Playing Modern PC Games On an Old CRT TV

What happens when you force an old CRT TV from 2005 that's best suited to a PlayStation 2 to work with your modern PC hardware? You get interesting, and surprising results...
Thanks for watching :)

[@Fiction_Supreme]

CRT is the reason why we thought all those old games we played in the past looked so good to us.

[@saricubra2867]

Some games still have gorgeous artstyles and were graphical beasts for their time.

[@TheJadeFist]

The pixel bleed over basically acted like anti-aliasing smoothing out the image without the need for any processing dedicated to it.

[@wompstopm123]

pixel games where never supposed to look pixely they looked clear enough that the crt would smooth everything out. on a real crt those games looked great like contra wasnt pixely

[@redking8585]

@@wompstopm123 Not quite, if you had a good RGB cable the pixels and other shortcomings would still be very noticeable. However CRT is still far better than LCDs unless you really like very sharp images.

[@calvinripley9093]

Honestly sometimes crt tv looks more better than current 2k or 1080p TVs

[@EuroWolf420]

I’m a crt enthusiast and a major fan of your channel. For the best results with these crts, there are HD crts that have hdmi built in and they’re able to display 1080i and look incredible . I had a Toshiba one back in the day

[@kupokinzyt]

I still have a 36" Sony 1080i, it looks so good on my PS2 and Gamecube

[@sandrosaxel]

Some Sony Trinitron would be perfect

[@RJRacoon]

+1, I own a Samsung WS-32Z409T, its a 32 Inch CRT with HDMI input. Been enjoying it a lot. I wish there would still be modern CRTs around

[@ray_sattler]

Depends on what you want to do with it, if you want to use it for retro 240p content, you should look for a sd 50/60hz set and avoid 100hz sets as well as sets with hdmi, cause they look weird or add input lag. I would use an sd set for retro stuff and a hd set for the newer stuff :)

[@BennTheGreaT]

got 1 in my office. Toshiba wide screen 32" CRT with built in HDMI.

[@twizz420]

A CRT monitor has much better quality than a CRT TV. You should look for an old Samsung CRT monitor, they're great.

[@moonman7777]

Amiga monitors were great for tv and the PS1 (PS2).

[@twizz420]

@@moonman7777 Yeah I used a Commodore 64 monitor as my TV for many years as a kid.

[@KofolaDealer]

Yeah I have an IBM CRT and the image quality is stunning

[@startedtech]

These digital HD CRTs are pretty good quality. If you want a big (and/or) widescreen CRT they're the only viable option for most. A monitor equivalent of that will cost a fortune when these can be found cheap or even free. This is coming from someone who owns a 21" Trinitron monitor. Edit- I commented this before getting to the part of it not having an HDMI or DVI ports. In the USA, these type of TVs often have either HDMI or DVI in my experience. I'm not sure what the limits of SCART are for PC video.

[@PLMacflyPL]

True I Still have my old 19 inch LG Flator with touch metal buttons from 2002 and it's still working . I'm keeping it as my spare monitor ;-)

[@themwithat9636]

Believe it or not, Philips build an 32" HDready 720p 16:9 CRT with HDMI port in 2009 - one of the last CRTs in the shops surrounded by LCDs. The picture was amazing and far better than the LCDs of this time.

[@FireMrshlBill]

My brother-in-law had a 32 or 34" Sony hd ready CRT up until 2015 or so when he went LCD, could have picked it up for free but didn't feel like lugging it in my house (was almost 200lbs). I wanted something SD anyway for my older consoles since I missed having a crt for them, so ended up just grabbing a 27" Trinitron at a thrift shop later the next year.

[@Heliocentric]

Beleve it or not, Sony made a 1080p widescreen CRT.

[@Revener666]

Well it was not hard to be better than a LCD in 2009. :) LCD was crap until recently and they are still lacking in certain areas.

[@FireMrshlBill]

@@Revener666 I replaced a 20" CRT with a 19" LCD (think it was the circuit city brand, or Element or something, cheapo either way) back in late 2007/early 2008, was horrible. Huge regret, wish I had kept that crt.

[@seanbravo306214]

I thing we all had this tv at one point or not lol

[@johnanth]

This practice actually enhances classic pixel art games. I play Super Nintendo games emulated now and then, and there are many filters built in in all these emulators to give the 'CRT look'. This isn't just for nostalgia; the filters smooth out the pixels, which was often intended by the artists at the time. Castlevania Symphony of the Night and Quintet games (like Soul Blazer) are great examples of this. Thank you for the video.

[@NicholasBrakespear]

I use Reshade to apply my own personal selection of shaders to all games now, to mimic the CRT monitor look (with a stronger, lower resolution version for emulating old console games that were supposed to be viewed on TVs). Enhances all of them. Pixelated edges even in 3D games look smoother, and there's this wonderful sense of the image looking more... finished, somehow. Like you're not staring at raw real-time rendered visuals, but a playable trailer for the game.

