Modding a consumer TV to use RGB input

[@andydoane]

Seeing those pictures of a young 8-Bit Guy makes me want him to do a 5-part documentary on the history of the 8-Bit Guy.

[@duality4y]

Hell yea!

[@fluffyflunk]

Yes!

[@ambrosined1981]

So much this

[@nathanhamman418]

Id watch that

[@BertGrink]

Let's make this a thing, shall we?

[@Duffman-zn7ku]

There is nothing as permanent as a temporary fix that keeps holding.

[@Vulpovile]

Just ask Belgrade, they've been using the temporary Pančevački Most bridge since 1946

[@bane2886]

Vulpovile 👍😂

[@Bialy_1]

@@Vulpovile "many visitors to La Tour Eiffel are unaware of the 1,063-foot-tall iron latticework tower's origins as a much hated-on work of temporary architectural razzle-dazzle meant to serve as the entrance arch - and what an arch it was - to the 1889 World's Fair. Many Parisians, the city's artists and coffee shop intelligentsia in particular, were fervently opposed to the thought of such a monstrosity". :P

[@Westycj]

Like my life

[@abbas-aliibnmohammadal-nam929]

@@Vulpovile most bridge sounds so weird haha. Most is a bridge itself

[@AndersEngerJensen]

Retrofitting that microwave with RGB would have been a blast though... ^_^ *NOTE:* The song David used in this episode, «FM Love» will be released soon, on my next album. I just need to finish a few more songs and order the prints (cassettes and VINYL(!). This will take a few months, but should be available in good time before Christmas, so stay tuned. ;)

[@TheLostMan64]

Anders Enger Jensen Convine David to do it!

[@jhoughjr1]

Beams the taster directly into your retina just don’t disable he screen daver

[@piperalpha]

Hei Anders. Er det en av dine låter fra 3:35? Hva heter'n i så fall?

[@litigioussociety4249]

It would be funny to see a microwave with a little Composite/RGB monitor for the timer.

[@ImpetuouslyInsane]

Yeah, because it would have exploded. Little Boy 2.0

[@captainchaos3667]

I only recently learned SCART was not a thing in the US and I'm amazed. They were bulky, but otherwise amazing. Composite, S-Video, RGB and audio in one cable, in two directions! Basically the HDMI cable of their day. I wonder why this never caught on in America.

[@SamsonSilvo]

Knowing how composite cables have often been nicknamed "RCA" cables by Americans and RCA was a US based company, I have a strange feeling they might have had something to do with it...

[@DanTDMJace]

@@SamsonSilvoRCA did come up with the standard

[@SamsonSilvo]

@@DanTDMJace Ah. That would explain it. I find that very believable since RCA was pretty much THE leading Electronics company in the US until they dropped the ball with their poorly timed CED video format. LOL

[@chuuisinsane]

@@SamsonSilvo because the tulip cable design was made by RCA for use on record player speakers back in the 1930s. it wasn't used for TVs until the late 50s iirc

[@FuturePerfectEnglish]

Yep, SCARTs are great! They even provide for some basic commands and synchronization features. I used a self-made 3,5 mm jack to SCART cable to connect my Raspberry Pi to an old CRT TV. And I remember my parents' DVD player and big CRT TV linked with a SCART cable. It must have used RGB pins, because I don't remember any composite artifacts.

[@TheGeekPub]

I am absolutely blown away by this. I had no idea this could be done!

[@ZILtoid1991]

Even older TVs also can be modded to accept component and S-Video, you just have to check the schematics of the TV if they have the correct separate color demodulators.

[@iyfranco151]

Sucks living under a rock.

[@michaelturner4457]

Something to be aware of with even older TVs, is that they may have a hot/live chassis that isn't isolated from the mains supply. Those will require an isolation transformer, in order to safely modify for RGB. Can see that 8-Bit's Samsung has a large mains transformer in it, so that's definitely isolated.

[@madpaxgames4735]

same

[@Theshadowsnose]

It's not really a surprise since most TVs are designed to be sold world wide and almost every TV sold in Europe since the late '80s has a SCART connector that happily accepts a RGB signal. On this TV, the hole in the back case where the original composite and audio jacks sit, looks suspiciously like a SCART connector... would be interesting to have a look at the bottom side of the PCB over there. Would not totally surprise me if all the solder points for an actual SCART connector would still be there and they just created this huge blob of plastic including those 2 RCA sockets for video and audio soldered at the according pins of the SCART connector.

[@MarcieBee]

2016: I have to use the upmost caution while discharging this tube, gloves and all, as the shock may kill me 2018: just put a screwdriver in there it’s fine

[@dan_loup]

I think he was bitten by AvE. 2 years from now he will be talking about how skookum the sid chip is, and calling out the radio shack for using chinesium.

[@litigioussociety4249]

The word is utmost not upmost. Technically, upmost is a word, but it means upper most, as in the peak of a mountain or the top floor of a building.

[@dan_loup]

Electricity wants a ground, and you don't want to be that ground.

[@12201185234]

@@litigioussociety4249 Everyone knew what he meant. Shut the fuck up.

[@ForgottenLore]

xD

[@betaman7988]

“It’s hard to imagine but we actually watched TV on this” I was born in 2001 and I can remember our kitchen TV being a Sony 110 12” black and white TV my family first bought in the late 70s. Still got it and it still works

[@brunor.1127]

Woah, thats cool

[@Blackout_1692]

I have an old Sharp VCR TV combo sitting on my dresser manufactured in 1997 used to be my sister's but ended up on my dresser the VCR quit working last year I suspect that the belt for the VCR broke

[@Dumb_Killjoy]

My mom had one, at least until my brother broke it

[@statusquo9520]

I remember watching random vampire movie on b/w tv, that was even more scary lol

[@luciotantignone7877]

I still have an old crt Sony tv and it works great

[@Catmato]

It's amazing that TVs of the time were capable of such quality, but couldn't use it because of the connection standards of the era.

[@victorpelini5995]

Yup. French tried to make one good standard with SCART but the World outside of Europe hated it

[@diegoantoniorosariopalomin4977]

@@victorpelini5995 what do you mean by hated it?

[@victorpelini5995]

@@diegoantoniorosariopalomin4977 It's not found outside Europe

[@diegoantoniorosariopalomin4977]

@@victorpelini5995let's not assume hate when it could be indifference

[@supakusuta]

@@victorpelini5995 Japan had JP-21

[@mrnmrn1]

This TV has very low hours in it. I'm sure below 5000h, probably below 2000h. It's practically new.That's incredible for a TV which was in regular use since 1997. With any significant use, the white plastic on the deflection yoke should have been yellowed, and TONS of black dust on everything, as the high voltage attracts it. Even the plastic cover on the top of the heatsink (for the primary PSU controller+driver IC) is still white. These are used to be brown and brittle in a 20+ year old Samsung with this chassis. I *really* suggest you to replace the electrolytics on the primary side of the PSU (the mains reservoir can be left alone), with some top quality Rubycon/Nichicon/Pansonic long life 105°C series, as this chassis uses a weird hybrid driver/controller IC, which is prone to failure if those capacitors go bad, which is possible after 20 years, even with low hours (especially, if the TV was in standby most of the time, in this case it's a wonder it still works). And you probably won't get any replacement PSU IC, because it has been discontinued 10+ years ago, the current stocks are all counterfeit and garbage.

[@metarotta]

this comment needs to be higher

[@sirecartier7881]

@@metarotta that's right

[@mrnmrn1]

@@eashiftzr1 The STR series PSU ICs usually used in sony TVs are pretty bulletproof, but it's still suggested to replace all the small electrolytics on the primary side. All electrolytics around the vertical power amp, the horizontal driver stage (around the hor. driver transformer, both primary and secondary side), electrolytics in the E/W correction circuits and around the flyback. Than all the other electolytics that are close to hot heatsinks and components. Suspect the phisically smaller capacitors first (5-6mm diameter), they fail sooner than the bigger ones. If you have an in-circuit ESR meter, it's worth measuring the bigger capacitors as well. Oh, and check the whole board with a magnifying glass for cracked solder joints, especially around the components where the board is blackened by heat. Use only high quality 105°C capacitors, from the appropriate series (use low-ESR where the original was also low-ESR), and use long-life (8...10k hours) series around hot areas. If the repair/maintanance is on a low budget, don't go below the quality of Yageo/Teapo/Jamicon, bought from a reputable seller. If money doesn't matter, use Rubycon/Nichicon/Panasonic/ELNA/NIC. Before the maintenance, check out the service manual, if the TV in question has a working hours counter, check it. A Trinitron tube usually gives a nice picture until 20-25k hours with the factory default settings (blazing high contrast, etc.). If your set is close to that, don't invest too much in it. Find the minimal contrast setting which is OK for you, this will extend the useful life of the tube. You can decerase the subcontrast and peak white levels in the service menu, also to extend tube life. Make sure you note the factory settings of the service menu, this way you'll have a backup, if you make some settings wrong.

