I have found the IDEAL Gaming TV!!!

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

Personally I have a 30in. JVC HD tube and I love it, but I'm interested in all the cool things that Sony's Trinitron TV's have always done and really find them to be the ultimate tube sets.

If I ever get another one on the cheap I'll be getting myself a Trinitron that's for sure.

[casterofdreams]

Question I need to ask is simply: are the VC games upscaled to 480p due to the component cables or are they original signals. I'd assume the former becuase I heard that these games are emulated, not too sure. If it's the latter than my Sony Wega KV-32HS500 is a beast!

[Breetai]

Yes but can you play light gun games on it?

Nope. I have a similar model Sony wide screen HD-CRT, although it's in the Japanese Trinitron line. It's an awesome (and heavy) TV, but light guns aren't going to happen on it.

On the bright side, the PS3 looks great in 1080i on it as well as the PC Engine in regular standard resolution.

[superlarz]

Yes but can you play light gun games on it?

Nope. I have a similar model Sony wide screen HD-CRT, although it's in the Japanese Trinitron line. It's an awesome (and heavy) TV, but light guns aren't going to happen on it.

On the bright side, the PS3 looks great in 1080i on it as well as the PC Engine in regular standard resolution.

All modernish HDTVs (CRT or anything else) refresh the screen to fast be to able to work with light gun games. Even some modern CRT SDTVs dont work with them for the same reason.

[deathclaw]

After a few years of research, and trying a number of sets it basically all comes back to the same problems. The older consoles look REALLY bad on modern flat panels.

BUT what about PS2 and XBOX (and Gamecube) with their 480p? These really look pretty bad too on new sets, but even the best SD set (like a component video, Panasonic Tau CRT) kinda makes you wish you had progressive. Also, with modern consoles you obviously would like to be able to play in HD too. So the challenge is to find the perfect do-all tv!!

Well Kiddies, I found what has to be the BEST option in existence: the Sony Wega KV-34HS420.

It is a Widescreen CRT (34") that supports 480p, 720p & 1080i (GREAT for those nasty PS3 scaling problems). It has a SUPERB picture, sound and a ton of inputs (4 AVs, 3 S-Video, 2 Component and even an HDMI).

Is it as sharp as a 46" Samsung? Well no, but the effect is actually better! The natural CRT anti-aliasing effect is superb and delivers sharp, dynamic color range that has to be seen to be believed. It truly makes the most of HD gaming. Also, with HDMI the XBox 360 upscales all DVDs to 1080i and looks so good, you might really want to put off getting blu-ray.

What about your older machines? Well it is how it handles old-school signals that really makes it shine. Unlike modern sets, that de-interlace all 480i signals (this basically means throwing away one 'field' of the data: or every-other line of the picture and then doubling the remaining lines - thus loosing half the resolution and detail of the original), this set actually doubles both vertical and horizontal resolution and gives you the option of leaving it interlaced - THAT MEANS 960i !!!!!!!!!!! Gone are all traces of the usual raster lines - even in really old-school signals. Also the unit has an awesome 3D comb filter, so no more dot-crawl and jaggies from composite video (this makes consoles like the original Playstation and Saturn look amazing because it allows for the anti-aliasing effect of composite video but with non of the down-side. This is very important for older machines because the PSX relied very heavily on dithering for color reproduction and the Saturn used pixel-transparency screens and both of these effects are naturally smoothed by composite video) - in short, your older machines will look the best they have ever looked! Also the power-consumption is right in league with modern sets, and because it is a CRT, there is virtually no worry about screen-burn if you watch 4:3 signals.

Best of all, because so many people are selling these off to make room for lower-priced flat panels you can find them on ebay or craigslist all the time for a song - bought mine for $112!!!!!

It is very heavy though (200+ lbs), and you should make sure to bring at least two strong men to lift it. There have been a few discussions online about some common technical issues, but there are enough of them out in the world that have worked flawlessly, that you can easily find one of the good ones in a month or so if you look.

Lastly, if you find one that needs some picture alignment, you can get it even cheaper, and most of the alignment controls are available through the remote and you can get the service manual online for about $5 (this is a no-brainer if you are technically inclined).

Man, this is so great, I have always wanted to see someone's research about this I have one really important (at least for me) question though. Does it absolutely have to be the Sony Wega KV-34HS420, or any Sony Wega TV at all? Because it would be a lot of troubles to get a used (since they are not made anymore) Sony Wega in general, let alone the Sony Wega KV-34HS420....

