Help an A/V noob buy an old CRT TV

Post by **philipofmacedon** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 9:14 am

Hey guys,

I was looking for a little advice on buying an old CRT TV for my retro games. Right now I have a tiny old TV that I have to sit about four feet from. I was looking to get a larger old TV for my N64, Saturn, PS2, Xbox, and Gamecube. I do have a 360, and while I'd like it to look nice on this, I'm really more concerned with playing old light gun games than seeing the greatest haloes. Much later down the road I would invest in a really nice large LCD or Plasma widescreen to really take advantage of the newer consoles.

Do you think this TV would be a good choice for me? It's a 32" JVC 32230.

http://maine.craigslist.org/ele/996715381.html

http://support.jvc.com/consumer/product ... chive=true

It's got S-video, and component inputs, but being as old as it is I assume it can only go to 480p. Is that a reasonable assumption to make? I figure as long as it does that I'd be getting the most out of my last gen consoles, for which I do have component cords.

Is there any reason to be squeamish about getting a TV this old?

I'm not looking to spend too much, but is there more value to be found in a new(er) CRT somewhere? I saw another thread about how Racket had bought a slim CRT and really liked it, but the Samsung outlet site from that thread seems to be closed.

Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated.

Post by **skate323k137** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 12:27 pm

One thing i'll chime in on, I have two CRT's with component video, and neither one supports progressive scan. They're 480I only; however my PS2s still look GREAT on them.

Post by **PhilExile** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 2:12 pm

I've only had bad luck with JVC. I'd stay away from them.

I've had a 27" Sony Wega going on 8 years now and its fantastic. It even has a 16:9 enhance mode that pretty much makes it display DVDs without scan lines, as well as any Xbox, GC or Wii games done with 16:9 in mind.

Post by **Flak Beard** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 2:19 pm

I have a similar JVC TV (AV-27S33) and it has serious underscan issues when using PS1/PS2. I have a topic about it here...

http://www.racketboy.com/forum/viewtopi ... =underscan

Basically you'll get wavy black bars on both sides that change in width depending on how bright the picture is. Some think I'm OCD about this (heh... maybe just a little), but it's annoying. I ended up swapping it with a TV we had in our guest room.

Everything else looks good on the TV. If you're going to be playing a lot of PS1/PS2, I can't recommend it though. Also, the JVCs CRTs accept component signals but are not 480p.

Post by **Scooter** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 8:27 pm

My old JVC is working fine. Mine is a 31-inch but I'd personally rather have a 27- or 25-inch screen. The old stuff (pre-PS2/Dreamcast) doesn't always look as good as they could on the 31-inch and larger screens.

Post by **RCBH928** » Thu Jan 22, 2009 2:02 am

well, all i can advice is stay using CRT tv's
I used to think I would buy an HD LCD tv, but not any more
Why pay extra(my tv is fairly new 3-4 years) just to get extra quality
on games only on 360 and ps3?
My dvd's and other consoles(old and current generation) look extremely well
on the old CRT, plus i hear CRT has the best colors and add to that it has been tested for years and it damn sure lasts a long time. Maybe you want to invest in a widescreen CRT HD tv's , those look really cool I bet they will be extra rare in the future.

Help an A/V noob buy an old CRT TV

Help an A/V noob buy an old CRT TV

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