Magnavox Odyssey Hookup

[achromatopsia]

Hello everyone!
I recently got a Magnavox Odyssey (not an Odyssey2) and I am having trouble getting the picture to come in clear on my television. When I connect it the picture is very snowy, occasionally I can make out the center line and the boxes and I am able to move all of these using the knobs on the console and on the controllers. Another thread here mentioned to tweak the vertical adjustment resistor (http://www.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?154880-Magnavox-Odyssey-Video-connections-to-modern-TV&highlight=magnavox+odyssey+switchbox) I tried this, but it made no difference. Is it possible that there is a problem with the switchbox? Any insight would be greatly appreciated. I have lurked the forums for a while and this place has a lot of great information. Thanks!

[alec006]

First off, welcome to the fourms, hope you like your stay here. In the case of the Odyssey, since it's forty years old, the fine tuning adjustment is adjusted for televisions from the 1970's. If your trying it on a modern LCD TV, it's gonna be a super pain in the ass. Now granted you can, being that modern TV's still have NTSC analog tuners, but are harder to fine tune.

But if your lucky enough to have a television that allows fine tuning of channels (Its usually in a hidden service menu) then you can tune it to the tuned settings of the switchbox. Try both channels (I think it's 2,3 or 3,4) and see which one is stronger.

An older CRT is going to yield the best results since the closer you get to the native tuning settings the better the picture is going to be and the better chance you will be able to fine tune it using pedometers or service menu settings. Also you can use the few light gun games.

Another method is to fine an old VCR with fine tuning. I have one from the 1980's that I have to use so I can see my Super Pong system on Channel 3 since that channel yields a better picture than Channel 4.

What sucks is 99% of problems are going to be from the switch box since they break down over time with normal use. There is a way to mod the cable for direct coax to the TV not having to worry about the switch box and getting a better picture, it looks like this:


http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m137/darkknux_2006/MVC-024S_189.jpg

Of course I understand some people prefer to keep the original cable intact and unmodified.

Those are the methods I've used to get older systems to work on my TV's, I'm sure a few other people here can help you with their suggestions as well.

Finally if you don't have a CRT, don't want a CRT, don't want a VCR or don't have a VCR, if you want to risk fine tuning your modern TV, try finding the service manual online (not the users manual). Sometimes you do have to pay for them sadly. Now accessing this menu may void your warranty, but if it's an older TV and warranty is expired already then have at it, just look for fine channel tuning and don't mess with anything else in the service menus.

[achromatopsia]

Thanks for the welcome and detailed reply! I had a feeling that it might be the switch box. It seemed to function slightly for one second and fail completely the next depending on the way it was laying. I was testing the system on a new LCD set which probably exacerbated my problems in addition to the switch box. Is there a guide on how to modify the cable online? All my searches have yielded were them on eBay for $20 plus shipping (http://www.ebay.com/itm/MAGNAVOX-ODYSSEY-CONVERTED-TAN-WIRE-FOR-72-75-SETS-MOWR1-/370661976321?pt=Video_Games&hash=item564d2ce901), which is more than I'd care to spend. I'll try to access an older TV or VCR to test the system soon, if that doesn't work then it will be bye bye switch box.

Also, is there anything that I can do inside the switch box to make it work better? The switch does feel very loose when I adjust the setting.

Once again, thank you for the response. It is very helpful.

[achromatopsia]

Good news! I got my hands on a TV from 1981 and hooked everything up. The picture came in crystal clear. I had to move the horizontal adjustment a little bit and after that I was in for a great time! Looks like I was lucky and got a system that is fully functioning after all these years!

[alec006]

Good news! I got my hands on a TV from 1981 and hooked everything up. The picture came in crystal clear. I had to move the horizontal adjustment a little bit and after that I was in for a great time! Looks like I was lucky and got a system that is fully functioning after all these years!

That's great to hear, besides playing it on a vintage set is the best way to do it for those older systems, glad you got it to work!

[rbudrick]

Good to see you got it working. Does anyone know the name of the connector the Oddysey used for thes switch box?

-Rob