I often see people criticise the use of modern screens for old-school games, and I think I am starting to understand why they do that. One reason is probably that modern screens give people an unfair impression of what old games used to look like when they were played on actual CRT screens - they did _not_ look rough, grainy and pixelated, because CRT screens were smaller in size and also had scanlines that helped with disguising the pixels, so old games actually looked _better_ than we remember them.
When I was younger, I always wondered why the cutscenes in Command&Conquer looked so much worse on our family Mac, than they did on my friend's PS1. Now I know, it was the scanlines and lower resolution of the TV that hid the compression artifacts you could see so clearly on a PC monitor.
As a guy that has a lot of CRT monitors... Yes they are sweet, but they are not the greatest display tech ever IMHO. They are the best for retro games hands down. Plus there isn't one monitor that is perfect for everything. I use my BVM D20 or Sony 310tv for genesis, neo Geo, Saturn etc... D24 for PS3, 360. PC monitor is great for 480p + but doesn't look good at all for 240p. Also yes the D24 can look great even with current gen consoles but modern games are designed for 4k hdr etc... Modern game look way better on a high end Qled or OLED, not to mention the size.
This is such an eerily timed video. I literally just obtained 6 old CRTs (bringing my total count to 8) from my late uncle's old PC tech hoard last night. Are you watching me? lol.... I'd been looking for a while, I didn't want to pay the outrageous ebay prices and nothing was coming up locally so this was a great find.
@@teksyndicate Yeah actually, my current stable, then, is as follows: iMac G3 (counting it, got it from a friend in high school years ago) ADI MicroScan 4GP (this is the one I grew up using, it's pretty small and the tube is kinda dim. May need an adjustment or it may just be on its last legs. It has a lot lot lot of hours on it.) Then from the recent haul: Compaq MV520 KDS XF-9e Envision EN-775e Sony Trinitron 420GS ViewSonic A90 (2 of them) The Sony is obviously the standout, all of them are in visually great shape. I still need to test all of them but the two viewsonics still had the plastic condom on the VGA connector. I think they DID get used, they just, got taken care of pretty well. I plan to make a windows XP 64 box with an old R9 390X I have, since that should be able to do VGA without any adapters, and then some bulldozer chips that used to be in my main build. Yeah...overkill for XP surely, but IMO anything beyond XP can be done on Windows 10 with minor to intermediate effort so what else am I going to do with the hardware? Depending on the tube condition of the Sony and the ViewSonics, one of those may actually just end up on my main rig, possibly even as a primary monitor.
Hey Tek Syndicate regarding the DisplayPort to vga adapter not recognizing the monitor/changing resolutions is wrong, mine works fine and even goes up to "4k"
It´s funny listening to some people speaking about how they like their games "raw" with no bilinear filter because it looks blurred and they like to see the pixels like in the "old days"... The screen was blurry! Colors merged and were blended together so we could get the feeling that the resolution was higher than it really was... And it was beautiful :)
@@jonpirovsky I'm talking about the image beeing blurry... That's how screens used to be... I use bilinesr filter in my crt monitor when I play in my Mister because that's a fast way to get games the look they had when I played them 30 plus years ago. Is it the proper way they should look? Of course not. But that makes more sense to me than having sharp pixels, that's all I'm saying. Chill out man 🙂
@@Pixelhorizon I got your point. I tend not to use bilinear filtering as I think it's a very limited method to emulate the CRT look - though it's better than nothing, I agree. In retroarch-based emulators, I always have a number of shaders applied that do this job considerably better, that's what I meant to say. Games that used to depend heavily on dithering techniques, such as PSX and Mega Drive titles, suffer quite a lot on modern displays and it's kinda hard to emulate that look properly.
The only problem with customer crt’s, is that most have horrible convergence and geometry issues, when buying in 2023. Save yourself time and money and find a crt computer monitor. The most important thing is to find the best possible crt you can. These are harder and harder to find.
Oh man, the fluidity. My first monitor was a 15" CRT and I loved it. When I managed to finally get a used Voodoo 2 my jaw dropped. When I finally "upgraded" after 8 years (96-04) I was so dissapointed. To get that fluidity back, that's all I want from technology.
A high fps monitor is pretty fluid. LCD and OLED both have their issues with motion (though imo can still be pretty convincing), but DLP projectors and Plasma TVs tend to look very fluid.
The widescreen HD CRTs do in fact upscale the image and it does introduce a bit of latency, but it works extremely well for PS2, Xbox and Dreamcast. People were writing off HD CRTs for years…I finally see some appreciation for them recently. Nice video!
You are right imo. I also have a 32" Sony xbr 970. I bought it used last year from a guy right down the street from me. I think it's pretty good overall. I've played MvC 3 quite a lot on it and I won't say there's no lag because there probably is, but it feels fine to me. The TV itself has a pretty good picture but probably could benefit from a recap and pro calibration. I would have loved to try it brand new. As is it can't compare to my D24 which is razor sharp. I don't know if it will make the cut in game room I'm building, as I don't want it too cluttered. If I do then I'll try to have it serviced. If not I'll find a good home for it.
I have a Panasonic hd cry and it never gets the aspect ratio correct when I play PS2 games. I even picked up some component cables for playing gt4. Gt4 plays in 1080i but it looks squished. Maybe I'm doing something wrong. I wish I had the remote it came with.
Good video, most people don't go on about the motion clarity enough, for me it is the single most important aspect of CRTs! And yeah, being able to change the refresh rate and resolution is amazing, for some games, lower the resolution and get really high refresh rates, for others, resolution matters more. I put a CRT monitor on my desk for retro games and melee, but I find myself trying to play anything that will work well with 4:3 and 5:4 aspect ratios, the contrast and motion clarity is just so amazing... Also yeah, shout out to homebrewed Wiis! The GOAT
Do you know whether or not there are any boutique, designer CRT monitor manufacturers that are producing units that are compatible with modern software? If no, I feel like there’s big money begging to be extracted from PC gamer wallets.
great motion clarity should be possible on pretty much any lcd if display manufacturers just bothered to strobe the backlight at the vertical refresh rate. but they haven't, so..
I have lost interest in modern gaming years back already. Set up my long since closeted windows 98 pc and a damn good viewsonic crt on my desk 2 weeks ago. Now I'm half way through the original monkey island games. Going trough old cd-roms and installing stuff left and right. I feel like my quality of life has indeed improved. Im home
Why would you lose interest in $80+ games that come barely finished, require months of patching to be playable, have half the game paywalled behind DLC on day 1, are infested with Denuvo DRM and require online activation?
I haven't used a CRT monitor since 2005 and have been using LCD monitors this whole time. But what also happened was I stopped playing FPS games because of the motion sickness I get from playing on LCD monitors. Even if they were high refresh rate monitors the pixels couldn't refresh fast enough. CRTs are superior in the motion department in every way. Even more so than OLED. When things scroll on a CRT the motion is buttery smooth. LCDs and even OLEDs still have a little ways to go.
This is interesting. I played Halo a LOT until around 2009 on a HD CRT TV and when I made the switch to a mdoern screen I found myself getting more fatigued and also not performing as well... strange how it can impact things like that.
I've been getting back into your videos lately, been watching since THE TEK and I'm excited to watch when you upload. I actually tried Deus Ex thanks to you for the first time and I really enjoyed it, especially with the mods. Keep up the good work ✌
I hear what you are saying with the depth. When I was a kid playing in the arcade the black of the CRT was mysterious and it felt like a universe was inside there. It put wonder in me.
PS 6th gen content like the PS2 was built from the ground up with the 'natural' anti-aliasing/softening effect of CRTs in mind. Anti-aliasing wasn't practical compute-wise at the time so the designers used the curvature of CRTs and the natural soft glow of the phosphor to make up for that, for a unique effect! Really genius and so few people appreciate that.
The way I look at it, it’s like Vinyl records. Music that was mastered for listening on vinyl will sound best on Vinyl. Games that were made to be viewed on a CRT are going to look best on a CRT. The artists mastering matters if you want to experience it as closely as they did when they made it.
