Standard Def TVs Best For Classic Gaming

[mario2butts]

XRGB2+/3 to the monitor and RGB out from the console is the only way to go for classic systems IMO.

XRGB2+ and a good 21" CRT VGA monitor is truly of epic proportions.

http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?t=6987

Agreed. I have an XRGB-3 and have never gone back. Looks phenomenal on both my 24" Sony FW900 monitor and Infocus 4805 DLP Projector throwing an 80" image. RGB from the console is best, but even S-Video looks ok (ie for N64 and non-VGA DC games). Composite looks like shite but if you use an external comb filter (like an AV Receiver) to upconvert it to S-Video and then connect to the XRGB the image looks pretty good. This is how I have my NES set up, and its certainly not emulator-crisp, but comparable to a very good SDTV.

[Zing]

Even the fastest tested rear projection HDTVs have around 20ms of display lag (flat panel TVs generally have at least twice this). This appears to be enough to render light guns unusable.

[jwm2]

You really can't go wrong with a sony vega sdtv for retro gaming, the only problems i've ever had were with my supergun, but a sync cleaner fixed it.

[GaijinPunch]

The real trick is finding a TV that will play both new and old games well.

Unless you have low standard for the old, these are very hard to find. You have to find a TV that does both 15khz and 31khz displays (I doubt much if anything on the consumer level does this, but I admit I haven't done much research).

I bought a Sony Wega last year for the AV-Multi (RGB) input and haven't looked back.

[Ikari Warrior]

Now as to why CRT HDTV's don't work is a bit different, and as of yet I can't find a great answer other than "the signal is not interlaced" Again... if anyone has an article or link they could give me talking about lag... let me know.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_gun

Here is wikipedias entry on how light guns work.

Namco's Guncon 2 works on my Toshiba CRT HDTV. You plug the yellow a/v jack into the green component plug and it works fine. It eve recognizes the progressive scan and makes you shoot two spots to calibrate (center, corner) rather than just the center. But yes, it'll only work on a CRT set, not LCD, Projector, or Plasma.

[TheDomesticInstitution]

Thanks for the extra info ikari... I'll look into it.

[Xexyz]

I'll tell you what, SDTV's are definitely the way to go for light gun gamers and Sega 3D glasses gamers. The faster refresh rate on HDTV's doesn't cope well with either type of peripheral.

[Kevincal]

You can't beat a 35 inch Sony Trinitron.

[Cryomancer]

I recently acquired a really nice professional video monitor, a 27" NEC Multisync 4PG. This is pretty much the perfect TV for gaming, in my opinion. In addition to composite and s-video it can do RGB and even VGA (and it can do all sorts of syncing methods like Sync-on-Green, which is what the Xbox outputs). It even has a switch for PAL or NTSC. The video quality is excellent, too. I picked it up for $50 at a thrift store just a couple months ago.

I've been wanting a monitor like this for about 10 years now and I'm so stoked to have this thing. It's even better than I had hoped really (especially since it can do VGA). I just missed buying a similar one last spring at my school's surplus sale and I thought I'd never find another, but then I did. Anyone who's ever read about TVs like this in the RGB threads here or something like that and wished they could find one somewhere at an affordable price, now is the time to be looking since many businesses, schools and other institutions that use monitors like this are upgrading to some form of HD display instead and selling off their old ones or donating them to charities.

Any chance you could post a picture of what this looks like so i know what to keep an eye out for?

[Zing]

You can't beat a 35 inch Sony Trinitron.

Yeah, you have no chance of beating that in a fight. It probably weighs 50 pounds more than you!

[Pantechnicon]

On a related note, Best Buy discontinues sale of analog televisions.

[Kevincal]

Yeah, you have no chance of beating that in a fight. It probably weighs 50 pounds more than you!

Haha! You aren't kidding...The thing is an absolute BEAST. It takes two strong men a great deal of effort to lift it up. It really does have an awesome picture though. I love it.

[Sweater Fish Deluxe]

Any chance you could post a picture of what this looks like so i know what to keep an eye out for?

Well, I can't find a picture of the 4PG specifically, but there's a number of manufacturers that make monitors like this such as Sony (the PVM series is the most common), Panasonic (the one I almost bought a few months ago was from them) and Mitsubishi (Megaview monitors). These sorts of monitors are usually cube shaped rather than tapered at the back like a normal TV, this is so they can be stacked easily for multi-monitor displays. The main thing to look for, though, is just a ton of inputs on the back including dsub or serial connections and BNC connections and all sort of stuff, plus usually outputs for audio and video as well as inputs. There's also likely to be a lot of setting switches and dipswitch arrays back there. The backs of these monitors are totally complicated, but the fronts are usually really clean simple with no inputs and almost no controls at all, just a narrow black border around the screen itself, which is again because one of their main uses is for multi-monitor displays.

And they're likely to be incredibly heavy. The one I got weighs like 200 pounds. I could barely carry it up my flight of like five stairs into my house, but luckily it has built in handles.


...word is bondage...