CRTs for old games

Any retro gamer of a certain age will certainly have a love for a good picture on a CRT TV. It would annoy me when people connected games consoles using an RF lead or have the aspect ratio set wrong, thereby not playing the game in the most optimum way! (A bit sad, I know!)

Certainly, you can't beat a picture that's displayed on a CRT when using a good quality cable displaying a good game. The scanlines generated added a certain atmosphere. Developers took advantage of the fact that the graphics would be displayed a little soft. (Hence why some old games look so blocky on crisp new flat screen TVs).  There must be something in it, as hardware and software often have the ability to fake scanlines on flat screens, to give more of an authentic old school feel.

Trinitron tubes are up there with the best and crispest display. The best option is a Sony Broadcast Video Monitor (BVM): Screens made for use by businesses doing professional stuff like TV. These are generally MASSIVE, extremely heavy and extremely expensive. They are professional monitors. They therefore have the best picture. As of writing a 20" SONY BVM-A20F1M had just sold on Ebay for £500. Yes, £500 for a CRT!

Next rung down is the Professional Video Monitors (PVMs). These are still excellent and are made by manufacturers such as JVC, Panasonic and Sony. As of writing a 14" Sony PVM-14L1MDE has just sold for £250.

I used to have a 9" PVM made by JVC. It didn't support RGB like all the good ones do, so it was a bit cheaper. (It did S-video and Composite). Someone on Ebay was getting rid of a load and it cost me a tenner plus delivery. Even though it didn't do RGB, the picture was so stable and crisp. It really was excellent. It made a pretty good test-bed monitor and you can see here I was testing it out with Bust-a-move3DX on the Nintendo 64.

I sold it when I moved down south though. It was a nice-to-have, but didn't really need it. If I do pick up another PVM in the future, it would be one with RGB - and a 14" would be nice!

I own one of these.

The next best thing the the consumer TVs - the Sony Trinitrons, or other TVs with Trinitron tubes. They are consumer level, but still produce a nice crisp screen and until recently were super cheap. I own two Sony 14" Trinitron TVs. At one point, you couldn't give these away but now on Ebay they are approaching £100 each. Bonkers really, but people are hoarding them as the most affordable authentic option.

Whenever I got a 'new' console, I'd have to then seek out the best possible connection method to the display device. I've got RGB leads for my SNES. I have a S-Video lead for my Jap GameCube. I have an Atari 2600 modded for RGB SCART. I used to have an official RGB GameCube cable.

I say 'used to' for the last one as I've sold it last Christmas. It goes for about £35 online. Thing is, as I've got older, I've had less time for gaming. More time has gone into things like relationships and work. When I do play a game I want it to be fun, relatively quick and convenient. Keeping a hold of a 14" TV and my GameCube RGB cable to play GameCube in RGB doesn't seem that convenient. CRT TVs take up space, and it's only 14" after all. I want to be able to plug it in to the nearest LCD TV and have the best possible picture on there. Hence why I bought the Kaico HDMI adaptor.

I'm still going to keep some RGB leads and my TVs, but I will also look for ways to play my old systems on new TVs in the best possible way. I'm waiting for a SNES HDMI adaptor to come into stock at the moment. Expect a blog entry soon. It might not be truly authentic, but it means the games will get played more often, and that's better than them not being played in my book.

I kept a CRT as my main TV until quite late compared to others. I was the source of some stick from my friends. But the quality in SD was great. I had an RGB lead for my Xbox 360 that I had at the time. However, as game designers started designing UIs for larger flat screens, it made it harder and harder to read small text. In 2013 I finally upgraded to a Panasonic Plasma, but that's another story!

First CRT I had in Kidderminster. Lots of retro in this picture!

Playing Atari 7800 Centipede

My last CRT that I had as my 'main' TV.