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Should I bother to invest in a CRT for retro gaming?

Discussion in 'Technical Discussion' started by Willie, Oct 17, 2017.

  1. Willie

    Willie

    Each day the world turns Laugh 'til it all burns Member
    I am not a fan of CRTs. I've made that very clear on this forum a long time ago. But I've also decided that I want revisit the idea of starting a gaming YouTube channel. It's fine to 100% rely on emulation for revisiting older games for casual play and whatnot, but I think I would be doing my future audience a disservice by not revisiting older games on original hardware with a TV that was meant for that type of content. Example: If I play a game such as Crash Bandicoot 2 on emulation, I'll have a much better experience. That's great and all, but it won't give me the 100% accurate intended experience. I was completely unaware the analog sensitivity was so limited in that game until recently because I was so used to the benefits of emulation. But I have some concerns...

    #1 BIGGEST ISSUE: My 24/7 headache is so severe that it destroyed my education and finances. CRT's can be horrible for people with headache issues. It's one of the main reasons why I stopped using them a long time ago. Are there CRT's that aren't likely to make my headache issues worse than my lovely monitor?
    #2 Type & Size: There are a lot of different CRTs. I vastly prefer owning one on the smaller end with a flat screen. When I went to Fanime 2016, they had a lot of TV's like this one that I felt worked pretty well for older games. All my childhood CRT's sucked in comparison. Something smaller than that would probably be more ideal because of space issues. The option to use formats other than composite would be nice, but it's not mandatory for me. My 1997 model SNES doesn't even provide me the option of using stuff like RGB and I'd rather invest in the upcoming Super Nt than to mod my SNES.
    #3 Price: What are the most affordable ways to find a decent flat CRT? Flat CRT TV's for sale online are pricier than expected, so suggestions are appreciated.

    There's also the option of playing older games on original hardware with newer TV's, but I don't feel certain systems work well with new TV's. Low resolutions scale horribly and it can increase input lag which is less than ideal when revisiting old games. I was so angry many years ago when I found out through experience that both PS1 and PS2 games had additional input lag when played on a PS3. :argh:
     
  2. Ashura96

    Ashura96

    HEROIC VERSE Oldbie
    If you don't want to deal with a CRT, then you're best option for playing old systems on modern screens is a Framemeister. Of course, those are hella expensive but you get some very nice upscaled RGB quality output.
     
  3. winterhell

    winterhell

    Member
    1,165
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    My head just starts hurting at the thought of being in the same room with a running CRT screen.

    While some monitors can go at higher refresh rates, 75, 85, 120 or up,which are somewhat less stressful to the eyes, when you are running a game directly from a console your options are only 50 and 60Hz.
     
  4. Flygon

    Flygon

    Member
    Don't s'pose there's any scalers that can also 'frame double' the image from 50/60Hz to 100/120Hz for a CRT monitor?

    I know the OSSC doesn't do as such, but... well, may's well ask the question here. Because now I'm curious. :v:
     
  5. Xiao Hayes

    Xiao Hayes

    Classic Eggman art Member
    I was thinking about getting one too, I plugged my Mega Drive to the HD TVs at my home and the most modern one made some weird effects, while the older one just didn't get a good reception, similar to using an old CRT with the signal not enough tuned. My intention is finding a 15-17 inch TV, maybe even 19, made on the last days of CRTs so it at least works the best it can at any situation. I used to have a bigger one at the times of the gamecube, but who knows where is it now.

    Of course, I've never had headache issues as yours, so, if I were you, I would avoid any kind of unnecessary health risks. I was meddling with a CRT monitor a couple of years ago and it could easily give motion sickness to people not used to CRTs, I saw that. If you choose to buy and one, make sure you use it once in a very long while, or try someone else's TV before buying yours. You could also have some friend as a "guest star" and make him play instead of you, but I suppose that goes against what you want to do.
     
  6. Willie

    Willie

    Each day the world turns Laugh 'til it all burns Member
    The ideal would be to be able to play older games on original hardware with strong accuracy. If devices like the Framemeister can sometimes be less accurate than emulation, then it defeats the purpose of trying old games on original hardware as a reference point. If it weren't for my headache issues, this would be a lot less complicated. PVM TV's sound interesting, but trying to get into RGB gaming sounds expensive compared to just buying a flat CRT for under $150. I'm not willing to mod a bunch of older consoles when I prefer playing most older games on emulation. But if that type of TV can massively fuck up my headache issues, then that's deeply concerning. I'm clueless what to do at this point. I wish older consoles didn't work so horribly on modern displays. I initially figured I would play a lot of games on both emulation and original hardware, but the vast majority of my footage to older games would be emulated. So the video quality for original hardware doesn't need to look godlike.
     
  7. Willie

    Willie

    Each day the world turns Laugh 'til it all burns Member
    After doing further research, I've decided to not get a CRT TV because of my headache issues and finances. If I need footage of PS1 and PS2 games on original hardware, I'll just use my 60GB PS3 until it inevitably kicks the bucket. I initially considered selling it before it randomly dies because EVERYONE I know who owned a 60GB PS3 had it die on them. I would try to find a way to get my PS2 working well on my monitor, but apparently the image quality is fucking garbage compared to other 6th gen systems. God bless Sony for their insufficient hardware. The PS2 for cutting corners in quality and the original 60GB PS3 for making a time bomb console with mediocre backwards compatibility. The fact a lot of people bought one of these machines for $600 at launch is amazing. Sony fanboys are way too forgiving. I miss the days when buying a system at launch didn't make me have to worry about it failing to survive a whole console generation. As for Nintendo systems prior to the GCN, I don't really plan to review N64 games and Higan emulates SNES games perfectly anyways. I'm not much of a fan of the NES library, so w/e.