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Upscalers, CRTs, PVMs & RGB: Retro gaming done right!

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Depends on the CRT. It has to specifically be able to process 480p, which isn't common. The commercial label was "Enhanced Definition (ED)" iirc, if your CRT has Component inputs then it's likely that it can display 480p. Otherwise, it's 240p/480i only.
Most CRTs that have component inputs cannot display 480p, component was fairly common to go on late 90s and early 00s SD CRTs (like my Sony KV310) but only TVs marketed as ED or high scan could do 480p, and they displayed everything at that resolution (meaning no scan lines for 240p content). They are also mainly 16:9 aspect ratio TVs, except for a few high scan Sony's I saw looking around eBay and Craigslist that appeared to be 4:3.
Basically consumer CRTs don't do multisync, the only worthwhile thing to do with them is get a good, late model SD CRT for SD content. For 480p you could find a high scan or EDTV, but that's really only useful for that resolution. Higher resolutions like 720p and up seem to usually look better on fixed pixel displays like LCD and plasma. There are of course the professional CRT monitors that multiscan and can display 480p and lower very well, but those are getting quite hard to find and are limited mostly to 14 and 20" displays.
 

Khaz

Member
Oh I didn't know that, I thought ED and Component went hand in hand with the resolution increase.
And yeah, consumer CRT don't do multisync, it's either 480i or 480p. Or 480p/720p/1080i. I have two CRT specifically because of this, one widescreen which does ED and HD, and another 4/3 for all the SD content. Multisync SD/ED/HD was only for the high end of the professional monitors.
 
A piece of info about availability and price of pro monitors from my memories if you please. About a month from now, last year, I was watching 2 eBay auctions of the 32" HD 16:9 BVMs in NYC. I was at a Japanese festival in Philadelphia called "Sakura Sunday" with my friends, and when I checked eBay both auctions finished without me having a chance to bid. One sold for about $650 and the other for about $500, and they had something like 15k and 30k hours on them respectively, with no problems working perfectly according to the sellers description. Can you guys even f$%*ing imagine getting one of those for barely more than $500 today, with less than 50k hours on them?
giphy.gif
 

televator

Member
EDTV CRTs seem neither here nor there. Fixed pixel displays tend to do well or better with 480p upscaling. I guess the appeal in a progressive CRT is great black levels and color, but plasma and OLED got a pretty good strangle hold on that. So much so, that I doubt if CRTs have the upper hand anymore in raw PQ. Viera, Kuro, and the new OLEDs... You can't even tell where the bezzel is anymore in dark scenes. It's a trip seeing your TV turn into a pitch black rectangular void in space. lol Plus, you combine plasma with 4:4:4 processing modes and 10-12 bpc color depth and it's like looking at vector color graphics.
 
Is there a simple 15khz Component -> RGBHV/RGBS transcoder on the market anywhere these days?

Not looking to scale or process, just transcoding.
 

Morfeo

The Chuck Norris of Peace
Decided I want to have my Wii, Xbox, PS2 and PSP all hooked up at the same time without interference and signal loss, and preferably with automatic switching (if that exists). Anybody have a recommendation for a good component switch?

Quoting my question about component switchers from a few pages back.
 

Khaz

Member
Decided I want to have my Wii, Xbox, PS2 and PSP all hooked up at the same time without interference and signal loss, and preferably with automatic switching (if that exists). Anybody have a recommendation for a good component switch?

I have been using the Phillips US2-PH61150 (sold under several different brands)
http://www.usa.philips.com/c-p/US2-PH61150/high-definition-automatic/overview
And I'm quite pleased with it. It does the job, switches automatically and back to the previous input, without much delay.

PH61150.jpg

high-definition-automatic-component-video-switch-5.gif

Three inputs on the back, one on the front, one output on the back. Does Component, Composite, and Svideo.

Though I went for this model because it was literally the only automatic model I could ever find. I had to buy it used from the USA and get a Europlug power adapter (thankfully these things are standard). There seem to be a few still like here for cheap (quote me).

But yeah, quite happy with it.
 

