Unless someone has the same model HDTV as you do, your experiences may or may not be similar to those posted by someone else, making this a rather pointless task, I'm afraid.
There are almost as many different scaling chips as there are HDTV's it seems, and that's what matters most for classic consoles since you obviously can't send your tv a signal that matches its native resolution while playing something like a Sega Genesis. And each model performs differently, depending on what's sent to it. Someone might get a nice picture on their Intellivision connected via RF to their tv where as your tv's scaling chip might not be able to make heads or tails of it and just not display anything. And in other cases, someone might get a poor picture, while you get a great one but with unacceptable input lag.
Your best bet is to perform some tests yourself. Hook an early 2000's system up via component and check out 480i and 480p games, hook a 1990's era console up via S-Video, hook a late 1980's or early 1990's system up via composite, hook an early system up via RF (Sometimes helps running these through a VCR first which boosts the signal), and see for yourself.
And if your test come back poor for some or most all of this, you have other options like external scalers (From cheap system specific options to $500 models that will do wonders for older material), higher quality video cables like RGB, video modifications like adding S-Video to an Atari 2600, backwards compatibility options (Playstation games look horrible via S-Video from your Playstation? Try them on a PS3 with the system itself handling the scaling), the Retron 5 for classic Nintendo and Sega gaming, etc. Or go fully with emulation with a PC connected to your tv or buy something like an Ouya if you desire a less capable option that has a smaller footprint.
There are undoubtedly a few around here enjoying their classic systems on their modern HDTVs. And if you don't mind spending money and making the occasional compromise, you can get pleasing results for just about everything except light gun games (Which obviously won't work).
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