How to connect the Dendy game console to a modern TV?

Game consoles Dendy, Sega and Sony PlayStation of the first generation today are superseded by more advanced ones, starting with the Xbox and ending with the PlayStation 4. They are often bought by those whose children are still too young to have an iPhone or laptop. But there are also connoisseurs who want to remember the adolescence of the long gone 90s. Let's figure out how to connect the Dendy game console to a modern TV.

First, make sure that the Dendy set-top box is functional, you still have working cartridges for it. If you are buying it for the first time, then the Dendy set-top box can be ordered in any of the online stores, for example, on E-Bay or AliExpress. For its operation, any TV or even a portable monitor, which has at least analog audio and video input, is enough. Modern TVs also have a composite or VGA video input, which expands their scope. Game consoles, starting with the most "ancient" ones, are unlikely to remain without a connection to such a TV. To get started, do the following.

1. Connect the joystick to the main unit of the set-top box.
2. Insert one of the cartridges.
3. Before connecting the power supply (requires 7.5, 9 or 12 volts of power from any modern adapter) make sure the power switch is not turned on. Plug in the power adapter.

On old TVs with a kinescope, as well as on LCD monitors and PCs equipped with a TV tuner, the connection is made via an antenna cable. Instead of an external antenna, a cable from the set-top box is connected. The antenna output uses a TV modulator operating on the 7th or 10th analogue channel of the VHF range. Naturally, if you install a power amplifier, then such a set-top box will turn into a real TV transmitter, the signal from which will be received by an external antenna, however, independent increase in power is prohibited by law.

The power up to 10 milliwatts from the Dendy transmitter is sufficient, so that the signal is clear through the cable, the length of which does not exceed several meters, and does not overload the TV set in the TV, PC or monitor. Video and sound are transmitted simultaneously - in the radio spectrum of the TV signal, as on conventional analog TV channels.

When connecting via a low-frequency audio-video output, the sound and image signal is transmitted separately - via separate lines. This does not have to be a coaxial cable - although it is recommended to use it, the line can be telephone noodles and twisted-pair wires. Such a connection is often used in intercoms, for example, from the Commax brand, released in the 2000s, where not LCD displays were used as a TV monitor, but an analog TV camera on the outdoor panel and a cathode ray tube in the “monitor” (in-house) part. The signal from the separate audio-video output can also be fed to a special video adapter that digitizes the image. This allows you to protect the picture and sound from industrial noise.

To work in this mode, composite and S-video inputs are used on a modern TV. But remember that, whatever the connection, the resolution on a modern monitor will be far from ideal - no more than 320 * 240 pixels in total. Move away from the monitor to reduce visual pixelation.

To use the “teleantenna” method, do the following.

1. Switch the TV to the "TV reception" mode.
2. Select the desired channel (for example, the 10th), on which Dendy is running.
3. Connect the output of the set-top box to the antenna input of the TV and turn on any of the games. The picture and sound will immediately appear on the screen.

To connect a set-top box to a PC or laptop (though rare laptops are equipped with a TV tuner), connect its antenna output to the antenna input of a PC or laptop. For example, on most PCs, AverMedia tuner cards with the AverTV program were popular, it also allowed you to record TV and radio broadcasts in popular video and audio formats. Select a preset channel (still the same 10th). The monitor screen displays a menu of games that were recorded on the cartridge by the manufacturer.

Follow the steps below to use analog video and audio.

1. Connect the audio and video outputs of the set-top box to the corresponding inputs on your TV using a special cable. The video connector is often marked with a yellow marker.
2. Switch on the TV to AV mode and start the game.

If the PC monitor is equipped with separate A / V connectors, there is no need to use the system unit. The fact is that a PC consumes more than one hundred watts, which cannot be said about a monitor. For the sake of the simplest game console, it makes no sense to keep the high performance of the PC turned on.

You will need an adapter that converts the analog signal from the TV antenna or AV-out to this format. It is powered separately and looks like a small device with appropriate connectors and an output cable.

The connection with the Scart adapter is the same. It does not require a separate power supply from an external adapter - power is supplied via the Scart interface from a TV or monitor via separate contacts, and the built-in AV chip converts the analog signal format into digital, splitting it into separate media streams and transmitting it directly to the device itself. When using Scart or HDMI, the power of the set-top box is turned on last - this is necessary so as not to cause unnecessary failure of the digitizing video system.

Despite several ways to connect Dendy to a TV or monitor, with the cancellation of analog TV broadcasting, the analog antenna input disappeared. The rest of the ways to display the games of this console on the screen remained - analog video communication with sound is still used in video cameras and intercoms, this technology is not so outdated.

For information on how to connect an old game console to a modern TV, see below.