[@MrAshar101]

I think modern vintage gamers did a whole video about that ....the sprites were suppose to look smoother on CRT displays

[@guguigugu]

@@NicholasBrakespear can you recommend a good CRT shader?

[@NicholasBrakespear]

@@guguigugu Well, I've tried a pile of them. But the one that has the easiest to understand options, and the simplest depiction of CRT (there are many that add loads of distortion) would be Lottes. Decent screen curvature option, and with a little tweaking you can make the CRT grid effect as pronounced or understated as you like. Doesn't require lots of layered effects to make it work, and there's a version of it for Reshade, and one that comes with Retroarch.

[@guguigugu]

@@NicholasBrakespear ok ill check it tnx

[@RMeitzen]

The moment you started gaming on the tv gave me such a huge nostalgia feeling. I remember waking up early to play my PS2 on an old crt TV and it sounds exactly like how I remember.

[@lilszech2333]

Bro ps2 and a crt tv is the best combo

[@Yo-ic2go]

Back when I was actually happy 😂

[@NightMotorcyclist]

8 years ago we had a 36" Sony Trinitron TV that was a beastly thing. It took 2 people just to lift and move the thing and when it finally died out (it was on 10+ hours a day in my household as we all worked different shifts) and was replaced with a mid range Samsung 42" LCD TV (which was dying around 2 years ago) and the empty space on our TV stand was really quite shocking. Our wall still has a slight outline from the rear of the Trinitron TV as the back was pressed against the wall being such a large TV.

[@kupokinzyt]

I have the same one! I am 28 and have had it since I was 14 and I've moved that goddamn thing more than enough times by myself to say it's staying exactly where it was last left this time :P Right in front of my PS2 and GameCube.

[@teknoman117]

From 2003 to 2007 my parents had a 48" CRT rear projection 1080i TV. Fantastic picture for the day (had to hook a computer or Xbox up to it to ever achieve it through). I think it weighed like 200 kilos. Moving it was horrible.

[@siddhanthmv3675]

Yup had the exact same one with giant inbuilt speakers at the sides... Had bought it in 2005 and lasted for 10 years... Played my ps2 on it... Eventually decided to replace it in 2015 with a Samsung LED and got a ps4 as well..

[@pagb666]

Had one of those, still miss it up to this day, it was a godsend for my old consoles

[@RusticShine]

Hell yes!! I just posted the same thing! 270 lbs of pure gaming bliss!

[@FTChomp9980]

Playing modern games on a old CRT TV is kinda awesome its basically giving me some retro futurism vibes.

[@R1CKD34D]

Sound quality has taken a dip over the past 2 decades because we moved from front firing large speakers to down firing small pot speakers. If you have your screens apart you'll see that the speakers on your new TV are akin to a small portable Bluetooth speaker, where as the crt TV speakers will be wider larger stereo quality speakers that fire audio directly at you rather than at the floor.

[@aleksazunjic9672]

Yes, considering speakers, more space means better quality. Simple as that.

[@R1CKD34D]

@@aleksazunjic9672 well on a basic level. A lot of old TVs would vibrate because the housing wasn't sufficient for the TV but only at peak levels. Often why you'd find a lot of old wooden or mdf box TV screens would have a much better sound quality but I suspect like most old screens they're probably rotting away on a landfill by now as the last time i had a TV with a wooden box frame was in the mid 90s as a hand Me down for me to play megadrive games on it. But that's often the way the denser the materials the easier it is to direct your sound. For ambient gaming though the average tv should be more than sufficient, if not a small amp and some bookshelf speakers are often useful for producing a slightly better sound on a budget.

[@sety5591]

​@@R1CKD34D The vibration is due the set is too light so it is sensitive/resonant at some frequency. To fix the resonant you can try using Equaliser; play out a sound-sweep of all frequency (preferably high-to-low) and note where it began to louden (or shaking) and progressively reduce the loudness of such frequency bit by bit on every sweep.

[@aleksazunjic9672]

@@R1CKD34D TVs were much more expensive in those days, especially if you factor in inflation. Usually household would have one, and whole family would gather to watch something. Therefore, more care was given to manufacturing process, including use of wood and better designed speakers and speaker assembly. Later, as prices decreases, so did the quality, except for high end examples. Today very few people are willing to pay several thousand dollar for a TV (equivalent to 1980s prices ) therefore quality is poor to average.

[@Skarfar90]

I remember some TV's in the 1990's having built-in subwoofers (well, using subwoofer as a loose term, since most of the drivers were small). Philips had a pretty cool CRT TV with a 4" subwoofer in its own internal enclosure built into it. It could actually reproduce bass frequencies down to around 35-40 Hz. Panasonic's Quintrix TV's also had good sounding speakers as far as I can remember.

[@krdhkr]

If i'm not mistaken the quality of the converter may have an impact on what you get out of the CRT. Of course it all depends on how much money you want to throw at the subject :-)

[@sachatrin2981]

yes and I think scart is locked to 480i

[@Thomas1124ful]

@@sachatrin2981 576i in Europe. :-)

[@AmartharDrakestone]

@@sachatrin2981 Also this looks like it's outputting composite video, instead of RGB, which SCART is also capable of carrying.