I just wish some of these big companies would wake up to the potential money-maker they're sitting on here - a new generation of gaming CRTs would be a great market to tap, given how many of us would love to go back to the CRT days, but don't want to have to wade through over-priced antiques that might die any moment.
Your commentary about getting a Wii... Golden, right there. I discovered that marvelous little thing back in 2016, when I had only a 14" CRT in my room. Every 2D game looked wonderful on it, but it was too small, so I got a 29" CRT, and man, it was blurry. I finally got a set of component cables, and it's still amazing how good that image looks. But I missed PlayStation games, so I got a PS2 Slim, and oh boy, the PS2 is a console that looks good *only* on a CRT. Even emulating it at high resolutions can't quite give the same feel. About CRT PC monitors, it's been my main use since around 2016 as well. Here in Brazil, they're harder and harder to find, and I'm on my fourth one since then, but I still use it for everything, from emulators at 320x200@120Hz, or modern games a 1024x768@85Hz, or 1440x1080@60Hz. Got to play at a 1080p@165Hz VA panel, and it simply doesn't compare, fluidity *and* sharpness wise.
@@drewmow I really wouldn't know, but you could say LG lasts long enough, since all my monitors and TVs are LG branded (not out of choice, but because it's what I found in better condition). Keep in mind that all the ones I'm mentioning got daily use: the 2016 PC CRT I have is a LG FLATRON, manufactured in 2007, and was already 27.000 hours "old" when it gave up the ghost in 2020. The second LG I got wasn't flat screen, also from 2007, but lasted around 3.000 hours in my hands (it's sitting at 10.000 now), but that one had horrible burn in, leading me to believe it stayed on far too long at max brightness before I got it. The one I'm using right now is also LG, same model as the last one, but from 2004, but the materials (at least externally) seem much higher quality. The 29" TV is also LG, from around 2000, going on for almost 7 years in my hands now, never had an issue. The 14" TV my mom bought for my sister around 2004, so it's the only one we got since the very beginning, and it's as bright as ever. So, yeah, subjectively speaking, LG is a brand that lasts a long time XD.
@@sonyx5332 Yeah, my main PC monitor is still a 17" CRT. I tried hooking up my PC on the 4K 42" LCD in the living room, and I couldn't quite get used to it. But for my retro games, I really wouldn't trade my 29" for any other.
I spent a fortune on a Japanese Game Cube component video cord back in the day, and it was worth every penny. The color green simply didn't exist without it.
I so approve of Quake and Arcane Dimensions appearing so much on this channel. BTW a hint for that: r_particles 2. It'll draw the particles as squares like software rendered Quake. In AD, you may want to try "r_lerpmodels 2" and "r_lerpmove 2". The AD weapon models look good with higher levels of interpolation. Just have to look at the Super Nailgun go with that enabled.
I use a 9 inch sony CRT for watching old 90s TV shows. Both for nostalgia and also because those old shows look brand new on a CRT. Those shows when played on my modern sony OLED look weird and blurry.
No they don't. Xfiles looks amazing on blu ray and so does Miami Vice and that's an 80s into early 90s show. They look AMAZING on blu ray. Mostly because they were all shot on film. And movies or tvs shot on film look just fucking gorgeious on blu ray and UHD blu ray.
@@TheFly212 Yes, but i''m not talking about shows that were shot on 35mm film and carefully remastered in full HD. I am talking about shows like Home Improvement that were shot on digital TV cameras, so there is no higher quality source. Besides when I see those shows on the CRT with that classic 60 hz flicker and the stripey look of the RGB pattern, it takes me back in time because thats the way those shows always looked. If there is a full HD remaster, then yes ill watch it on my 4K OLED
I have a 85hz PC CRT (for dreamcast and all pc games) and a Sony trinitron wega 22 inch TV with component cables (PS3 for games and movies) and s video (for SNES/N64/Gamecube etc..) and a composite front input for NES/quick access and I can say is the perfect setup for a gamer/collector. I can play from any era of gaming and have the best/cheap legit experience possible! I subbed because CRT 4 life!
I played minish cap on a CRT a while back. With that phosphor glow...it was just beautiful and natural looking. The thing is that the GBA used an LCD, which makes it even more ironic.
Something no one seems to talk about is that CRT displays always have imperfections such as geometry issues, color impurities, and poor convergence. Even the professional monitors can have slightly imperfect geometry that can't be fixed no matter how many components are replaced and how much time is spent on calibration. Consumer CRT televisions commonly have some amount of all three imperfections. Games with a lot of small text can look very blurry to the point of being impossible to read if the convergence isn't right (convergence can be improved sometimes). A display with curvy geometry can be very distracting, especially with 2D scrolling games.
Yeah, the information on CRTs is often too optimistic and can even be misleading to some people. CRTs are nostalgic, but nowhere near perfect. The imperfections that are commonly mentioned are just the tip of the iceberg. I hope I can help some people decide from my experience with a lacie electron 22 blue iv, a high end 22 inch CRT with 130 khz of bandwidth. I bought a CRT for motion clarity, contrast and variable resolutions. After buying it and installing it at home, I was a bit disappointed. While it does show a lot more detail in motion than an oled, everything has a long green trail behind it. It is often visible on testufo videos. It's similar to the trailing on radar screens, but weaker. Still enough to destroy the contrast (in motion and locally) far beyond IPS panels. It looks like TAA motion trailing but way, way worse. The static contrast is also disappointing. Black screens are almost completely black with proper settings in the display menu, but bright spots have a lot of glow close to them (19:18) and a smaller but visible amount on the whole screen. In practice, the blacks are always grey and look more like an IPS panel with dimming zones. Smooth pixels can be pretty annoying as well, especially in modern games with lots of detail. Even with optimized convergence, it looks like FXAA and it quickly made me realize that 1536p on a CRT can't beat 1440p or even 1080p on fixed pixel displays. Lower horizontal scan rates (refresh rate times vertical resolution) are more crisp, but this is wasteful and still not as perfect as a simple LCD. I don't care too much about geometry, but even my flat screen CRT has some bending at the top and bottom. It has a small but strong widening at the top and some warping in the middle as well. Camera panning doesn't deliver continuous motion because of the last thing. Black crush is a real issue. Dark greys sppear black with no further action, so you need to adjust the gamma to compensate. This causes colors to lose defenition, just after you were amazed by them at first. TVs take a lot more benefit from the imperfections than monitors, but I don't like 60 hz because I can see the flicker directly on bright screens and further towards the periphery of vision. The 50 hz standard in my region is even worse. I still think it's fun to have a CRT. There is no doubt that it plays very well, even with the imperfections. The imperfections themselves are fun from time to time as well, because they look natural and nostalgic. It's a bit like analog photography compared to digital. There is just something to it that needs to be conserved, remembered and reproduced at some point. My CRT will have a different future than I expected when I decided to buy it. As a matter of fact, I probably overpaid for it. I rather would have picked it up cheaply 10 years ago. On the bright side, it will last me a lifetime with plenty of opportunities to play. I don't need a lot, after all. If motion clarity and consistency is all you care about, I recommend buying a viewsonic xg2431 for 59-100 hz or a benq zowie monitor for 100 hz or more. You can use backlight strobing, a high vertical total and the blurbusters strobe utility to get really close to the CRT experience, much more so than on an OLED with black frame insertion. If you care about contrast and colors too, you may be happier waiting for quantum dot advancements instead of desperately buying a CRT. For fixed refresh rates in general, I recommend using v-sync and an fps-cap at exactly the refresh rate to get rid of lag and judder due to v-sync. Make sure that you don't get framedrops at any time, even when hard decisions need to be made for that. Just lower the refresh rate, graphics settings or even the resolution (unscaled). This saves some fan loudness, electricity, wear and a lot of frustration.
Hear me out: On a PC CRT hooked up to a modern PC, you can use Custom Resolution Utility, dial a super resolution like 2560x480, use Retroarch's scaling feature to get integer scaling out of any game ever made and use the interlacing shader to black out every other line and accurately bring your image down to 240p and the picture you'll get will be indistinguishable from the picture on a Sony BVM, specially when you use an Extron RGB Interface to make up for the loss in brightness. Another thing you can do is to crank up the resolution of your PC CRT real high like, say 1600x1200 and use CRT shaders on Retroarch to make it look like pretty much any CRT you want. As a last resort, contrary to popular belief PC CRTs are capable of 240p but to go that low and stay within 31khz you'll have to do that at 120Hz. You'll get a super bright picture with vibrant colors but some motion blur because of the repeated frames, not really ideal for fast paced games with lots of scrolling but perfectly acceptable for less busy games and almost imperceptible in games locked at 30fps.