[@diopterdoctor120]

This sums up what mrnmrn1 posted. I organized it for myself and thought I'd share. Can someone explain what 1d is? I'm not familiar with an E/W. And is there a good place to find parts of a CRT and their descriptions. I know some of the general components but would like something mildly in depth. CRT Restore 1. Change Electrolytic Capacitors a.) on Primary side of PSU (can leave mains alone) b.) around the Vertical Power Amp c.) around the Horizontal Driver Stage (hor. driver transformer, primary & secondary side) d.) in the E/W correction circuits e.) around the Flyback f.) around heatsinks or other components (resistors) Rules: A.) Smaller caps (

[@GrexTheCrabasitor]

How do i learn what you know

[@thadoctorreturns2999]

This is a game changer in the arcade cabinet world. These tv sets are literally sitting on the street corner waiting to be disposed, while many 25 inch cabinets ate being scrapped because the proprietary monitor is bad.

[@kanecain1981]

Comment of the day!!!

[@herranton]

Those monitors aren't proprietary. 90% of them are Wells Gardner and they can be rebuild fairly easily and have standard parts. If someone is throwing it away, they probably just don't want to deal with it. There is no way they would deal with the mod here, if they didn't want to just rebuild what they already had. Furthermore, the 15khz tvs aren't going to be a good replacement for many games that use 24 and 31khz monitors as they don't have the resolution. (this is highly simplistic and only useful for repairs. If you are building a cab, you should probably find a good 15khz monitor, go do your own research though).

[@Highlander2475]

where did you get that information from? I have a Neo Geo cabinet with bad colors (the black over black display looks terrible/faded, so the contrast is bad.) I've been looking for information to fix the monitor but I have come up with bupkiss

[@herranton]

@@Highlander2475 try www.arcadecup.com he reconditions monitor chassis' Make sure you read about how to safely remove it. It can kill you, and no I'm not kidding. It is easy to take it apart, you just need to follow the right steps. It can kill you.

[@Highlander2475]

Right, Discharging of the CRT is important. I'm an electrical engineering student just looking for the correct diagrams. That's all

[@philscomputerlab]

Very nice! For ages I didn't know that Scart RGB is something that's not common outside of European countries.

[@RodBeauvex]

I've seen exactly one TV with it, a 25/27" Curtis Mathes set.

[@scarlett5924]

we had s-video and before that c64 luma chroma many tv's had that what we used on our c64 s-video is the upgraded version of it also some of our tv's had scart or it was hidden behind plastic breakouts had a fisher tv like that had all kinds of inputs great sound even extra glass over the tube to bad lightning hit it

[@CanuckGod]

Might have been more to do with the fact that we tended to use TVs largely with consoles in North America back in the day as opposed to microcomputers; never heard of SCART until I got online and read about it :)

[@girlsdrinkfeck]

@@scarlett5924 svidreo sucks compared to SCVART

[@5roundsrapid263]

Rod Beauvex I saw it once, on a high end Zenith console TV from 1988. It was their most expensive set at the time.

[@axtrifonov]

In Russian this manipulation is called "подпаяться", and it was needed to connect soviet ZX Spectrums to TVs.

[@axtrifonov]

@@Collected-Light Аста ла виста, бэби

[@icecat2164]

@@Collected-Light shut up american

[@Collected-Light]

@@icecat2164 I'm not an american but fuck you

[@strongholds12]

ax trifonov high ffjug high hfftt moon zss

[@miketheexolon2353]

@@cooliofoolio Me too! Me too! Nevertheless i'm russian too!

[@Maniac536]

Oh my god the origins of the 8-bit guy...fascinating.

[@AAvfx]

Love your channel. I feel like 8yo again! Thanks😀

[@ax0rz0]

Idk who you are :/

[@sjebsstuff1354]

@@ax0rz0 ???

[@tonyacatlett3683]

8-bit year old? LOL

[@pauldarlington5589]

What a great nostalgia trip. I used to do similar mods back in the late 80's, early 90's when I had an amusement machine business. I built most of my own machines and converted a lot of old TV's to RGB monitors for my game cabinets. The RGB and sync came directly from the game board harness so a very easy mod which saved me a lot of money when I was building up my small business. Great times and good memories.

[@csabasanta5696]

Drink every time David says 'actually' ;)

[@leahparsuidualc666]

dddidd dat! ummhh zzzaatttiiittsphide ... UARGHHERLLELLLGHHhhhhgrrr ...

[@ericsills6484]

12 times in the first two minutes. Script much?

[@hotcocoa2129]

okj we I junflst duid itewbwdbxh

[@cadeanderson422]

Hahaha

[@john-vg9lg]

You will actually get drunk

[@kNo1bdy]

Unexpected evening surprise from the 8 bit guy. Edit: Thanks for all the likes.

It's like 6am in Europe

[@michalnemecek3575]

@ I woke up at 8:58 (time in Czech Republic) and found out about it

[@subjectnether959]

But a welcome one

[@brianbrians3157]

Funny story, I had that exact tv in my bedroom growing up. It had a 'fine tune' feature that let you partially unscramble pay channels, I taped alot of fuzzy tiddies off of skinimax with it. Also sometime in the early 2000's it started to fail by turning b/w. If you gave it the old Fonzie percussive maintenance routine it would blink back to color for a couple of days.

[@brianbrians3157]

Yeah I think it was supposed to be used to adjust the picture if you were using an antenna but it worked great making scrambled pay channels vaguely watchable. Granted it was still awful quality but this was when I didn't have my own computer and even if I did it would have been still images on painfully slow dial-up.

[@58jharris]

I recall the remotes for cable boxes back then had a button that would do that if you pressed it repeatedly.

[@Boemel]

Best comment of 2018 :D

[@daftbence]

Did the same, let's just say I spent a whole lot of time to get Hustler working and it was always this fuzzy, negative color picture but I saw those tiddies just fine C:

[@FlameRat_YehLon]

It's kinda interesting that pay channels used to be done like that. In China such thing doesn't exist at all until digital broadcast is getting adapted. Also, such pay channel implementation likely didn't exist for too long because in the early 2000's pretty much all TV got the auto tuning feature which doesn't care if there's any channel frequency standard, I think. (And the TV essentially become a radio tuner, which also start to have auto tuning at that period of time.)

[@ParadoxdesignsOrg]

hacking old TV's? man, you're hard core retro!

[@TRX450RVlogger]

Hard to tell if you're being an asshole or what dude...

[@MuradBeybalaev]

I think he's being genuine. Anyway, to rationalize modding of an old TV for this: - It's analog and there is a definite value in having an analog output device option on hand. - It's what the dude had lying around. One could go after one of those industrial Japanese CCTV CRT monitors for best quality and maybe even get one of those flatscreen CRTs if time to find one and the obscure pricing of them isn't an issue for you but modding a TV is the cheap and easy solution.

[@badreality2]

@@MuradBeybalaev And the fact that it is a gift, from his formative years, means that it has sentimental value to him, too. It's like modding a child-hood video game console, for a better audio and video output. Such actions prolong the usefulness, of something that one loves (or has affection for).

[@JangoAC]

Ja, das ist gut!

[@TheCoolDave]

All older TVs process some parts in RGB or better... you just need to know how to access it...Not a new concept but very possible on a lot of TVs...

[@dannyboy42223]

Didn't think a interlaced screen could have such clean text. Very nice demo

[@MaximRecoil]

It's only interlaced if the computer or console is outputting an interlaced signal. I doubt any of the ones shown in this video did. A standard 15 kHz CRT TV can sync to a 240p signal just as easily as it can sync to a 480i (NTSC) signal, because they are both 15 kHz. 480i with consoles mainly started with the Sega Dreamcast and other consoles of that generation. The Dreamcast did support 240p, but most games were 480i by default. The original Playstation hardware also supported both 240p and 480i. Earlier consoles such as the SNES, NES, Atari 2600, etc., were 240p. The SNES has a 480i mode (512x448) but it was very rarely used; maybe one or two games ever used it.

