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ZX Spectrum+ no color

Nicolas 2000

Experienced Member
Joined
Apr 23, 2022
Messages
132
Location
Belgium
I have hooked up a Speccy to my modern TV using its antenna input and found its analog channel. The Speccy boots, the copyright screen is sharp and readable.

The logic seems to work: I can get it to beep with the beep command. I can change border colors. Well, here comes the problem. I don't see color, just greyscale. And a lot of audio noise through the TV (the beep is not distorted though).

First thing to find out: is this a problem with the Spectrum or a compatibility issue with my TV? I've read about some picky TV's having trouble displaying color of a Speccy. My Sega's RF output did work in color on the same TV. If it's a known Spectrum problem, I'd like some pointers to approach this.

I have no history about this spectrum; I don't know if it would eg be composite modded. I assume not, as it is detected as an RF channel.
 
Last edited:
Oh boy. I'll leave it here for posterity, but I've solved my main two issues swiftly and embarrasingly simple.
-the noise: the Speccy obviously doesn't send sound to the TV, so just turn the TV down. The beep comes from its internal speaker anyway.
-the colors: I read someone who was having serious Speccy issues, and someone commented to "obviously" make sure the RF connectors were clean. So I cleaned them just for the "you never know" aspect, and kablammo...color.

I didn't know dirt on RF could cause such a specific issue. But then again, the way the TV has to detect the signal before it will do the effort of colour does allow for some all-or-nothing issues in the wonderful world of color.
 
I'm sure that would be a major step up in image quality and quite straightforward to do by bypassing the modulator! I've converted my Sega's to SCART RGB. Because using RF on a modern flat screen, Sonic was the Blue Blur even when standing still...

But I'm not sure I'm going to keep little Speccy, so I might want to keep it original.
 
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