Pros and cons of various video mods for Atari 800 XL SECAM (aka Rose) : UAV, VBXL and SOPHIA ?

[Remy13]

Hello,

 

just purchased a nice Atari 800 xl secam… I got quickly disappointed with the video quality on LCD TV

 

i’m planning to install a video mods or to replace it with a PAL Atari 800 xl.

 

looking at the video mobs on the secam beast … can you please share your experience ?

   - main solutions : UAV, VBXL and SOPHIA 
   - price, install, quality, adding lags making action games a nightmare to play with…

   

 

thanks a lot for your feedback and experience 

 

cheers

 

Remy

[Beeblebrox]

Hi Remy

 

Congrats and welcome to the Atari scene

 

I couldn't comment on Secam but have many PAL A8s.

 

These topics have been covered quite a bit across threads so I suggest you have a look around the forum as well.

 

See also:

 

VBXE (XL) is a whole extra level of enhancement as well as giving you RGB out and the 80 column text:

https://lotharek.pl/productdetail.php?id=54

 

and: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKS5MJ0AdEU&t=937s

 

Sophia 2 is highly recommended and well worth it. IMHO the best output and DVI out:

 

You can order Sophia 2 directly from it's creator Simius by PM'ing him on AA.

Also Brewing academy in the US stocks them as well I believe.

EDIT: See also: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQyNmJtPrBQ

 

You have the likes of Spectre, UAV, UGV which give you nice quality outputs

 

See also:

 

 

You also have outputs that can work with all of the above like Savo: 

https://retrolemon.co.uk/atari-8bit-upgrades/213-savo-xl.html

 

 

I own UGV, Sophia 2 and VBXE/XL enhanced A8s and love them all.

 

UGV is very good and low cost. VBXE/XL and Sophia 2 are great and around 3 x times the cost of UGV. Sophia 2 is the easiest to install. If you have a socketed machine of course it's all much easier.

 

Main piece of advice is to read as much on the forum as possible as well as look at Youtube.

 

 

 

Edited April 19, 2023 by Beeblebrox

[Dinadan67]

But do these upgrades work with a SECAM machine? I'm not sure.

[Beeblebrox]

2 minutes ago, Dinadan67 said:

But do these upgrades work with a SECAM machine? I'm not sure.

No idea - have no experience with Secam.

[TGB1718]

11 hours ago, Dinadan67 said:

But do these upgrades work with a SECAM machine? I'm not sure.

The circuit diagram for SECAM is very different, may even use a different GTIA (part no. is different)

Also the monitor socket is 6 pin that has +5V and +12V on it and composite only.

 

So may be totally incompatible.

[Beeblebrox]

Time to get a PAL 800XL me thinks

[mimo]

I know that the original Sophia upgrades required a different version for SECAM compluters, not sure about the Sophia 2 boards, worth cheking with Simius , he is pretty responsive.
UAV/UGV/Spectra IF they work with SECAM would give some improvement to video quality but YMMV
Like Beeblebrox, I would probably just find a PAL XL and keep the Rose as a cusriosity or sell it on 

SECAM 800XL only have 128 colours vs 256 for the PAL and NTSC versions, and it outputs composite like TGB says, not RGB which you would hope for 
GTIA is CO20120 which will only work with SECAM XL/XE

My money would be on PAL 800XL with Sophia 2 or VBXL 

[Rybags]

Unless a specific Secam version of Sophia 2 has been made then I highly doubt it'd work.

GTIA on Secam has different pin assignments - there are extra pins used relating to colour which means the TRIG buttons are on a shared pin and fed by an external shift register.

As such since Sophia 2 is a drop-in GTIA replacement it won't work unless specifically made to do so.

Edited April 20, 2023 by Rybags

[Simius]

There is no SECAM version of Sophia2 and there won't be. There are two SECAM version of Sophia1: RGB and DVI. The DVI version exists only as a ready to produce design and has never been released. There wasn't a demand. The SECAM RGB version was produced in the number of about a dozen and sold out. The new production is possible but uneconomic because of global chip shortage and very high prices keeping by the stock owners. The only option is an adapter that matches the Sophia2 pinout to the SECAM motherboard and serializes the triggers. It would also be necessary to replace the 14.252MHz crystal with 14.187576MHz. But due to the cost, at least 5 orders are necessary.

Edited April 20, 2023 by Simius
typo

[Remy13]

Dear all,

 

i’m quite impressed by all the interesting comments and responses you all provided, thank you so much.

 

As a conclusion… I realized it took me a while to find a 800 xl but I purchased the wrong one  too bad  

 

i will try to find a PAL version then as it seems all the mods will work properly on it.

 

in the meantime, I will compare all the mods.

 

 

cheers

 

 

 

[abbotkinneydude]

@Remy13 Je te conseille le groupe suivant: https://www.facebook.com/groups/957320864626817

Si tu arrives à trouver d'autres acheteurs pour un Sophia2 Secam (il faut cinq), @Simius pourrait les fabriquer.

cc @www.atarimania.com @fantômas @ebiguy@pfeuh

[abbotkinneydude]

Hi @Simius - I definitely would be in the market for a Sophia2 Secam.

 

Let's see if @Remy13 has a change of heart and can find other SECAM buyers.

 

Note: Your work on the previous Sophia SECAM Rev.B was flawless! Thanks so much for that.

[Remy13]

Hi Simius and Abbotkinneydude,

 

I'm interested in a Sophia for the Secam ... of course, but it all depends on the selling price

 

Please count on me

 

Cheers

 

Remy

 

[Simius]

On 4/20/2023 at 5:58 PM, Simius said:

There is no SECAM version of Sophia2 and there won't be. [...] The only option is an adapter that matches the Sophia2 pinout to the SECAM motherboard and serializes the triggers. It would also be necessary to replace the 14.252MHz crystal with 14.187576MHz. But due to the cost, at least 5 orders are necessary.

 

Something like this.

[Remy13]

Oh yes, this would be good to get this adaptor, together with the Sophia 2

[Simius]

The good news is a several adapters are available immediately. Bad news is the only 2 Sophias are left and it must be a special ones, with different firmware.