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[Agent Unknown]

I picked up a small Toshiba CRT flat screen TV today someone had put on the curb for spring cleaning. I checked it out and the screen was in perfect condition with no scratches at all and it had s-video and component too, so I thought, "Why not?" It's been years since I had a CRT and until now I used the s-video on my 2007 42 inch plasma.

I brought it home and after giving both the TV and the remote a bit of disinfecting I hooked up my SNES and Saturn to it for a test run and it works great, using s-video on both, pics below. What is the best color, sharpness and contrast settings I should go for on SNES and Saturn respectively on a CRT? On this TV each picture setting goes up to "64," assuming that was industry standard back then should I go for something in the 30s or 50s for each? And maybe I'm crazy but the s-video on my plasma seems to look a bit better so far in comparison (especially on my SNES games which are bright and colorful on my plasma, Saturn games look crisp but seem to have blander color on the plasma, Radiant Silvergun's colors pop on this CRT though) even though I know using older AV on an HDTV is a big no-no.

A few pics of Earthbound SNES cart running on my plasma TV's s-video:

Pics I took a few years ago of Soukyugurentai also running on my plasma TV's s-video:

 

[btrboyev]

The bulging in the upper left corner would drive me nuts. The problem with flat CRT's for sure was very noticeable geometry issues that aren't easily fixed.

Never understood why they never gave TV's the same settings you could do on PC monitors since forever.

 

[Wolfgunblood Garopa]

There's no right way or anything, just tweak until it looks right. Even with SVideo there will be some ringing or color bleed. Probably geometry imperfections. The instant input response is the important thing.

 

[thechristoph]

If you can find the service codes for the TV, you can fix the geometry issues. It is a pretty big pain though.

 

[Agent Unknown]

There's no right way or anything, just tweak until it looks right. Even with SVideo there will be some ringing or color bleed. Probably geometry imperfections. The instant input response is the important thing.

Sounds good, thanks!

 

[Agent Unknown]

It's been yeeeears since I did this, rotated it for some TATE action on Do Don Pachi for Saturn, looks good but cuts off a bit of the display at the top in the "Player 1" field.

 

[HideyoshiJP]

If you can find the service codes for the TV, you can fix the geometry issues. It is a pretty big pain though.

No joke. And you can easily tweak something out of range. OP, make sure to write every setting down before you change anything.

 

[Sixfortyfive]

If you really want to get anal about calibrating your CRT for retro games, load this homebrew program onto a compatible console and start tweaking everything.

Never understood why they never gave TV's the same settings you could do on PC monitors since forever.

If you can find the service menu, these sorts of things usually can be adjusted. But you gotta be careful that you don't render the TV inoperable by doing so.

 

[Agent Unknown]

Thanks forall the helpful replies. Had no idea you could do service mode stuff on these.

If you really want to get anal about calibrating your CRT for retro games, load this homebrew program onto a compatible console and start tweaking everything.



If you can find the service menu, these sorts of things usually can be adjusted. But you gotta be careful that you don't render the TV inoperable by doing so.

Wow, very interesting. No Saturn support listed so far though?