On the subject of dithering, is it me or are Australian RF boxes really good? Because I can easily count each pixel on the TV (If not a bit blurred), but there is no blending at all.
I think it's to do with PAL v NTSC signal. Having tried a few PAL Megadrive and Genesis machines, the MD's picture looks a bit better, the Genesis had more dot crawl and interference. That said, the Megadrive/Genesis never had a great composite video output (some machines are better than others). RGB Scart is the shit though, I have my sega running through an old commodore 64 monitor and it's pixel perfect.
I need to check my PAL RF box on something else than MD, as MDs output HORRIBLE composite compared to say a cheapo Famicom clone. If the FC clone displays fine pic with MD RF box, then the bad image is purely the fault of MD's poor composite signal (MDs tend to use different kind of RGB encoders and some might be better than others).
Oh wow, a 'we hate filters' topic. I do like the 2xScale one, a simple double resolution effect that reduces blockiness. It's the only one I use. But you're right, 2xSAI is ugly and hq filters are overkill.
All this about the scanlines; I have yet to find a good CRT that produces said scanlines. Or a bad one for that matter; I have a great 1979 Hitachi color set in my room hooked up to all of my consoles, and it's picture is better than the new sony. Neither have scanlines.
For the record, the XBLA Genesis emulator has the option to turn off filters and run it in pixelated glory. Honestly, when running it on an old TV, it looks pretty damn good with 2xSAI, but when you run it through a VGA cable, it looks like ass. Cleartype is so wonderful. Antialiasing is great when it comes to text.
I have to agree with you Nineko, it really blurs up the text and on LCD screens, the point is to be sharp and clear, not blurred.
The best filtereing I found was using a real console and a tv tuner. GHZ's grass just looks so much better once it's been through that kind of treatment.
1. Like Nemesis said, the RF filter on Fusion is good since many graphics were meant to appear that way; I wish SSF had such a filter. 2. Cleartype is a lot better than no smoothing on my laptop monitor. The letters look a hell of a lot more natural.