[@fungo6631]

@@MaximRecoil The Megadrive also supported 480i and Sonic 2 used it for the multiplayer. I think the PC Engine also supported 480i with some software trickery.

[@sjake333]

Us Europeans who were raised with RGB Scart had it really lucky. Most of us made the jump from RF to RGB skipping the composite stage and only became familiar with the latter when Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft bundled cheap composite cables with a Scart adaptor with their consoles so they could charge people extra for the full RGB Scart cable. The downgrade was noticable even to my then-teenage eyes. S-Video was extremely niche, I only ever saw it used on video cameras and PC TV cards and like composite you relied on a simple adaptor to connect it to the Scart input.

[@tanglelover]

We get stuff later due to needing translations and edits for our market and it allows the localisers to fix bugs and fine tune issues before we get the product. It's great because we often get version 1.1 which runs better than the release copies of the NTSC/J versions and they fix game killing glitches.

[@agodlessmonstrosity]

HAIL GLORIOUS SCART

[@girlsdrinkfeck]

dont forget in the UK we also have teletext ( TV internet ) usa never had anything like that

[@NoToeLong]

Jacah Smith - You did get stuck with 50fps gameplay instead of 60fps though (some games even ran slower because the devs were too lazy to rebalance the game speed) and sometimes you had to deal with a game being censored because it was cheaper to make a single PAL version instead of various revisions (Contra being turned into Probotector in Europe thanks to Germany's game restrictions at the time). In the end nobody really got the perfect version unfortunately.

[@dreammfyre]

sj33 yeah, shame about the 50hz+borders... I always used a modded console and NTCS games because of that.

[@yetidynamics]

lets face it, that internal connection is never going to be redone

[@grasshopper1g]

fact

[@AnimalFacts]

If he's ordered the part, it might. He's the kind of guy that likes things done right.

[@apinakapinastorba]

He did pretty good job redoing those hot glue things in the computer that circled those content creators. He just might redo that connector too.

[@grasshopper1g]

dont trust it for what?

[@Slidaulth]

You must be new to his channels... He is definitely the type to go back and fix it to the way he wanted it.

[@thewassock]

I'm in the UK. SCART sockets had two very annoying problems. Firstly not all SCART sockets supported RGB. On a typical TV set equipped with two SCART input sockets, the first one would support RGB and composite, whilst the second one would support S-Video and composite instead. Most annoying since most devices (such as set-top boxes and games consoles) didn't have an option to output S-Video over SCART at all. Hence you needed to swap cables or use a SCART switch box, and many switch boxes were composite only (but didn't say so in the product description). Secondly as most SCART cables contained a wire for each pin, they were both stiff and heavy, and had a tendency to fall out of their sockets over time. I often had to visit my mother's place to fix her TV set as the SCART cable had worked loose on her DVD player. Although in some cases it was probably the cat's fault!

[@DH-vh8el]

he in the USA, the USA, don't no what a European SCART socket is : -)

[@AnssiH]

​@@grawity Audio/video out uses different pins than RGB in, so usually ports supporting A/V out also supported RGB in. But of course everything varies by model :) E.g. I had a TV where one port had A/V out without OSD (GUI) and one had A/V out with OSD.

[@subg9165]

i have an old tv with just one scart and that connector you used to plug your aerial into (whatever its name is), and with suitable conversion devices, it will plug in to pretty much anything i throw at it. stuff as late as a wii or as early as a sega master system, and probably earlier too.

[@PhantomHavok]

D H For the most part. Retro gamers in the United States are now embracing RGB SCART for the picture quality it can provide.

[@justanotheryoutubechannel]

Paul Grayson I’m yet to find a SCART socket that doesn’t support RGB. SCART cables on the other hand don’t sometimes though. My SCART socket on my TV is working loose now, and I’m gonna have to take it apart to fix that, but then my entire family will lose their shit again and call in all of relatives within 100 miles to my house to stop me again if I take it apart even though I know exactly what I’m doing.

[@Nightshft42]

I just had the opportunity to get a small 14" Sony Trinitron CRT. It has a Scart Connector, but the picture was non-existant because the scart connector solder joints got bad. Resoldered the pins and now it works well. One thing to note: when doing something like in the video, remember to discharge the caps on the mainboard. These can hold high voltages for days or weeks. Once I ran with a screwdriver (remember to not touch the metal) across a board and suddenly there was a loud bang as I shorted a cap.

[@stephensnell5707]

You mean shorted

[@Nightshft42]

@@stephensnell5707 Yes, shorted. Fixed the typo, thx.

[@masterofsniping92]

When a grid’s misaligned with another behind, that’s a moiré...

[@jamesslick4790]

😜😂

[@VioletGiraffe]

Yep, I don't think it has anything to do with polarization at all. It's just plain old interference, as in the wave effect, manifested in periodic 2D structures.

[@AiOinc1]

heh

[@BrennanYoung]

and fwiw that accent at the end is long "e" (pronounced "ay") , as in "café"

[@Kummahndough]

Nice xkcd reference.

[@Alias_Anybody]

Married with 22 in a one bedroom apartment? I somehow want to hear that story more than I want to hear about the TV.

[@deus_ex_machina_]

Introvert Kitty Croatia?

[@cristopherkurtin7858]

I LOL'd when I read Croatia. Come on, it ain't that bad :)

[@deus_ex_machina_]

"One of the most beautiful places in the world" I meant it as a compliment.

[@trulsolsen683]

@@AstroKitty16 what place is this? I'm gonna take a wild guess and say Hong Kong

[@billkeithchannel]

@@AstroKitty16 Girls are 17 and younger. Women are 18 and older. You didn't live with a girl for long.

[@UselessDuckCompany]

This is a pretty advanced mod. Cool stuff.

[@connecticuter2410]

Oh hey it's that guy!

[@TheOriginalNett]

hay i know u

[@KyleRVeenstra]

You’re the talking banana guy

[@Gayestskijumpever]

I eat my neighbours poop.

[@cormano64]

@Simon Harris, thanks for your service.

[@BlackPenzo]

Nice video, Barny! I totally agree with what Asmon said

[@dykodesigns]

A funny detail about this tv, the connector at the back looks like the shape of a scart connector. The shell of the TV has a matching cut-out hole. I guess this model was made for internation markets and they could just put a board in there with either a scart connector or that block with the two RCA jacks.

[@xsuperdragonx]

I noticed that as well haha

[@ZamuelAtari]

I live in Sweden and I used to have that exact Samsung TV and it had SCART.

[@CLS2086]

Noticed too. But may be he need a different cpu rom

[@Mythricia1988]

Can confirm, I had this exact same model in Norway, and it had a SCART on the back - which as was pointed out in video, literally everything over here had SCART on the back. Usually with a fancy switchable SCART adapter that took RGB + Composite input and allowed you to swap between them on any SCART input device.

[@moomah5929]

Thought the same too. Same models sold worldwide with slight alterations. Thing is, RF is always seen as quite bad but my "new" CRT has a quite good RF quality and it's more the sound that is suffering. Far better than I remember and as certain emulators, trying to emulate the RF signal, make it out to be. Funny thing is, I bought Composite cables for all my consoles as TFTs don't come with Scart anymore and shortly after I decided that I need a CRT again as Mega Drive games looked horrible on the big screen. Now I wonder if I should buy RGB-Scart cables. At the moment I'm using Composite to Scart adapters (5 consoles + C64) on a Scart multiplug (cheap one, not something like a Hydra) and it seems to be causing interference, while the Sega Saturn's proper RGB-Scart cable works fine over the multiplug. Oddly enough its worse plugging the multiplug directly into the Scart port of my TV instead of having it connected to the Composite ports via a Scart to Composite adapter with another Scart to Scart adapter in between. Looks like a Frankenstein creation. (cable -> adapter -> multiplug -> adapter -> adapter cable)

[@rgilles42]

SCART's a French innovation, (it's known as Péritel here, and it's a strong part of the French pop culture) and some French law made it mandatory for every TV selling in France to have a scart input and every video equipment to have a scart output (or at least an adapter), and it was into force until quite recently... As a consequence it was featured in every TV set made for the European market. Actually, most of the devices I used still output composite video into the scart connector (many French dudes can recall this cheap plasticy Composite to Scart adapter coming with every console from the nes at least up until the PS3 that you would always lose) so I didn't have any piece of hardware which took advantage of its rgb capabilities... I was a kid though, maybe it's worth looking for ways to make use of it now that I'm more familiar with all this stuff

[@dustys5512]

There was a television sold in North America with a SCART connector. My parents bought an RCA ColorTrak 2000 television when I was a kid. I noticed the connector on the back but never knew what it was for. The owners manual just said it was for a future purpose.

