1984 RGB Panasonic ColorPiolt TV - tv experts needed! want to use RGB consoles.

[Satoshi_Matrix]

Hello everyone here. I signed up for this forum to get some help in unlocking the secrets of a TV that I recently picked up and am pretty stoked about.

I need some help from tv experts to help me figure out what I have to get the most from it. I have a Panasonic 24" ColorPilot TV from 1984 that's loaded with features. I have no doubt in my mind that this would have been one EXPENSIVE tv back then. The TV in case anyone can find any info other than replacement parts is a Panasonic PC-26K79RS.


So check this tv out! it's a 24" CRT with a silica glass screen bezel! I've never seen anything like that outside of arcade cabinets! and it's in such good shape after all these years!


The original working remote slides directly INTO the tv and is spring loaded for easy removal. This is such a brilliant design that it's a SHAME that this is the only TV I've ever seen to offer such a handy feature. I dunno about you guys, but I'm always losing the remote and have to dig around for it.

Here's what I've taken thus far.


Super Mario Bros. 1 - note how blue the sky looks!


Super Mario Bros. 3 - Giant Land

Gradius II - Lookin' good

Rockman 2 also looks spectacular on this tv!


This TV oddly has some sort of windowed vents on each side of the tv I presume are speaker vents that angle the soundwaves towards the viewer?


This is what caught my eye. Notice where it says RGB?


The back of the TV. Check out all the inputs this thing has!


The right side of the TV has two sets of composite inputs (the first is on the right side) and two others I have no idea what they are/do: "Through Out" and "Program Out". Can anyone help me figure out what these are?

Also note that it's got hookups for external speakers. Pretty cool. This works perfectly.


Here's the real star of this show - an RGB Panel Box(!).

I don't pretend to be anything of an expert on RGB via tvs, so I need some expert help here.

There's a switch between RGB (TEXT) and RGB (TTL). TTL I presume is that olive green connector. Researching around, I've learned that TTL is a digital RGB for early computers and possibly Panasonic brand camcorders from the early 80s with a limited 16/64-color depth.

What I'm hoping is that RGB (TEXT) means analog RGB that I can use for analog RGB systems I own such as my PC10 RGB ppu'd AV Famicom, SNES,and possibly Genesis.

I have European SCART cables for them and am hoping I can adapt them to work on this beautiful old tv. 

I've been told "The YM input switches RGB to half-brightness, for video overlay use. The YS input is used to activate the RGB input. I believe you just use terminators to activate the necessary modes."

I tried this using a RCA composite male plug that I cut and split and soldered a 47ohm resistor to (ghetto terminator) and although not quite 75ohms as asked for, it still didn't do anything. I should have noticed something I would think.

I know neither are RGB, but I've also tried hooking up component video and composite video to each of the RGB channels while supplying composite video (or component Y) to the sync input, but the TV seems to ignore the RGB inputs altogether. It instead syncs to and displays the composite video in full color and the component Y luma signal in grayscale, but nothing happens through the RGB channels.

I think I should try with a clean composite sync signal devoid of video information in case the TV senses the video and disables the RGB but I don't have any means to get such a signal from my gaming systems.

I know I can build a simple circuit with a LM1881 to strip the sync from the composite video but I <insert favorite reason for not doing it here>

I should add I don't get a rolling picture if I don't connect the sync, just a black screen.

Help?


I purchased the thoroughly useless manual. Maybe you guys will find something useful in it? here. http://www.megaupload.com/?d=IGZAO5UN


In the meantime it does have three very nice composite inputs, so I'm using that. I produced a video earlier today showing it off. take a look. Vintage TV Showchase - My Panasonic 24" ColorPilot PC-26K79RS

[viletim]

It's possible that the RGB text input is a standard analog input. If you can locate a multimeter try to measure the resistance (with the TV off!) between the center pin and ground of either the R, G, or B jack. If it measures something around 75 ohms then it's certainly analog. You will probably need to drive the Ym and Ys inputs in that case...

The manual you linked to is only a supplement. If somebody sold it to you as a complete manual then I hope you can get your money back!