How do you get the best possible audio/video from a 2600 ?

[Anthony1]

How do you get the best possible video signal and audio signal from the Atari 2600?

I recently picked up a Atari 2600 and I just hooked it up today. I had to get a little adapter that converted the RCA Audio/Video output to a coaxial cable, so I could then connect it to the TV.

The resulting picture was pretty bad. I know that the Atari is a very primitive system from an audio/video standpoint, but I still think that there was way too much interference in the signal and ghosting and distortion.

I know that the 2600 is only capable of a few colors onscreen and a very low resolution, but I still would imagine that there is some way to view it, as perfectly as it is capable of.

Do you know what I mean? What I mean is, it may only be capable of 4 colors onscreen at once, but I would like to see those 4 colors very clearly, without tons of distortion and video noise. (By the way, I have no idea how many colors a 2600 is capable of displaying simultaneously, I'm just using 4 colors for the sake of argument)

I had an Atari way back in 1977 or 1978, when I was only 7 or 8 years old. I don't remember the video signal being this distorted. Maybe something is wrong with this particular 2600. I'm not sure.

Has anybody ever heard of somebody hacking into the Atari to try to get a better video or audio signal?

Didn't Atari come out with some other systems that would play the old 2600 carts? Did any of those systems have better audio/video quality? What about the Emulators? Do any of the emulators have really good video quality?

Thanks for any insight anybody can provide on this.

[AB Positive]

My 5200 has picture perfect clarity, if you can get one (a 2-port model is the best idea with this) and the 2600-adapter, you'd be all set.

-AG

[Big Player]

Here is a site with a nice selection of about every video mod attempted on the 2600. Good luck.

http://www.cheeptech.com/2600mods/2600mods.shtml

[FABombjoy]

I just did the CD4050 s-video mod to my 2600, and it looks about 1000x better than the RF. I changed the 2 75 ohm resistors on the output leads to 500 ohm potentiometers to allow a bit of adjustability on the display. With the 75 ohm resistors, the luma wasn't bright enough, and the chroma was too strong (pronounced vertical lines in the image).

[InfernalCheese]

There is also a simple mod for Composite A/V, though I have not tried it, as I want to keep my Atari original. http://www.atariage.com/howto/composite.html

[davidbrit2]

That really simple composite mod definitely did not work when I tried it. The picture was extremely screwed up, to the point where the TV could barely even stay on it.