Would my old games look better on an old tv?

[VieuxNes]

We got rid of our old TV, but now I have a retro gaming fever and I look at the graphic and something is wrong with my HDTV. Is it me or it looked better on those old TV.

[ProjectCamaro]

Older consoles were made to play on CRT televisions and because of that look much better on them. Check Craigslist or the local thrift stores as tube TV's can be had form really cheap.

[Tron 2.0]

Game Sack explains it ;)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ip6WuOvK8EU

[VieuxNes]

Game Sack explains it ;)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ip6WuOvK8EU
So it come with a bag of chips, that is a must. Thanks.LOL

Is it the same for wii 480i and ps2?

[Tanooki]

I'm curious how for you it comes off as feeling wrong. All these modern tvs don't process anything the same way like old CRTs pretty much did. For one person you'll get input lag, and another you won't. Some will get muddy graphics like a blurry RF cable, others will be crystal clear and sharp like a PC emulators without filters loaded.

I know a lot won't do it, but when I had to go TV shopping nearly a year ago I went and used the display lag website to find a tv without lag, and then found it also would keep a full screen sharp image like a PC emulator so when I do old games on the thing they look just fantastic. Sure light gun stuff doesn't work, but I think I can live unfortunately without duck hunt and hogan's alley.

[calgon]

Game sack is great. I've been marathoning a lot of it lately.

I really need to get a decent CRT. The upscaler thing just isn't for me.

[CDiablo]

Ive been looking into getting a better experience on my flatscreen and was wondering if any of you out there have any good experiences with any SCART>HDMI converters? Any suggestions?

[Greg2600]

Ive been looking into getting a better experience on my flatscreen and was wondering if any of you out there have any good experiences with any SCART>HDMI converters? Any suggestions?

If you want a decent result, it will cost money. The cheaper ones are sufficient for most, the lag isn't as bad as some complain. I'd try one of the $60-80 ones on Amazon, where it allows you to return them. For most upscalers you will be using the EUROSCART cable, not a Japanese SCART cable (different pin config). To my knowledge about the only upscalers that use JAPAN SCART are the XRGB. The XRGB are fantastic but cost money.

The issue for me is that many of them do not display a 4:3 image. They take the 4:3 and upconvert to 16:9 by stretching. If you HDTV can switch the input back to 4:3 display then you're fine. My TV won't do that. I would definitely go SCART to HDMI (not component), because some TV's have issues with low resolution signals (240p) over component.

This guy is THE BEST RGB/SCART/UPSCALING reviewer on the planet, bar none. Given his website a proper read through, and you will have all your answers.

http://retrogaming.hazard-city.de/

[Gentlegamer]

Your games will both look and play better without the lag induced by deinterlacing an interlaced video signal.

[sloan]

Think of stocking a CRT or two, and getting them soon. All 10 GW stores in my area no longer sell them. They must refuse them or throw them in the dumpsters out back, because there are none to be found in the stores. SA still has some though.

[Gameguy]

Think of stocking a CRT or two, and getting them soon. All 10 GW stores in my area no longer sell them. They must refuse them or throw them in the dumpsters out back, because there are none to be found in the stores. SA still has some though.
Check out craigslist if you can, it might depend on your area though. Locally I've seen people giving away imported multisystem Sony Trinitron sets that can play both NTSC and PAL signals, I just wish I had the means to pick them up and storage space to keep them. I just don't have space for another CRT television. It helps that I don't bother having an HD set at home, just SD sets. My laptop is 720p and honestly the higher resolution doesn't amaze me compared to standard definition.

[VieuxNes]

I'm curious how for you it comes off as feeling wrong. All these modern tvs don't process anything the same way like old CRTs pretty much did. For one person you'll get input lag, and another you won't. Some will get muddy graphics like a blurry RF cable, others will be crystal clear and sharp like a PC emulators without filters loaded.

