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[intbal]

Is it really physically impossible to make a truly flat CRT set?

No, not at all. But "flat" doesn't necessarily mean "compact". You gotta put that size somewhere in a CRT. For example, the Sinclair TV80.

Here's a video of it (Not a great one, but I couldn't find the old good video I remember):

 

[01011001]

that's either a really terrible TV or it's not set to game mode.

a good TV has at worst 3 frames of difference or even less with really good ones.
what you see in this video is way above that.

 

[Riven326]

I never said they were the same thing, it was a comparison. Not sure why that's so confusing, just that the differences are there even if people don't notice much like black levels or other elements involved with tvs.

Fair enough.

 

[#Phonepunk#]

CRT is really the only authentic way to play retro games

 

[MeatSafeMurderer]

Depends on the size. Problem with big sizes is that CRTs even at 29 inch get heavy as fuck. Bigger is impossible. But 21 to 25 inch is manageable . For a 21 or 25 inch new, at 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratio, high quality CRT (maybe even Full HD / 4k not sure if possible) with good sound, which supports progressive scan, rgb, s-video, composite, component, hdmi and vga and maybe has an integrated de-interlacer, I'd pay 500 to 1000 easily.

See, therein lies the problem. Good quality CRTs were already regularly that expensive way back when...and that's when they were being mass produced and LCD hadn't supplanted them yet. With how few they would sell in order to be economically viable you'd need to be willing to pay not hundreds but thousands.

 

[Rentahamster]

See, therein lies the problem. Good quality CRTs were already regularly that expensive way back when...and that's when they were being mass produced and LCD hadn't supplanted them yet. With how few they would sell in order to be economically viable you'd need to be willing to pay not hundreds but thousands.

Seems like a lotta work.

 

[Kupfer]

Got a Bang & Olufsen MX 7000 Type 8700 from 1999.
I saw it on eBay and just couldn't resist. It came complete with it's stand, videorecorder, manual and remote control for like 35€.
It's a great TV I think and even for the late 90's a pretty big and luxury one I guess. At least I knew very few friends that time, who had such a big TV at home. It even has a remote controlled stand which can rotate and it's sound is way better than modern TV's.

To be honest, I don't play much games on it nor use it somehow else, but I just love the thought, that I can always play on my old consoles the way it used to be when I fell in love with videogames as a kid.

 

[teezzy]

Snagged this shot while nearing the end of Disc 2 in FF9 just now. S-Video is pretty damn tight. Here you can see the discrepancies between my three monitors. Looks better in person ultimately nonetheless.

 

[Xdrive05]

So is anyone making CRT monitors or TVs any more? I'd kill for one that can do somewhere in the full-hd range of pixels at high framerates.

 

[Moonjt9]

I got lucky here in Korea at a used electronics market and picked up a Sony PVM 14m2 for 100 bucks. Worth every penny. though I don't have shot of it running, I'll have to remedy that tonight and post a pic!

 

[teezzy]

I'll have to remedy that tonight and post a pic!

Sounds like a great find, and please do! I love seeing CRT photos lol

 

[KyoZz]

I bump this thread because this video is amazing:

 

[Harlock]

Earthworm Jim looks almost like a real cartoon.

 

[alabtrosMyster]

I'm not going back to CRT, but if I was to do it I'd definitely go with a Trinitron tube TV! ... but these are like 170pounds at 32 inches ... I used to be able to carry them around by myself.

 

[DinoD]

I had one of those last generation Sony 36" CRT's. It almost broke my back when we were moving house.
I fondly remember watching blu-ray movies in 1080i . They looked spectacular on this TV. It stopped working, and after it came back from the repairs, there was something wrong with the picture geometry. As much as I tried to fix it in the settings, I could never get it good again. Ultimately we gave it to our friends. The only condition was they come and pick it up without my help.

 

[Xisiqomelir]

So is anyone making CRT monitors or TVs any more? I'd kill for one that can do somewhere in the full-hd range of pixels at high framerates.

There are quite a few Chinese manufacturers on Taobao/AliEx e.g. :

China CRT TV, CRT TV Wholesale, Manufacturers, Price | Made-in-China.com

You would probably get murdered on shipping, assuming the seller wasn't a scam artist.