[@linuxbot3000]

The SCART jack on the few RCA sets that had it was composite only.

[@srfrg9707]

Dusty S Lol. Here in Europe it was for everyday usage...

[@cpufreak101]

we also had an older TV that must've used the same Firmware across the US and Europe, as when it scanned for inputs it would sometimes check "SCART" and I still remember having no idea what that was lol (because it didn't have the SCART port)

[@lukasperuzovic1429]

Dusty S, Yeah RCA wanted to introduce Scart into North America as the EIA Multiport, too bad it never took ground.

[@FinalBaton]

I have a consumer Sony crt that has an RGB input (although not through a SCART socket). It's the KV-25XBR. There were a handful by Sony released here(I live in Canada). Don't know if there are some by other brands

[@antonnym214]

You can use a highlighter marker to color your white sync cable yellow to match the composite port. Great video! Loving all this stuff!

[@tempesttube]

I love that you just say “TSR” like we’re just supposed to know what that is... and we do.

[@kleptomaniac3069]

Holy shit, I know everyone's talking about the video itself, but look at how nice this guy's hair was (1:13)

[@jemert96]

In another episode he shows a clip from when he was a teen, pretty good looking dude!

[@loughkb]

One of your best vids for sure. This is a great mod! So obvious, yet I hadn't ever thought about it before. Nice plan with the switch. Being able to switch right between modes really made demonstrating the difference clear and easy to do. Nice graphics too. I know those took you awhile to put together.

[@XMattingly]

I never even knew converting an old TV to RGB was a thing, but I got schooled. My hats off, sir. AWESOME demo! 😎👍

[@baaelectronics]

That's a cool story about AST and Samsung. Never would've guessed that's where that TV came from!

[@catfish552]

And I'd say he picked the best gift. The VCR or microwave probably wouldn't be as useful 21 years later.

[@KryptLynx]

​@@catfish552​ my parents had a Samsung microwave for 15 years (since 2000, but it already was not new). Plastic inside of lamp compartment decomposed into dust over time, unfortunately.

[@mrb5217]

Looks like your brightness (video black level) on RGB is a little high causing the picture to look a bit "washed out". Maybe try putting some potentiometers in place of your fixed value resistors that you could tweak (preferably mounted on a small piece of perf board instead of just flapping in the breeze), or simply increasing fixed resistor value a bit to help lower the signal input levels. Even better, feed in a white video source and look at the values on each of the R, G, B, outputs of those resistors an oscilloscope to make sure they are putting out the proper voltage peak to peak that the TV expects.

[@buddyclem7328]

He can just change brightness, black level, and contrast from the front panel. No need to hack anything.

[@mrb5217]

@@buddyclem7328 But then you have to change the settings when you change inputs.

[@geoffnaylor3734]

But like, why bother having good settings for composite when it's going to look like shit anyways? Might as well only calibrate it for best performance on rgb.

[@mrb5217]

Some devices have a different composite output than their RGB output, and full functionality requires switching between them. Only the C128's 80 column mode is outputted over RGB for example. Everything else (Including C64 mode) comes out over composite.

[@hyzenthlay7151]

Most RGB-SCART cables come with a 220uF capacitor on each line already fitted for this reason together with the resistors, but this one is direct with just resistors. I've used chinese cables that were very bright, and when I opened them up they were missing capacitors which turned out the be the reason for the brightness.

[@GameplayandTalk]

Nice work, the RGB signal looks surprisingly good.

[@coolizmc]

It's simply amazing that tv manufacturers rarely incorporated this feature into their sets. They could have improved video quality considerably without much additional cost.

[@geovani60624]

the problem is marketing this difference to consumers, our tv at the time had component in and we would still use composite because we didn't know the difference, we thought it had something with karaoke stuff or something

[@realgroovy24]

The reason is most people just used RF for TV. If they used something slightly better like composite it would have most likely been a VCR and not really worth the hassle. With the rise of video games consoles (and TVs with jungle chips) it sure would have been a great help.

[@geovani60624]

@@realgroovy24 I never actually thought about it, like what would be the point of getting the best picture quality if your vcr will not look much better anyway?

[@cheeseburger7889]

@@realgroovy24 sony sucks

[@gohan5135]

dude was 22 married with a job.. me: 22 loser with no friends and still in college

[@skepticmoderate5790]

> loser > still in college Don't be so hard on yourself. A lot of people can't even go to college.

[@diegocrusius]

at 22 I was a total no lifer pretending I was studying for college while cheating on GFs. Theres a plenty of time. Enjoy the moment.

[@shannonconley2730]

I got married at 30 years of age! Just becuase you didn't get married at a younger don't mean you are a loser!

[@rdc501]

Sounds like you better get your shit together.

[@SRBAnimate]

I feel your pain 😖

[@mazda9624]

It's cool to finally hear the story behind that Samsung CRT that you always feature, as well as this really interesting mod to help expand its capabilities

[@graphicsgod]

FYI, this mod will help and save arcade enthusiasts a lot of money and time looking for good VGA monitor replacements!! Instead of spending hundreds on proper VGA monitors, just get an old TV nobody wants any more and mod it for VGA! Thank you for all the info and how to, 8-bit guy!!

[@chucku00]

It would only work with 60Hz VGA, not other modes.

[@graphicsgod]

@@chucku00 My arcade knowledge is limited, what frequency do arcade boards run at? I figured it was 60hz..

[@chucku00]

In North America, console video frequency is 60Hz, but if you want to connect a PC, you should use at max a 640x480 60Hz setting. Higher frequency video modes won't work and can even damage your TV.

[@nexusofice9135]

@@graphicsgod 15khz signal for old Arcade CRT monitors. Consumer grade usually ran at around 30khz.

[@nexusofice9135]

@DoddoSonic you would have to cut and splice a custom connection for an arcade cabinet if you used a comsumer TV (even in Europe). The monitors in an arcade cabinet use a custom RGB, sync, and ground line connection. So regardless the picture is the same no matter what region you get the TV from. That and you would have to get picture size controls from the chassis somehow. On Arcade cabinet monitors there is a specialized control panel built in to the main board.

[@Gigidag77]

9:35 interesting, so this model was also sold in Europe with the typical scart output on the back.

[@andrewnorris5415]

That's why he could convert it. I laughed a little when I saw the unused blanking plate for the SCART on the back next to his improvised connectors. Esp. as he only mentioned about SCART right at the end. Probably to avoid comments.

[@victorpelini5995]

Indeed, but he won't need SCART, or Péritélévision as it was really named (yeah ik the name was never used outside of France). The connector itself isn't expensive but factor in sparing 5c on 10 000 TV sets, its easy and quick money. SCART was factory in Europe as it was mandatory in France up until 2014.

[@BertGrink]

@@victorpelini5995 The name SCART comes from "Syndicat des Constructeurs d'Appareils Radiorécepteurs et Téléviseurs" ("Radio and Television Receiver Manufacturers' Association"), the French organisation that created the connector in 1970. _Wikipedia_

[@victorpelini5995]

@@BertGrink yup ik im french myself

[@und4287]

Or at least just the case

[@jebdunkins6796]

R.I.P 8-Bit Guy's Hair

[@davidjacobs8558]

Only If he could afford hair transplantation like Elon Musk.

[@jcherrera104]

Dude looked like a surfer skateboarder back in the day and now he looks like ...

[@BadNews2Muslims]

Maybe he should grow a short beard to make up what he's loosing on top!

[@davidjacobs8558]

not so, not everyone become bald as they age. some people keep their hair until they die at age 90.

[@Pdor_figlio_di_Kmer]

It's genetic, you know. With age hair get thinner in everyone, and someone lose it altogether. My cousin, in his 30ies is completely bald because his father is too and started to go bald at more or less the same ages (and my cousin chose to shave his head altogether, while at the same time growing a beard. Tastes are not a matter of discussion). My branch of the family, fortunately, is not plagued by that aesthetic problem.

