Amiga 1200 B&W output to TV?

[AmiXDel]

I just got a 1200 off Ebay from Europe. I live in the US.
Anyhow I plugged it into my TV using the RCA Video output and it fired up fine, but, evertying is in Black and White. IS that because it is a European model and wants to diplay in PAL or what?

EDIT: I just hooked it up to my video capture device and it showed up in color. Still B&W on TV though. :/

[DethKnight]

You're not using the composite out (yellow) to go into TV RF-in right?

[AmiXDel]

no

[DethKnight]

Try other TV's ? maybe get one of those wonderful TV/game switch boxes that were popular with the Atari2600 :-o

[AmiXDel]

Only own one TV. It only has RCA input, nothing else.

[keropi]

perhaps it will work, if in early startup menu you choose NTSC ...

[CyberStorm]

Yes, the colours are different in PAL and NTSC so that's why. The same problem appeas to us here in Europe when we want to connect NTSC Amigas to a our TV's.

But if changing the preferences to NTSC atleast Workbench will be in colour. There are TV's capable of showing both NTSC and PAL.

[AmiXDel]

Alright cool. I assume it will not be a problem outside my TV display right?

Isn't there some sort of program you can use to force your games and stuff into NTSC?

Also what buttons to I hold down while booting to acess the 1200's special options screens?

[Framiga]

No way . . .to switch to Amiga NTSC, will change only the vertical freq. but not the subcarrier that stills in PAL.

You capture card its a PAL/NTSC compliant (at least in input) so you can see the output in colors.

Bye

[JimS]

The trick here is to understand the difference between the scan rate and the color encoding. You can set the Amiga to run in either NTSC or PAL scan rates. But the way the color is encoded depends on the hardware inside the Amiga. If you want to use a tv or composite monitor, you need something like an NTSC A520 adaptor.

[keropi]

you can enter the A1200 Early Start-up Menu, by holding down BOTH mouse buttons on boot...

[DonnyEMU]

As far as I know the A1200 didn't have a color composite out to tv, you had to buy that separately. My A1200 downstairs (from north america) doesn't do it either without a 520 rf modulator unit..

[adolescent]

DonnyEMU wrote:
As far as I know the A1200 didn't have a color composite out to tv, you had to buy that separately. My A1200 downstairs (from north america) doesn't do it either without a 520 rf modulator unit..

The A1200 came with color composite.  The problem is as mentioned above, the PAL and NTSC colorburst is different.  Various hardware hacks, early startup, etc. you can switch the display frequency, but not the colorburst.  A permanent modification can be made, but it's easier just to buy a NTSC motherboard.  

[nagaflas]

Something similar happened to me.

I bought an A520 for my A500 from a fellow in England. When I hooked it up to my TV, it still showed a black and white signal.

But when I used the composite input on my TV Card on my PC (after changing the settings from NTSC to PAL), it worked fine.

[leirbag28]

Get a Philips or Magnovox TV, as they usually support PAL and NTSC in color.


All A1200 have COLOR composite out. But since your machine is PAL (why on earth would you buy that?) now you have to go to great lengths just to display everything in NTSC mode. a PAL machine might have been ok if you were planning to use it on an RGB monitor always, But since your like me.someone who uses his Amigas on TV's then you are in for some headaches.

But you might also want to get this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=5172942406&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT

its a RF modulator with S-Video OUT and Composite OUT..........this is better than the A520