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Newer TV with my baby

R

ravuya

Experienced Member
Joined
Aug 13, 2003
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58
Well, I'm trying to hook up my 800XL. When I got the thing, I just used the RF cable from my colecovision to connect it to an ancient console television.

Some people here said I need a modulator... but there's a $5 widget at Radio Shack that goes from a jack like the one on the TV/Game box to a modern co-axial antenna jack.

It's not too expensive to buy one, but I'm just wondering if it'll work. Will it? I assume antenna is RF, although my knowledge of televisions are extremely limited.
 
Re: Newer TV with my baby

ravuya said:
Some people here said I need a modulator
Click to expand...

A modulator is probably what you have, either in the computer or your "the RF cable from my colecovision ". If the TV needs to be on one specific channel, you have a modulator.
What you really need is a monitor, which bypasses the modulator and uses actual video and audio signals, if the Atari computer provides them.
 
I used my old 1970's atari 2600 connected to my late 90's panasonic 27" tv using one of those $5 coax to antenna things radioshack sells and the picture was pretty good (considering what I was using)

Nothing beats having a monitor on the old 8/16bit computers

I have a Commodore 1084 that I use with my c64, c128 and amiga 500 (has a seperate connection for all 3 on the back even the digital 80 column c128 mode)

An atari color monitor for my 1040st, a NEC 3ds for my Amiga 1200, etc

Monitors have a much cleaner output althou its a 13" to 15" screen. It also lets you setup the rig on a corner table and forget about it untill you want to use it. I have too much crap connected to my TV as it is. I have a dreamcast, psx, output from my A/v stereo (svhs vcr, dvd, etc) going to 1 tv with 2 inputs and a 4 way switcher.
 
OK, cool, I got a co-ax plug from the basement that the switchbox screws into, except on my TV card everything is in black and white. Did I hook something up wrong?
 
If your TV has composite input, I'd just recommend getting a standard monitor cable for your 800XL (a C64 one will work too) and plugging it in through your TV's composite jacks. It will look just as good as any old monitor. If your TV doesn't have composite inputs, then you're stuck with using a coax connection unless you pick up an old Commodore monitor.
 
I am about to attempt the same thing with a newer small tv and my C64 and incoming 128. I was lucky enough to get an ancient tv/computer box and the guy I traded with even made his own inline transformer in a small heavily taped cardboard box. I am gonna put it in a neat smaller plastic one when I get the chance. Anyway, a friend of mine said that the scan rates would be different from such an old system to a newer tv set. I think not! An antenna signal is analog, and so is the output on the C64. I think it will be fine as long as I have the converter box. Can't think of the url but there are places to make specifically the converter you need to convert one to the other.

But I agree, monitors have better pictures and work better because the 'signal' is better without the noise of a switch, coax/composite cables and the interference picked up by the uninsulated metal of all that stuff (switchbox screws, lightly shielded wires, etc).

Nathan
 
My friend curb-picked a C64 display out of the residential trash, unfortunately it lacks the monitor cables. Anyone know somewhere I could get the cable before I bother to toss the display in my truck?
 
Which C64 display? Probably it takes composite and/or Y/C separated video. To which computer are you planning to connect it - an Atari, a Commodore or something else? Generally you should get decent composite video by getting a DIN-5 RCA cable, find which RCA plug does the video and connect that one. The C64 used a 8-pin DIN, but to get that, you may have to solder a cable yourself.
 
I'll have to take a look. I think it's a DIN8 port like the one on the back of the Atari 800XL, which is what I am planning to use it with.

EDIT: OK, sorry, it appears to have composite plugs on the back. Does this mean I can use it like a regular TV (i.e. plug my Genesis into it)? Because if so I already have an RF cable that I've been using on the Atari so far (salvaged from a ColecoVision in my collection).
 
No, a TV has a RF (50-75-100 ohm?) antenna connector, not RCA phono connectors. Of course, many TV and VCR have RCA-style composite input too, but I think you're using some other cable than a RF cable then. If it physically fits, it should probably work.
 
"carlsson" wrote:

> No, a TV has a RF (50-75-100 ohm?) antenna connector, not
> RCA phono connectors. Of course, many TV and VCR have
> RCA-style composite input too, but I think you're using some
> other cable than a "RF" cable then. If it physically fits, it
> should probably work.

At least wait until new years eve, if it doesn't work, then at least
you should have some fireworks! ;-)

Cheers,
CP/M User.
 
carlsson said:
No, a TV has a RF (50-75-100 ohm?) antenna connector.
Click to expand...

If it's coax (round cable with threaded connector) it's 75 ohm.

If it's two screw-on terminals, it's 300 ohm twin-lead, the older flat cable.


There are commonly available adapters to go from one to the other.
 
Ok. Is it 10Base2 Ethernet over coax which uses 50 ohm, and some FM radio (??) over coax which uses 100 ohm? I kind of remember all three varities are in use, with different diameter. Of course, neither should be found on ravuya's composite monitor.
 
carlsson said:
Ok. Is it 10Base2 Ethernet over coax which uses 50 ohm, and some FM radio (??) over coax which uses 100 ohm? I kind of remember all three varities are in use, with different diameter. Of course, neither should be found on ravuya's composite monitor.
Click to expand...

Thinnet is (supposedly) 50 ohm. You can't go by cable diameter totally.

Usually 50 ohm is for RF applications and 75 ohm for video.
 
My RF cable is not coaxial unless I jack the adaptor onto the end of it. It's just a straight miniplug kind of job, like the jack on the back of the Atari...
 
Aha. Commodore included a RCA-to-coax cable with their computers, but maybe Atari had RCA-to-RCA and a separate RCA-to-coax adapter on the end? Sounds costly unless there was a reasonable usage of the cable without adapter. The RF signal is still the same one AFAIU, and would probably not work well as a composite signal?
 
Anyway, to bring this thing full circle...

To replace the RF modulator, the adapter you need is RCA female to "F" male.
Set the TV to channel 3 and you're good to go.
 
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