Something also about CRTs, in most cases, devs used the imperfections in composite video to blend dithered patterns. Gave the illusion of smoother gradients, more colors, or even faked transparency. Genesis games are a prime example
Just bought an MSI curved 32". I love it, but i see these colors and fluidity of the CRT and it's so much better. I would love to see these comeback as a curved screen and larger.
Do any companies manufacture 'new' CRTs? They are getting much rarer due to breakages and being thrown out casually. It would be sad to see them did put completely.
I still have all my old CRT sets, from TV's (some with old separate VHF/UHF screw connectors), to monitors for my C-64's & also CRT CGA's & VGA's for PC's. I did have an EGA at one point (late 1980's) but that died long ago & got thrown out. Anyway, I still have at least 3 composite/SVideo monitors for vintage computer programming & gaming. One advantage of CRT monitors in my case is that I could use them for both the old lightpens/guns ... and for my old 3D shutter glasses to make 3D games look actually 3D.
I've got my Wii hooked up to my 27" trinitron with hd retrovision component cable and raphnet adapters to play NES, SNES, Genesis with original controllers and added bonus of gameboy, GameCube, Wii all in that one console. Good to hear someone else recommending it
I purchased an old CRT Dell monitor. I had to get a Displayport to Dsub adapter. I can't get it to work beyond 60hz. Those adapters are so dodgy, I had the same experience years ago but it was an HDMI to Dsub adapter. Do any of these adapters work?
While I do agree with much here, CRTs age dramatically. Any CRT device you get today will not look as good as it did when new. HDTV CRTs are perfectly fine replacements. The fear of input latency is way overblown. There were only 1 or 2 HDTV CRTs that would even accept a 1080p image ( All Sony XBRs), and no HDTV CRTs upscaled content from 240i/480p to 1080i. All the rest just used a basic deinterlacer (240i ->240p & 480i -> 480p) which introduced an imperceptible amount of latency. HD CRTs are far more readily available. Nearly all the cheap good CRTs were auctioned off/ thrown out over a decade ago.
Good comment. Absolutely nothing wrong with HD CRT’S IMO. I have one of the last non-HD CRT’s made really, 2005/2006 Bang Olufsen MX8000, top of the line 4x3 TV. I don’t know the specs or even the resolution (480i?) tbh I just know it looks amazing, but can’t be HD because it’s not got an HDMI port, best it’s got is SCART. With CRT specs don’t really matter too much, especially beyond resolution/inputs and aspect ratio. I watch DVD’s on it, play SNES and original Xbox on it. Feels like peering into another world, not like a screen.
Exactly my Samsung hd crt in 1070i vie component has no input lag only beautiful pictures and fast motion. I hooked up my series x with a hdmi to component scaler converter and I can’t go back
Thats the feeling I got early this year when I pulled back my old crt and hooked it up on modern setup just for fun. Immidietly blown away, It feels so freakin smooth, and the graphic, color seems more natural, the black level so perfect, no need for anti aliasing, no need for hires, after a long time using LCD (since 2010) and came back for CRT it feels so wrong to switch back to LCD again. Now I only use my LCD for work purpose, for gaming I use CRT all the time.
This one was 110 lbs... But it's been a good way to track my health lol. When I first got a 27" TV a few years ago I nearly died lugging it up the stairs... But this time it felt pretty light.
I am an avid CRT user and collector. I initially got back into them because I heard that counter strike plays WAY better on one. Once I pulled my old one out I was shocked and amazed! I will absolutely never go back to anything modern. I had a nice 4k oled side by side to compare a few crts and they all honestly looked so much better than the oled. I am always buying and selling crts so I go through a decent amount, but currently have a Dell M993S and am running all my modern games on it in 1600x1200 at 100 hz. Lighting looks so much more realistic on a crt and I think it just makes anything modern really stand out. It almost looks like a shadow box to a new reality looking at a modern game through one of these. It really is an experience that I think every one should at least re try in the modern era. So many of my friends buy crt monitors once they see my pc setup in person. I had a nice 144 hz 1080p asus monitor that was used before I got back into crts, but now it is only a secondary monitor to have discord open. My crt is the only thing I will play games, watch anime or any pre 2008 content on.
I don't think most people understand this. I'm sure there will be plenty of comments just saying, "No. New things better!" Which is sad. Hopefully people will read your comment.
Great video! I agree, sadly I dont have room for an old crt tv so I hook my old consoles up to our modern tv, its crappy but the nostalgia is there. But yeah it looks way better on the original tvs and monitors. To be honest its the nostalgia factor that wins for me, the thought of going back and playing doom on our old windows 95 pc (rip) is heaven. But yeah for the ultimate retro experience always get the original stuff, or do the wii thing if thats easier
Yes you should get a crt monitor if you wanna get that old pc experience again. Playing an fps game on a 19" crt monitor at 1600x1200 150hz is insane. And at lower resolutions like 1024x768 most games look even better if the screen is 17"
A modded Wii on a 480P CRT is the greatest thing ever. I always watch DVD's on my HD CRT with a PS3 as my DVD player. It looks so amazing. Motion blur is my enemy and CRT's are greatest solution to solve it.
I’ve been trying to find a CRT monitor so I can get back into PC gaming. Modern display technologies actually give me a headache and motion sickness, however I can watch a CRT TV for hours, it feels no different than looking out of a window.
Using a CRU (Custom Resolution Utility) you can force a PC CRT monitor to output 240p with retroarch. It gives you about the same quality that you would expect out of those pvm monitors. The PS2 and the Wii also look gorgeous connected to a PC CRT monitor through a component to vga converter.
Eerie to hear my EXACT thoughts on the subject. I also "rediscovered" CRT monitors about 4 months ago... Guess what, now I have no less than SEVEN scattered around in my room. A man's gotta have a few spares, hey!
I wonder how far CRT technology could still be pushed if giant corporations like Samsung, LG and Sony etc would start to seriously invest into it again. I know that won't happen, I just wonder.
I don't play video games, I just use CRTs because in my opinion they still look better than an LCD and OLED, and they will certainly last longer. I still use CRTs on all of my desktop computers, and TVs except for my one Plasma TV. The only LCD displays I use are on laptops.
Been playing Castlevania Collection (PS4) on Modern tv. Then played CV1 on NES hooked up to CRT. Had a much EASIER time beating CV1 on the CRT. My jumps and attacks are spot on. It just felt more natural... I guess the classic NES controller also didn't hurt.
I wouldn't even trust a TV with 480p. I remember researching some years ago that were free but they all most likely digitized the analog video and converted to progressive. A 240p signal would look terrible.
I use a 34xbr970 as a monitor for my pc, I have the geometry dialed in pretty good, colors pop and deep blacks, response time is 8ms which isn't bad at all. I owned a xbr960 with the super fine pitch tube and the difference between these 2 is negligible.
Mixed feelings about CRTs. I tried RetroArch on my OLED with nice filters and HDR. I couldn't fine one reason to use a CRT over that. Older games take advantage of the scanlines, but it's not worth sacrificing how good everything looks overall just to fix a few graphic glitches. Also, if CRTs were so good they would be making them today and selling them for eSports, right?
