puppetmark Posted February 26, 2007 Share Posted February 26, 2007 (edited) Super_Video_S_video_for_the_XEGM.pdf Here is the XE Game Machine Super Video with S-Video Upgrade I finished over the weekend. I am very pleased with the results of this upgrade. I hope others can use it too. Even if you don't want to add s-video capabilities, the upgraded video circuits will make the XEGS composite output a joy to play games on. It's well worth the effort! let me know what you guys think. Edited February 26, 2007 by puppetmark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AussieAtari Posted February 26, 2007 Share Posted February 26, 2007 Fantastic, another entry in my quest to upgrade the video out on all of my old consoles and micros, thanks mate. This looks very nice and now another project has found it's way into the queue for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+poobah Posted February 27, 2007 Share Posted February 27, 2007 GREAT, Now I have to open up the still virgin XEGS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Almost Rice Posted February 27, 2007 Share Posted February 27, 2007 Wow, that is so thorough. I guess I have to open up my XEGS. I have one that all the chip are socketed. Its the one I got from Bones and replaced the GTIA. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+remowilliams Posted February 27, 2007 Share Posted February 27, 2007 Wow, nice writeup! I'm one of those people who's totally allergic to making documentation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
puppetmark Posted February 27, 2007 Author Share Posted February 27, 2007 Thanks! I tried to be thorough. I always enjoyed the other video mods and the great documentation that went along with them, so I tried to to the same. The XEGM has lots of potential, I guess because it was the last 8-bit it didn't get the same attention the other XEs did. Let me know how the upgrades work out, and if the doc can be made easier to understand, I would be happy to consider any improvements. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adolescent Posted February 27, 2007 Share Posted February 27, 2007 Great work. I'll have to try this one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShosMeister Posted February 27, 2007 Share Posted February 27, 2007 I'm going to give this a try on my 130XE. I've found a few of my old games that don't run on that machine though so I'll probably have to fire up the 800 as well. Any similar upgrade for that machine? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
puppetmark Posted February 27, 2007 Author Share Posted February 27, 2007 (edited) I'm going to give this a try on my 130XE. I've found a few of my old games that don't run on that machine though so I'll probably have to fire up the 800 as well. Any similar upgrade for that machine? Actually you will be better off using the 130XE super video upgrade. Both upgrades are similar. You can upgrade the video circuits and just make a cable to go from the 5 pin din on the 130Xe to s-video. You can find a pdf of all the super video upgrades here in Mathy's post: http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?s...;hl=Super+Video Here is a thread I started on how to make an Atari AV cable from a Radio Shack Cable: http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?s...80&hl=Build Good Luck Edited February 28, 2007 by puppetmark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShosMeister Posted February 28, 2007 Share Posted February 28, 2007 Is the upgrade instructions that you posted in your openning comment the same (basically) as Mathy's? Thanks again for the input/advice!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
puppetmark Posted February 28, 2007 Author Share Posted February 28, 2007 Is the upgrade instructions that you posted in your openning comment the same (basically) as Mathy's? Thanks again for the input/advice!!! The concept is the same and the parts are more or less the same, but the component numbers are entirely different. For example, resistor R78 on the XE game machine is not the same resistor R78 in the 130XE. So you need to follow the instructions for the 130xe wich will guide you to changing the right components. The video circuits are very similar in both computers but they are layed out differently on the mother boards. I am glad you asked before you started. Let me know if you need more help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShosMeister Posted February 28, 2007 Share Posted February 28, 2007 Wow. Me too! From what I can see in the doc then, this is the parts list for the 130XE upgrade: 10-ohm resistor (brown-black-black-gold) 10uF tanatalum capacitor 330-ohm resistor (orange-orange-brown-gold) 150-ohm resistor (brown-green-brown-gold) (2 each) 120-ohm resistor (brown-red-brown-gold) l50-ohm resistor (brown-green-brown-gold) 100uF or 220uF radial-lead electrolytic capacitor I'll try to take some pictures while I do it and maybe we could put together a nice clean paper like you did for the XEGS? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