[@MichaelVx]

as for CRT it do not count pixels it counts lines instead of pixels

[@Le_Grand_Rigatoni]

@@Thomas1124ful 576p actually (if the tv supports it).

[@guguigugu]

the best thing about CRTs is the motion response. its so much smoother because the screen is constantly redrawn, unlike in LCDs where all pixels are refreshed at the same time every 1/60th of a second, which creates visible multiplications of moving objects instead of smooth movement.

[@ZimpanX]

The image would probably look a lot better if you used a HDMI to SCART converter that supports RGB, the one shown only supports SCART Composite

[@RandomGaminginHD]

I’ll take a look, thanks :)

[@AlixTheBrit]

yes and no im using that same converter for a first gen plasma and the picture is actually really good, no weird lines or blurryness, no aspect issues and the colors pop, the scart lead you use despite what people think they know plays a huge role in quality the longer the scart and the cheaper it is the worse quality you'll get, shorter the scart lead and the better build quality results in a clear picture but a better converter would definitly help add a level of perfection to these older displays.

[@WH250398]

RGB is genuinely pretty amazing out of older consoles.

[@drruncmd]

Ah but then you will loose that nostalgia feel from the picture quality surely??

[@corneliusantonius3108]

@@RandomGaminginHD Compaq P1220 monitor is best, I had one and architects used them too.

[@TeyaoTV]

this stuff reminds me of the old days of waking up early on a saturday to fire up some cartoon network and eat cereal. good times...

[@RandomGaminginHD]

Ah back when cereal actually had flavour haha

[@TeyaoTV]

@@RandomGaminginHD what was ur favorite cereal? mine was honey bunches of outs, or the sugar wheat squares, tho lucky charms and choco dyno bytes

[@EcchiGamingYT]

@@TeyaoTV We have one called Choco Pillows here in the UK. That and Cookie Crisp were my go to cereals when I was a kid. I dread to think how much sugar I consumed on a daily basis back then. No wonder I was a fat kid.

[@babaloons4887]

@@RandomGaminginHD the ones at my country still got flavour

[@MrSDPlayer]

My PS3 was hooked up to a CRT tv for its first 3 years, and I bought it in 2011. We were late into the LCD/LED market. But when we finally got a modern, Full HD, LCD tv in 2014 I was ECSTATIC

[@EcchiGamingYT]

I was playing my Xbox 360 on a portable CRT TV with a built in VHS player up until 2012 and my dad used his giant CRT TV up until around 2016.

[@olympian3]

I spent the glory days of halo 3 in 07-10 on a crt, as did many many others.

[@sinbysin666]

I used a CRT as a secondary display on my PC for a while. It was more trouble than it was worth, so I just use it for my old consoles now, but it was fun to test out emulators, and modern pixel art games.

[@EcchiGamingYT]

Yeah. Smaller LCD's do the trick for old consoles too. I use a 22" one. Just set it to 4:3 mode and the picture quality is similar to that of a CRT, but slightly better. I understand the nostalgic value of using a CRT though.

[@cyberedge881]

LCDs look nowhere near as good as CRTs and they have much worse motion quality.

[@Soldoles]

Here is a tip for recording on a CRT tv, you can use a camera app on your phone, I use procam x , and set the shutter speed to 60hz maybe 59,9 and it becames clear at 60 fps, just set at a high record resolution to preserve the image quality. anthing from 1080p up to 4k is fine.

[@jrk1]

He live in UK so the shutter speed should be 1/50 to match the 50 Hz electricity. But I don’t think any phone can record at 50 FPS tho most of them will record at 30 or 60 FPS.

[@wyterabitt2149]

@@jrk1 The electricity doesn't really matter. My ultra cheap uk 14 inch TV I got one Christmas a long time ago when I was young, could display 60 Hz without an issue. It's still using 50 Hz electricity.

[@jrk1]

​@@wyterabitt2149 You probably have a multisystem TV that can display NTSC and PAL

[@AmartharDrakestone]

Rather to 50. Analog PAL TV signal is 50 Hz instead of 60.

[@wyterabitt2149]

@@jrk1 . . . . . . that doesn't change what electricity is coming from the wall.

[@andresa.ruizv.7413]

Before looking out for an universal control, check if you have a smartphone with "infrared sensor", or someone you know. I believe you can try to control old tech like that with an app. Cool video! Interesting to know that you can reutilice TVs like that ;)

[@angeleocorrodead]

Yup, like with old htc phones for example htc one m7.

[@goge6337]

@@angeleocorrodead or samsungs from s4 up to s6

[@neonblaze99]

most xiaomi phones have IR blasters... ive got a poco x3 pro that just came out this year that I use to control my AC and projector

[@nellynelson965]

bugger beat me too it. great way to annoy your neighbours looking for the channels

[@IgorGiganskiANtiatom]

@@neonblaze99 Yup my mi9lite and all POCO's have IR blaster and headphones jack, very useful ports indeed!