Oled is getting close, but it's 80-90% there imo. They don't make them because there isn't a huge market anymore.. regular consumers just want flat and bright. CRTs are heavy and hazardous to dispose of... So there's that too. I'm not sure if the competitive crowd would be big enough to charge that. Most just go for an ugly 240hz tn panel
They stopped making CRTs because LCD was cheaper to make. CRTs were ahead of their time (pc monitors) and even modern pc games look better on a CRT. 1280 X 1024 with a 980ti still plays all my pc games at 85htz/FPS and I don't need an rtx 4090 £1600 to run at 240htz on a £500 oled screen to get a brilliant experience. CRT monitors also use less electricity when compared to a 4080 and oled at 240htz. They got rid of them because they could make more money. Simple . Just like electric cars. It takes 300 barrels of oil to make a battery that contains 1 barrel of oil worth's of energy. You are being lied to 🥺
@@Movie_Games I had a 40" 4k for a while and absolutely couldn't use it for gaming... I was using it as a desktop monitor and it was just too big for that, lol... maybe as a TV or something, but as a desk monitor, it's way too big for my taste. I just can't tell what's going on unless I slide back about 5-6' away... great for a controller... bad for mouse/kb.
@@teksyndicate That's what i'm using now and I love it. I'm always leaning back and kicking my feet up, though. And my desk is pretty deep. Put a ruler on my forehead and measured to the TV. Comes out to about 2 feet. Fills vision perfectly and I like that I can lean in when sniping to try and hit people far away.
What an interesting video! As a fanatic retrogamer (both arcade and consoles) i've learned a lot more about the original pixel looks. Playing now on Arcade64 and trying different settings with the HLSL option and it comes more close to to the original graphics with crt looks. But it can't beat using a real crt monitor (yet). Thanks for uploading!
We were almost fighting with my buddy back in 2011 I think. I downloaded Shenmue and a Dreamcast emulator, saw those graphics (640x480) on a approximately 16 inch monitor and said something like "what a pile of **** these graphics". Then my buddy said yeah it always looked like that, see video settings it says "native" resolution. But I couldn't understand how that was possible. I don't really remember exactly how we argued but last thing I could think is that those old crts were actually better than modern displays. Sure you can upscale 3d graphics etc, but ui and prerendered images will never look good on a modern tv without some sort of ai upscaling or full redraw
I picked up 3 crt monitors and a crt tv for $8 at our local version of goodwill. Best buys I've made for my retro setups. Lan play on old fps with crts r truly something.
I had a smaller computer monitor crt style back in the late 80's/early 90's that I used to play my Commodore 64 on. I later hooked up NES and even VCRs to it, and to this day, no other Television or monitor before or since has looked so good as things did on that monitor. The colors were vivid and clean, the images were sharp and fluid. It went missing one day, and now, so many years later, I dont know what model or brand it was.
I really like my pc crt monitor but I am stuck at having to do 1024x728 at 85hz. I wish I could push it a little higher for hz but it doesn't like to go much higher than that. But for anything in the 480p era, it's great for gaming.
I got an acer nitro v2 390hz monitor, and I am pretty meh, whenever I get my old 17" crt and hook it up to my gtx 970 I suddenly get on top of the charts, even get cheater thrown my way and that at 85hz and not 390hz. CRT rocks still.
used to play World of Warcraft on CRT and i remember when going to the new flat monitors thinking colours just did not pop as much, and it felt like they never have since
Yeah blacks were absolutely awful and DVD movies (especially DivX!) looked 10 times worse. But geometry and white brightness were so much better! Text was super sharp and you didn't have to deal with glare anymore. LCDs shined in the office. But for games and movies we certainly downgraded until OLED came up.
I have several large CRT TVs I was able to save from the dump. You can find small ones fairly easy but those 26-30+ size TVs take two people to move. If you find one make sure you keep it. But just be warned. If you never had one they all make a high pitch ringing noise. Might drive some people crazy, but that is just how they sound.
I tried to go back CRTs again for retro C64s and Amigas. I find the flickering in 50Hz PAL content is just horrible. And I even remember back in the day my eyes would hurt. In my opinion finding modern solutions where you make LCDs work with minimal input lag and scaling the picture properly is much better for me. I have many options for my C64s and Amigas. I have 5:4 LED screens that will work straightly on Amiga 15KHz RGB. I have scandoublers. I have Retro Tink 2x mini. I have Turbo Chameleon 64 V2s with VGA out. I have older LCD TVs which will scale 240/288p properly and not try to interlace it. There are plenty of options to make retro stuff look good and run well on LCDs. Much easier on the eyes.
Amiga games don't look flickery on a TV to me. On a PC VGA monitor - yes, 50Hz doesn't look great. On a TV - it's fine. And playing fast moving games like Sensible Soccer without the motion clarity of a CRT is a non-starter for me!
i agree with you for the most part but i have a 75inch LG 4k with 120res. i dont like the way it plays tv or games. the 120 seems slow like i can see it change. I have a mitts diamond crt that isperfect for gaming but it is dark and mitts says it supposed to be like that. i always turn up the brightness.
Another great reason is size and affordability. Nothing beats a 14 inch Trinitron with SCART. Those are plug-and-play, cost peanuts and need no masters degree to operate like RetroArch does. Also from a technical stand point, I dare to state no (modern) displays exist under 15 inch that deliver a better image quality than that Trinitron. So if you want tiny, a CRT is your only option.
god bro im back and into building pc's again well obsessed really. i remember like yesterday you showing off the 9800gx2. no 4090 or rdna3 will have me hype like that card did. was still dailying a 22inch crt then as well lol. id love a 32 inch 4 3 really good one and play cyber punk on it.
I often see people criticise the use of modern screens for old-school games, and I think I am starting to understand why they do that.
One reason is probably that modern screens give people an unfair impression of what old games used to look like when they were played on actual CRT screens - they did _not_ look rough, grainy and pixelated, because CRT screens were smaller in size and also had scanlines that helped with disguising the pixels, so old games actually looked _better_ than we remember them.
Its not only that. Crts had perfect motion clarity, great contrast and colours. And they didn't have to upscale the image.
That's what he said on the video.
When I was younger, I always wondered why the cutscenes in Command&Conquer looked so much worse on our family Mac, than they did on my friend's PS1. Now I know, it was the scanlines and lower resolution of the TV that hid the compression artifacts you could see so clearly on a PC monitor.
I'd recommend using Raspberry Pi 4b + RGB-Pi SCART cable. It's perfect on CRT because their OS is designed for CRT TVs.
As a guy that has a lot of CRT monitors... Yes they are sweet, but they are not the greatest display tech ever IMHO.
They are the best for retro games hands down. Plus there isn't one monitor that is perfect for everything. I use my BVM D20 or Sony 310tv for genesis, neo Geo, Saturn etc... D24 for PS3, 360. PC monitor is great for 480p + but doesn't look good at all for 240p.
Also yes the D24 can look great even with current gen consoles but modern games are designed for 4k hdr etc... Modern game look way better on a high end Qled or OLED, not to mention the size.
Well at least I got a reply from a scammer lol
Oh yeah, I think the beautiful CRTs are right for me!
This is such an eerily timed video. I literally just obtained 6 old CRTs (bringing my total count to 8) from my late uncle's old PC tech hoard last night. Are you watching me? lol....
I'd been looking for a while, I didn't want to pay the outrageous ebay prices and nothing was coming up locally so this was a great find.
Nice! Get any really good units?
@@teksyndicate
Yeah actually, my current stable, then, is as follows:
iMac G3 (counting it, got it from a friend in high school years ago)
ADI MicroScan 4GP (this is the one I grew up using, it's pretty small and the tube is kinda dim. May need an adjustment or it may just be on its last legs. It has a lot lot lot of hours on it.)
Then from the recent haul:
Compaq MV520
KDS XF-9e
Envision EN-775e
Sony Trinitron 420GS
ViewSonic A90 (2 of them)
The Sony is obviously the standout, all of them are in visually great shape. I still need to test all of them but the two viewsonics still had the plastic condom on the VGA connector. I think they DID get used, they just, got taken care of pretty well.
I plan to make a windows XP 64 box with an old R9 390X I have, since that should be able to do VGA without any adapters, and then some bulldozer chips that used to be in my main build. Yeah...overkill for XP surely, but IMO anything beyond XP can be done on Windows 10 with minor to intermediate effort so what else am I going to do with the hardware?
Depending on the tube condition of the Sony and the ViewSonics, one of those may actually just end up on my main rig, possibly even as a primary monitor.