puppetmark Posted February 28, 2007 Author Share Posted February 28, 2007 (edited) Wow. Me too! From what I can see in the doc then, this is the parts list for the 130XE upgrade: 10-ohm resistor (brown-black-black-gold) 10uF tanatalum capacitor 330-ohm resistor (orange-orange-brown-gold) 150-ohm resistor (brown-green-brown-gold) (2 each) 120-ohm resistor (brown-red-brown-gold) l50-ohm resistor (brown-green-brown-gold) 100uF or 220uF radial-lead electrolytic capacitor I'll try to take some pictures while I do it and maybe we could put together a nice clean paper like you did for the XEGS? Sure, I don't mind making documentation. Your list looks right. In case you are wondering why the resistor values are much different than the XEGM upgrade, it's because instead of replacing the resistors they have you add resistors in parallel to obtain the correct values. IF you would rather change out the resistors, I have posted a doc that gives the correct values. Some people don't like removing components from the boards. The end result is the same so its really a matter of preference or what resistors you have on hand. superVideo_for_130xe.zip Also, take another look at the Av cable thread, I had to update the 5 pin din drawing. I had the view from the front, not the back: http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?s...80&hl=Build Edited March 1, 2007 by puppetmark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djpubba Posted August 19, 2007 Share Posted August 19, 2007 (edited) Mark, thanks for the great guide for the XEGM. I'm about to try this mod but I noticed a small discrepancy. On page one you call the 220µf cap radial, but in your parts list you list it as axial. I'm off to buy the parts and haven't looked inside the machine to see which it is, and I probably won't see your reply before I leave, so I'll just buy both styles. Edit: I'm back and did the mod. Went well, looks great. A few notes: a) Confrimed that the 220µf cap isn't radial. b) Your text says to tie luma to the base of Q4. It's not 100% clear from your pic which pin is the base, so it might be nice to say that the base is the middle pin. Otherwise it went smoothly! Edited August 20, 2007 by djpubba Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
puppetmark Posted August 20, 2007 Author Share Posted August 20, 2007 Mark, thanks for the great guide for the XEGM. I'm about to try this mod but I noticed a small discrepancy. On page one you call the 220µf cap radial, but in your parts list you list it as axial. I'm off to buy the parts and haven't looked inside the machine to see which it is, and I probably won't see your reply before I leave, so I'll just buy both styles. Edit: I'm back and did the mod. Went well, looks great. A few notes: a) Confrimed that the 220µf cap is radial. b) Your text says to tie luma to the base of Q4. It's not 100% clear from your pic which pin is the base, so it might be nice to say that the base is the middle pin. Otherwise it went smoothly! I am glad to hear it went smoothly and you like it. It's always nice to get feed back. Thanks for pointing out the clarification of the Base of Q4 and the Radial Cap confusion. Silly things to miss, I will update the doc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djpubba Posted August 20, 2007 Share Posted August 20, 2007 (edited) Duh, smacks head. C48 is axial, *not* radial (edited my post). With so much room inside, it doesn't really matter which you use, though. There's a - hole in the perfect spot to use a radial cap, too. Edited August 20, 2007 by djpubba Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
puppetmark Posted August 20, 2007 Author Share Posted August 20, 2007 Duh, smacks head. C48 is axial, *not* radial (edited my post). With so much room inside, it doesn't really matter which you use, though. There's a - hole in the perfect spot to use a radial cap, too. No prob. I will update the Doc to include the possibility of both but the preference being Axial. I will post the update as soon as I can. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRogue Posted July 15, 2009 Share Posted July 15, 2009 Sorry to bring a 2 year old thread back from the dead but I just want to comment on this for anyone who just went through what I did. If you do this mod, be absolutely sure to install the S-video portion too. Although the mod text says it will work great even without adding the s-video portion, this is wrong. If you do this mod expecting improved composite video, you are in for a nasty surprise, at least that's what happened to me. I had originally done the lab rat s-video mod on my old XEGS, but a faulty memory upgrade chip fried that mainboard. So I just acquired a new XEGS mainboard, and decided to try this mod instead, it was more complicated but that was to be expected as it says that it gives an improvement in video quality as well as Y/C out. So anyway, I did the mod, up to the point where it says to re-assemble if you do not want s-video out, so I decided to try the composite out to see if there was much improvement in the quality. Well, on my Commodore 1084S monitor, the composite out looked like S**T. Color bleeding, incorrect colors, the works. I thought maybe I did something wrong, yet when I added the s-video port, the colors were vibrant and beautiful. So I'm not putting the mod down, quite the opposite, it looks great, but just don't do it unless you plan to add the S-video port, as if you're just looking for an improvement in composite, you're not going to get it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Mitch Posted July 15, 2009 Share Posted July 15, 2009 Sorry to bring a 2 year old thread back from the dead but I just want to comment on this for anyone who just went through what I did. If you do this mod, be absolutely sure to install the S-video portion too. Although the mod text says it will work great even without adding the s-video portion, this is wrong. If you do this mod expecting improved composite video, you are in for a nasty surprise, at least that's what happened to me. I had originally done the lab rat s-video mod on my old XEGS, but a faulty memory upgrade chip fried that mainboard. So I just acquired a new XEGS mainboard, and decided to try this mod instead, it was more complicated but that was to be expected as it says that it gives an improvement in video