Morfeo

The Chuck Norris of Peace
I have been using the Phillips US2-PH61150 (sold under several different brands)
http://www.usa.philips.com/c-p/US2-PH61150/high-definition-automatic/overview
And I'm quite pleased with it. It does the job, switches automatically and back to the old input, without much delay.

Though I went for this model because it was literally the only automatic model I could ever find. I had to buy it used from the USA and get a Europlug power adapter (thankfully these things are standard). There seem to be a few still like here for cheap (quote me).

But yeah, quite happy with it.

Thanks alot! This is exactly the kind of thing I am looking for, now just have to convince the seller to send it to europe :)
 

Aizo

Banned
Hello! I've never posted in here, but I've been thinking a lot about getting a CRT again lately. I hope I can get some good advice.

I'm not exactly certain that my issue will necessarily need to be rectified by a CRT, so I'd like to see what you all think. I live in Japan, and I've been getting more into rhythm games in the past two years. My friend gave me a Japanese PS2 for my birthday, and I intend to play Pop n Music on it. I figure that just hooking it up to my LCD HDTV will give me pretty bad input lag. I'm not too concerned about image quality as much as input lag. Is there anything I can do to make it good enough on the HDTV, or should I buy a CRT? If I should buy a CRT, can someone recommend a decent Japanese one that's good enough to play a rhythm game but not crazy heavy or space-consuming?

Thank you!
 
Hey guys, when i initially got a launch type snes i linked a few scart cables and Mega, who graciously helped me out so many times, recommending the right rgb cable for it here:

Super Nintendo stereo RGB SCART lead SNES CSYNC FULL SHIELD, GROUNDED cable
20.99 usd

now that i got a snes mini i was reading the DIY article to RGB mod the snes mini and the author had two links to rgb cables the one above and this one below:

SNES SCART cable - Pro Coaxial Multicore csync Super Nintendo Famicom lead cord
36.99 usd

aside from the price difference, what benefit does the more expensive have and do i need it for the sony BVM?
 

televator

Member
Lol true sorry. That came off as a bit brusque and asshole-ish (my bad).

I will upload some pics in a sec to explain.

That's good. I wait to be owned. lol

I just don't like the thread devolving into low info tit for tat. This thread ought to be more rife with substance.
 

Khaz

Member
Hello! I've never posted in here, but I've been thinking a lot about getting a CRT again lately. I hope I can get some good advice.

I'm not exactly certain that my issue will necessarily need to be rectified by a CRT, so I'd like to see what you all think. I live in Japan, and I've been getting more into rhythm games in the past two years. My friend gave me a Japanese PS2 for my birthday, and I intend to play Pop n Music on it. I figure that just hooking it up to my LCD HDTV will give me pretty bad input lag. I'm not too concerned about image quality as much as input lag. Is there anything I can do to make it good enough on the HDTV, or should I buy a CRT? If I should buy a CRT, can someone recommend a decent Japanese one that's good enough to play a rhythm game but not crazy heavy or space-consuming?

Thank you!

If input lag is your main concern, you need a CRT. It's like night and day, you will actually become good at games simply by changing display.
You want a TV with either Scart, JP21 (same plug as scart), Component, or D-Terminal, and the correct cables and adapters. You can get an SD CRT (a normal TV) or an ED CRT (that does 480p and upscale 240p/480i). The PS2 being the bastard system it is, sitting on the fence between two generations of video formats, has many games that only output in SD (and will look slightly worse upscaled) and many games that have a 480p option (they look better on ED TV). Since you want lagless, I suggest you to go for an SD TV as your game probably doesn't do 480p.

If you can't be bothered, everything works with composhit.

I have no idea how (un)common things are in Japan and I would love to hear about your findings.

[edit] random googling gave me this:
http://buyee.jp/item/yahoo/auction/n150015394?lang=en
15inch CRT that does both SD and 480p, with a connector for SD (JP21) and hmm... two D-Sub connectors that must do something. I'd say it's a good one, you wanted something small, 15" is cute, and multisync is very cool. But the auction has ended about a year ago, time for me to go to bed I guess. At least you should have most of your keywords for your search now.