Hey Tek Syndicate regarding the DisplayPort to vga adapter not recognizing the monitor/changing resolutions is wrong, mine works fine and even goes up to "4k"
It´s funny listening to some people speaking about how they like their games "raw" with no bilinear filter because it looks blurred and they like to see the pixels like in the "old days"... The screen was blurry! Colors merged and were blended together so we could get the feeling that the resolution was higher than it really was... And it was beautiful :)
Except that bilinear filtering does not provide the same image as a CRT, as anyone familiar with dithering can tell you...
@@jonpirovsky I'm talking about the image beeing blurry... That's how screens used to be... I use bilinesr filter in my crt monitor when I play in my Mister because that's a fast way to get games the look they had when I played them 30 plus years ago. Is it the proper way they should look? Of course not. But that makes more sense to me than having sharp pixels, that's all I'm saying. Chill out man 🙂
@@Pixelhorizon I got your point. I tend not to use bilinear filtering as I think it's a very limited method to emulate the CRT look - though it's better than nothing, I agree. In retroarch-based emulators, I always have a number of shaders applied that do this job considerably better, that's what I meant to say.
Games that used to depend heavily on dithering techniques, such as PSX and Mega Drive titles, suffer quite a lot on modern displays and it's kinda hard to emulate that look properly.
@@jonpirovsky I agree with you, we´re on the same page 👍
@@jonpirovsky Agreed I like the blur on a CRT but not with bilinear filter
The only problem with customer crt’s, is that most have horrible convergence and geometry issues, when buying in 2023. Save yourself time and money and find a crt computer monitor. The most important thing is to find the best possible crt you can. These are harder and harder to find.
Oh man, the fluidity. My first monitor was a 15" CRT and I loved it. When I managed to finally get a used Voodoo 2 my jaw dropped. When I finally "upgraded" after 8 years (96-04) I was so dissapointed. To get that fluidity back, that's all I want from technology.
A high fps monitor is pretty fluid. LCD and OLED both have their issues with motion (though imo can still be pretty convincing), but DLP projectors and Plasma TVs tend to look very fluid.
The widescreen HD CRTs do in fact upscale the image and it does introduce a bit of latency, but it works extremely well for PS2, Xbox and Dreamcast. People were writing off HD CRTs for years…I finally see some appreciation for them recently. Nice video!
You are right imo. I also have a 32" Sony xbr 970. I bought it used last year from a guy right down the street from me. I think it's pretty good overall. I've played MvC 3 quite a lot on it and I won't say there's no lag because there probably is, but it feels fine to me.
The TV itself has a pretty good picture but probably could benefit from a recap and pro calibration. I would have loved to try it brand new. As is it can't compare to my D24 which is razor sharp.
I don't know if it will make the cut in game room I'm building, as I don't want it too cluttered. If I do then I'll try to have it serviced. If not I'll find a good home for it.
SD content yes, though depending on the tube 480p can be native and lagless as you'd expect.
I have a Samsung crt model tx-r3079wh. Basically perfect condition. Would any of ya be interested?
@@Taylordeanhall where ya located Taylor?
I have a Panasonic hd cry and it never gets the aspect ratio correct when I play PS2 games. I even picked up some component cables for playing gt4. Gt4 plays in 1080i but it looks squished. Maybe I'm doing something wrong. I wish I had the remote it came with.
Good video, most people don't go on about the motion clarity enough, for me it is the single most important aspect of CRTs!
And yeah, being able to change the refresh rate and resolution is amazing, for some games, lower the resolution and get really high refresh rates, for others, resolution matters more. I put a CRT monitor on my desk for retro games and melee, but I find myself trying to play anything that will work well with 4:3 and 5:4 aspect ratios, the contrast and motion clarity is just so amazing...
Also yeah, shout out to homebrewed Wiis! The GOAT
Do you know whether or not there are any boutique, designer CRT monitor manufacturers that are producing units that are compatible with modern software? If no, I feel like there’s big money begging to be extracted from PC gamer wallets.
great motion clarity should be possible on pretty much any lcd if display manufacturers just bothered to strobe the backlight at the vertical refresh rate.
but they haven't, so..
I have lost interest in modern gaming years back already. Set up my long since closeted windows 98 pc and a damn good viewsonic crt on my desk 2 weeks ago. Now I'm half way through the original monkey island games. Going trough old cd-roms and installing stuff left and right. I feel like my quality of life has indeed improved. Im home
Why would you lose interest in $80+ games that come barely finished, require months of patching to be playable, have half the game paywalled behind DLC on day 1, are infested with Denuvo DRM and require online activation?
I haven't used a CRT monitor since 2005 and have been using LCD monitors this whole time. But what also happened was I stopped playing FPS games because of the motion sickness I get from playing on LCD monitors. Even if they were high refresh rate monitors the pixels couldn't refresh fast enough. CRTs are superior in the motion department in every way. Even more so than OLED. When things scroll on a CRT the motion is buttery smooth. LCDs and even OLEDs still have a little ways to go.
Would you mind telling me what CRT stands for
@@dianadodd7514cathode ray tube
Saw they didn't reply to you so I got you lol
This is interesting. I played Halo a LOT until around 2009 on a HD CRT TV and when I made the switch to a mdoern screen I found myself getting more fatigued and also not performing as well... strange how it can impact things like that.
I've been getting back into your videos lately, been watching since THE TEK and I'm excited to watch when you upload. I actually tried Deus Ex thanks to you for the first time and I really enjoyed it, especially with the mods. Keep up the good work ✌
by the time I made it to Hong Kong I had realized it was my favorite game ever... things just really started to click then... glad you're liking it.
I hear what you are saying with the depth. When I was a kid playing in the arcade the black of the CRT was mysterious and it felt like a universe was inside there. It put wonder in me.
PS 6th gen content like the PS2 was built from the ground up with the 'natural' anti-aliasing/softening effect of CRTs in mind. Anti-aliasing wasn't practical compute-wise at the time so the designers used the curvature of CRTs and the natural soft glow of the phosphor to make up for that, for a unique effect! Really genius and so few people appreciate that.
To all nonbelievers of CRT -- do a 360 pan on CRT vs LCD/LED/OLED in your favorite game.
The way I look at it, it’s like Vinyl records. Music that was mastered for listening on vinyl will sound best on Vinyl.
Games that were made to be viewed on a CRT are going to look best on a CRT.
The artists mastering matters if you want to experience it as closely as they did when they made it.
why does this feel like a re upload from 10 years ago
I just wish some of these big companies would wake up to the potential money-maker they're sitting on here - a new generation of gaming CRTs would be a great market to tap, given how many of us would love to go back to the CRT days, but don't want to have to wade through over-priced antiques that might die any moment.
Your commentary about getting a Wii... Golden, right there. I discovered that marvelous little thing back in 2016, when I had only a 14" CRT in my room. Every 2D game looked wonderful on it, but it was too small, so I got a 29" CRT, and man, it was blurry. I finally got a set of component cables, and it's still amazing how good that image looks. But I missed PlayStation games, so I got a PS2 Slim, and oh boy, the PS2 is a console that looks good *only* on a CRT. Even emulating it at high resolutions can't quite give the same feel.
About CRT PC monitors, it's been my main use since around 2016 as well. Here in Brazil, they're harder and harder to find, and I'm on my fourth one since then, but I still use it for everything, from emulators at 320x200@120Hz, or modern games a 1024x768@85Hz, or 1440x1080@60Hz. Got to play at a 1080p@165Hz VA panel, and it simply doesn't compare, fluidity *and* sharpness wise.
What's a good long lasting brand name CRT?
@@drewmow I really wouldn't know, but you could say LG lasts long enough, since all my monitors and TVs are LG branded (not out of choice, but because it's what I found in better condition). Keep in mind that all the ones I'm mentioning got daily use: the 2016 PC CRT I have is a LG FLATRON, manufactured in 2007, and was already 27.000 hours "old" when it gave up the ghost in 2020. The second LG I got wasn't flat screen, also from 2007, but lasted around 3.000 hours in my hands (it's sitting at 10.000 now), but that one had horrible burn in, leading me to believe it stayed on far too long at max brightness before I got it. The one I'm using right now is also LG, same model as the last one, but from 2004, but the materials (at least externally) seem much higher quality. The 29" TV is also LG, from around 2000, going on for almost 7 years in my hands now, never had an issue. The 14" TV my mom bought for my sister around 2004, so it's the only one we got since the very beginning, and it's as bright as ever. So, yeah, subjectively speaking, LG is a brand that lasts a long time XD.
if you play close to the CRT monitor like me, 14 to 19 seems like the perfect size.