[@8bvg300]

One thing to try > put in an old GPU, like an 8800 or old quadro with the s-video out port. Connect the display to the old GPU, then in your settings 0lay a game on the new GPU and see if it still outputs to the display. I have multi GPUs and they render out to the one connected to the display even if that's not the card assigned to render the game. Might work. If so, plug in to s-video and get a scart adapter with the svideo input and you're off to the races

[@Sm00k]

I run my CRT off a GTX960 via dvi port. It's glorious.

[@TheRailroad99]

+1 for that. would make a fun video and be educational to those who have never seen S-Video in action

[@greatwavefan397]

​@@Sm00k Please tell me more :0 How's the performance, quality, etc.?

[@TigerChamp99]

I remember watching Digital Foundry's CRT videos. John and Richard pointed out the superior contrast on their CRT display, which was a 16:9 Sony Trinitron FW900.

[@CoffeeOn]

16:10 you mean. As an aspect ratio not a timestamp.

[@Flibster]

I've still got 2 working and one slightly not working FW900's. Stunning things. I was running the 3 of mine at 2304x1440 @80Hz , back in the time when most LCD monitors were barely 1080p. Wish I had space to get them out again at the moment. Loved them.

[@alinzelnan]

Yeah Sony Trinitron had some high quality TVs/monitors. My parents are still using a small TV from them, the colors on that are amazing.

[@Revener666]

FW900 is 16:10

[@CantankerousDave]

Computer monitors like that also have a ridiculously fine dot pitch. PPI in modern cell phone parlance. Tubes meant for TVs (as opposed to PVM or BVM - production or broadcast - monitors) are nowhere near that clean. You can see how chonky the grid is in the closeups of this Philips set.

[@emisorano]

I've been using a 4:3 crt for a long while as a main monitor, and I have to say that text clarity is unparalleled on it. When playing videogames the colors pop a lot, and if you find a nice balance on brightness and contrast, dark scenes look better than OLED. Definitely worth the abnormal aspect raito, although a lot of programs and games work with 4:3.

[@BoomBeench]

Contrast is objectively worse on CRT than OLED, but the motion clarity is much better. I use a 4:3 21" CRT as main main monitor as well lol

[@CommodoreFan64]

My work still has a 1080p 50 in 16:9 Zenith(LG made guts) plasmas display, and IMHO it's the only modernish display tech that comes close to response times of a CRT, and the blacks are so dark on that display, I don't think even most OLED panels can beat it except on power draw, less heat output, and weight, as that thing weighs as much as my 27in early 00's Panasonic CRT in my game room.

[@TracerX]

Everyone should immediately abandon crts because it's really bad for the eye. For me even looking at it is uncomfortable.

[@BoomBeench]

@@TracerX they're actually better for your eyes because they don't produce the same wavelength of harmful blue light that LED's do. the uncomfortable feeling you're getting is probably from 60hz strobing, because CRTs "flash" the image on screen. This is what gives them near perfect motion clarity. At 65+hz that feeling will go away, a CRT at 70-100hz doesn't bother the eyes much if at all.

[@GraveUypo]

@@BoomBeench i don't think that's right. pretty sure crts are worse than lcds for your vision. as for refresh rate, to completely eliminate the flickering on a crt, i need 120hz. but 72hz is already a major improvement over 60, rids of like 90% of flicker. 85 i'd say is what you should shoot for, more than that is good but not worth going out of your way for.

[@PsychoKern]

This is how old games looked to us when we were kids

[@magnuzonemedia7230]

THANK YOU the flash warning was perfect and needed, I'm an epileptic and your one of very few who literally look out for me. THANK YOU AGAIN

[@rushnerd]

Years ago when I lived with my dad, we had a Sony WEGA 30" widescreen 1080i CRT W/HDMI. Let me tell you that thing had the best picture quality imaginable and blu-ray playback was mind blowing. Hooking it up to a PC for some gaming like old-school emulators or indie games (Dust: An Elysian Tail) was just incredible. I wish I could have kept it forever, but you can't even imagine how heavy and bulky that thing was.

[@DecibelAlex]

my dad also had a Sony 32 inch or something. Heavy as hell! Only needed 3 persons to carry it lol

[@jibbyjab2672]

I had almost that exact tv, I got it for my birthday back in 2005 or so. Really takes me back thank you.

[@giserson2]

I recommend a CRT monitor, I have a 19" Sony and it looks amazing when playing old fixed resolution pixel art games like Diablo 2, Ceasar 3 or HoMM3. It also looks nice when playing modern games as well, but the aspect ratio means some games end up looking weird.