 

[teezzy]

I'm surprised theres not more of a hipster resurgance for these like there was for record players

 

[Kupfer]

I'm surprised theres not more of a hipster resurgance for these like there was for record players

Probably too heavy to carry for leeky hipsters

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

I'm surprised theres not more of a hipster resurgance for these like there was for record players

Moreso than the visual appeal, CRTs are excellent tools if you're into performance / input lag. I'll accept a 240p signal if it means I can play in near-lossless 60 "fps". The tradeoff is worth it (to me).

Because hipsters and skill-development are two contradictory things, it is doubtful you'd see them push CRT. Instead, look to competitive niches like Smash Bros Melee or the shmup community. CRTs are alive and well there.

 

[nkarafo]

I remember this looking amazingly sharp on my 85hz CRT monitor:

https://www.testufo.com/

I could even see the 3 eyes of the Alien perfectly. Now not even my 240hz LCD monitor can deliver the same clarity. But it's getting there.

 

[deriks]

Benefits from [good] CRTs:
- no input lag, baby
- no HDR 10 or whatever bullshit. Light itself do the colors and black is black
- room with too much brightness or too dark?! Pff, works anywhere

Disadvantages:
- is bulky heavy and sometimes ugly
- prepare for your electric bill to raise, and maybe by a lot
- not easy to find a good one, and they're expensive nowadays

 

[Dr.D00p]

There are quite a few Chinese manufacturers on Taobao/AliEx e.g. :

China CRT TV, CRT TV Wholesale, Manufacturers, Price | Made-in-China.com

You would probably get murdered on shipping, assuming the seller wasn't a scam artist.

You could say that seeing as you have to order a minimum of 500-1000 at a time

 

[Ulysses 31]

Disadvantages:
- is bulky heavy and sometimes ugly
- prepare for your electric bill to raise, and maybe by a lot
- not easy to find a good one, and they're expensive nowadays

The radiation is more tiring on the eyes?

 

[Dr_Salt]

These things are awesome for retro gaming. Games look totally different.


It also blew my mind when I found out sony had a crt that could display 1440p.

 

[DJT123]

Fun fact. Theres an application called ScreenBright that goes deep into certain CRT monitors that lets you adjust color luminosity. They had "pseudo-HDR" before HDR became a thing.

 

[DJT123]

These things are awesome for retro gaming. Games look totally different.


It also blew my mind when I found out sony had a crt that could display 1440p.

LCD panels look like literal dog vomit in comparison.

 

[Superkamikaze]

Dat motion clarity and response time tho

CRT motion, maaaaaaan, that's that good stuff.

 

[seanoff]

I had a sony 36" super fine pitch 1080. it was a beast.

i have seen nothing since that beats its picture quality. watching stuff on it was like looking thru a window.

if anyone finds one in good working order, buy it. (and a crane to lift it)

 

[dave_d]

Benefits from [good] CRTs:
- no input lag, baby
- no HDR 10 or whatever bullshit. Light itself do the colors and black is black
- room with too much brightness or too dark?! Pff, works anywhere

Disadvantages:
- is bulky heavy and sometimes ugly
- prepare for your electric bill to raise, and maybe by a lot
- not easy to find a good one, and they're expensive nowadays

Well another disadvantage is geometry is off on a lot of them. I remember on my old Sony trinitron certain lines that should have been straight clearly weren't.

 

[dave_d]

BTW heads up for anybody getting a crt monitor for their computer that hasn't used one before. Make sure you change the refresh rate away from 60hz. (Usually 75 or 85 hz.) It looks WAY better if you do that. (Much easier on the eyes.)

 

[namekuseijin]

ditch crt straight to VR, old man

 

[lock2k]

What I miss the most about CRTs is the phosphor effect. It lights up images in ways that modern tv's won't do. I can't explain.

 

[TLZ]

Well. I've had one for a while now. Many months now actually. Maybe a year? I've hardly used it. Input lag is great, but that's all its positives for me. It reminded me why it used to hurt my eyes back in the day. When I changed back to my Plasma my eyes were at rest again. The switch to progressive scan helped my eyes a lot. A lot less strain.

I tried. But it's not worth it honestly. For me at least. I'm giving it away.