[@iau]

"This TV holds a special place in my heart as it kept our marriage together for the first 3 years." *Proceeds to dismantle it*

[@x2net]

samsung means "falling apart" in english :D

[@keeleye7225]

Your setup and punchline are both a bit dishonest - first of all, he didn't say it held his marriage together. It was just their main TV they watched together during the early years of their marriage. Second of all, he put it back together after doing a successful mod that involved taking the shell off and soldering some wires - hardly "dismantling." I get tired of these types of comments that have one statement of setup and then think they're funny by having a second line in bold text, like it's original/insightful/funny.

[@moptim]

The added RGB input is specified to add at least five more years to marriage durability!

[@grahamtangomike1880]

The SAVAGE that he is!!!

[@rippetoe38]

Lol.

[@twocvbloke]

I never did understand why the US never adopted the SCART connector, it provides so much more for televisions than a simple composite cable, granted it's a big-ass plug, but, it's pretty damned good for what it is... :)

[@zacharytaylor8523]

a few American TVs did have SCART (emphasis on few) , I remember having an old RCA 32in CRT that did have scart on the back and at the time I even wanted a scart cable for my original Xbox since it was promised to have better picture

[@999thenewman]

The US telecom manufacturers chose what we got because all those cables could be produced on long-existing infrastructure and capital. Lowest cost usually wins.

[@TwistedD85]

@@zacharytaylor8523 RCA Dimensia I think, multi-something port. It might've caught on if people weren't too busy going "Durhurr RCA Dementia huhuhu" back in the day. In retrospect it probably was a bad name, but still. Pretty much killed US scart in its tracks.

[@TwistedD85]

@@999thenewman Yeah, it was just easier to send color (chroma) combined with the old black and white (luma) signals so older B&W TVs could still display it, instead of spending more money broadcasting two standards at same time with a broadcast for RGB and another for B&W or lose a portion of your audience only broadcasting one. Just came down to what was cheapest and easiest to do.

[@stephenbiszek9174]

I have a Sony flat screen tv that has scart

[@GreatPlainsChaser]

Really loving your videos, especially for the nostalgia. I was a satellite TV installer for 20 years and noticed a switch in the way HDMI worked about 9 years ago. Years ago you could use an HDMI to Component video convertor, to use your older projector or TV with a newer DVD/Blu Ray player with HDMI, then one day I tried it, and got audio, but no video. Come to find out, a new technology was employed in secret to unsuspecting consumers. It's called HDCP (First developed by Intel around 2001, then fully implemented around 2010, as a form of copyright protection). It prevents you from using newer DVD players equipped only with HDMI out and an HDMI to component convertor connecting to older projectors, that had a combination of s-video, composite, or DVI only. So the manufacture answer to the consumer is, "go buy a new projector". I'm like WAH?!?! My old projector had a great picture, and still worked great. SO FRUSTRATING!!! So what I ended up doing was rip a DVD to the computer, and play using the HDMI from my older computer then using an HDMI convertor to switch to component. Some have said that if you buy an HDMI splitter it bypasses the HDCP, but after trying about 6 splitters, I found that not to be the case, and some even advertised they would bypass HDCP, and they didn't. Playstation 3 has a feature in the menu to disable HDCP to allow gamers to record their play, but if you just wanted to watch movies using an older projector, you're screwed I guess. The whole reason I encountered this was because I had a first generation Blu ray DVD player that only had component out, and it was having a hard time playing newer blu ray dvds, and always required internet updates, and finally support was dropped for it. So I thought maybe time for an upgrade anyway, and that's when I encountered this problem. Have you ever found a work around, or encountered this? Just curious.

[@VitorMadeira]

9:24 WAIT...??? ARE YOU USING MILLIMETRES? Man, you just gained yourself my utterly *TOTAL ETERNAL RESPECT* forever and ever! Greetings from Portugal.

[@DarDarBinks1986]

I'm American and I only use metric. Not all of us are Luddites.

[@VitorMadeira]

@AirCooledMan2006 You guys deserve our uttermost respect. I suppose that has got to be a somehow bit difficult task for the everyday life... Living around so many people that uses a different type of units and deciding to think and act differently, right? But you know it's far a better way of thinking and living regarding this matter, so you guys really make the difference. A great salute to you.

[@Ndlanding]

You'll be glad to know that tv & monitor screens are measured in inches in Spain and probably more European countries. :)

[@jorgesilva5685]

Sempre bom encontrar outro lusitano por aqui

[@VitorMadeira]

Ndlanding, that is not correct. What happens in Spain is the same as here in Portugal. Given the fact that first TV and monitor screens (as well as plumbing and mechanic equipment) came from English speaking countries, it is a fact that most equipment and material related to those areas were used to be treated with their original references (and, yes, inches were their main reference at the beginnings when such products appeared in our markets). Inches are a bit somehow used when someone tries to communicate with other people regarding the size of a diagonal on a TV or computer monitor screen, but you can bet that when someone needs to know if a given TV or computer screen will fit on any given space at the office's desk or home, all measures will be made in centimetres. As an amateur drummer, I may also say that cymbals and drum sizes are usually stated in the corresponding diameter size in inches because the Americans used that in the first place when deciding the standards for such sizes. (the modern drum kit is a 'the facto' USA invention from the 20th century) But when someone needs to know how much space will those drums occupy on stage or studio (or in the car, when transporting them), you bet the measures will be made with a tape marked with... (you guessed it!) CENTIMETRES! ;)

[@arongooch]

If for some reason someone cares about the microcontroller in a set like this, it might be a good idea to intercept the blanking line from the microcontroller going to the jungle IC via a SPDT switch where the common goes to the jungle IC, one side of the switch goes to the microcontroller and the other side goes to +5V. This would be a good idea to prevent +5V being directly applied to the microcontroller if it is trying to bring its output down to ground.

[@xgamerbih]

late 90s CRT TV - paid $50 for it, never broke down and works like a charm even today 2016 LED LG TV - paid $600 - after 2 years broke down and paid $80 the repair

[@ΑΡΗΣΚΟΡΝΑΡΑΚΗΣ]

XGamer [CRO] and I blew 600€ for a Samsung 101cm smartTV and still to break...

[@marshallkobe]

I’m surprised it was repaired and not a paperweight

[@dkanareykin]

Потому что сейчас появился маркетинг, с точки зрения которого просто не выгодно делать устройство, которое бы долго работало. Ну и технологии, конечно, пошли вперед - все меньше, тоньше, горячее, это тоже не способствует долгой работе.

[@jenniferlynn3579]

A 90s CRT is $0 to $50 NOW, but it wasn't back then unless it wasn't good quality to begin with. Those early 2000s Sony Wega models that someone mentioned go for $0-$100 these days and look gorgeous, which can be a better value compared to modern $600 giant screen size LED panels... But when the Wegas were first released the MSRP was $2000 to $3000. At those prices you might as well buy an OLED panel or multiple LED monitors. One day, maybe technology will catch back up with CRTs and we'll have "lagless" OLED panels.

[@julianwaimer]

This guy is the reason for warranty avoid stickers.

[@stephenvalente3296]

I noticed at approx 9:37 the outline on the back of Davids TV for a Scart socket. Probably Samsung marketed this TV across many markets globally, so maybe a European version had Scart as standard. It's a great thing to have now for me in the UK, as many of the old 8-bit and 16-bit machines can be plugged into a Scart socket via a 3rd-party cable. Bit of a pain having to use so many different cables, but there were multi Scart extension sockets available I seem to recall, so ok if you have the correct storage setup to run many systems.

[@srfrg9707]

Stephen Valente I think the board of the TV has the circuit for Scart input/output as well but is not populated. The way to do the hack is to find the schematics of a european version of that TV and populate the board likewise.

[@BertGrink]

Λογος I concur that it is very likely to be the case.

[@BertGrink]

Steve SCART connectors *ARE* essentially component video, insofar as they can carry both composite AND RGB signals, as well as sync, stereo audio, and a 12 volt switching signal that tells the TV to switch from antenna signal to SCART input.

[@BertGrink]

Steve, you're thinking along the right tracks, however, inside the TV, the composite signal is split into RGB, not the other way around, so that the electron guns inside the picture tube will have their respective R, G, and B signals fed directly to it - via some amplification of course.