[final edit] There. Bid aggressively and welcome to the club. http://buyee.jp/item/yahoo/auction/l342885292
 
Depends on the CRT. It has to specifically be able to process 480p, which isn't common. The commercial label was "Enhanced Definition (ED)" iirc, if your CRT has Component inputs then it's likely that it can display 480p. Otherwise, it's 240p/480i only.


Most CRTs that have component inputs cannot display 480p, component was fairly common to go on late 90s and early 00s SD CRTs (like my Sony KV310) but only TVs marketed as ED or high scan could do 480p, and they displayed everything at that resolution (meaning no scan lines for 240p content). They are also mainly 16:9 aspect ratio TVs, except for a few high scan Sony's I saw looking around eBay and Craigslist that appeared to be 4:3.
Basically consumer CRTs don't do multisync, the only worthwhile thing to do with them is get a good, late model SD CRT for SD content. For 480p you could find a high scan or EDTV, but that's really only useful for that resolution. Higher resolutions like 720p and up seem to usually look better on fixed pixel displays like LCD and plasma. There are of course the professional CRT monitors that multiscan and can display 480p and lower very well, but those are getting quite hard to find and are limited mostly to 14 and 20" displays.

I guess I should have said its a BVM with 750 TVL. PS2 SCART cables are cheap enough. I've got nothing to loose giving it a shot.
 

Peltz

Member
This is way harder to capture than I thought it would be, so please bear with me.

These are iPhone pictures of GCN running in 480p, upscaled to 1080p on an HDTV vs. 480i on a CRT.

I know we were talking about 480p on ED CRT... but bear with me on this because I do not own one, (but I've played on one recently and the memory is fresh in my mind).

If you zoom in, you'll see jaggies on the fixed pixel display (especially on the manhole) and no jags on the CRT.

From what I've seen of ED CRTs, there are the same amount of jags when running at 480p as 480i. Although 480p on an ED CRT is thought to be sharper than 480i, that effect is obtained simply because there is no temporal noise that is the hallmark of an interlaced 480i. The change from 480i to 480p does not actually add jaggies... it just makes the image more stable if that makes sense.

Upscaling to 1080p from 480p, however, DOES add or accentuate jaggies and makes edges look less clean, especially in motion. Why is that? Well, when you think about it, it makes sense. You are stretching an image over more pixels. It has to get jaggier as a result. Same thing happens when you zoom in on a JPEG on your computer - if you stretch it on a screen that is larger than the JPG's native resolution, you will start to see the jags of the individual pixels because it's low res. The more you stretch it, the more jags you see.

And that is precisely what upscaling is: stretching.

EDTV's are not stretching (or scaling) the 480p image at all. They render it natively. So, you should see every ounce of detail without seeing the additional jaggies that get added or accentuated when the image is scaled up.

Here is a better example of what I'm talking about. Look at Mario's legs:

upscaled:


not upscaled


Although more difficult to photograph due to the technology, the CRT has much cleaner looking polygons in person, even in 480i.

A 480p EDTV would absolutely destroy an HDTV in an in-person comparison of displaying a 480p image... especially in motion. When upscaled, the jaggies will also exhibit a "dot crawl" type of effect that is far more pronounced than when just rendered normally by a CRT.
 

televator

Member
This is way harder to capture than I thought it would be, so please bear with me.

These are iPhone pictures of GCN running in 480p, upscaled to 1080p on an HDTV vs. 480i on a CRT.

I know we were talking about 480p on ED CRT... but bear with me on this because I do not own one, (but I've played on one recently and the memory is fresh in my mind).

If you zoom in, you'll see jaggies on the fixed pixel display (especially on the manhole) and no jags on the CRT.

From what I've seen of ED CRTs, there are the same amount of jags when running at 480p as 480i. Although 480p on an ED CRT is thought to be sharper than 480i, that effect is obtained simply because there is no temporal noise that is the hallmark of an interlaced 480i. The change from 480i to 480p does not actually add jaggies... it just makes the image more stable if that makes sense.