I know a lot won't do it, but when I had to go TV shopping nearly a year ago I went and used the display lag website to find a tv without lag, and then found it also would keep a full screen sharp image like a PC emulator so when I do old games on the thing they look just fantastic. Sure light gun stuff doesn't work, but I think I can live unfortunately without duck hunt and hogan's alley.

I have a sony 720p, the graphic is very square or pixelly, I don't know how to describe. It does not have the same feel the old tv had.

[Niku-Sama]

This is kind of like asking why doesn't my gas powered car run very well on diesel

[Tanooki]

Square or pixely makes me think it's super sharp with very defined edges like on a computer. I could see that being a problem for anyone wanting the classic soft blurred feeling an old RF or RCA cable would give to an 80s/90s system. I can go in either direction. A nice thing with that new tv I mentioned I have is that if I decide to mess with the settings switch one thing on it, there can be sharpness or softness but I think it's just lucky as I doubt most tvs are that nice about it. I also just have a retron5 hooked in really for the last half year so they just run 720p with extreme clarity but filters and scanlines can be applied (I don't use them.)

[ProjectCamaro]

Square or pixely makes me think it's super sharp with very defined edges like on a computer. I could see that being a problem for anyone wanting the classic soft blurred feeling an old RF or RCA cable would give to an 80s/90s system. I can go in either direction. A nice thing with that new tv I mentioned I have is that if I decide to mess with the settings switch one thing on it, there can be sharpness or softness but I think it's just lucky as I doubt most tvs are that nice about it. I also just have a retron5 hooked in really for the last half year so they just run 720p with extreme clarity but filters and scanlines can be applied (I don't use them.)

I do believe retro consoles look better on CRT TV's but like you I found a good LCD TV and have them hooked up that way. The space saving alone is worth it.

[Tanooki]

I can't argue that, and some of them truth be told will NOT work right on a non-CRT at all. I'm not talking light gun fun either on the NES/SMS too.

Ever noticed that N64/PS1/Saturn and other first get issues with non-CRTs? The worst though really is the N64 due to its AA filters the others lack. All of them will have varying degrees of problems when it comes to how light sources and shadow are generated. If to save system resources they used how a CRT works to pull off some tricks, on a LCD those games end up just being jet black. Another would be the use of scanlines for a high quality still images as you'll get static or a scrambling effect due to that being gone. Another would be using techniques to soften 3D and 2D imagery around the edges to make them less blocky, you can use the scanline area that's non-visible to round things some, but again with scanlines out you get blobs, blotches, and smear like effects (Hudson games I found were the worst by far on N64 for that.) The other example is Rogue Squadron on N64 with the loss of visuals and jacked up still images -- the game is rendered unplayable on many stages on a non-CRT (which is why I'm selling mine with the guide.) I know it wasn't a one tv issue as I've tried this over 4 TVs (2 Samsungs, 1 Panasonic, and the Vizio I have now.) It's just smart for the era cheats to squeeze more resources coming back as a haunt with better TV technology.

As it is my N64 is in a box now and the games on the bottom shelf of my game cabinet out of sight. I'm 50/50 between keeping the 20 games and system or selling it as the money is tempting. We do have a 10~ year old CRT in the back room in my wife's office space she has a DVD player on she almost never uses. I could see moving that somewhere useful to use it again as a nice starter system for my kid to play on as I've got those games (at least 1/2 acceptable for her) and 2 controllers with rumblers and memory cards too so for now it sits.

[calgon]

Hopefully someone can answer this...
If I play my NES on my HD TV would I get less lag than an emulator and blue tooth controller on said TV?

[Genesaturn]

Hopefully someone can answer this...
If I play my NES on my HD TV would I get less lag than an emulator and blue tooth controller on said TV?


Good question.....I have all my consoles hooked up through a 42" LED, only because I lack the room for a nice CRT. I don't get any lag when gaming, whether its on the NES or N64 (at least not that I notice). It's mostly just picture quality. Especially since most games aren't meant for widescreen. Each system looks different, some better than others.