[@_GhostMiner]

Such a huge difference. Looks like switching between 144p and 1080p

[@cataclysmicterrain]

Or 4k

[@blacksource6378]

RTX ON

[@marios.k239]

@@cataclysmicterrain or 8k

[@KGNYC112]

Marios.k 239 or 32k

[@Simon-ps3oj]

@@KGNYC112 Or 256k

[@Auberge79]

Back in 1998 I had secondary PC, 486 based. It had no monitor so I connected it to the old Soviet TV via RGB from it's VGA card. Yes, I had some VGA-to-TV drivers, but Quake 1 was running AWESOME on TV at 320*200 resolution, with no squares pixels, because it was 'native' resolution for TV. It was like a hardware smoothing for the picture :) This PC was connected to main Pentium-166 via COM-port and we played multiplayer game Quake via null-modem cable! That was really great experience at that time!

[@MrGoatflakes]

Nice. I am reminded of my mad plan to one day acquire or recreate an Autonetics D-17B Missile Guidance System Computer from an AGM-30 Minuteman-I ICBM and program it with a recreation of Atari's _Missile Command_ of course on the largest valve TV that can be found and made operational on the planet, via direct ganglion connection such as was featured in this video! And large dildos as joysticks! We must do this! For Science! And Lulz... Mostly lulz... Actually it's not as insane as you might think, I think some D-17B computers were re purposed to act as general purpose computers at US colleges and research labs...

[@qmey]

@@MrGoatflakes Why so low here?

[@TheJeremyHolloway]

@@MrGoatflakes Don't be a monster. Atari's Missile Command is supposed to be played with a Trak-Ball Controller - and nothing else - as God himself intended. Especially the arcade original. Plus, the homebrew community has gone out of its way to add native Trak-Ball support to the various Atari 2600 games that should've had it included but didn't, with Missile Command being the chief title [followed by Centipede and Millipede]. For anyone else reading this, you can get the modded ROMs in the AtariAge Forums or order physical cartridges through AtariAge's store...

[@MrGoatflakes]

@@TheJeremyHolloway well last time I checked bare missile guidance computers don't come with a display or input peripherals, so those would need to be added.

[@DaveGamesVT]

This is really really cool. It looks so much better in RGB.

[@cymagen]

the pic at 1:13 is the most adorable thing i have ever seen

[@Pyroscity]

She’s a minor *(false)*

[@Manawyrm]

Cool mod! We're pretty spoiled by that nice SCART connector here in europe :) The outro music is great!

[@104d_3rr0r_vince]

In Europe we had SCART back then. The amazing thing is the reaction when people from USA see this even nowadays, priceless! Good job my friend.

[@DS-dd7vf]

You didn't watch the whole video right?

[@AmstradExin]

Correction: We still have SCART. The good thing is, even some of the most crappy CRT TV's did have one and it's still on some modern ones as well.

[@madfinntech]

Indeed.

[@CannedMan]

I'm just amazed to learn that there was no SCART connector over there. How come? NTSC-PAL issue?-50 vs 60 Hz? Or just plain, old being slow adopting better technology? As great as it was, I just assumed it was a global standard.

[@moviebod]

Scart (believe it or not) is French. It is like the Poirot, Smurfs Belgian thing. The French are very protective of their developments. It was only Citroen and Rolls Royce (at great great expense) who had their (Citroen's DS) superb car suspension.

[@LaskyLabs]

Mount another toggle switch upside-down and I'm gonna flip man.

[@Maxxarcade]

It's sad how much most people missed out on a clear picture back when computers and consoles still used composite. A lot of people didn't even know that early computers could produce color, since their monitors were usually monochrome to save money.

[@alexatkin]

Indeed. I would have killed for RGB from my Amiga but Amiga to SCART adapters were really rare thus expensive.

[@edstar83]

@@alexatkin I used a normal tv with my Amiga. I still have them both.

[@edstar83]

Amiga 500 that is.

[@joko49perez]

I was watching a completely unrelated video about the GameCube and the author mentioned RGB input mods and I had no idea what that was. 5 minutes later you uploaded this and now i'm scared...

[@obsoletegeek]

RGB is the only way to go!

[@joelavcoco]

Yes, RGB gives a much clearer picture, but: On the CoCo 3, and probably other computers as well, you can get way more colors by intentional use of color artifacting in NTSC composite -- lower resolution, but definitely more colors. CoCo 3 can do 16 colors out of a palette of 64 natively in RGB. More if you do tricks like swapping palette registers as the screen is being drawn, or flipping between different screens, or both. But you can also get roughly 256 artifact colors (maybe some are indistinguishable from others) on the composite video output, but at half the horizontal resolution of the RGB modes. Of course, with a mod like this, you just flip the toggle and you have your artifact colors.

[@firstsurname9893]

@@joelavcoco That's a good point which is briefly demonstrated in the video at 13:20

[@electronash]

@@I.____.....__...__ Using an adapter to convert RGB to composite will make the image look the same or worse than just using composite to begin with. They are fine if you don't have any other solution for hooking up an RGB device to a TV, but the only real way to get the awesome image quality is to do a (safe) RGB mod. Or, if your TV has Component video input, and supports 240p / 288p via that input, a decent RGB-to-Component adapter can look just as good. (there's a whole debate about how well some converter boxes and TVs handle Component, but it's usually not a big problem that most people will notice.) You could also use a device like the OSSC, which can accept RGB input from most consoles, then line-multiply the image before outputting it via HDMI to a modern TV / monitor. It depends how much you want to spend on the image quality, though. Please check out the RetroRGB channel and web site for far more info. ;)

[@pelgervampireduck]

it depends on the system and what you want, I prefer composite so games don't lose "dithering" or "transparency" effects and they look the way they are supposed to look. rgb makes older games look like emulators. programmers and artists knew most people used composite so they took advantage of that to make smooth shading or transparencies.

[@electronash]

@@pelgervampireduck It is true that some games did use the deficiencies of Composite encoding to their advantage (like Mayhem In Monsterland on the C64), but a lot of that was also down to the CRT itself. (like the dithering on the PS1, Saturn, Genesis / MD.) I've been using RGB on everything from the Amstrad CPC, 128K Speccy, to the Amiga, SNES, and Mega Drive since the early 90s, and I would never want to go back to Composite nor RF unless I had no choice. It never looked like an emulator to me, and predated most of them. It always looked better, including the dithering (on a CRT). (A lot of older machines also had the option to use an RGB monitor, so it wasn't just because we had SCART in the UK / Europe.)

[@MTRX2011]

Thanks you!!!! This is exactly what i wanted to see with the video game consoles. The SNES looked so amazing in RGB mode. We used to hook up our SNES's to the badass Amiga RGB CRT Monitors for the best possible signal/image quality possible at the time. You can also use this hack to hook up the old Arcade MotherBoards for some pretty Arcade Experiences. You just solder the RGB from the T.V. over to the RGB output of the Arcade MotherBoard, and you're good to go.

[@e5frog]

Ah, it's the "actually" episode, seen it before, it was worth watching again.

[@pungisotu]

Always return to the classics. Lol.

[@MrTruth-yn7pq]

Great video!! Thanks David. I had no idea that a TV could be modded this way but I shouldn't be surprised.

[@sebastienmonette6659]

I hope the RED and BLU jacks wont battle......

[@curlminion]

r/unexpectedtf2

[@jayisasalad]

Hahaha no, time to get back to the front.

[@trustnt1337]

Lmao

[@eightbit1975]

You got super excited in parts getting RGB from these...and I understand that excitement entirely! Once you see how these consoles/computers look (and understand that the always had that ability) it is quite amazing to the eye. It's great that a TV can be modded to do this....I never would have thought. Great video my friend!

[@eg8475]

Ah the SCART, that was why i was wondering what you were doing that to your tv... Yeah, you americans miss out on much.

[@loganiushere]

Peanut I feel bad about not having an RGB video cable that was standardized

[@theenderman9042]

BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

[@castirondude]

SCART wasn't that common , you'd have to specifically get a higher end TV to get that. in my 20 years of living in Europe I never owned a TV that had it.

[@castirondude]

@@UCKY5 Up to 2000. I think the last new CRT TV I bought was ~ 1997 and it didn't have SCART. But I know if you bought a high end TV at the time they did have it. The next new TV I bought here in the USA was in 2011 and that one had the separate RGB inputs.. as far as I can tell the signal it basically the same, SCART just combines the 5 (?) connections of R/G/B/L/R

[@Umski]

What @No No said ;) And also stereo sound - I once made an entire end-to-end scart lead with all 21 pins connected with inputs and outputs all correctly connected - not sure why, probably as it was cheaper to make one than buy at the time, or at least that's what I told my dad or I was bored :D I have loads of them gathering dust these days although still have one connected to a VCR for posterity - I guess it was the analogue equivalent of what HDMI is these days since it could carry audio and video in both directions and was a 'one fits all' solution for interconnecting A/V :)

[@hanselmanryanjames]

I had a larger version of that Samsung tv in the 90's. Seeing that menu screen and the remote for that tv sure took me back! Thanks for the nostalgia trip!