[Breetai]

Man, this is so great, I have always wanted to see someone's research about this I have one really important (at least for me) question though. Does it absolutely have to be the Sony Wega KV-34HS420, or any Sony Wega TV at all? Because it would be a lot of troubles to get a used (since they are not made anymore) Sony Wega in general, let alone the Sony Wega KV-34HS420....

Any Sony HD-CRT is great, as far as I know. I have a widescreen Sony Trinitron DRC-MF/MID-X 1125 (Japan), and both classic and modern consoles look wonderful on it. The only problem, as already mentioned, is that light guns don't work on it.

In fact, I'd guess that most any HD-CRT would be great.

[Flak Beard]

I considered the Sony Wega KV-34HS420 when first shopping for HDTVs, but ended up just keep my old CRT for retro games and getting a 42" 1080p LCD for my 360/Wii.

The Sony Wega KV-34HS420 is legendary according to a lot of people, but be warned that thing weighs around 140 pounds. Too heavy for my tastes.

[artphotodude]

After a few years of research, and trying a number of sets it basically all comes back to the same problems. The older consoles look REALLY bad on modern flat panels.

BUT what about PS2 and XBOX (and Gamecube) with their 480p? These really look pretty bad too on new sets, but even the best SD set (like a component video, Panasonic Tau CRT) kinda makes you wish you had progressive. Also, with modern consoles you obviously would like to be able to play in HD too. So the challenge is to find the perfect do-all tv!!

Well Kiddies, I found what has to be the BEST option in existence: the Sony Wega KV-34HS420.

It is a Widescreen CRT (34") that supports 480p, 720p & 1080i (GREAT for those nasty PS3 scaling problems). It has a SUPERB picture, sound and a ton of inputs (4 AVs, 3 S-Video, 2 Component and even an HDMI).

Is it as sharp as a 46" Samsung? Well no, but the effect is actually better! The natural CRT anti-aliasing effect is superb and delivers sharp, dynamic color range that has to be seen to be believed. It truly makes the most of HD gaming. Also, with HDMI the XBox 360 upscales all DVDs to 1080i and looks so good, you might really want to put off getting blu-ray.

What about your older machines? Well it is how it handles old-school signals that really makes it shine. Unlike modern sets, that de-interlace all 480i signals (this basically means throwing away one 'field' of the data: or every-other line of the picture and then doubling the remaining lines - thus loosing half the resolution and detail of the original), this set actually doubles both vertical and horizontal resolution and gives you the option of leaving it interlaced - THAT MEANS 960i !!!!!!!!!!! Gone are all traces of the usual raster lines - even in really old-school signals. Also the unit has an awesome 3D comb filter, so no more dot-crawl and jaggies from composite video (this makes consoles like the original Playstation and Saturn look amazing because it allows for the anti-aliasing effect of composite video but with non of the down-side. This is very important for older machines because the PSX relied very heavily on dithering for color reproduction and the Saturn used pixel-transparency screens and both of these effects are naturally smoothed by composite video) - in short, your older machines will look the best they have ever looked! Also the power-consumption is right in league with modern sets, and because it is a CRT, there is virtually no worry about screen-burn if you watch 4:3 signals.

Best of all, because so many people are selling these off to make room for lower-priced flat panels you can find them on ebay or craigslist all the time for a song - bought mine for $112!!!!!

It is very heavy though (200+ lbs), and you should make sure to bring at least two strong men to lift it. There have been a few discussions online about some common technical issues, but there are enough of them out in the world that have worked flawlessly, that you can easily find one of the good ones in a month or so if you look.

Lastly, if you find one that needs some picture alignment, you can get it even cheaper, and most of the alignment controls are available through the remote and you can get the service manual online for about $5 (this is a no-brainer if you are technically inclined).

Man, this is so great, I have always wanted to see someone's research about this I have one really important (at least for me) question though. Does it absolutely have to be the Sony Wega KV-34HS420, or any Sony Wega TV at all? Because it would be a lot of troubles to get a used (since they are not made anymore) Sony Wega in general, let alone the Sony Wega KV-34HS420....

While most any high-end HD CRT will look better than a flat panel for classic gaming, you do really want to make sure that the image processing for classic signals does not get forced to progressive-scan (unless you are doing the forcing through the much praised XRGB3). If not, then 50% of your resolution and thus image quality is getting thrown away. another nasty side-effect is that there will often be a horizontal lag as action pans left to right the results in a resurgense of the nasty lined picture that you buy such a TV to avoid.

