After months in the wilderness (a box in the loft) my trusty SNES has finally found a new home.
I previously had it hooked up to a massive Sony wide-screen CRT. The image had been a bit washed out through component, but a Retrogamingcables Packapunch RGB Scart sorted that right out. In fact, it became super bright, almost popping out of the screen. It was a bit annoying the way the TV kept resetting to wide-screen format after use, but in the end it was the size of the set and the need to reclaim space that did for it.
The plan had always been to get hold of a more managable 4:3 unit and find a corner for it. But despite ages looking, I couldn't find anything half decent reasonably locally, until about a month ago. By a miracle, a good condition Bang and Olufsen Mx4000 came up on Gumtree about an hour's drive away but in a town I was going to be visiting anyway. Bingo!
On getting the TV home and cleaning it up, I was struck by how stylish it looks 25 years on, but - it has to be said - more than a bit disappointed by how dull the picture was. It had nothing like the pop of the Sony. And it has SW revision 1.0, which meant it couldn't be adjusted using the remote control. Fast forward a few weeks, and I fitted a service switch to the chassis. This helped bump up the brightness and colour saturation, and let me tweak the picture size and geometry. It looks a lot better now, but still a touch subdued compared to the Sony. As far as I can see, there doesn't seem to be a way to permanently bump up the contrast, but if anyone knows otherwise, I'd appreciate any tips.
The set up isn't ideal, especially the shelf above the TV, with the obvious potential for 'cable dangle'! But it'll do for now until I decide whether I'm keeping the B&O. I spent an hour this afternoon sorting out the last of my game case covers. These have all been downloaded off the Web and tweaked on Gimp, but IMHO, make my meagre stash a lot more presentable than all those tatty cardboard boxes I dumped in the recycling ;-)
I previously had it hooked up to a massive Sony wide-screen CRT. The image had been a bit washed out through component, but a Retrogamingcables Packapunch RGB Scart sorted that right out. In fact, it became super bright, almost popping out of the screen. It was a bit annoying the way the TV kept resetting to wide-screen format after use, but in the end it was the size of the set and the need to reclaim space that did for it.
The plan had always been to get hold of a more managable 4:3 unit and find a corner for it. But despite ages looking, I couldn't find anything half decent reasonably locally, until about a month ago. By a miracle, a good condition Bang and Olufsen Mx4000 came up on Gumtree about an hour's drive away but in a town I was going to be visiting anyway. Bingo!
On getting the TV home and cleaning it up, I was struck by how stylish it looks 25 years on, but - it has to be said - more than a bit disappointed by how dull the picture was. It had nothing like the pop of the Sony. And it has SW revision 1.0, which meant it couldn't be adjusted using the remote control. Fast forward a few weeks, and I fitted a service switch to the chassis. This helped bump up the brightness and colour saturation, and let me tweak the picture size and geometry. It looks a lot better now, but still a touch subdued compared to the Sony. As far as I can see, there doesn't seem to be a way to permanently bump up the contrast, but if anyone knows otherwise, I'd appreciate any tips.
The set up isn't ideal, especially the shelf above the TV, with the obvious potential for 'cable dangle'! But it'll do for now until I decide whether I'm keeping the B&O. I spent an hour this afternoon sorting out the last of my game case covers. These have all been downloaded off the Web and tweaked on Gimp, but IMHO, make my meagre stash a lot more presentable than all those tatty cardboard boxes I dumped in the recycling ;-)