@@sonyx5332 Yeah, my main PC monitor is still a 17" CRT. I tried hooking up my PC on the 4K 42" LCD in the living room, and I couldn't quite get used to it. But for my retro games, I really wouldn't trade my 29" for any other.
I spent a fortune on a Japanese Game Cube component video cord back in the day, and it was worth every penny. The color green simply didn't exist without it.
If you are an aspiring strong man, you might consider a CRT instead of a natural stone. That way in between sets you can watch TV!!
I Have got a 32 inch panasonic ..used to be able to pick it up..not any more ..its hard enough to push on a flat carpet..weighs a ton
@@jasonmills1121 lol they're comically big heavy! Ahh the good old days.
I so approve of Quake and Arcane Dimensions appearing so much on this channel.
BTW a hint for that: r_particles 2. It'll draw the particles as squares like software rendered Quake. In AD, you may want to try "r_lerpmodels 2" and "r_lerpmove 2". The AD weapon models look good with higher levels of interpolation. Just have to look at the Super Nailgun go with that enabled.
AD might be my favorite retro fps... I'll give those commands a try.
@@teksyndicate Quake is the best fps ever! :)
I use a 9 inch sony CRT for watching old 90s TV shows. Both for nostalgia and also because those old shows look brand new on a CRT. Those shows when played on my modern sony OLED look weird and blurry.
No they don't. Xfiles looks amazing on blu ray and so does Miami Vice and that's an 80s into early 90s show. They look AMAZING on blu ray. Mostly because they were all shot on film. And movies or tvs shot on film look just fucking gorgeious on blu ray and UHD blu ray.
@@TheFly212 Yes, but i''m not talking about shows that were shot on 35mm film and carefully remastered in full HD. I am talking about shows like Home Improvement that were shot on digital TV cameras, so there is no higher quality source. Besides when I see those shows on the CRT with that classic 60 hz flicker and the stripey look of the RGB pattern, it takes me back in time because thats the way those shows always looked. If there is a full HD remaster, then yes ill watch it on my 4K OLED
I have a 85hz PC CRT (for dreamcast and all pc games) and a Sony trinitron wega 22 inch TV with component cables (PS3 for games and movies) and s video (for SNES/N64/Gamecube etc..) and a composite front input for NES/quick access and I can say is the perfect setup for a gamer/collector. I can play from any era of gaming and have the best/cheap legit experience possible! I subbed because CRT 4 life!
im glad you mentioned the wii, not only does it make a great vault for retro games but also wii games themselves look awesome on crt compared to hdtv
When praising CRTs, no-one ever mentions glare. Sunlight through the window can stop you seeing the image.
I think you've convinced me. I'll probably buy some sort of crt now. So many old games I missed out on. Great video.
I played minish cap on a CRT a while back. With that phosphor glow...it was just beautiful and natural looking. The thing is that the GBA used an LCD, which makes it even more ironic.
Does the Display-Port to VGA adapter support all refresh rates the monitor would usually do on a GPU with analog output or is it 60 Hz only?
The question isn't" should you buy a CRT? Its CAN you buy a CRT? Most often the answer is NO.
Can someone comment on why the Wii is the best choice, I thought it outputs 480p and we want 240 for retro gaming
I still remember playing Max Payne on my CRT monitor decades ago
Cathode Ray Tube, buy it, it's like a giant light bulb. When you turn it on it's on. But watch out, it will rot your mind. That's 💯
Something no one seems to talk about is that CRT displays always have imperfections such as geometry issues, color impurities, and poor convergence. Even the professional monitors can have slightly imperfect geometry that can't be fixed no matter how many components are replaced and how much time is spent on calibration. Consumer CRT televisions commonly have some amount of all three imperfections. Games with a lot of small text can look very blurry to the point of being impossible to read if the convergence isn't right (convergence can be improved sometimes). A display with curvy geometry can be very distracting, especially with 2D scrolling games.
Yeah, the information on CRTs is often too optimistic and can even be misleading to some people. CRTs are nostalgic, but nowhere near perfect. The imperfections that are commonly mentioned are just the tip of the iceberg. I hope I can help some people decide from my experience with a lacie electron 22 blue iv, a high end 22 inch CRT with 130 khz of bandwidth.
I bought a CRT for motion clarity, contrast and variable resolutions. After buying it and installing it at home, I was a bit disappointed. While it does show a lot more detail in motion than an oled, everything has a long green trail behind it. It is often visible on testufo videos. It's similar to the trailing on radar screens, but weaker. Still enough to destroy the contrast (in motion and locally) far beyond IPS panels. It looks like TAA motion trailing but way, way worse.
The static contrast is also disappointing. Black screens are almost completely black with proper settings in the display menu, but bright spots have a lot of glow close to them (19:18) and a smaller but visible amount on the whole screen. In practice, the blacks are always grey and look more like an IPS panel with dimming zones.
Smooth pixels can be pretty annoying as well, especially in modern games with lots of detail. Even with optimized convergence, it looks like FXAA and it quickly made me realize that 1536p on a CRT can't beat 1440p or even 1080p on fixed pixel displays. Lower horizontal scan rates (refresh rate times vertical resolution) are more crisp, but this is wasteful and still not as perfect as a simple LCD.
I don't care too much about geometry, but even my flat screen CRT has some bending at the top and bottom. It has a small but strong widening at the top and some warping in the middle as well. Camera panning doesn't deliver continuous motion because of the last thing.
Black crush is a real issue. Dark greys sppear black with no further action, so you need to adjust the gamma to compensate. This causes colors to lose defenition, just after you were amazed by them at first.
TVs take a lot more benefit from the imperfections than monitors, but I don't like 60 hz because I can see the flicker directly on bright screens and further towards the periphery of vision. The 50 hz standard in my region is even worse.
I still think it's fun to have a CRT. There is no doubt that it plays very well, even with the imperfections. The imperfections themselves are fun from time to time as well, because they look natural and nostalgic. It's a bit like analog photography compared to digital. There is just something to it that needs to be conserved, remembered and reproduced at some point.
My CRT will have a different future than I expected when I decided to buy it. As a matter of fact, I probably overpaid for it. I rather would have picked it up cheaply 10 years ago. On the bright side, it will last me a lifetime with plenty of opportunities to play. I don't need a lot, after all.
If motion clarity and consistency is all you care about, I recommend buying a viewsonic xg2431 for 59-100 hz or a benq zowie monitor for 100 hz or more. You can use backlight strobing, a high vertical total and the blurbusters strobe utility to get really close to the CRT experience, much more so than on an OLED with black frame insertion. If you care about contrast and colors too, you may be happier waiting for quantum dot advancements instead of desperately buying a CRT.
For fixed refresh rates in general, I recommend using v-sync and an fps-cap at exactly the refresh rate to get rid of lag and judder due to v-sync. Make sure that you don't get framedrops at any time, even when hard decisions need to be made for that. Just lower the refresh rate, graphics settings or even the resolution (unscaled). This saves some fan loudness, electricity, wear and a lot of frustration.
I kept one for my 64 because it’s awful on a modern tv.
I've kept a good large CRTV for one main reason: Light gun games.
Duck hunt just doesn't work on an LCD tv.
Hear me out:
On a PC CRT hooked up to a modern PC, you can use Custom Resolution Utility, dial a super resolution like 2560x480, use Retroarch's scaling feature to get integer scaling out of any game ever made and use the interlacing shader to black out every other line and accurately bring your image down to 240p and the picture you'll get will be indistinguishable from the picture on a Sony BVM, specially when you use an Extron RGB Interface to make up for the loss in brightness.
Another thing you can do is to crank up the resolution of your PC CRT real high like, say 1600x1200 and use CRT shaders on Retroarch to make it look like pretty much any CRT you want.
