Vic 20 + HDTV = BAD!

DavPow · Post by **DavPow** » Mon Sep 03, 2012 11:45 am

I recently purchased an HDTV, It's great. But I have a problem with it. I plugged my Vic through the coaxial input in the back, I selected channel 3 (which is what i have it on the box), and when I turned it on, the screen was a mess. The colors seemed inverted, and the picture scrolled from top to bottom, like if you would have plugged a PAL system on a NTSC TV. The picture also shakes from side to side. I will try posting pictures later, but has anyone ever encountered this? Thanks in advance.

DavPow · Post by **DavPow** » Mon Sep 03, 2012 11:50 am

Okay, I managed to make it work by playing around with the cables. Any suggestions to get better video quality?

Schema · Post by **Schema** » Mon Sep 03, 2012 12:00 pm

There is a potentiometer inside the VIC you can adjust to change the video signal level, it can improve the video quality. The best setting seems to be different between monitors and TVs.

Excellent article here:

http://sleepingelephant.com/denial/wiki ... djustments

TBCVIC · Post by **TBCVIC** » Mon Sep 03, 2012 1:37 pm

If that isn't enough, you can do the S-video mod for better video quality,
see: (not sure if a modern TV can handle it though, but it works great on a Commodore 1702 and the like).

http://sleepingelephant.com/ipw-web/bul ... php?t=2477
http://sleepingelephant.com/ipw-web/bul ... php?t=3721

rhurst · Post by **rhurst** » Tue Sep 04, 2012 8:07 am

Yes, the internal pot adjustment makes a world of difference (before / after pics).

I got this monitor, because it can take direct composite video on its HD display in fullscreen, picture-in-picture, and picture-out-of-picture modes!

RobertBe · Post by **RobertBe** » Tue Sep 04, 2012 2:32 pm

That seems like a fine monitor (though very pricey). Does it do PAL as well as NTSC?

Truly,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug

DavPow · Post by **DavPow** » Thu Sep 06, 2012 1:53 pm

Schema wrote:There is a potentiometer inside the VIC you can adjust to change the video signal level, it can improve the video quality. The best setting seems to be different between monitors and TVs.

Excellent article here:

http://sleepingelephant.com/denial/wiki ... djustments

Great! I'm going to try this right now. I'll tell you how it went.

rhurst · Post by **rhurst** » Sat Sep 08, 2012 5:40 pm

RobertBe wrote:Does it do PAL as well as NTSC?

Honestly would not know that, sorry, I don't own any Euro equipment except for a spiffy C1551 diskette drive (and an external power conversion) for my Plus/4.

The monitor should be a bit pricey, heh, it does everything I could ask from it, so it's both a space saver and hook-up convenience.