[@JoesComputerMuseum]

Fantastic as always! I was always under the impression that the bandwidth issues caused by TVs were inherent to the design. I had no idea you could mod a TV for RGB and get computer monitor level clarity.

[@manuelink64]

Only for 15khz signals, VGA has 31khz and don't works on TV's

[@lukasperuzovic1429]

The more you combine video signals, the more most you have of Clarity. RF being the worst as its combination of Audio and Composite, as well as its the most prone to interference by its nature of sending signals by radio waves instead of electrical current. Composite is a combination of red, blue, green, vertical Sync and horizontal Sync. Most 15Khz devices has Composite sync (vertical + horizontal sync), VGA separates the sync line as well.

[@niqhtt]

Not exactly because of dot pitch, but this is great for keeping arcade cabinets going.

[@jamesslick4790]

I'm not sure if this would work well on TVs much older than the late 80s. On screen menu displays and CC made sharp "stationary" images important, Picture tubes alone were much better by the 1990s. An older (especially non Trinatron) set might not be any different looking than composite. CRT quality had it's peak in the 1988-1998 era IMHO. Early CGA were visual eyesores when doing text, so naturally businesses went with the IBM monochrome adapter and monitor. This situation rapidly changed by the time VGA came along. The rest is history. As to the 1980s - 90s game consoles, It's not really a surprise that there's only a minor difference from composite to RGB, Unlike a computer, A game console was expected to use a TV, So engineered to give a good as possible image thru a composite input.

[@mikkelbreiler8916]

Haha - in 1997 I worked tech support for AST in a Sykes call center in Sweden.

[@milanmaharaj6131]

a channel which takes professional audio and video quality to a new level :)

[@kingsofserbiangameplay1623]

Am I only one here who's happy that Scart was a thing in Europe?

[@ZsomborZsombibi]

No you aren't. I was always glad to connect everything to everything.

[@srfrg9707]

kingsofserbiangameplay 162 I am. I used scart RGB ever since my first computer, an Oric. It was back in 1982 if i remember correctly. Then I bought an Oric Atmos, then an Amiga 500, then an Amiga 1200. It was the first computer I used it with a VGA monitor for productivity usage but I still plugged it on my TV to play games because they where in PAL mode.

[@georgH]

Well, it was convenient in the sense that you could connect anything, but at the same type those connectors were hideous

[@ZsomborZsombibi]

@@georgH indeed. However, it was quite easy to solder r/g/b wire to any connector needed.

[@Stefaon]

I just learn with this video that it's a european things, I was persuaded that it was a world standard...

[@daplaya88]

DRINKING GAME: Take a shot everytime he says actually ! HAVE FUN !

[@juankenon]

That'll actually land you in an actual hospital

[@ryguy8525]

JEEZ HE SAYS IT SO MUCH LOL

[@masefield_games]

Pissed after 2 mins

[@shrimp_on_internet]

Well. Time to engage in more alcoholism!

[@joseislanio8910]

It isn't even 1 minute in and I'm already drunk. Thanks

[@regeneric928]

I love your little stories and enthusiasm in videos. That is something really nice to see on the "modern" KZbin.

[@justanotheryoutubechannel]

Aww, your little 13” is cute! I love how the back bit looks! It’s a bit smaller than my little old 14” portable that I use for my retro gaming, but that’s mostly because my CRT has a big old VCR built into it. Man I love CRTs, I wish I had more of them.

[@enzoperruccio]

@Jesse Davis Me too dude, i love CRTs and have 2 in my possession. It's too bad people don't appreciate them nowadays.

[@brendanhauser4644]

T H A T S W H A T S H E S A I D

[@galier2]

SCART means Syndicat des Constructeurs d'Appareils Radiorécepteurs et Téléviseurs. It's French, so this explains why it never would be accepted in the US. Even in Europe it required some coercing from the EC (at that time it was not EU yet) before it was accepted in Germany and Britain. Péritel (that's how it was called in France) was required in France since 1980. Technically it was quite interesting but it had some flaws. The physical connector and pins were not sturdy and it was quite easy to bend a pin or have the whole connector fall apart. There was also the issue that not all TV or appliances would implement all functionalities, so it could happen that some things weren't possible as the RGB part was missing (rare) or that the composite was off (more frequent). Sometimes only the input part was wired, sometimes only the output. Sometimes you had to provide the 12V switching power externally, etc.. So, at the beginning, SCART was a mess, it's only at the end (end of the 90s, 2000s) that it became really nice.

[@evancrazyerror]

Wow 1997, that was the time when things weren’t made to break. I had an LG TV that I got in 2012, and in 2017 it completely broke. It turns out many people that had this specific model broke within a year or two, so I was at least lucky to get 5 years of life out of this. Meanwhile I have a Sony tv from 2007 that works perfectly.

[@obedhernandez4533]

Well, believe it or not, many electronics today are designed to break after a certain period of time so you buy a new one. Call me paranoid, but the fact that this is a common trend is making it more obvious

[@stevethepocket]

There's a good chance the fix for that TV would have been as simple as replacing a dead capacitor; 8-Bit Guy has a video about that as well. I was able to get a free TV out of knowing that!

[@thegenerousdegenerate9395]

Im guessing your in your twenties... Lol

[@evancrazyerror]

Pocket Fluff Productions nah, it’s the whole panel. It’s not worth it anyways, for the price of the panel, I could buy another tv. Tell me why an old Nokia from the ‘00s can still work great, while an iPhone or a Samsung from 5 years ago isn’t getting updated or is down right unusably slow.

[@sa3270]

2012 is when I bought my LG TV that I just watched this on. And I have a Sony TV from 2000 that still works well.

[@justdev8965]

13:38-14:26 my mind is blown. There is so much wealth of knowledge on your videos. Thank you. I always wondered why CRTs have colors that TVs that cost as much as a used car nowadays can't have. It all makes sense now with your explanation.

[@MajatekYT]

8-Bit Guy: modifies something Something: works BGM: plays a happy tune during the montage I'm super impressed by how smooth and painless that modification was! I'm sure you felt like a kid in a candy store realising that you had a brand new RGB compatible CRT to toy with, surrounded by a whole bunch of hardware that could output to RGB. :D

[@mathgeniuszach]

14:17 - Nothing reminding to me 14:20 - OH so that's where Minecraft gets their color scheme from

[@tallywally162]

OMG, that's why the text colors are so weird!

[@synexiasaturnds727yearsago7]

Thought so too!

[@keanebgONE]

Even the cheapest crap TVs came with Scart RGB here in Europe. Even today, every cheap lcd still has at least 1 if not 2 Scart connectors. In fact the only TVs without Scart would have been back in the mid 80s.

[@NaokisRC]

I disagree. Modern TVs are shifting away from SCART. I know because there was only one 4K TV with SCART that was in my price range when I went to look. Most, if not all, others were close to or digital only with your options being DVB, HDMI and Networking. The one I have I'm really happy with as the RGB signal is upscaled rather nicely on an otherwise cheap LCD screen.

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

Not that I would watch the SD signals of old consoles on a modern 4K anyway. Those upscalers are just horrible to work with 224p/240p/480i Some can do a good jop with 480p and 720p but below that most are just bad.

[@adrianfox9431]

back in the 80s/90s many cheap TVs didn't support RGB as the relevant pins on the SCART connector weren't actually wired up. Not sure about LCDs today.

[@keanebgONE]

Adrian Fox Often TVs with 2-3 Starts had RGB support only on the first scart.

[@gentarofourze]

Yes and no, in the 90s whilst tvs ended up getting scart here in the UK most people didn't buy a scart capable tv till around the early 00's and even ones who bought one earlier didn't use the connection as it was before the days of digital tv, dvd players etc in fact around 2004 for a few years there was many adverts (lying) saying you needed a new tv to watch freeview/digital tv when the real reason was the companies intentionally removed rf modulators from boxes even though earlier models were compatable with RF output, and also some scart inputs were actually only composite wired even if single socket.