Upscaling to 1080p from 480p, however, DOES add or accentuate jaggies and makes edges look less clean, especially in motion. Why is that? Well, when you think about it, it makes sense. You are stretching an image over more pixels. It has to get jaggier as a result. Same thing happens when you zoom in on a JPEG on your computer - if you stretch it on a screen that is larger than the JPG's native resolution, you will start to see the jags of the individual pixels because it's low res. The more you stretch it, the more jags you see.

And that is precisely what upscaling is: stretching.

EDTV's are not stretching (or scaling) the 480p image at all. They render it natively. So, you should see every ounce of detail without seeing the additional jaggies that get added or accentuated when the image is scaled up.

Here is a better example of what I'm talking about. Look at Mario's legs:

upscaled:



not upscaled



Although more difficult to photograph due to the technology, the CRT has much cleaner looking polygons in person, even in 480i.

A 480p EDTV would absolutely destroy an HDTV in an in-person comparison of displaying a 480p image... especially in motion. When upscaled, the jaggies will also exhibit a "dot crawl" type of effect that is far more pronounced than when just rendered normally by a CRT.

I see what you mean. Yes, in that way, upscaling adds jaggies. However that's a bigger problem with simple bilinear scaling. There are more advanced scaling methods that implement edge and motion detection. In a similar way to how you can eliminate saw tooth artifacts from temporally misaligned edges from a 480i image to achieve a stable 480p image, jaggies can be minimized or effectively avoided outside of what was inherently in the the un-antialiased game image. Panasonic Plasmas for example, were known to have what was basically described as "artifact free" 480p upscaling. The results I saw in person were impeccably smooth edges while retaining sharp detail.

I digress though... I spoke from inside my own bubble. Perhaps a majority of HDTVs don't even come close to Panasonic's reference level processing.
 

Peltz

Member
I see what you mean. Yes, in that way, upscaling adds jaggies. However that's a bigger problem with simple bilinear scaling. There are more advanced scaling methods that implement edge and motion detection. In a similar way to how you can eliminate saw tooth artifacts from temporally misaligned edges from a 480i image to achieve a stable 480p image, jaggies can be minimized or effectively avoided outside of what was inherently in the the un-antialiased game image. Panasonic Plasmas for example, were known to have what was basically described as "artifact free" 480p upscaling. The results I saw in person were impeccably smooth edges while retaining sharp detail.

I digress though... I spoke from inside my own bubble. Perhaps a majority of HDTVs don't even come close to Panasonic's reference level processing.
I had a panasonic plasma up until it died a year ago...

It did have really great handling of 480p.
 

NOLA_Gaffer

Banned
Finally made it over to a local thrift store this weekend whose hours don't really intersect with my schedule very well.

Came across quite the CRT graveyard. (Please excuse the shoddy panoramic picture.)

8jtOkXz.jpg


Gonna have to try to drop by someday and see if I can pick out something in decent condition with a nice selection of inputs on the back.
 

Galdelico

Member
Damn, Nola... O_O

Speaking of which, guys, what's the consensus here on non-RGB/Component monitors? I'm tracking down a JVC TM-H1750CG, but I just saw a new TM-H140PN (it's Composite/S-Video only), which would cost me around 50 euros. Would it be fine with my unmodded Japanese Nintendo64, or is it just not worth the money? Thanks in advance!
 

Peltz

Member
Damn, Nola... O_O

Speaking of which, guys, what's the consensus here on non-RGB/Component monitors? I'm tracking down a JVC TM-H1750CG, but I just saw a new TM-H140PN (it's Composite/S-Video only), which would cost me around 50 euros. Would it be fine with my unmodded Japanese Nintendo64, or is it just not worth the money? Thanks in advance!

They are generally pretty great when combined with a good SCART to component transcoder.

Edit: sorry, I read that wrong. I wouldn't waste my time with something that didn't take RGB and/or Component.
 

Morfeo

The Chuck Norris of Peace
shipito is my best friend for that.

Holy shit, I didnt know about this service, looks excellent! Will they also mark down/mark as gift, or only send it on? Also, how much does it generally cost to send to europe with them? About ebay-priecs?
 