As a last resort, contrary to popular belief PC CRTs are capable of 240p but to go that low and stay within 31khz you'll have to do that at 120Hz.
You'll get a super bright picture with vibrant colors but some motion blur because of the repeated frames, not really ideal for fast paced games with lots of scrolling but perfectly acceptable for less busy games and almost imperceptible in games locked at 30fps.
a thin scanline interleaved with a black one looks pretty crisp compared to meaty fat TV scanlines.
My neighbor threw out one that was A VHS DVD combo. I got lucky
I shouldn't have thrown my crt, I did a big mistake.
You're like almost convincing me to keep my 21" Trinitron
Something also about CRTs, in most cases, devs used the imperfections in composite video to blend dithered patterns. Gave the illusion of smoother gradients, more colors, or even faked transparency. Genesis games are a prime example
Just bought an MSI curved 32". I love it, but i see these colors and fluidity of the CRT and it's so much better. I would love to see these comeback as a curved screen and larger.
Nah I like my flat screen monitor 4K for the win🤟 I can’t go back to CRT’s that was when I was 15 years old.
On a side note, what Doom wad is that in the thumbnail?
This is all true but how about upscaling, the tech is quickly improving
I used to have 19" ViewSonic CRT in the early 2000's to game on CounterStrike and Starcraft it was the best.
Do any companies manufacture 'new' CRTs? They are getting much rarer due to breakages and being thrown out casually. It would be sad to see them did put completely.
I still have all my old CRT sets, from TV's (some with old separate VHF/UHF screw connectors), to monitors for my C-64's & also CRT CGA's & VGA's for PC's. I did have an EGA at one point (late 1980's) but that died long ago & got thrown out. Anyway, I still have at least 3 composite/SVideo monitors for vintage computer programming & gaming. One advantage of CRT monitors in my case is that I could use them for both the old lightpens/guns ... and for my old 3D shutter glasses to make 3D games look actually 3D.
What Zelda game is that? Cause not normal Link to the Past.
I've got my Wii hooked up to my 27" trinitron with hd retrovision component cable and raphnet adapters to play NES, SNES, Genesis with original controllers and added bonus of gameboy, GameCube, Wii all in that one console. Good to hear someone else recommending it
Sharp yet blurred. I don't think they'll ever top crts
CRT for the win!
I got my first PVM, 6 months ago. It's incredible for retro games!
I purchased an old CRT Dell monitor. I had to get a Displayport to Dsub adapter. I can't get it to work beyond 60hz. Those adapters are so dodgy, I had the same experience years ago but it was an HDMI to Dsub adapter. Do any of these adapters work?
Nevermind, I found the problem, I had to turn freesync off and create a custom resolution
oh my god CRTs WHERE the oringenal OLEDs thats so interesting!
While I do agree with much here, CRTs age dramatically. Any CRT device you get today will not look as good as it did when new. HDTV CRTs are perfectly fine replacements. The fear of input latency is way overblown. There were only 1 or 2 HDTV CRTs that would even accept a 1080p image ( All Sony XBRs), and no HDTV CRTs upscaled content from 240i/480p to 1080i. All the rest just used a basic deinterlacer (240i ->240p & 480i -> 480p) which introduced an imperceptible amount of latency. HD CRTs are far more readily available. Nearly all the cheap good CRTs were auctioned off/ thrown out over a decade ago.
Good comment. Absolutely nothing wrong with HD CRT’S IMO. I have one of the last non-HD CRT’s made really, 2005/2006 Bang Olufsen MX8000, top of the line 4x3 TV. I don’t know the specs or even the resolution (480i?) tbh I just know it looks amazing, but can’t be HD because it’s not got an HDMI port, best it’s got is SCART. With CRT specs don’t really matter too much, especially beyond resolution/inputs and
aspect ratio. I watch DVD’s on it, play SNES and original Xbox on it. Feels like peering into another world, not like a screen.
Weird, I could never find an hdtv crt to buy where I live.
Exactly my Samsung hd crt in 1070i vie component has no input lag only beautiful pictures and fast motion. I hooked up my series x with a hdmi to component scaler converter and I can’t go back
240i doesn't exists.
Thats the feeling I got early this year when I pulled back my old crt and hooked it up on modern setup just for fun. Immidietly blown away, It feels so freakin smooth, and the graphic, color seems more natural, the black level so perfect, no need for anti aliasing, no need for hires, after a long time using LCD (since 2010) and came back for CRT it feels so wrong to switch back to LCD again. Now I only use my LCD for work purpose, for gaming I use CRT all the time.
the CRTs look great on my oled screen
It'll almost do it justice!
will people start to get back to CRT for monitors as they did with mechanical keyboard??!😪
I recently got my hands on a samsung 959nf for my retro build........i love that monitor everyting is so smooth on that ting.
can i ask how you got your twitter layout to look like that??? I LOVE.
I use an extension for Firefox called stylus. If you message me on Twitter I'll send you details and a link to download my theme
This does make me miss the Trinitron I had. However, I don’t miss having my desk three feet from the wall trying to have desk space. It was HUGE.
This one was 110 lbs... But it's been a good way to track my health lol. When I first got a 27" TV a few years ago I nearly died lugging it up the stairs... But this time it felt pretty light.
What you should miss is the SPEED, and this pay your three feet
I am an avid CRT user and collector. I initially got back into them because I heard that counter strike plays WAY better on one. Once I pulled my old one out I was shocked and amazed! I will absolutely never go back to anything modern. I had a nice 4k oled side by side to compare a few crts and they all honestly looked so much better than the oled. I am always buying and selling crts so I go through a decent amount, but currently have a Dell M993S and am running all my modern games on it in 1600x1200 at 100 hz. Lighting looks so much more realistic on a crt and I think it just makes anything modern really stand out. It almost looks like a shadow box to a new reality looking at a modern game through one of these. It really is an experience that I think every one should at least re try in the modern era. So many of my friends buy crt monitors once they see my pc setup in person. I had a nice 144 hz 1080p asus monitor that was used before I got back into crts, but now it is only a secondary monitor to have discord open. My crt is the only thing I will play games, watch anime or any pre 2008 content on.
Hello ..have got a 32 inch panasonic..you being a collector. Do you have any idea what its worth..??
I don't think most people understand this. I'm sure there will be plenty of comments just saying, "No. New things better!" Which is sad. Hopefully people will read your comment.
Does this apply to old movies as well?
Crt just old school and cool 😊
Great video! I agree, sadly I dont have room for an old crt tv so I hook my old consoles up to our modern tv, its crappy but the nostalgia is there. But yeah it looks way better on the original tvs and monitors. To be honest its the nostalgia factor that wins for me, the thought of going back and playing doom on our old windows 95 pc (rip) is heaven. But yeah for the ultimate retro experience always get the original stuff, or do the wii thing if thats easier
Yes you should get a crt monitor if you wanna get that old pc experience again.
Playing an fps game on a 19" crt monitor at 1600x1200 150hz is insane.
And at lower resolutions like 1024x768 most games look even better if the screen is 17"
A modded Wii on a 480P CRT is the greatest thing ever. I always watch DVD's on my HD CRT with a PS3 as my DVD player. It looks so amazing. Motion blur is my enemy and CRT's are greatest solution to solve it.
OK but movies already have about 21 ms of motion blur anyway because of the 180° shutter angle at 24 FPS
I’ve been trying to find a CRT monitor so I can get back into PC gaming. Modern display technologies actually give me a headache and motion sickness, however I can watch a CRT TV for hours, it feels no different than looking out of a window.
I would LOVE a CRT again, but the size I'd want would be absolutely gargantuan depth- and weight-wise.
Using a CRU (Custom Resolution Utility) you can force a PC CRT monitor to output 240p with retroarch. It gives you about the same quality that you would expect out of those pvm monitors. The PS2 and the Wii also look gorgeous connected to a PC CRT monitor through a component to vga converter.
The only one I found had weird drivers that made Windows run in development mode. I'll have to check to see if there's any better now
I have moved enough CRT monitors and 200 pound tube televisions over the decades that scan line filters for any emulation are perfectly fine with me.
