18 replies to this topic

[DocEss]

I've been thinking of switching one of my spare 7800s over to composite, however, looking around, I find what seems like tons of people, each offering one that looks different, both in DIY and selling the service of doing it for you.

Even just on eBay, I can usually find 2 or 3 different people offering both DIY and full service on it. I know next to nothing when it comes to the a/v mod stuff, as I've got a couple of barely used CRT TVs for my systems, but decided to plan for the future.

When I searched here a bit, most of the stuff I find is from a year or more ago, so I wasn't sure what's on the up and up with this sort of thing. Any tips?

[Allpaul]

I second this.. I've used the forum search function, and there doesn't seem to be any definitive answers about the best mod for the 7800.. Every way has something screwy with it.. Composite would be cool, but which way gets the BEST picture quality from the 7800 to modern television sets? I've been thinking about it for a while now, since my XM is on the way...

[gorfcadet]

My extra 7800 is off to a guy to get the longhorn mod... I'll let you know how it turns out.

[Rex Dart]

This one was recommended last time this was asked, and it's still my favorite. Super simple and great results.

[ApolloBoy]

Rex Dart, on Sun Jul 31, 2011 11:14 AM, said:

This one was recommended last time this was asked, and it's still my favorite. Super simple and great results.

I had a couple of issues with that one; the ghosting was fairly noticeable and Ballblazer just wouldn't work for some reason. Personally I'd order one of LHE's boards and mod my 7800 with that instead.

[Allpaul]

ApolloBoy, on Sun Jul 31, 2011 11:16 AM, said:

Rex Dart, on Sun Jul 31, 2011 11:14 AM, said:

This one was recommended last time

I had a couple of issues with that one; the ghosting was fairly noticeable and Ballblazer just wouldn't work for some reason. Personally I'd order one of LHE's boards and mod my 7800 with that instead.

This is exactly what I'm talking about.. Someone always reports something goofy with each mod... The Longhorn is an S-Video mod, right? Last time I checked the Longhorn site, it said it was out of stock.. Where did you order it?

[gorfcadet]

The guy whose auction I won on ebay had some longhorn engineer mods on hand. He does 2600 and 7800. I'm also getting a 4SW 2600 modded from him. He probably has a ton of them already.
Apolloboy... which one were you talking about ghosting? I'll just be glad to not have to turn on the vcr anymore to play my Atari.

[Underball]

There were tons of complaints about the Longhorn mod as well. Mostly him not delivering, or taking forever to ship. then when it arrived, it wouldn't work because it was poorly assembled on the board. even for those who got a "good" one from him, if you were using strictly S-video from his, it was good/passable if installed correctly. The composite video quality is MUCH better from the "Easier composite video" than from Longhorn's mod. This is important because most newer LCD/Plasma/DLP TV's do not have S-video jacks anymore, just composite.

The simple answer I'd go with:

Try the easier composite video mod first. It costs maybe $5-$8 in parts from radio shack, and you get to build something! If you don't like it, order Longhorn's. It's $40 and you might have to wait anywhere from 2 weeks to 3 months for him to ship it. And it might not work when it gets there.

[ApolloBoy]

Allpaul, on Sun Jul 31, 2011 1:46 PM, said:

This is exactly what I'm talking about.. Someone always reports something goofy with each mod... The Longhorn is an S-Video mod, right? Last time I checked the Longhorn site, it said it was out of stock.. Where did you order it?

I haven't ordered it yet, but I've seen someone on eBay selling LHE's 2600 and 7800 boards for the past few months. Hopefully this month I'll be able to order one and see how it goes.

gorfcadet, on Sun Jul 31, 2011 3:05 PM, said:

Apolloboy... which one were you talking about ghosting?

It was Puppetmark's mod that was linked to above.

Edited by ApolloBoy, Mon Aug 1, 2011 12:23 AM.

[Underball]

If you read into the latter pages of the "Easier Composite Video Mod" thread, most of the ghosting issues have been resolved through trial and error.

[Allpaul]

Underball, on Mon Aug 1, 2011 7:32 AM, said:

If you read into the latter pages of the "Easier Composite Video Mod" thread, most of the ghosting issues have been resolved through trial and error.

So the composite video mod is the best way so far to get the highest quality picture? Has anyone made a component mod? Modern TVs still ship with those...

[ApolloBoy]

Allpaul, on Mon Aug 1, 2011 6:56 PM, said:

Has anyone made a component mod? Modern TVs still ship with those...

Not possible with the 7800, the best you can mod it for is S-video.

[Allpaul]

ApolloBoy, on Mon Aug 1, 2011 7:37 PM, said:

Allpaul, on Mon Aug 1, 2011 6:56 PM, said:

Has anyone made a component mod? Modern TVs still ship with those...

Not possible with the 7800, the best you can mod it for is S-video.

Gotcha.. Thanks.

[DocEss]

I'll take all the advice under advisement. I figure, even if it's not perfect, I still have a couple other clean 7800s, and my CRT TV has barely 100 hours of use on it, and my other one was unused entirely. . . so I'm sure I should be decent on that front for a while.

[Rex Dart]

Allpaul, on Sun Jul 31, 2011 1:46 PM, said:

This is exactly what I'm talking about.. Someone always reports something goofy with each mod...

Goofy indeed; Ballblazer works fine.

[gorfcadet]

Even if you replace the crt tv, you could run the 78 through a vcr to get a composite signal to a modern tv.

[Rex Dart]

Allpaul, on Sun Jul 31, 2011 7:02 AM, said:

which way gets the BEST picture quality from the 7800 to modern television sets?

Emulation? Atari on an LCD is just never gonna look quite right.

[thebiggw]

I have found with the LHE mods your better off to just order the board from him then source your own parts from mouser and digikey. Underball might be right on the composite not working correctly as I only use the S-Video portion of the mod from LHE.

[ApolloBoy]

Speaking of the LHE board, I just ordered one a few hours ago, we'll see how it goes.