Khaz

Member
Holy shit, I didnt know about this service, looks excellent! Will they also mark down/mark as gift, or only send it on? Also, how much does it generally cost to send to europe with them? About ebay-priecs?

They're a company, so it's much cheaper for them than for individuals. It's often cheaper to have it sent to them, then to you than directly to you, but not by much though. But they are the cheapest most competitive company I could find. It's more about circumventing the hassle that make people not want to ship abroad. And you have several options, tracking, insurance, they can repackage your stuff to take the fluff and the weight out, combine parcels, take pictures and verify it visually according to your specifications. I just take the most basic package where they just stick my address on the parcel and send it uninsured, I have never had any problem. So far I have never been taxed on their parcels, and a received a few dozens. I've always been honest with the value declaration.

You're in Italy iirc? I've heard of ugly tales of the Italian post and international parcels, so your mileage may vary.
 

Morfeo

The Chuck Norris of Peace
They're a company, so it's much cheaper for them than for individuals. It's often cheaper to have it sent to them, then to you than directly to you, but not by much though. But they are the cheapest most competitive company I could find. It's more about circumventing the hassle that make people not want to ship abroad. And you have several options, tracking, insurance, they can repackage your stuff to take the fluff and the weight out, combine parcels, take pictures and verify it visually according to your specifications. I just take the most basic package where they just stick my address on the parcel and send it uninsured, I have never had any problem. So far I have never been taxed on their parcels, and a received a few dozens. I've always been honest with the value declaration.

You're in Italy iirc? I've heard of ugly tales of the Italian post and international parcels, so your mileage may vary.

Thanks, sounds like the perfect service for me, especially after ebay introduced the new global shipping program. I have heard the horror tales of italian post as well, and thankfully, I am now based in Norway, so that hopefully wont be a problem :)
 

Galdelico

Member
You're in Italy iirc? I've heard of ugly tales of the Italian post and international parcels, so your mileage may vary.
Plenty of stores on ebay don't even ship here at all anymore. :(
As far as I can tell, postal services themselves aren't that bad (or worse than in any other European country I've been), but the customs... They are the rabbit hole that generated so many horror stories, in recent years. Fucking atrocious (along with the stupid mentality of the average Italian buyer, who gets his package taxed, and blindly backfires at the seller 9 times out of 10).
 

Bancho

Member
Bancho - how do you access the more detailed menus on your JVC? Mine only has a few basic options, even when I go to the secondary menu by holding enter and the menu button. Do I need an external control unit???

What model did you get again? I think i sent you the service manual over PM which has all the details to access the full service menu along with all the options.
 

televator

Member
I had a panasonic plasma up until it died a year ago...

It did have really great handling of 480p.

They got even better in the last few years. I'm sure the software technology carried over to the LEDs they started making... but... they're LEDs. OLED also benefits from Panny's wizardry even though Panny doesn't make the panels themselves, but OLED went backwards with motion blur capacity.
 

Galdelico

Member
It's a trade of spot astigmatism for better geometry.

Yeah, I'm still torn, but - all things considered - I'd say geometry has grown up as my main priority, here.
I can get everything looking good, vibrant, and with the correct aspect ratio, on my Trinitron, but the slight warping (is that the correct word?) - that produces an annoying wobble around the corners, during fast scolling scenes - and some other minor geometry imperfections (all things that don't seem fixable via service menu settings), convinced me to upgrade to something more straight, in that regard.

Edit: sorry, I read that wrong. I wouldn't waste my time with something that didn't take RGB and/or Component.
Well, I know it may sound outrageous, here, but... That wouldn't be my main monitor, and I don't plan to RGB-mod my Japanese N64 (it's one of those Pokemon editions, so I'd like to keep it pristine), so I thought it could still be useful for S-Video only consoles. You meant it would be a waste in that scenario as well?
 
If you just want it for an unmodded N64, any crt from a reputable brand should get the job done. Might see if you can compare a few for geometry and color issues.
 