[@thequarrymen58]

not energy efficient

[@evergreengamer5767]

CRT display really do capture the nostalgia of older games great video

[@digvijaysingh9658]

This is a very innovative idea ,great content :)

[@deadpain2483]

Many sounds of living, breathing, town of valentine ... That scream was nostalgic

[@Snelf-TF2]

amazing experiment! keep up the great work

[@RandomGaminginHD]

Thank you :)

[@testsubject0099]

Man this kind of TV brings back memories lol. I remember playing my PS2 on a CRT TV before and I kind of recall the sounds being distinct as you described.

[@dusterpl6093]

i love crt's, back in the day when i was 4 to 8 years old maybe i watched cartoons on our family sony tv, then played some san andreas on another bigger crt but sadly i don't remember it's make or model. and since few months after many many years of using only lcd tv's and monitors i found a small daewoo tv in our basement that i don't remember any of my family members ever using. and it turned out that it works perfectly fine! i was absolutely amazed by how sharp and overall better ps2 games were looking on it. gran turismo 4 for example looks absolutely beautiful on that thing.

[@conyo985]

What I like about CRTs is that even if you play at a low resolution like 480p it will still look good.

[@WH250398]

Two massive advantages to the older tv's: they had actual glass to protect the displaypanel, and ACTUAL SPEAKERS. These things used to have full blown stereos built in. Modern tv's can't take a hit, and sound like absolute garbage.

[@TheSpotify95]

Modern TVs are too thin to be able to fit any sort of decent speaker drivers in. The reason why CRTs had good sound quality is because the enclosure of the TV allowed for decent speakers, of a good size and power rating, to be out in. With modern TV's, it is almost a requirement to purchase an external soundbar, or surround sound setup, to get decent audio quality from it (especially with films or music).

[@Gamersdontlookup]

cheap modern tvs sound like garbage,get the high end stuff and they have good sound

[@WH250398]

@@Gamersdontlookup I went with a full blown AV Reciever set instead. High end tv's don't even get close.

[@TheSpotify95]

@@Gamersdontlookup Still, the laws of physics apply greatly. Even for high end TVs, if they are flat screen and very thin, there's very limited space inside for mounting speakers, so you have to use smaller drivers. Smaller drivers tend to have worse sound quality (and often lower maximum power output) than larger speakers, i.e. those found in an older CRT TV.

[@InnuendoXP]

I think the assumption these days is if you care about sound, you'll use an external sound source & mixer for your audio. While people who just want to watch sports & soaps or something just hear the dialogue sounding good-enough. If you restrict your soundstage to the dimensions of the screen, then you're forced to compromise on everything. Though the occasional modern TV with the built-in larger sound-bar across the base can actually sound pretty good.

[@imSUPERcereal0]

I would love if a company would pop up and start making and developing brand new CRTs again. For modern gaming. Would be awesome.

[@PaperBanjo64]

It would be cool but if it happened be prepared for them to cost $5,000! Retro RGB did an interview with a man who owns a business that still makes them and he said just a basic '27 with composite is very pricey.

[@falagarius]

Way more space for speakers in a CRT, that's why it sounds better. Friends don't let friends play on internal speakers of flat screen TVs

[@KofolaDealer]

Yeah I have an OTF TV that has amazing speakers, made in my country too

[@RetroPlus]

I used to have an old phillips CRT like that, it was a great TV

[@8bvg300]

I still fire up my old Trinitron CRT on occasion. Yes, the resolution is a bit muddy but oh man, as you say, the contrast ratios are amazing. Using something like a PS2 on it looks crisp and sharp in a way that cannot be replicated by using an LCD/LED with their poor scaling.

[@FireMrshlBill]

Use a 27" Trinitron tv for my older consoles. RGB modded with HDRV component cables... its a great experience. Had a 14" PVM for a while that looked great, but the ergonomics of a 27" CRT was much preferable, so I sold the pvm. I have thought about sticking my old alienware alpha on it with a hdmi to component adapter and setting it to 480 output, it's around a gtx750 - 750ti in performance, paired with a i7 4770t. But its in the same room as my PC, so no real point other than to just mess around.

[@realamericannegro977]

Is it caliberated?

[@daytimerocker3808]

I miss my Hitachi 1080i Plasma tv I had in the early 2000s thing looked so good with ps2, and the built in speakers were amazing.

[@jipjip3000]

something about the CRT makes these games look far more real, impressive

[@Alvinrasher]

I used to play games with CRT monitor like house of the dead and this monitor is now nostalgic

[@Wrublos212]

CRT have few values - superb contrast, not bad response time, good colors. I`ve been playing with mine old LITE-ON CRT monitor, quite fun pushing it up to 170Hz refresh rate. Cheap HDMI ->D-sub adapter surprised me, it supported everything I wanted. Sony Trinitron monitors and TVs are legendary for their brightness and color reproduction . Good job btw. :)

[@goodolddoug889]

That's one of the beautiful things about those old CRTs. They had more room for nicer speakers. My old roommates had a massive projection LCD set that could only handle 480p at best, but the speakers in it were like a full surround system with subwoofer.

[@ehrgeiz5649]

Speakers in old TV's use the TV frame/case itself as a natural amplifier which in turn creates a more full and warmer sound than our ultra thin TV's with speakers smaller than your fist.

