30 replies to this topic

[wongojack]

I've been searching around the boards and I can't quite find the specific info that I'm looking for. I think this is probably covered here and there, but if someone has direct answers for me that would be awesome.

I'm finding information about 2 different mod kits. There is the Longhorn Engineer kit: http://www.longhorne...omods/Videomods

and then this one: http://www.vintagega...com/guides/mods

Besides the fact that LHE does SVideo, what is the difference between these? Has anyone done a side by side comparison?

It also looks like someone is selling a board that looks like the LHE board on ebay that is assembled but without the wires and connectors: eBay Auction -- Item Number: 290544161106


I was just wondering if I could get someone to comment on the currently available mods with a statement like

"At this point there are these mods available"
OR "the best choice for a noob is this"
OR "this type of mod really doesn't improve the picture"
OR "don't waste your money, you can do this yourself"
OR "that website you found hasn't been taking orders due to X"

etc.



Last question is where is the best place to buy composite and SVideo ports like the ones in the above kits?

[akaviolence]

First off check out this comparison page, old but great info!
Link to ben heck mod.
AtariAge FAQ has guides for a few of the old mods.
The CyberTech mod isn't availble ATM, but we're hopeful it will return soon.
The Long Horn mod is your best bet IF you can contact him, he's been known to go AWOL and leave people hanging even if they've paid him already!
Vintagegamingandmore looks to be offering an inferior mod, look at the main page with the pic of the board thats sent.
The ebay auction is an LHE board, says so on the board and in the auction. If you have decent soldering skills then you can follow the instructions on either the LHE page or the link in the auction and end up with a great quality video mod.
I've done a few LHE mods, picture quality is great on a crt, my lcd tv has bars on svid though, still not sure why.
You can get the connectors from any electronics retailer, I use mouser, digikey is also popular.

[wongojack]

And what about this one from Best Electronics?

http://www.best-elec...0.htm#Composite

Has anyone installed that mod that cares to comment on it?

[akaviolence]

Didn't even know they had one available, interesting, but still doubt its as good of a mod as LHE or Batari.
BTW Batari is just as good a mod as LHE, just not readily availble yet.

[wongojack]

akaviolence, on Wed Apr 27, 2011 8:40 PM, said:

You can get the connectors from any electronics retailer, I use mouser, digikey is also popular.

I actually found an S-Video (4pin) connector on the rack at Fry's. For RCA connectors I guess I'll have to hunt around for something like this?

http://www.mouser.co...Re9sJHYgPSynio=

[akaviolence]

I love Fry's...
Yeah those are the exact ones I use, except I use red white and yellow instead of black.
Radio Shack has these, but not in various colors.

[LittleJoe]

I'm reselling the LHE mod on ebay with his OK, so you can get an excellent mod and excellent service:

eBay Auction -- Item Number: 290544161106

[Geffersan]

Don't order from the LHE directly, i placed my order last November and i'm still waiting!

[wildstar87]

LittleJoe, on Sun May 1, 2011 12:33 PM, said:

I'm reselling the LHE mod on ebay with his OK, so you can get an excellent mod and excellent service:

eBay Auction -- Item Number: 290544161106

LittleJoe, do you know the difference betweent the 2.2F and the 2.2G revision? The parts list only lists 2.2F on LHE's site, but I'm seeing a 2.2G rev number on the PCBs, and some references on his website.

[LittleJoe]

Quote

LittleJoe, do you know the difference betweent the 2.2F and the 2.2G revision? The parts list only lists 2.2F on LHE's site, but I'm seeing a 2.2G rev number on the PCBs, and some references on his website.

The g version is just a correction to the silkscreen for some of the resistor values. No change to the schematic.

[20ohm20]

I installed the Best mod in a light sixer about six weeks ago - it works great. My brother-in-law has been using it on a 25" CRT TV and a 19" LCD TV and it looks good on both.

I received the Vintage Gaming and More mod recently the mail (purchased on eBay). I'll be installing it in a 2600 Jr. either tonight or tomorrow morning, so I'll be able to make a comparison of the two. I'm a bit worried because it looks a bit dodgy - the Radio Shack PCB used wasn't cut/snapped very well (looks like he's using 213 hole boards, cutting three "mods" per board) and there's two, inch and a half inch long leads (from a resistor) sticking out from the bottom of the board that protrude from under the double sided tape used to secure it inside the 2600's case. I'm actually a little embarrassed that I paid as much as I did for this...

[20ohm20]

I installed the Vintage Gaming and More mod in a 2600 Jr. this morning...and I wasn't very impressed with the results. Regardless of the adjustments I'd make, there was a fair amount of shadowing and I could never get the colors just right; I used Pitfall and Combat as my color benchmarks. Granted, the image WAS better than using RF, but given the amount that this mod is selling for, I was expecting better results.

[Prodos8]

I built the s-vide/composite mod from the 2600 faq on this site for a couple of my 4-switch units and it turned out pretty good. I use s-video on a 36" tube tv with good results, it doesn't work so well on lcd/plasma as it produces faint (although annoying) vertical lines across the picture.

I did try Ben Heck's mod with the transistor and it wasn't nearly as good imo. In fact the image wouldn't stabilize on my tv unless you went through a vcr first.

2600 FAQ S-Video Mod

[keilbaca]

Prodos8, on Fri May 13, 2011 2:27 PM, said:

I built the s-vide/composite mod from the 2600 faq on this site for a couple of my 4-switch units and it turned out pretty good. I use s-video on a 36" tube tv with good results, it doesn't work so well on lcd/plasma as it produces faint (although annoying) vertical lines across the picture.

I did try Ben Heck's mod with the transistor and it wasn't nearly as good imo. In fact the image wouldn't stabilize on my tv unless you went through a vcr first.

