Trouble with Magnavox Odyssey

From: Andrew Strouse <kittstr_at_access-4-free.com>
Date: Thu Sep 11 12:21:00 2003

I got my Oddessy 1 to work. I had to clean the cartridge contacts and
wiggle it a bit until the TV went
black. Don't expect anything really spectacular to appear on the screen.
It will just be black with a few white dots (an maybe a number?). It's been
a while since I used it. Isn't there an adjustment knob for different size
TV's on the deck so you don't lose the dot? I can dig it up and check
exactly what you should see when you get the cartridge in correctly.

Stay Tuned....

Andrew Strouse
( kittstr_at_access-4-free.com )

----- Original Message -----
From: "Dr. Ido" <drido_at_optushome.com.au>
To: <cctalk_at_classiccmp.org>
Sent: Wednesday, September 10, 2003 12:35 AM
Subject: Re: Trouble with Magnavox Odyssey


> At 03:27 PM 9/10/03, you wrote:
> >Has anyone here ever tinkered with a Magnavox Odyssey and got it to work?
> >I have four of these dang things and have not gotten one of them to fire
> >up. I can't imagine that they are all bad. I am pretty sure that the
> >video connection from the unit to the screen is solid as I tested it with
> >an Atari Pong console and got video. I'm using a 9 volt adapter and have
> >tested the voltage and have also tested that voltage is getting to the
> >unit and that is all working.
> >
> >The unit gets turned on when you insert a carthridge. I've inserted and
> >re-inserted the carthridge several times but there is nothing on the
> >display, not even a glitch or flicker in the background noise. I've used
> >contact cleaner on the carthridge and inside the slot but that hasn't
> >helped.
> >
> >Has anyone else ever played with one of these and gotten it to work?
>
> I've never had an Odyssey, but I've had similar problems with some other
old
> consoles (RCA studio 2, Radofin 1392 and various pong clones come to
mind).
> What I found is the RF signal from the console
> is either too weak or to far off spec for a TV with auto tuning to pick it
> up. On the relatively modern TVs that I tried I either got no signal, a
> black screen or a distorted picture that won't lock on. It wasn't until
> I'd had the same problem with several consoles that I tried a different
TV.
> On an older TV with manual tuning I was able get a good stable picture
> from all
> the consoles that I thought had problems.
Received on Thu Sep 11 2003 - 12:21:00 BST

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