[@RusticShine]

When I was younger my family had the mac daddy of CRTS! it was a 36 inch sony trinitron! Weighed almost 300 lbs!! Was in our cabinet up till 2018 since it took 3 of us to get it downstairs! What an absolute monster of a tv but god damn it had amazing sound and picture

[@ravajbains8672]

CRTs are amazing especially when you can get a relatively high end with low hours on the tube, be careful with getting a HD CRT as alot in the UK were the slim fit CRTs from Samsung and unfortunately had a lot of bowing and geometry issues, which is a shame as the colour gamut etc definitely awesome when calibrated. Good luck on your hunt

[@realamericannegro977]

Is there a way to make the geometry better on the slim fit ones? I have one and the bowing is the only thing I feel keeps it from greatness. It does 240p and everything

[@ModNTech]

There is something so beautiful about that! It's like it takes me back to being a kid dreaming about 'what if' games.

[@justanotheryoutubechannel]

One problem with this set up is that although any resolution will work technically over the converter, the actual TV can usually only display 480i60/576i50 unless it’s a HDCRT, and the SCART output is usually limited to the same resolutions. (although 480p is technically possible.) Also, these converters often just output composite quality video, which isn’t great. But if you can get an RGB-SCART converter and set your resolution to 480p, it will probably look really good on one of these TVs although somewhat flickery. If you want to go further with CRTs, HDCRTs can look great at up to 1080i (although their clarity is usually worse than LCDs with equivalent specs), and CRT PC monitors can go even further than that, all the way up to 1600p with some rare monitors, most of them just do up to 1024p or 768p.

[@MrNapkino]

It’s actually very common for crt monitors to support up to 70khz, which allows for 1080p60hz and 1080i120hz. Almost every listing I found on ebay had the specs for it.

[@justanotheryoutubechannel]

@@MrNapkino Damn, maybe it’s a region thing. Where I live (England) out of all the CRT monitors on eBay only 2 of them supported 1080p or higher and they both wanted £3,330.99. Sometimes you can get them for under a thousand but it’s always hundreds for sets like that.

[@MrNapkino]

@@justanotheryoutubechannel That’s super unfortunate. Probably the most common crt monitor here in america is a dell E773c which supports 70khz lol.

[@justanotheryoutubechannel]

@@MrNapkino I have a Dell E771p, so close in model numbers but so much less able, mine can’t get over 1280x1024. I’ve only ever seen one Dell E773c on sale here and they wanted 5 thousand pounds for it since it was new in box.

[@tommynobaka]

I have a 1600p CRT monitor and can confirm it is amazing. A bit soft at that resolution so I drop it to 1280x960 or 1024x768 at 100hz/fps. 100hz on a CRT is pure bliss

[@ElitePortraits]

Cool, Im used to play with CRT filters because of this feeling you showing here, but it will never be the same.

[@thatautogarage3644]

Incredible! I’ll never forget when Halo 2 first came out. My little brother and I would play Split Screen Multiplayer on a 13” TV/DVD Combo!

[@TheAbandonedAccount7]

Brings me back 5 years ago to when I still used one!

[@Kaelidoz]

I have around 15+ crts, Mostly high end VGA monitors but also great TVs. They just never stopped being awesome. The motion clarity is still unmatched.

[@DragonProtector]

Have you tried lg monitor?

[@elpelu123]

So classy to get something modern and pass it through the Turd'ification machine. Those old days...

[@ripperz0]

I had a chunky TV like this one a good few years ago, had my ps4 and xbox one hooked up to it as had no other display to run it on. it surely wasn't the best display, but it did its job and I was quite happy with it overall, however i didn't have any expectations being a young teenager.

[@jakethadley]

I played through Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice on a similar CRT, and it made the game *so* much more immersive! The colours and resolution really meshed well with that game's atmosphere.

[@johnathanpearson3203]

Thanks for the video. You will be very surprised at well modern pc games play on a CRT monitor at 1280 X 1024. Those old cards will fly once more. 👍

[@acid3129]

I had a philips 32pw9586 I got it way back in 2007 as my first adult TV and kept it till about 2017 when I moved house and couldn't carry it outside . I had my xbox one set up on it and never had any complaints . It came with a huge speaker you used as a base

[@seans4474]

LGR has a good video on techniques to film old CRT displays. I highly recommend checking it out if you want to produce more CRT content

[@Sletjes101]

I had received an old but fully working 20 year Stereo system that was very expensive back in the day. To my delight i found out it has optical in and my 2020 samsung tv has optical out. I find it mesmerizing that you can hook up 2 devices that are many generations apart and get super clean audio for the cost of a cable.

