and displays the grayscale pattern that the OSSC shows when nothing is running through it. I then turn on the Phoenix and my tv will display the Phoenix perfectly.

[+Sargon]

So my solution is that I have the OSSC sharing the same un-powered HDMI switch as the Phoenix and then have the HDMI cable run from that switch to the TV. I turn on my OSSC and the TV recognizes its there and displays the grayscale pattern that the OSSC shows when nothing is running through it. I then turn on the Phoenix and my tv will display the Phoenix perfectly.

It's worth a shot. Do you know which HDMI switch you are using?

Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk

[zaphro72]

Just one that was super cheap off amazon. 

[+Sargon]

I have given up on being able to get this to work consistently.  I have tried several different varieties of HDMI switches and scalers, with very little success.  The only thing that comes close to working is the mClassic, but even that is finnicky at best.  Sadly, it seems the Phoenix is in need of updates that it may or may not ever get.

[nick3092]

Wonder if this is in relation to the pixel clock being slightly off (or something like that)? That is an outstanding issue since day one. It supposedly was supposed to be fixed in a core re-write that was estimated to be completed over a year ago (I want to say they originally estimated Oct 2020). But I haven't seen any updates on that. Perhaps @Bmack36 can weigh in here.

 

I'm also curious about some of the other fixes that were being looked a that haven't been talked about in quite a while. Like a power board that could plug in and power the roller controller to eliminate the ground issue causing jittery movement.

Edited December 30, 2021 by nick3092
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