Hey guys, when i initially got a launch type snes i linked a few scart cables and Mega, who graciously helped me out so many times, recommending the right rgb cable for it here:

Super Nintendo stereo RGB SCART lead SNES CSYNC FULL SHIELD, GROUNDED cable
20.99 usd

now that i got a snes mini i was reading the DIY article to RGB mod the snes mini and the author had two links to rgb cables the one above and this one below:

SNES SCART cable - Pro Coaxial Multicore csync Super Nintendo Famicom lead cord
36.99 usd

aside from the price difference, what benefit does the more expensive have and do i need it for the sony BVM?

i'll put this in the snes thread as well but just want to pump it in case someone knows.

Finally made it over to a local thrift store this weekend whose hours don't really intersect with my schedule very well.

Came across quite the CRT graveyard. (Please excuse the shoddy panoramic picture.)

Gonna have to try to drop by someday and see if I can pick out something in decent condition with a nice selection of inputs on the back.
damn that's a lot of CRT's

the yellow one looks cute =)
 

NOLA_Gaffer

Banned
Are there any holy grail consumer CRT TVs I should be keeping an eye on in that stack or am I just looking looking for the newest set with modern inputs that's in decent condition?

I'd love something really retro looking, maybe even with wood paneling, but those typically don't have A/V inputs at all. :p (And sometimes end up having a really soft picture due to age.)
 
Are there any holy grail consumer CRT TVs I should be keeping an eye on in that stack or am I just looking looking for the newest set with modern inputs that's in decent condition?

I'd love something really retro looking, maybe even with wood paneling, but those typically don't have A/V inputs at all. :p (And sometimes end up having a really soft picture due to age.)

don't know if you saw this: the article has recommendation for best consumer CRT (mentioning a GAF thread)

http://www.tested.com/tech/gaming/456719-best-crt-retro-games/
 

Mega

Banned
I don't think that model takes RGB, anything N5U and below only does S-video and composite.

That's not correct. The N2 have RGB but lack Component, same goes for the N6 line (the two look identical in fact).

I know we were talking about 480p on ED CRT... but bear with me on this because I do not own one, (but I've played on one recently and the memory is fresh in my mind).

If you zoom in, you'll see jaggies on the fixed pixel display (especially on the manhole) and no jags on the CRT.

From what I've seen of ED CRTs, there are the same amount of jags when running at 480p as 480i. Although 480p on an ED CRT is thought to be sharper than 480i, that effect is obtained simply because there is no temporal noise that is the hallmark of an interlaced 480i. The change from 480i to 480p does not actually add jaggies... it just makes the image more stable if that makes sense.

I have a 480p pro CRT and a Gamecube with the component cable. 480p GC (and Wii) definitely has noticeable aliasing. I do otherwise agree that the games look better on a native 480p set than upscaled to a HDTV (uprezzed Dolphin is arguably the best minus low-res textures). I'll have to try this out again to confirm, but I recall that the visual side effects of 480i end up softening the picture and hiding those GC/Wii jaggies.

i'll put this in the snes thread as well but just want to pump it in case someone knows.

Get the regular, non-expensive cable from her. The pricier one has better isolation in case your setup is prone to A/V interference, but not worth it for most people.
 
Are there any holy grail consumer CRT TVs I should be keeping an eye on in that stack or am I just looking looking for the newest set with modern inputs that's in decent condition?

I'd love something really retro looking, maybe even with wood paneling, but those typically don't have A/V inputs at all. :p (And sometimes end up having a really soft picture due to age.)

That article is a good one. I'd certainly go with a newer TV with a great IQ over some wood grain paneling.
 
don't know if you saw this: the article has recommendation for best consumer CRT (mentioning a GAF thread)

http://www.tested.com/tech/gaming/456719-best-crt-retro-games/

And of course it also references back to GAF. And of course in doing so references the KD-34XBR960.

I can't deal with that 200lb beast in my life right now. But if I did, there's always some on Craigslist for $0-$100 within a two hour radius.

Yes, this giant HD CRT will display 240p natively if you change the DRC setting to "interlaced". I've seen it with my own eyes.
 