[@Booruvcheek]

In 1998 me and my wife have bought our first TV, a small Samsung that looked very close to this one, except it had speaker grilles on both sides of the screen (it was wider). But when I saw that remote.. it was EXACTLY like the remote from my first TV that I have bought with my own money! Oh, the memories! :)

[@lander77477]

7:12 your thumb is so close to that soldering iron! Gives me flashbacks to when i've burned myself with a hot soldering iron

[@101Volts]

Speaking of *light* burns, I know a way to alleviate them. 1: Aloe Vera Gel. You could keep some of the capsules on hand from the vitamin shelf at Walmart, then open them and apply the gel to a *light* burn. It works quickly if it's a light burn. (I speak from experience with this.) Also, 2 (though I haven't tried this personally, I need to mention it just in case it works:) Freshly Cut, Raw Onion. Supposedly, this will help against more severe burns, *but I don't know for sure.* I've only heard about it from a few places. Take a *freshly cut* onion, and hold it on the burn. Alternatively (and this seems to be the better option if you can do it in a pinch,) you can take some raw onions, and juice them. Put the juice in a rag, and hold it to the burn. *Please* don't just take my word for it on this, though; I *haven't* tested it, but I would if I burned myself again. Stories of this onion juice idea working range from: 1: A toddler (or baby, I forget) got burned by coffee. His parents then put fresh onion juice soaked rags on him, and he stopped crying some time after that. 2: A teen in a kitchen in the 1500s or 1600s fell into a pot of hot oil, and got the same onion treatment. His skin *(supposedly)* didn't blister where the fresh onion juice was. *I CANNOT verify these stories about Onion Juice alleviating burns this well, though, so please don't assume they're true WITHOUT testing them for yourself IF you burn yourself.* That's not to suggest to "not seek out medical help," either. I am NOT a doctor, I'm just some guy interested in how food works, and the onion suggestion is just something I heard. I don't know if it works.

[@lander77477]

@@101Volts I knew none of that in high school when i burned myself, i just sat the rest of the day in pain, i didn't even take any pain relievers

[@lwilton]

@@lander77477 "A smart man knows which end of a hot soldering iron to pick up." Used to be a pretty common saying around TV repair shops, back when things like that existed. Back before fancy Weller-type spring wire soldering iron stands, practically everyone learned which end of the soldering iron to pick up, the same way you did.

[@lander77477]

@Weekblues anywhere between 400 to 700 degree Fahrenheit

[@HazeAnderson]

When I 1st watched this 6 months ago I had ZERO CLUE about electronics, analog or digital (I do have a comp sci degree however). Since then I have been studying EE and now I see how the 3 resistors you added create voltage dividers to tame the RGB signals you are tapping into. Sorry just had to share that. 😂👍

[@uwirl4338]

It must feel good!

[@TechSpec814]

Dude I am in the same page as you. Studying computer engineering required me to learn electrical stuff as well. Before I would have been clueless what he meant but now I get a decent idea of what he is talking about.

[@leeemery01]

Hi

[@jonjonmia]

Clueless gang ✌️

[@jonjonmia]

Could you perhaps direct me to some source that could provide a detailed explanation of what’s going on when he adds the new resistors?

[@syntaxerror9994]

This is the coolest project video youve done so far! This may not be possible to do as i dont know if the schematics are avalable, but since I first read about it in "Atari: business is fun" Ive been fascinated by how Ataris early arcade games (Pong, Computer space, night driver, ect) overcame the limitations of computers being prohibitively expensive by making boards that hijacked the ray gun in off the shelf B/W tvs directly and ran games without a single microprocessor. Basicly they were only slightly more complex than one of those early LED handheld games but controlled a tv ray tube instead of a bank of LEDs. Maybe its a little out of your "genra" of videos, but id love to see someone try to recreate this.

[@BeerBaron23]

Something that works similar to the Vectrex?

[@NaokisRC]

What you're talking about it Vector based TTL Arcade games. Vector because the beam isnt a raster scan (left to right and back), the X and Y are controlled by the game. CRT Osciliscopes are functionally identical and with a 2 channel version with an XY feature, you can turn it into a vector display. In fact there is a modified version of MAME which outputs the vector image over (i think) audio lines for the x and y and thus you can play the legit version of Asteroids on a real vector display.

[@timharig]

You might find these interesting: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hovWiKSFqq95gas kzbin.info/www/bejne/l6KWYXianLijhbs

[@moiquiregardevideo]

I did the same in 1985... many of you were just a vague thought in your parent mind. I simply soldered a 0..1 uF capacitor on the base o the video output driver. The AC coupling imply that some horizontal traces would appear at different part of the screen, but the game was enjoyable. I was not playing so much but preferred let the video game play by itself as a fancy screen saver. For Joust: set bonus to 1000 points, connect a 555 oscillator on the flap input of both birds, permanently make one bird go left, the other go right. Both birds would kill each other more than the buzzards, but sometime they would even get the pterodactyls. For Robotron:2084, a modification of the firmware allowed to bypass the contact test between the player and everything while allowing the contact test between the player shooting bullets. Result: the player go thru everything. Constant firing and only one direction always end up with waves that don't clear. Adding a slight wiggling in the player position with the 555 connected to koystick motion fixed that problem.

[@R_C420]

There's no such thing as an upside down toggle switch. It's wrong-side-off.

[@robsku1]

If one side should be up, but it's down, then it's upside down, it's that simple and there's nothing more to it.

[@markkeilys]

nah, it's mounted right side up, but has inverted connections.

[@scottdotjazzman]

Sure there is. Once it's upside down though, all the electrons fall out and you'll need to send it back to the manufacturer to get more put in.

[@yallevereatenbeans2723]

hey, I'm you but bigger

[@FinalBaton]

I feel like this is a Mitch Hedberg joke. Is it? It totally feels like it. I can hear him, in his rapid-fire one-and-two-liners way, finishing one joke, pausing for 5 seconds and then saying "There's no such thing, as an upside down toggle switch." while emphasizing the second half, and then pausing for 5 seconds, and then onto the next one.

[@gugenson]

Never knew SCART was a pure European kind of thing. Thanks for this amazing episode!

[@braelinmichelus]

Cue the old joke: NTSC = Never That SCart

[@urielc918]

@@braelinmichelus also Not The Same Color

[@therealdutchidiot]

@@urielc918 Or even better "Never The Same Color" as that tends to be what happens.

[@therealdutchidiot]

@Barry Manilowa I disagree. In Europe we learned of American mistakes, like composite video. Lots of European sets didn't have that. They had SCART.

[@AirknightTails]

14:50 Holy Bricks. Now THERE'S a Computer screen I haven't seen in YEARS. Good Memories of playing Nightmare on Elm Street on that thing :)

[@wesleymays1931]

I haven't heard your intro with headphones on in a while. I love it

[@forthwithtx5852]

Free CRT TV's were once plentiful. Most of them in landfills now.

[@ifrit35]

I have a bad habit of collecting these things, but it might be useful in a decade or two.

[@mylifeonthepeninsula9521]

Just got one finally my family is like why do you want it

[@reggiep75]

My Dad was a TV engineer and used to know a few people happy to rescue CRT TV's in the 90's before their landfill destiny ever happened and he used to make bank fixing up these TV's to be sold on. The ironic thing was that 80-90% of the repairs were small 15 minute jobs but people got into the mindset of buying new stuff (over repairing) and then the arse largely fell out of the repair industry by the late 90's/early 2000's. Now people are wanting CRT's left, right and centre for old school console and retro computer set-ups but just make sure the tube is in good health otherwise it's not worth shit!

[@cpufreak101]

where I live they're still common, you just have to check Craigslist Free haha

[@Chaos89P]

Almost all the TVs in my house are CRT, even a couple of HDTVs are CRT. Only one isn't, and that's the "main" TV.

[@8bitlord649]

I’m going to wait for him to put a switch on upside down again before I joke about it.

[@xMxCxNinjax777x]

The fact that you can get a really clear signal with this mod makes me want to mod a CRT TV and add RGB to it, myself!

[@xMxCxNinjax777x]

If possible, once you receive the correct parts and added them into your TV, can you do a comparison video sometime later, with retro consoles? EDIT: don't forget SCART!

[@umalinonii]

Such a fun hack! Loved the personal and tech history, old analog board, and as always, great technical explainations and context.

[@reeffeeder]

I'm never going to do this, but I'm still watching

[@dgamer5075]

Bob From RetroRGB would be proud of you Dave.

[@psygn0sis]

12:10 Hey, that's ME!

[@milanvillan]

1995 - 1997 AST Computer sponsored my local (and fav) Football (Soccer) team here in England...Aston Villa.