Eerie to hear my EXACT thoughts on the subject. I also "rediscovered" CRT monitors about 4 months ago... Guess what, now I have no less than SEVEN scattered around in my room. A man's gotta have a few spares, hey!
i think i should get a CRT just so that i can hook it up to my pc for wacky resolution
I wonder how far CRT technology could still be pushed if giant corporations like Samsung, LG and Sony etc would start to seriously invest into it again. I know that won't happen, I just wonder.
I don't play video games, I just use CRTs because in my opinion they still look better than an LCD and OLED, and they will certainly last longer. I still use CRTs on all of my desktop computers, and TVs except for my one Plasma TV. The only LCD displays I use are on laptops.
Been playing Castlevania Collection (PS4) on Modern tv. Then played CV1 on NES hooked up to CRT. Had a much EASIER time beating CV1 on the CRT. My jumps and attacks are spot on.
It just felt more natural... I guess the classic NES controller also didn't hurt.
Is there a company out there that are crating new CRTs for enthusiasts? Is that even possible?
Not that I know of. There's a Kickstarter for an ips monitor in a CRT shape... Which is cool but not the same thing.
I have a Sony Kv- 30hs420. Is it better using 1080i or 720 p for my ps5 on it ?
You became the reason why I wanna get a crt monitör.😃
I wouldn't even trust a TV with 480p. I remember researching some years ago that were free but they all most likely digitized the analog video and converted to progressive. A 240p signal would look terrible.
I use a 34xbr970 as a monitor for my pc, I have the geometry dialed in pretty good, colors pop and deep blacks, response time is 8ms which isn't bad at all. I owned a xbr960 with the super fine pitch tube and the difference between these 2 is negligible.
Mixed feelings about CRTs. I tried RetroArch on my OLED with nice filters and HDR. I couldn't fine one reason to use a CRT over that. Older games take advantage of the scanlines, but it's not worth sacrificing how good everything looks overall just to fix a few graphic glitches. Also, if CRTs were so good they would be making them today and selling them for eSports, right?
Oled is getting close, but it's 80-90% there imo. They don't make them because there isn't a huge market anymore.. regular consumers just want flat and bright. CRTs are heavy and hazardous to dispose of... So there's that too. I'm not sure if the competitive crowd would be big enough to charge that. Most just go for an ugly 240hz tn panel
@@teksyndicate I'm really interested in the 45GR95QE. That has to be like 95% of the way there.
They stopped making CRTs because LCD was cheaper to make. CRTs were ahead of their time (pc monitors) and even modern pc games look better on a CRT. 1280 X 1024 with a 980ti still plays all my pc games at 85htz/FPS and I don't need an rtx 4090 £1600 to run at 240htz on a £500 oled screen to get a brilliant experience. CRT monitors also use less electricity when compared to a 4080 and oled at 240htz.
They got rid of them because they could make more money. Simple .
Just like electric cars. It takes 300 barrels of oil to make a battery that contains 1 barrel of oil worth's of energy.
You are being lied to 🥺
@@Movie_Games I had a 40" 4k for a while and absolutely couldn't use it for gaming... I was using it as a desktop monitor and it was just too big for that, lol... maybe as a TV or something, but as a desk monitor, it's way too big for my taste. I just can't tell what's going on unless I slide back about 5-6' away... great for a controller... bad for mouse/kb.
@@teksyndicate That's what i'm using now and I love it. I'm always leaning back and kicking my feet up, though. And my desk is pretty deep. Put a ruler on my forehead and measured to the TV. Comes out to about 2 feet. Fills vision perfectly and I like that I can lean in when sniping to try and hit people far away.
what alttp romhack is that?
What an interesting video! As a fanatic retrogamer (both arcade and consoles) i've learned a lot more about the original pixel looks. Playing now on Arcade64 and trying different settings with the HLSL option and it comes more close to to the original graphics with crt looks. But it can't beat using a real crt monitor (yet). Thanks for uploading!
We were almost fighting with my buddy back in 2011 I think. I downloaded Shenmue and a Dreamcast emulator, saw those graphics (640x480) on a approximately 16 inch monitor and said something like "what a pile of **** these graphics". Then my buddy said yeah it always looked like that, see video settings it says "native" resolution. But I couldn't understand how that was possible. I don't really remember exactly how we argued but last thing I could think is that those old crts were actually better than modern displays. Sure you can upscale 3d graphics etc, but ui and prerendered images will never look good on a modern tv without some sort of ai upscaling or full redraw
I picked up 3 crt monitors and a crt tv for $8 at our local version of goodwill. Best buys I've made for my retro setups. Lan play on old fps with crts r truly something.
I had a smaller computer monitor crt style back in the late 80's/early 90's that I used to play my Commodore 64 on. I later hooked up NES and even VCRs to it, and to this day, no other Television or monitor before or since has looked so good as things did on that monitor. The colors were vivid and clean, the images were sharp and fluid. It went missing one day, and now, so many years later, I dont know what model or brand it was.
I really like my pc crt monitor but I am stuck at having to do 1024x728 at 85hz. I wish I could push it a little higher for hz but it doesn't like to go much higher than that. But for anything in the 480p era, it's great for gaming.
I got an acer nitro v2 390hz monitor, and I am pretty meh, whenever I get my old 17" crt and hook it up to my gtx 970 I suddenly get on top of the charts, even get cheater thrown my way and that at 85hz and not 390hz. CRT rocks still.
used to play World of Warcraft on CRT and i remember when going to the new flat monitors thinking colours just did not pop as much, and it felt like they never have since
Yeah blacks were absolutely awful and DVD movies (especially DivX!) looked 10 times worse. But geometry and white brightness were so much better! Text was super sharp and you didn't have to deal with glare anymore. LCDs shined in the office. But for games and movies we certainly downgraded until OLED came up.
I have several large CRT TVs I was able to save from the dump. You can find small ones fairly easy but those 26-30+ size TVs take two people to move. If you find one make sure you keep it. But just be warned. If you never had one they all make a high pitch ringing noise. Might drive some people crazy, but that is just how they sound.
im looking for a small crt tv in (standerd definition) i can use as a side display for my pc, are there any good options?
I tried to go back CRTs again for retro C64s and Amigas. I find the flickering in 50Hz PAL content is just horrible. And I even remember back in the day my eyes would hurt. In my opinion finding modern solutions where you make LCDs work with minimal input lag and scaling the picture properly is much better for me. I have many options for my C64s and Amigas. I have 5:4 LED screens that will work straightly on Amiga 15KHz RGB. I have scandoublers. I have Retro Tink 2x mini. I have Turbo Chameleon 64 V2s with VGA out. I have older LCD TVs which will scale 240/288p properly and not try to interlace it. There are plenty of options to make retro stuff look good and run well on LCDs. Much easier on the eyes.
Amiga games don't look flickery on a TV to me. On a PC VGA monitor - yes, 50Hz doesn't look great. On a TV - it's fine. And playing fast moving games like Sensible Soccer without the motion clarity of a CRT is a non-starter for me!
i agree with you for the most part but i have a 75inch LG 4k with 120res. i dont like the way it plays tv or games. the 120 seems slow like i can see it change. I have a mitts diamond crt that isperfect for gaming but it is dark and mitts says it supposed to be like that. i always turn up the brightness.
I was born in 2001 and man CRTs feel like some forgotten mystic technology to me. I think we got rid of our last one around 2014
Another great reason is size and affordability. Nothing beats a 14 inch Trinitron with SCART. Those are plug-and-play, cost peanuts and need no masters degree to operate like RetroArch does. Also from a technical stand point, I dare to state no (modern) displays exist under 15 inch that deliver a better image quality than that Trinitron.
So if you want tiny, a CRT is your only option.
My younger brother was an avid Quake 3 CPMA player and swore by his CRT monitor until around 2010 or so when it finally died 😅
We were told the lie, that the replacement was far superior. They did this on purpose. Crt was and is, always going to be superior.
god bro im back and into building pc's again well obsessed really. i remember like yesterday you showing off the 9800gx2. no 4090 or rdna3 will have me hype like that card did. was still dailying a 22inch crt then as well lol. id love a 32 inch 4 3 really good one and play cyber punk on it.