Vic 20 and sound.......help

bobbyd · Post by **bobbyd** » Fri Apr 09, 2010 11:09 am

Hello people,

I got my first VIC in 1983 from my uncle for xmas, and absolutely fell in love as a child, over te years I had a 64 then an Amiga....etc...etc....

I had to by anothr unit fairly recently as my original had broke. I still have all the games and carts

However I came to connect to my Samsung LCD and th picture has tuned in OK, but I cant get any sound either through games or using poke commands to play a sound effect.

Am I being really stupid here because I am using the original RF modulator which is plugged into the RF (aerial) socket in the back of my LCD, I can hear the kind of inteference sound I remember when using a portable TV back in the day but there are no sound effects.

Has anyone got any suggestions or info as to what or how I can get sound....

I have a SAMSUNG 32LE32R74BDX

please help....................

thanks

Bobby

Vic20-Ian · Post by **Vic20-Ian** » Fri Apr 09, 2010 12:30 pm

1. turn tv volume up - daft but it has been known
2. remove the modulator din plug cover and check wires are connected
3. try another modulator
4. buy a cbm to scart lead on ebay

bobbyd · Post by **bobbyd** » Fri Apr 09, 2010 12:33 pm

Vic20-Ian wrote:1. turn tv volume up - daft but it has been known
2. remove the modulator din plug cover and check wires are connected
3. try another modulator
4. buy a cbm to scart lead on ebay

lol on the volume up....;0)

I will check the rest.

thanks

Bob

robinsonmason · Post by **robinsonmason** » Fri Apr 09, 2010 12:42 pm

It's not really a solution using your current hardware, but I had some serious video issues with a failing RF modulator and saw a world of improvement after recently purchasing this new cable replacement that gets rid of the old coax and slider on the black box "TV/Game" method. It was 10 bucks with free shipping, but I've seen similar cables for 5 bucks with about 5 bucks shipping. Worth every penny for a crisp, clean image and no strange buzzing sounds (scroll to the bottom of the page to see the details as the auction has ended):

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 3D1&_rdc=1

bobbyd · Post by **bobbyd** » Fri Apr 09, 2010 2:19 pm

feck it....

ordered.

thanks fella

£5 free delivery.

cheers

Bob

Kweepa · Post by **Kweepa** » Fri Apr 09, 2010 3:16 pm

I see from other auctions that this cable is not directly compatible with the VIC:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Commodore-64-128-VI ... 27a564dde6

For VIC 20 users-I thought I'd share this info with you after 2 hours of
researching. I got my answer... and my guess was correct. The
C64 and 128 have built in rf convertors. The vic 20 doesn't. You
need to take the rca cable and hook that into an rf convertor box
and then that has to go into a t.v game switch into the coaxial. A
vic 20 will not plug straight into the rca jacks of a t.v and work.
The old monitors had rca type inputs, but the actual monitors
had their own signal convertors (from what I gathered with that).
So, yes your cable will work with the vic20, but not on it's own, it
still needs two more convertors 1. rf 2. t.v game switch!

Can anyone confirm or deny?

robinsonmason · Post by **robinsonmason** » Fri Apr 09, 2010 3:34 pm

Kweepa wrote:I see from other auctions that this cable is not directly compatible with the VIC:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Commodore-64-128-VI ... 27a564dde6

Can anyone confirm or deny?

The one I bought works for me with my VIC-20 just fine. I was concerned about the same thing (do I need an RF modulator or not), but plugged it in and works like a charm. Heckuva lot better than the nasty failing old modulator I got with my VIC-20 on auction. Previously I had a video cable going to the tiny video out that looks like a component cable, that ran to an RF modulator, and that ran to a "TV/GAME" connector with a coax to my TV. Now I use the OTHER bigger video port that is the same size/shape as the Floppy disk drive connector (right beside it) directly to my cheap-o television's front yellow/white ports. No middle men, one cable.

See this photo (you can see the cables connected to the TV, but I can take another photo of just the cables, VIC and TV if someone wants "proof") I took to show off my collection -- I'm using the new cable here. It works with the C64 as well, of course.

If it makes any difference, I have the VIC-20 revision that uses a C64 type power supply -- I know some VIC-20's use a different type of P/S.

My guess, and correct me if I'm wrong, is that in the old days no (or few) televisions had the white/yellow/red cables, only coax and antenna or that chroma/luma deal for the Commodore monitors, and that's why you NEEDED an RF modulator for a TV...

Pedro Lambrini · Post by **Pedro Lambrini** » Fri Apr 09, 2010 3:40 pm

Yeah, I've got one of those leads though it's the SCART version. It works perfectly. Of course, there are the higher spec C64 leads which won't fit the DIN socket. Maybe that's the leads the above person was talking about...

Vic20-Ian · Post by **Vic20-Ian** » Sat Apr 10, 2010 2:23 am

robinsonmason wrote:
My guess, and correct me if I'm wrong, is that in the old days no (or few) televisions had the white/yellow/red cables, only coax and antenna or that chroma/luma deal for the Commodore monitors, and that's why you NEEDED an RF modulator for a TV...

LOL - back in olden times of the 1980's there was only an aerial socket to plug into, no remote control, mechanical push buttons that latched in and mostly no colour just black and white tv for the computer. Only the big telly had colour and that would be "damaged" by using the computer so you had a black and white portable. Oh and the tv had valves and took a minute to warm up.

ral-clan · Post by **ral-clan** » Sat Apr 10, 2010 6:48 am

robinsonmason wrote:My guess, and correct me if I'm wrong, is that in the old days no (or few) televisions had the white/yellow/red cables, only coax and antenna or that chroma/luma deal for the Commodore monitors, and that's why you NEEDED an RF modulator for a TV...

You just revealed your age (or rather, youth) in this comment!
I mean that as a compliment though.

But the previous poster is right about the lack of inputs on older TVs. Here in North America, TV's only came with the pair of antennae lead screws (or studs) until the early 1980s. Then from about 1983-1992 they only came with the antennae lead screws and a 75-ohm cable TV input (and many models even dropped the two antennae screws).

Then from about 1993 onward, the seperate audio/video RCA jacks gradually became standard. But this wasn't until long after the VIC was gone.

From the very late 1990s until now, S-Video jacks started being added, and then analogue component inputs for DVD starting around 2000. Then finally HDMI (all of this you probably know).

I don't know of any N. American TVs that ever came with chroma-luma-audio inputs (only computer monitors).

In Europe, you had it a little better with the SCART standard. That gave you guys a much higher quality input far earlier than we had.

Here is some more light reading from the Denial VIC-20 Wiki:

http://sleepingelephant.com/denial/wiki ... _Modulator

6502dude · Post by **6502dude** » Sat Apr 10, 2010 8:50 am

ral-clan wrote:Then from about 1993 onward, the seperate audio/video RCA jacks gradually became standard. But this wasn't until long after the VIC was gone.

From the very late 1990s until now, S-Video jacks started being added,

Separate audio/video + S-video jacks were available on TVs from late 1980's. Although during this early period, they were found only on higher end TVs.
I still have a set that I bought in 1990 with both of these input types. As I recall, I had to do a bit of searching around for a TV set with S-video output to match VCR that I had bought a year earlier.