Odyssey Connection

[cyberfluxor]

I'm wanting to test my Magnavox Odyssey but need an adapter to receive the video. I'm lead to believe the cable is a mini-UHF connector? There's a local electronics and wiring shop I am likely to swing by and see what they can come up with for adapters, but if someone on here knows of a few good tricks to connect it to a modern TV set or provide links to a few products that'd be very helpful.

[cyberfluxor]

Last week I visited Norfolk Wire & Electronics to show them the Magnavox Odyssey video+audio cable to see if they had any switching boxes or suggestions on getting it connected to a TV set. They were baffled and had never seen it before. They are some older fellows so I was hoping they'd have some RF tips and tricks to solving my problem. I had done more research later to realize these proprietary Magnavox connectors were reused for several other systems including the Odyssey² and dedicated Pong units (one being my Odyssey 2000). Lucky for O² owners they can swap out the cable with that of the Atari VCS by opening their machine however the original Odyssey system has this proprietary port so that trick does not work. So there are other switch boxes available, however they will not match up for the perfectionist. The last switch boxes that sold on eBay, lots of 8 and 2, were between $15 and $25 plus shipping+handling.

All of this leads me towards simply hacking off the end connector and replacing it with an male RCA jack. There are a number of modification posts that claim this works well, but I am not too sure because being a proprietary connector the signal rating is questioned. Typical RCA connections present 75 Ohm whereas UHF or VHF flat twin lead antenna are 300 Ohm. Whether the Odyssey matches or not is of question. Does the switch box alter the the signal to accommodate a standard ratings? I plan to figure this out before ripping into an old, rare cable that I won't be able to simply reattach the connector I chop off.

[alec006]

Does the switch box alter the the signal to accommodate a standard ratings? I plan to figure this out before ripping into an old, rare cable that I won't be able to simply reattach the connector I chop off.

To answer that question, yes the switch box does modulate the signal more, infact that odd little connector and wire from the Odyssey runs at 50 ohms for some reason then gets converted to 75 or 300 ohms depending on how you connect it to a TV set, that according to the schematics.

There are people like a seller on ebay that did lop off one of the connectors on the cable and replaced it with a high quality RCA crimp as you said:



And it does work I have bought an Odyssey from him and it's simply RF quality. The good thing is it does make a simple direct connection and eliminates the old switch box which can wear over time and cause more interference. The bad thing is you modified a very rare cable and some collectors and purists can't stand that. I mean it's all up to you, it would help to get rid of that switch box, or if you want to keep the original connector unmodified, you could maybe rebuild the switch box with newer components.

I myself have been studying the schematics and sure enough there is a composite connection inside in the Odyssey before it gets modulated, question is could one tap that signal to output a more clearer signal before it gets modulated being that composite would be much better than RF. I leave that question to some of the people here that have modified consoles more, the schematic is below.

http://www.pong-story.com/1tl200blak_sch.pdf

[cyberfluxor]

So a friend with an Odyssey² let me borrow her switch box and after hooking it up with the original Odyssey it worked like a charm, as I expected. I would think you can snatch up a cheap, old dedicated Magnavox Pong system and use its switch for the barrel connector. I've seen O² switch boxes show up perhaps twice a month loose on eBay going for $20-ish, have not tracked the old Magnavox Pong system as closely but with my 2000 missing a switch box too it's quite annoying. I still really do not like the idea of hacking off the ends and replacing with RF connectors of differing resistance.