Oscilloscope Thinks It’s A Video Monitor

There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture.

Where would we be if we listened to advice like that? [Eric] writes that with a fairly simple circuit, he’s able to split a composite video signal into its constituent X and Y ramp signals for display on his trusty Tektronix 465m. A LM1881 IC does the bulk of the heavy lifting. After running the signal through a few passive components, the generated ramp signals are ready for consumption by his venerable ‘scope. All that’s needed past that is some additional glue logic to invert the levels so the image shows up properly. The end result is a display that has an almost ethereal quality to it, like an old TV set or something out of the movie Brazil.

Hit the break to catch a video of the circuit in action.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FK7hy5usYE&w=470]

13 thoughts on “Oscilloscope Thinks It’s A Video Monitor

  1. It’s even better when you set H or V to sub intervals, and mess with the aspect ratio like there’s no today on the tube. Come to think of it you can correct for the aspect ratio mess that has arisen since widescreen TV. Cool if you like black & green TV. Come to think of it most TV has turned a sickly green.

  2. I vote for Youscope.
    For anyone who doesn’t know yet, Youscope is only a (stereo) audio file which is played on an analog (or really high end digital) oscilloscope. NO extra circuitry required.

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