Help me hook up my systems!

[Flack]

Last week, I finally joined the modern era and purchased a 46' LCD television. And while I didn't think I was going to see that much of an upgrade, HOLY COW, things look awesome. I currently have the Xbox 360 and PS3 hooked up through component and hdmi cables, and they look terrific ...

... but everything else kind of stinks. I have over a dozen consoles from the Atari 2600 to the modern stuff all hooked up via standard RCA composite cables.

What older systems will I benefit the most in upgrading cables? Xbox? PSX? N64? SNES? Dreamcast? Genesis? NES? CD32? Is there a list of the best resolution each of these systems will do?

Just to give you something to work with, my television has 10 inputs: 3 hdmi, 2 composite, 2 component, 1 svideo, 1 VGA, and 1 coax. I already own a Pelican 8-port a/v switch that does composite, component and s-video, so I'm thinking I'll be able to put that to good use.

[LiquidPolicenaut]

I can vouch for the differences in these:

Genesis - S-Video looks absolutely beautiful. Seeing all my Genesis games, especially my Sega CDs, was like looking at a whole new game....

SNES - I've always had mine in s-video, and on my Sony LCD, it still looks fabulous.

PSX - Looks damn good in S-video, but looks even better when playing them on the PS3 and upconverted (Although I still like playing MGS and Xenogears on my old PS2 with the smoothing out feature)

My PS3 is HDMI, Wii is component and 360 is component and all look pretty damn great.

I havent even tried hooking up my old dusty N64 lol

I'm sure certain systems, like the SNES, DC, etc. will look even more striking with an RGB mod...

[Leo_A]

Most consoles can't even do 480p and will likely look terrible on that tv even if you upgrade to a better cable. If it has VGA, you could hook up the Dreamcast with a VGA box and get 480p out of most of the games. If you have a Wii or a older model GameCube and 80 dollars to waste on a used cable, you can get 480p for most games. Xbox you can get 480p (And higher in a few cases) on most games. PS2 has progressive scan support but many titles were 480i only.

So I'd say unless its a PS3, Xbox 360, Xbox, Dreamcast, Wii, or a GameCube through component, keep them on a CRT or they won't ever look as good as they should. HDTV's don't handle 480i as good as a CRT will.

[spoon]

Hey Flack, welcome to the next level. Is that a Samsung?

I have a 52 inch sharp Aquos. 62U series. This is what I have found.

I believe you are a member of the AVS forums. First thing I would do is find the thread on your model TV and see what other users have posted for settings and try your own for optimum viewing pleasure.

On older systems, you definitely want to view it in Side Bar or standard. If not, the picture will look funny and stretched. That is what the updated collections/downloads are for. Some older systems just look like shit period. I can second that Genesis s vid is awesome. NES a/v is not so bad, but, seems better on a CRT.

I am not sure what model you have, so, I don't exactly know what the highest resolution you have. Either way, with the newer systems, I would suggest viewing in dot by dot mode. Not sure if that is what it is called on your tv.

For the newer systems, I would update all your cables to whatever the highest is available. Second, I would make sure the system settings are changed to widescreen and the highest video out. You will notice a difference after this. I noticed a big difference when updating Wii cables(Which I have extras for sale and that only went from 480i to 480p.

Now you can also enjoy upconverted DVDs, HD-DVDs and Blu Rays in all their glory. Enjoy.

[Rob2600]

I finally joined the modern era and purchased a 46' LCD television.

Wow, a 46 foot TV? Do you live in an airplane hangar?

[Push Upstairs]

46 foot TV? Wouldn't Mario be taller than *you* on that screen?

[Flack]

D'oh Spoon, I would have taken you up on those cables a week ago. I just ordered a set from Monoprice ($5, + shipping). And thanks for the AVS forum tip. I looked up my model and wow ... boy do people hate it. Had I read the review prior to purchasing, I probably wouldn't have. That being said, I'm not experiencing any of the problems the people in that thread are complaining about. Many of them have cited non-working hdmi ports and a "really loud buzzing" coming from the set. One person said it was "40db, way louder than his refrigerator." One person said he could hear it from 12' (feet, not inches -- d'oh) away. I was able to hear a tiny, high-pitched noise if I turn everything else in the room off from maybe 2' away, and only if I stood to the side. I guess it would be a problem if I was sitting around the room within 2' of the set while it was turned on with nothing else on, but that's not really a problem for me. My wife (who has better hearing than I do) said she could hear it but it wasn't annoying and wasn't any louder than any my DVD player or anything else. In fact, I'd say the Xbox 360 is 10x louder than the TV, maybe more. Even at minimal volume levels, I couldn't hear the buzz/whine. Maybe some sets are worse than others and I got a good one, who knows?

I suspect that compared to higher-end televisions this Sceptre may not hold up, but for the price ($1099) for 46" 1080p I took a gamble and I'm glad I did. The difference between my projector (which was downsampling everything down to 800x600) and this television is jaw-dropping -- to everyone except my wife, who, after repeated demonstrations (even of plain text), could not tell the difference between 480i and 1080p. I give up ...

I'm thinking about moving the Wii back downstairs to the living room. We've got an old 35" CRT TV down there and I'm much less nervous about a six-year-old swinging Wiimotes around that old television than the LCD.

[Trebuken]

I find that the older systems look different rather than bad. You often can't get accustomed to the new appearance, there is too much detail, clarity. You can get used to it.

The Nintendo 64 looks horrid I have found; worse than anything and impossible for me to enjoy on a large screen.

I prefer the Wii on the big screen, at least for Wii Sports and Wii Play - makes it more realistic.

[swlovinist]

Once I upgraded my room of doom 3.0, I did a couple of things. First I tried to hook many systems older to my HDTV. I then noticed that they looked like crap. I would say hook up you PS3, 360, Xbox, DC(VGA port), up to it. Everything else will look better on a CRT. I hate to say that but HDTV really makes older systems look pixelated and bad...in my opinion.

[98PaceCar]

Once I upgraded my room of doom 3.0, I did a couple of things. First I tried to hook many systems older to my HDTV. I then noticed that they looked like crap. I would say hook up you PS3, 360, Xbox, DC(VGA port), up to it. Everything else will look better on a CRT. I hate to say that but HDTV really makes older systems look pixelated and bad...in my opinion.

Agreed. This is the very reason I went with 3 tvs in my setup. I have a CRT that I'm running all of my svideo enabled consoles to, another CRT that all of my composite consoles run to, and my HD RPTV that has my composite/HDMI consoles. I just used a separate switch for each of the CRTs (the big Pelican Pro switches), so it works out well and gives me easy access to to a front input for each.

The only console I modded for better outputs is my 2600. Added the Atari2600.com svideo kit to it. All the rest I just bought a cable to add the best output it did natively and stuck with that. Pretty happy with the results too.

The other benefit to me was that by having CRTs around, I could still play the old lightgun games.