quality as well as Y/C out. So anyway, I did the mod, up to the point where it says to re-assemble if you do not want s-video out, so I decided to try the composite out to see if there was much improvement in the quality. Well, on my Commodore 1084S monitor, the composite out looked like S**T. Color bleeding, incorrect colors, the works. I thought maybe I did something wrong, yet when I added the s-video port, the colors were vibrant and beautiful. So I'm not putting the mod down, quite the opposite, it looks great, but just don't do it unless you plan to add the S-video port, as if you're just looking for an improvement in composite, you're not going to get it. Hmm, I'm pretty sure I used this mod for my XEGS, I didn't do the S-Video jack portion and it looked great in composite. Not sure what happened for you, maybe there are different revisions of the video circuit? Mitch Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
puppetmark Posted July 16, 2009 Author Share Posted July 16, 2009 (edited) Sorry to bring a 2 year old thread back from the dead but I just want to comment on this for anyone who just went through what I did. If you do this mod, be absolutely sure to install the S-video portion too. Although the mod text says it will work great even without adding the s-video portion, this is wrong. If you do this mod expecting improved composite video, you are in for a nasty surprise, at least that's what happened to me. I had originally done the lab rat s-video mod on my old XEGS, but a faulty memory upgrade chip fried that mainboard. So I just acquired a new XEGS mainboard, and decided to try this mod instead, it was more complicated but that was to be expected as it says that it gives an improvement in video quality as well as Y/C out. So anyway, I did the mod, up to the point where it says to re-assemble if you do not want s-video out, so I decided to try the composite out to see if there was much improvement in the quality. Well, on my Commodore 1084S monitor, the composite out looked like S**T. Color bleeding, incorrect colors, the works. I thought maybe I did something wrong, yet when I added the s-video port, the colors were vibrant and beautiful. So I'm not putting the mod down, quite the opposite, it looks great, but just don't do it unless you plan to add the S-video port, as if you're just looking for an improvement in composite, you're not going to get it. I am sorry you had that trouble. And don't be sorry about bringing back an old thread, I love to hear that people are using this! Anyway, I am not sure what is going on but I designed this mod and I have installed in on three different XEGS units and the composite video looked good. I even tested it on a 1084. S-video will always look better and is what I prefer also, but it is just seperating the chroma and luma, so at the very least, the colors should be the same with both....puzzling. Edited July 16, 2009 by puppetmark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
driph Posted January 31, 2013 Share Posted January 31, 2013 *rise from your grave* Heya puppetmark, just wanted to say thanks for putting this together, I recently got an XEGS and am researching video possibilities, and I love the thoroughness of your walkthrough. Is s-video still the way to go with the XEGS, or would installing a monitor port be better (and then running s-video through that if needed) overall? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
puppetmark Posted February 1, 2013 Author Share Posted February 1, 2013 *rise from your grave* Heya puppetmark, just wanted to say thanks for putting this together, I recently got an XEGS and am researching video possibilities, and I love the thoroughness of your walkthrough. Is s-video still the way to go with the XEGS, or would installing a monitor port be better (and then running s-video through that if needed) overall? I am glad you like it, it's a fun mod and too difficult either. I still like the s-video port because it is small and it fits nicely on the back of the XEGS, But it seems that s-video connectors are dissapearing from most new televisions. For now at least, most manufactures seems to be keeping at least one composite input eventhough the quality is less than s-video. So, to answer your question, If you don't have any s-video inputs available to you, then I would definitely consider using a 5 pin DIN connector and giving the XEGS full comaptibility with the other 8-bits. You would just need to connect a wire for composite video and one to connect the audio signal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
driph Posted February 1, 2013 Share Posted February 1, 2013 I use a composite/s-video to HDMI convertor for retro gaming on modern tvs (it works surprisingly well), so I'm definitely leaning towards going with s-video support. Using a hacked s-video cable with the 800/130XE (via the monitor port) makes a huge difference, Star Raiders has never looked better, and it'd be fun to keep the XEGS out as my go-to machine for 8-bit gaming. Once I get a few other projects out of the way, I'll take on this mod. Thanks again! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ApolloBoy Posted March 26, 2013 Share Posted March 26, 2013 I tried this mod today when my XEGS arrived, and it looks pretty good in both composite and S-video. The only real flaw I noticed is that the reds tend to bleed a little, although I understand that's a flaw with S-video in general. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8bit-guy Posted March 26, 2013 Share Posted March 26, 2013 can anyone post pictures ? composite before/after ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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