[@phatman_on_ice8911]

They had a 32 inch 720p HDMI CRT TV apparently they looked really good so if you ever find one for a good price go for it

[@dumdum7786]

I have a sony 36 inch 1080i 16:9 crt and it looks amazing

[@phatman_on_ice8911]

@@dumdum7786 I think that was the one Im thinking of I'm on the hunt for one I want one for retro gaming

[@Moshugaani]

I was lucky to snack a 32 inch Panasonic CRT with a Quintrix tube a couple of years ago. It's an absolute behemoth in size but it has brought my retro games back to life. 240p games look so good on a CRT and 480i games look quite nice as well despite the interlaced flickering. (For 480p games I use a computer CRT monitor and it's amazing too) The Panasonic Quintrix has excellent image quality that can very well compete with Sony Trinitron. It also does both 50 and 60 Hz and both PAL and NTSC, and one of the scarts is RGB.

[@tilla77]

The Sony Fw900 is the holy grail of crt monitors for modern pc gaming. Would love to own one but prices are insane

[@RandomGaminginHD]

Yeah they cost a fortune but like you say, I’d love one too :)

[@pilot554]

1600x1200 120hz way cheaper and same quality of colors and contrast, no need to blow money on obsolete heave monitor for FHD unless he find it cheap :D

[@MrNapkino]

@@pilot554 definitely not true lol, CRTs even today have several advantages over lcds. There’s a reason they’re so expensive, you know.

[@realamericannegro977]

@@MrNapkino they have advantages but the reason they are so expensive is because popular youtubers make videos praising how much better than lcd they are.

[@spicynachos2762]

Digital foundry did a great video on CRTs too makes me want to get one.

[@RetroZero64]

Playing 360 / PS3 games on my 24 Inch Trinitron through component looks amazing. Your CRT looks to be a whole lot blurrier than mine is but that could be from a number of things, most likely the adapter you're using or just the quality of the TV

[@DominiqueDeMann]

He's not even doing it right

[@ThisUsernameSystemF-ckingSucks]

@@DominiqueDeMann what a useless comment. Why not state what's being done wrong?

[@DominiqueDeMann]

@@ThisUsernameSystemF-ckingSucks Your whole existence is useless. You want free education?. Stay mad or try the public school system. Even with their fail rate you might learn something for a change.

[@MrEMeat-kk9tc]

Literally watching this on my Philips LCD 40” 1080 60Hz TV I bought in 2010. Seeing the Philips logo on your TV immediately above the one on mine was Inception level.

[@NightMotorcyclist]

I still have my Sony Trintron 19" monitor and it's still working quite well despite being purchased back in 2003. Granted I don't use it as often as I used to but it is still paired with my older Win XP builds as a nostalgia machine should I want to fire up period proper games (which have issues running on Windows 10 machines and are not on STEAM). The monitor puts out quite a bit of heat and is a pain to move around as it's heavy for such a small monitor and the depth means I need plenty of desk space to accommodate it.

[@Pidalin]

Some company should really make some modern CRT, at least some small for retro games, something like 15 or 17" for dos games would be really great.

[@ZipplyZane]

I'm surprised that filming at 30 fps works so well for a 50hz display. I would have expected you'd need to film at either 50 or 25 fps.

[@Kennephone]

When I was about 5 in 2007 my dad cleaned out the appartment below him, and he took a 19'' samsung tv made in 2000. That's the tv I grew up using every weekend when I was at his house, and I still have it as my livingroom tv today, although I never use it because my computer is also in my livingroom, and the buttons don't work right anymore (press volume and it changes channel...).

[@PaperBanjo64]

Probably could just order a replacement remote off of eBay

[@dycedargselderbrother5353]

4:16 Because the display is 50 Hz, you need to set camera shutter speed to that instead of 60 Hz.

[@ionamygdalon2263]

Awesome man! Very much looking forward to a CRT Monitor video 👍

[@thesupersaiyansavant]

Not too long ago I had to "help my friend" move one of these box style TV's...except it was about 3 feet wide and 2 feet tall. It weighed nearly as much as me😂 My friend wasn't nearly strong enough to move it, and my other stronger friend messed up the skin on his hand trying to move it. So in the end, I had to move it. It was one hell of a workout XD

[@JB_inks]

Confusing quotation marks

[@thesupersaiyansavant]

@@JB_inks I said "help my friend" because I ended up just doing it myself

[@JB_inks]

@@thesupersaiyansavant ahhh thanks

[@FireMrshlBill]

Ya, 30"+ CRT tv's got into the 200lbs+, and the 40" CRTs even got into the 300lbs+ range. Some of those would be awesome to have, but not worth breaking your back. Definitely worth hiring movers if you can't round up 3-4 friends that owe you, haha. I am happy with my 27" Trinitron that is 99lbs, its a pain but manageable. When it eventually dies, guess I'll just grab whatever the successor to the retrotink 5x is at the time and just use a modern tv for older consoles.

[@mammamia5445]

I had that exact TV model at my old home, just thinkin' bout it brings me into nostalgia (Playing PS1 games on that bad boy). Thank you!