 

[Tarin02543]

Yeah I have this itch for quite a while now to buy a good quality crt, I just do not have the space to set it up.

 

[MCplayer]

Is a 1080i CRT the holy grail that Digital Foundry would have you believe it is? I think they were impressed at resolutions well under that.

1080 interlaced is horrible tho, I can't stand it, progressive is much better

 

[kingbean]

I'm probably gonna try and sale my PVM 20M4U

 

[Rentahamster]

Well. I've had one for a while now. Many months now actually. Maybe a year? I've hardly used it. Input lag is great, but that's all its positives for me. It reminded me why it used to hurt my eyes back in the day. When I changed back to my Plasma my eyes were at rest again. The switch to progressive scan helped my eyes a lot. A lot less strain.

I tried. But it's not worth it honestly. For me at least. I'm giving it away.

Assuming that your CRT is HD, it doesn't have a 720P option?

 

[Lestat Phoenix]

I still have two cracked ribs from trying to lift a sony Trinitron crt 52 inch i think back in the day.

 

[Tygeezy]

It's likely the flicker (which gives crts their famous motion clarity) that is causing eye strain at 60 hz. You need to be north of 80 hz before the flicker is easier on the eyes.

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

These things are awesome for retro gaming. Games look totally different.
.

Missed opportunity to show that waterfall on the CRT.

LCD isn't terrible in comparison, but the sense of depth and separation you'd get on a CRT was something else.

 

[Bryank75]

Sony should make some new sexy CRT's.

 

[Harlock]

Missed opportunity to show that waterfall on the CRT.

LCD isn't terrible in comparison, but the sense of depth and separation you'd get on a CRT was something else.

 

[TKOFromTokyo]

I am a fellow PVM owner, 20L2. I also have a 24 inch flat screen Trinitron

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

Yep, that.

But basically every effect that made use of dithering can only be displayed correctly through composite video. I remember doing some A/B comparisons between composite and S-Video with my SNES. Even little things like the Arwing's shadow in Star Fox look just right in composite, but a dithered blob with technically better connections.

 

[teezzy]

Just rescued an old friend from my parents' house. I'm gonna clean it up and rig it up to my RTX 2070 via whatever adapter I need. This should be perfect for emulating older games. Might even convince me to rid myself of my retro crap again
Time will tell.

 

[Psajdak]

After experiencing what shaders can do, I really see no reason to return to CRTs anymore.

Also, on monitors which are made nowadays, I hardly even notice any input lag.

I honestly hope that no matter how rich you are, you aren't paying hundreds of dollars to eBay sellers for those PVMs, and BVMs.

 

[teezzy]

Ended up doing VGA to USB-C into my RTX 2070

I'm very pleased with the result tbh. I guess this sorta renders all my retro crap irrelevant now - which is a weird feeling.

 

[pawel86ck]

Just rescued an old friend from my parents' house. I'm gonna clean it up and rig it up to my RTX 2070 via whatever adapter I need. This should be perfect for emulating older games. Might even convince me to rid myself of my retro crap again
Time will tell.

I have tried few HDMI converters but results with all of them were really bad (black crush, and worse colors compared to my xbox classic or PS2 running the same 320x240 games on the same CRT TV). I'm guessing you need really old GPU with S-Video output or RGB 320x240 to get good a proper output quality for CRT (when I had geforce 3 with S-video output picture quality from my PC was superb).

 

[teezzy]

I have tried few HDMI converters but results with all of them were really bad (black crush, and worse colors compared to my xbox classic or PS2 running the same 320x240 games on the same CRT TV). I'm guessing you need really old GPU with S-Video output or RGB 320x240 to get good a proper output quality for CRT (when I had geforce 3 with S-video output picture quality from my PC was superb).

Check out the pics above. RTX 2070: USB-C to VGA

Looks better than the S-Video I get on my PVM tbh

 

[pawel86ck]

Check out the pics above. RTX 2070: USB-C to VGA

Looks better than the S-Video I get on my PVM tbh

Can you see all gradients on your CRT?

I can see all gradients on my CRT if I will use s-video or euro RGB output from xbox classic, but all converters I have tried were crushing blacks on this black level test chart.