2600 FAQ S-Video Mod

4050s-video.JPG

That's funny... I did that too and even though the image is amazing on CRT, on LCD its not stable at all.

I did the composite mod that does not require the transistor, and it looks amazing on my Moviebox DV that I use to record with, and on my projector. The new mod made it bounce around like crazy on both devices.

I'd wait till they complete the Batari mod, that seems to be looking the best when its all said and done.

[wongojack]

LittleJoe, on Sun May 1, 2011 12:33 PM, said:

I'm reselling the LHE mod on ebay with his OK, so you can get an excellent mod and excellent service:

eBay Auction -- Item Number: 290544161106

I would have ordered from you already if I could have easily tracked down the various connectors required. Can you offer me any kind of deal to include 3x RCA and 1x SVideo ports?

[iesposta]

wongojack, on Sat May 21, 2011 6:32 PM, said:

LittleJoe, on Sun May 1, 2011 12:33 PM, said:

I'm reselling the LHE mod on ebay with his OK, so you can get an excellent mod and excellent service:

eBay Auction -- Item Number: 290544161106

I would have ordered from you already if I could have easily tracked down the various connectors required. Can you offer me any kind of deal to include 3x RCA and 1x SVideo ports?

wongojack,
I just ripped (desoldered) the 2 parts off an old broken DVD player that had SVideo out. See pictures.
Colored wire, screws from junk laying around, hot glue, solder, DONE! I love it, and ordered from e-bay from LittleJoe "electronicsentimentalies."

Attached Thumbnails

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[wongojack]

Yeah, I've got all the supplies and tools except the ports. I guess I can pull em off something else . . . .

<walks away muttering to himself>

[GreenDayRlz]

keilbaca, on Fri May 13, 2011 3:23 PM, said:

Prodos8, on Fri May 13, 2011 2:27 PM, said:

I built the s-vide/composite mod from the 2600 faq on this site for a couple of my 4-switch units and it turned out pretty good. I use s-video on a 36" tube tv with good results, it doesn't work so well on lcd/plasma as it produces faint (although annoying) vertical lines across the picture.

I did try Ben Heck's mod with the transistor and it wasn't nearly as good imo. In fact the image wouldn't stabilize on my tv unless you went through a vcr first.

2600 FAQ S-Video Mod

4050s-video.JPG

That's funny... I did that too and even though the image is amazing on CRT, on LCD its not stable at all.

I did the composite mod that does not require the transistor, and it looks amazing on my Moviebox DV that I use to record with, and on my projector. The new mod made it bounce around like crazy on both devices.

I'd wait till they complete the Batari mod, that seems to be looking the best when its all said and done.

This might be the same as the NES problem. On the NES, if you used 0D as black instead of 0F, it would roll the screen. Not on a CRT though. Only modern LCD/Plasma screens cared about it. I don't know what the exact solution is, but possibly add more to the signal before it goes out so the TV will know it's a color and not a sync or something like that. This problems is exactly how the NES sounded at first, rolling modern TV's and not CRT's.

[SlowCoder]

* jumps on this bandwagon *

When is the Batari mod hopefully to be available? Will a schematic be available for us hopeless DIYers?

[akaviolence]

SlowCoder, on Tue Jun 21, 2011 6:09 PM, said:

* jumps on this bandwagon *

When is the Batari mod hopefully to be available? Will a schematic be available for us hopeless DIYers?

It already is available and the schematic is in his new mods thread.

[GreenDayRlz]

Anyone technologically advanced try to change the modification to fix the issues on HD/Modern TV's? I'm pretty sure it's the color problem as with what was used on the NES color $0D.

[Geffersan]

 Geffersan, on Sun May 1, 2011 4:29 PM, said:

Don't order from the LHE directly, i placed my order last November and i'm still waiting!

Just to update this, i have since received the mod so hopefully Longhorn is now uptodate.
Awesome picture quality on S-video btw

[Longhorn Engineer]

Geffersan, on Thu Jul 21, 2011 2:23 PM, said:

Geffersan, on Sun May 1, 2011 4:29 PM, said:

Don't order from the LHE directly, i placed my order last November and i'm still waiting!

Just to update this, i have since received the mod so hopefully Longhorn is now uptodate.
Awesome picture quality on S-video btw

I am but I am not taking direct orders right now. I am selling bulk PCBs to people that want to sell mods however. I want to get back to selling them but I do not have time to assemble all those orders.

[wongojack]

Still never did anything with this . . . I have an old DVD player that I can probably junk. Any new developments in this department?

[bigbee99]

wongojack, on Mon Sep 26, 2011 6:35 PM, said:

Still never did anything with this . . . I have an old DVD player that I can probably junk. Any new developments in this department?

I have been having trouble finding S-video jacks at a reasonable price. $4-6 is fine to me, but it's the $12 I would have to pay to some parts store online to ship them. There are a few jacks on eBay, but none of them are what I am looking for.

As far as RCA stuff, I ordered some of these

eBay Auction -- Item Number: 220794684260

They are nice and small and I can stick them anywhere. The ground solders to a washer and the plugs are a very snug fit in the washer which may be a plus or minus for you. Fine by me. And the price at $4 for 8 is a steal. I ordered 16. It's exactly what I was looking for as far as a nice barrel with a lock nut on the back. His shipping was kind of slow, even for Hong Kong though. I order a lot of moding/repair stuff from there on eBay.

I was thinking of using these jack for an S-Video mod. Just split the chroma/luma into their own RCA jacks (black and white sounds good coloring) and use a Y cord to put them into S-Video. This is what I do with my c64 since it already outputs chroma/luma on the cord I have for it. And to make the Y cord, I just used old wires I had here around the house.



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