[vcf-midatlantic] ZX81/TS1000 with a modern TV
Dean Notarnicola
dnotarnicola at gmail.com
Mon May 23 23:06:20 UTC 2022
I’ve yet to find a TV that can’t do ATSC and NTSC.
On Mon, May 23, 2022 at 6:26 PM Glenn Roberts via vcf-midatlantic <
vcf-midatlantic at lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
> I have no experience with Sinclair but didn’t they have a built-in RF
> modulator? That would put out an old style UHF or VHF signal that a modern
> digital TV can’t decode. I believe you’d need an older TV to test these…
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
> > On May 23, 2022, at 5:54 PM, Dean Notarnicola via vcf-midatlantic <
> vcf-midatlantic at lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
> >
> > I’ve read that the ULA on some older TS and ZX units do not put out a
> 100%
> > proper NTSC signal, something do with the contrast. It may be that modern
> > TVs have issues, but CRT tuners can deal with it. Considering they are
> all
> > demonstrating the same behavior, these units may be fine.
> >
> >
> >> On Mon, May 23, 2022 at 4:32 PM Jeff S via vcf-midatlantic <
> >> vcf-midatlantic at lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
> >>
> >> The K cursor is normal, and standard. The ZX81 does not have any kind of
> >> intro or status boot screen. If you're seeing the K, then unless there's
> >> something wrong with the keyboard, you should be able to see any numbers
> >> you type.
> >>
> >> On Mon, May 23, 2022, 4:21 PM Bob Shuster via vcf-midatlantic <
> >> vcf-midatlantic at lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
> >>
> >>> So I have two (2) Sinclair ZX81s (US version - one is still an unbuilt
> >>> kit), and three (3) Timex-Sinclair 1000s. I’ve connected them to a TV
> >>> using an RCA-coax adapter and tuned to the correct channel, but I get a
> >>> grey screen with the “K” cursor visible. I’m unable to get past this.
> >>> This is for all four units. They seem to tune in white momentarily
> then
> >>> switch to fuzzy grey - with the “K” still visible. This was both on a
> >>> large 4K OLED set and a small HD LED TV, and I suspect they are just
> too
> >>> new to deal with the monochrome signal. I don’t have a CRT TV to test
> >>> with, just old monitors (which of course don’t have antenna
> connections.)
> >>>
> >>> Any advice? I’m selling these, so I’m not getting into modding them,
> >> just
> >>> want to confirm they’re working properly.
> >>>
> >>> Bob Shuster
> >>
>
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