[BlastProcessing402]

So it come with a bag of chips, that is a must. Thanks.LOL

Is it the same for wii 480i and ps2?

Wii and PS2 have component cables, use those and a modern TV should be acceptable. It won't look HD (other than the few PS2 games that actually support HD) but it's not going to be like trying to play an N64 on a modern TV (awful).

PSX games on a PS2 w/component look pretty good on HDTV if the TV supports 240p. Not all do, though.

[Tanooki]

NES versus emulator+bluetooth hmm.

Let's assume you got the TV I did which has a 25ms 'lag' to it base before enabling game mode. It's the fastest one on the market at the time without getting a specific processor Sony does on theirs to knock it into the low-mid teens.

The NES in that case would definitely win, it would just behave as it should, so unless you're so hyper sensitive that even a 25ms display lag processing time would throw you off, it would be ideal. The NES emulator you'd be at the mercy of a couple of things and that would be potential frame skipping it will do automatically, but also bluetooth devices can have a slight input lag to them as well since it's wirelessly sending your inputs on the fly to the receiver. Wirelessly casting that kind of information is never a quick as a direct connect wire (ie: nes controller to system.)

I've got a Retron 5 and while that one is an android based menu with a per-system emulator for each console/handheld it does, it is also HDMI. That one is much more tolerant than a normal NES would be on a TV since it is natively sending a 720p signal to the TV which it will not have to convert (upscale) which takes processing time (the 25 ms I said my tv does.) It does though have a bluetooth controller and there's heaps of reports online of people saying there is a slight lag with very sensitive games to any delay (like Punchout) where only a real controller plugged in the side will do.

[WCP]

4:3 CRT's are the way pre Dreamcast games are meant to be played.


REAL scanlines for the win

[Tron 2.0]

So it come with a bag of chips, that is a must. Thanks.LOL

Is it the same for wii 480i and ps2?
Yes it does include a bag of chips haaa ! I use to run the wii on a crt via component and it looked fine,though on a hdtv it doesn't look so great.I don't know about a PS2 i never ran it on a hdtv.Still for older consoles such as genesis,snes etc it's best to use a crt.About the only way for older consoles to look good on a hdtv is using a upscaler such as the XRBG mini framemeister.

[Tanooki]

PS2 I found looks less nice than the Gamecube on a HDTV. I got a slim a little over a year ago real cheap at a flea market because I wanted to replay a few games I once had and it just wasn't all that good, less nice than using a CRT for certain. Some games the font for the text was wonky including the PS2 menu itself and some visuals seemed to tip into being really fuzzy or blurry, it was just a weird mix and not consistently weird either.

Wii though, same result. When I had that thing originally using the component cable into those r/g/b jacks on my old Sony Trinitron is was super sharp but very defined, clear, clean and crisp, but that same corded setup on and HDTV the quality of the game visuals dropped as the system just wasn't meant for it which was kind of dumb on Nintendo's part given the year that thing came out (2006.)

[Greg2600]

PS2 I found looks less nice than the Gamecube on a HDTV. I got a slim a little over a year ago real cheap at a flea market because I wanted to replay a few games I once had and it just wasn't all that good, less nice than using a CRT for certain. Some games the font for the text was wonky including the PS2 menu itself and some visuals seemed to tip into being really fuzzy or blurry, it was just a weird mix and not consistently weird either.

Wii though, same result. When I had that thing originally using the component cable into those r/g/b jacks on my old Sony Trinitron is was super sharp but very defined, clear, clean and crisp, but that same corded setup on and HDTV the quality of the game visuals dropped as the system just wasn't meant for it which was kind of dumb on Nintendo's part given the year that thing came out (2006.)

Well for one Gamecube's graphics engine was on par with the Xbox, both superior to the PS2. Plus far more of the games were available in 480p mode over component.

[Michelle_Rhodes]

'Retro gaming fever' - that's so me! I don't think there would be any difference if you try to use your new TV for your old games. Personally speaking, I do the same and it works perfectly well for me.