Basically, it is Sony's DRC that you want to look for.

About concerns about the age of the sets, there a LOT of them out there for sale -- CHEAP. Also, CRTs typically run at least 15 years with no major issues. While most flat panels are good for 3-5 years. Some of the CRT HD sets do have reliability problems, but if you find a good used set that has worked flawlessly for 3 years already, there is no reason to assume you'll have any problems.

[CRTGAMER]

I also have a Sony Wega HD CRT, It is model number KV-32HS500.

http://www.docs.sony.com/release/specs/ ... 00spec.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FD_Trinitron/WEGA


First off the bad:
Extremely heavy compared to even a regular CRT of the same size, 200 you gotta be kidding pounds!
Because it is an HD which is a 100hz older light guns won't work. There is no VGA connection, No House of the Dead on Dreamcast. When using a light gun (using composite and also S-video; Dreamcast supports VGA and scart-RGB no component) the gun does flash the screen but sight on the screen tends to wander due to looking for 50-60hz signal. I'm thinking about a VGA to Component transcoder but due to cost and unsure of it working have held off. I do know a direct VGA to Component cable only results in a purple off center screen. Even tried switching the red-blue-green Y-Pb-Pr cables around.

Has anyone have any luck with Dreamcast VGA box - VGA transcoder to Component - Dreamcast Lightgun - HD CRT?

Now the very good:
It is one of the few SQUARE 4:3 100hz HD that were sold before Widescreen/LCD dominated the market. Supports 480i, 480p, 720i, 720p, 960i and 1080i. It is DVI no big deal using DVI to HDMI conversion cable for DVD and cable TV. Has 2 component inputs which I use for PS2 and for Gamecube whenever I can get Gamecube Component Cable-at-a-somewhat-decent-not-3-times-the-amount-of-game-console-itself-for-crying-out loud-price. Okay now I'm ranting. I love it especially for old school games which mostly don't support the wide screen format. My son has an LCD. When running older PS2 with component cables at 480p the LCD tends to show pixels kinda like dots shown on a blown up comic book pic. Especially when you have to adjust 4:3 image to widescreen. The CRT at 480p on the other hand displays a very sharp image. God of War is phenomenal; dare I say PS3 quality graphics when kicked up to Progressive Scan (Hint God of War 2 Hold L1-L2-L3-Square-Circle during game load. If you get a purple initial text screen then it is high res mode. Choose progressive and prepare to be amazed.) The only two PS2 games I know of that support 1080i are Gran Turismo 4 and Tourist Trophy, gonna have to snag them from gamestop. On LCD's defense PS3 World at War 2 graphics are very good.

Consoles owned can-you-say-I'm-slightly-Game-OCD:
Arcadia 2001, 5200 Centipede with Trakball!, Atari 7800, 2 can-you-believe-$20-at-swap-meet Vectrex, N64 Yes CONKER BAD FUR!, PS1, Dreamcast, Gameboy Advance, Gamecube with Gameboy Player Wario Ware very cool on big screen, PS2, Kids have PSP, PS3 and Wii.

Computers owned don't laugh:
Apple II+, Vic-20, Texas Instruments TI-99/4A, Timex Sinclair, C64, SX64, C-128D, imac G3, and Athlon PC, again kids have newer machines Apple and Sony laptops.

[artphotodude]

...Gamecube whenever I can get Gamecube Component Cable-at-a-somewhat-decent-not-3-times-the-amount-of-game-console-itself-for-crying-out loud-price.

LMAO!!!!!!!

When running older PS2 with component cables at 480p the LCD tends to show pixels kinda like dots shown on a blown up comic book pic. Especially when you have to adjust 4:3 image to widescreen. The CRT at 480p on the other hand displays a very sharp image. God of War is phenomenal; dare I say PS3 quality graphics

Very true too about 480p on these Sony sets. I play the PS2 version of "Beyond Good and Evil" ( the version everyone bad-mouths so much) in progressive-scan and it is so good it is like seeing an old friend reborn (+ the PS2 version never had any of the crappy audio-sync problems of the other versions - so take that XBox!).

Another GREAT thing about them is that since the composite video processing is so good, a lot of the XBox Live downloadable games like "King of Fighters 98 Ultimate Match and Garou: M.O.W. can now look identical if not better than arcade. All the texture-dithering all smoothed out and vibrant color, with none of the normal dot-crawl problems of using the normal 'yellow-cable'.