Galdelico

Member
If you just want it for an unmodded N64, any crt from a reputable brand should get the job done. Might see if you can compare a few for geometry and color issues.
I have one already - a Sony Trinitron KV-21FX30B - which I plan to upgrade exactly because of geometry issues I don't seem to be able to entirely avoid, at least on the consumer CRT TVs I have easy access to. I've used three of them during the past 12 months, and each one had similar (yet differently located over the screen) geometry problems. Bowing, warping around the corners, asymmetric tilting... Imperfections that couldn't be rectified by tweaking the service menu settings either.
It's not like I want to burn 50/60 euros on that 14" JVC just because of the brand, but since I already own an N64, and I may buy an AV Famicom soon, I was wondering if it was worth the money, just as an exclusive 'S-Video display' for said systems.
 

Peltz

Member
That's not correct. The N2 have RGB but lack Component, same goes for the N6 line (the two look identical in fact).



I have a 480p pro CRT and a Gamecube with the component cable. 480p GC (and Wii) definitely has noticeable aliasing. I do otherwise agree that the games look better on a native 480p set than upscaled to a HDTV (uprezzed Dolphin is arguably the best minus low-res textures). I'll have to try this out again to confirm, but I recall that the visual side effects of 480i end up softening the picture and hiding those GC/Wii jaggies.



Get the regular, non-expensive cable from her. The pricier one has better isolation in case your setup is prone to A/V interference, but not worth it for most people.

There's noticeable aliasing at 480i too on a CRT. I'm just saying that upscaling to 1080p accentuates them greatly, especially in motion.
 
i'll put this in the snes thread as well but just want to pump it in case someone knows.

You can use the same cable you have now on your SNES Mini once it's modded. (assuming you bought that first one linked)

You also don't need the big huge insulated cable, unless you're having audio buzz issues, or other interference issues.
 
And of course it also references back to GAF. And of course in doing so references the KD-34XBR960.

I can't deal with that 200lb beast in my life right now. But if I did, there's always some on Craigslist for $0-$100 within a two hour radius.

Yes, this giant HD CRT will display 240p natively if you change the DRC setting to "interlaced". I've seen it with my own eyes.

I don't know man. When I was first getting an HD set I wanted a CRT so fucking bad. I just did not want to give up my black levels and shit. I tried out and bought/returned A LOT of HD CRTs. Let me tell you Best Buy fucking hated me. Every Widescreen CRT I bought from Sony's XBRs, to the Thinner Samsungs and everything in between all had the same issue. None of them had good geometry. None, and I mean NONE of them could produce a straight line from left to right. Some were more subtle than others, but every single one had issues. One of the Samsung sets I bought, Samsung even paid to have it sent to a tv repair place to work on the geometry and after 2 or 3 weeks he contacted me saying there was no way he would ever be able to get it right and he was calling the set a lemon to Samsung.

Maybe the high end PVM/BVMs that are CRTs and widescreen don't have that issue, but all of the consumer grade ones I tried did. Then again maybe I just had terribly bad luck with widescreen CRTs.
 

NOLA_Gaffer

Banned
Decided to check to see if any PVMs (or equivalents) have popped up in my area on Craigslist or eBay but it's still the usual 8" and below that's been up forever.

Any other online marketplaces I should keep an eye out on?
 
Maybe the high end PVM/BVMs that are CRTs and widescreen don't have that issue, but all of the consumer grade ones I tried did. Then again maybe I just had terribly bad luck with widescreen CRTs.

The bigger the CRT, the less possible it is to get really, really good geometry. Consumer sets have fewer settings to try to compensate, absolutely. The big pro CRT monitors are more tweakable, but even after setup aren't going to have as tight of geometry as smaller monitors. The bigger the tube, the more sensitivity to magnetic fields, and that's unavoidable. Scanline processing my my Pioneer Kuro would be my personaly holy grail if it weren't for all the latency...
 
So are there 480p via component compatible monitors that also do 240p component acceptably in the ~14in range?

Honestly at this point I just want a crt for my ps2 and occasionally wii.
 
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