CRT issue, what is it happening?

[BoringSupreez]

Yea, I won't play anything pre-Dreamcast on a HDTV. Even then, only the PS3, 360, and PC look better on a HDTV. Wii, PS2, Dreamcast all look pretty good but would look better on CRT. Anything below that kinda looks like crap on my HDTV especially with the lack of component/VGA output.

I remember being dissaponited when I finally hooked up my oXbox to an HDTV for the first time. I had always heard how that was the ultimate way to play Xbox, but it's actually pretty blurry compared to playing on a CRT. Only games that support 720p (very few do, BTW) look any better in HD. I wouldn't play anything older than current-gen, except 720p-supporting oXbox games, on an HDTV.

[Zing]

No one is debating that PS2 progressive via component quality on an HDTV. Hell, PS2 via component interlaced looks fine. Any true 480i signal will look fairly nice on a good HDTV. It's the 240p sources that look poor. This is why people say stuff like "anything Dreamcast or later looks fine". The lack of scanlines, flaky 240p support (jittery or flickering image), and input lag are the basic issues.

The best answer to "my CRT is dying and I need a new TV for my older consoles" is to hit up craigslist or kijiji and buy another CRT.

[RCBH928]

maybe HDTV should have like lower resolution modes like PC's .

Any one had good results paling N64 on a an HDTV? if so which is your model? I would like to buy a samsung

[ZenErik]

maybe HDTV should have like lower resolution modes like PC's .

Any one had good results paling N64 on a an HDTV? if so which is your model? I would like to buy a samsung

Mine is capable of any console I've thrown at it. The issue is my TV doesn't have s-video + the scaling the TV has to do. SNES, Genesis, NES, etc. all look like crap on my LCD compared to pretty much any working CRT, in my opinion.

[Cronozilla]

LCD TV. Those panels tend to be not so great, I've found. The newer ones are nice, but the ones everyone seem to own, I think are not that great.

My friend has a moderate LCD HDTV ... it looks completely washed out and slightly blurry and that's WITH an HD signal. He swears it looks "amazing", though ... I think he's blind

However, that's not the only "HDTV" type out there. This stuff looks different on all different types of TVs and manufacturers.

Anyway ... a replacement CRT is likely dirt cheap. A decent HDTV is still in the $300+ range or higher depending on size.

To note, the way monitors and TVs look at varying resolutions is entirely dependent on the scaling abilities of the monitor. I mean you can't change the number of pixels or anything, so it's all scaled if it's not the native resolution.

[ZenErik]

I've seen retro consoles on all sorts of HDTVs. Really doesn't look that pleasing at all... CRTs always look better. Unless you're emulating an older console on a PC hooked up to a TV. In that case you can get things looking pretty nice.

I suppose they'll look a lot nicer if you have one of those XRGB boxes.

[Cronozilla]

Yeah, scaling is definitely the main issue. However, you can get a hardware upscaler box that will prep the image and scale it properly so it looks all nice. Sadly they're not as common as I'd like. The best I can find is a box that doubles as a PAL->NTSC converter. I suppose a PVR will do the trick too.

Of course ... a nice audio receiver is the best option, though.

[Zing]

I'm not sure why LCD TVs look so shitty. Not just for games, but DVDs and everything. This isn't even compared to CRTs, but to other HDTVs.

My girlfriend has a Sony Bravia 42" 1080p LCD TV that was pretty goddamn expensive and purchased two years ago. When we moved in together, we put her TV back in the box and continued using my Sony rear-projection LCD 720p from 2006, because the LCD looked terrible with anything but the highest quality HD material. The contrast was crap. Dithering was all over the place. The motion compensation was inconsistent. I couldn't stand watching my 720p movies on it.