[@Kumimono]

I am indeed watching this on a modern, well, 2013 LCD TV. It has 3D, remember that? Right next to it, however, is a Salora branded, 28" behemoth of a CRT TV from 1992. 3 SCART connections, some weird connectors I've never even seen, nice, big speakers on the side, and connectors for extra speakers, for wider sound. Connected via composite AV with a cheap adapter, wasn't too impressed, need to research proper HDMI-RGB SCART adapter. The unit does need some refurbishment, capacitors replaced, that sort of thing. Should be a nice display for some emulation, and indeed newer games. Somehow indie pixel art looks particularly nice on it. Was cheap, too, 5€ for the unit, and 10€ for the half a dozen remotes I bought to find, and compile, a working one. :D

[@SgtSamuel1]

This is sick! such a cool thing to see modern and retro hardware collide.

[@04dram04]

I think its so interesting how the resolution of TV's was perfectly matched with the graphics of games, back then.

[@UNPOCOLOCO444]

I think the game developers designed their games to match the resolution of TV's.

[@jayc2469]

This is why some higher level graphic processing & editing still use (rare) CRT tech

[@white_mage]

i still have my tcl 21" slim something something. i keep it because i remember it had better picture quality than most crt's i had and have seen to this day. the bad thing about it is the demagnetizing coil died long ago and now the image has like a radial rainbow of colors. the image has rotated slightly as well; i have no idea why. i have to find a specialized technician who fixes this kind of electronics. i would fix it myself but these things are different compared to your regular lcd monitor and you also have to be careful what you're touching. the flyback can store up to 25000v so im not opening that. image quality on these tv's was never a big deal because the signals they displayed were standard resolution anyways (lower than 720p. i don't remember the exact resolutons). you can find 1080i or p screens though.

[@TheOzmundExperience]

thank you for doing this. i felt so much nostalgia from watching this

[@youzernejm]

This is a widescreen TV, so, I don't think it's a low end model honestly. Some had component imput, never seen one with hdmi though.

[@malvage0]

Some Samsung SlimFits and Sony WEGAs do have HDMI, and run 1080i@100hz

[@joseph2235]

@@malvage0 They run 576i at 100hz, or 1080i at 60hz

[@tahanisarxo]

Dude you are Genius instead of showing new god specs monitors which only the 1% can afford you choose to show this super old tv and appreciate it hahaha awesome vid !!

[@System51]

The flickering when filming has to do with the HZ of the TV and then the recording. If you have a TV that can display 60hz and record at 60fps it would not happen. If you still have an old CRT screen with VGA you can try that out.

[@danishasyraaf9569]

This really brings me back to when i was using CRT TV, only smaller than the one in this video, to play GTA San Andreas, GTA Vice City, GTA Liberty City, NFS Carbon, NFS Underground, Black, Midnight Club, etc. All on just one console, a PS2. What an amazing time.

[@kevinrobb86]

Nothing beats a CRT I still have a 29in Sony flat screen Tv sitting in a room I bought in the mid 90s, there was some talk a while back about a thin crt tube but not seen anything since

[@Xearin]

Great stuff. Digital Foundry did a whole piece on modern games on CRT about two years ago with jaw-dropping results. Something fun to maybe check out.

[@SteelSkin667]

I forgot how those bigger CRT TVs with front-firing speakers often had great built-in speakers and amp - and this one is just a mid-range example. My parents used to have a somewhat high-end Panasonic CRT from the mid-90s, which had regular picture quality for a TV of that vintage, but sounded absolutely amazing. I guess that's why we have sound bars nowadays.

[@zwerker]

Used to have a Sony Trinitron 32" as my main TV back in the mid 00s. Now I still have a 20" trinitron TV for my old consoles. Can't be beat!

[@lemoi08]

i bought a crt tv last week in aus where i live and the stereo sound is amazing and the picture is frigging next level for my ps2! i was playing an emulator but wasnt enjoying the visuals so i tracked down an old crt and my ps2 look positively amasing. crt's for the win. BTW i am playing the warriors, mgs 2/3 and a ps1 game i love time crisis/TC project titan aswell and the light gun works perfectly on the crt and ps2. i am in crt heaven. BTW it is a 69 cm haier. haier used to be the biggest electronics brand in the world so its of good quality but what i cant work out is if its the sony blueprint or not. the sold the licence to alot of company to manufacture and i think haier made a few seeing as how crisp mine looks and the scan lines on older games are legit and its extra nice because its a really big tv so there are so many pixels to enjoy

[@salaciouscreations4323]

My nan and Gramps always used to rent a TV so they always had fancy TVs with proper nicam speakers and they were huge. I used to go round and set them up for them and the last TV they rented I had to take their front door off as it wouldn't fit through the gap with the door on. I do miss the old 4:3 screens

[@huskywolf8140]

Feels like a new art form, a union of old and new tech.

[@theldun1]

At the end of CRT production they were really good. Fast and clear. They are just so damn heavy!

[@andyshtroymish4997]

Oooooohhh, nostalgia! My first pc was connected to an old Russian CRT TV back in the day. OG GTA VC with mono(!) audio and interlaced PAL-260 or so lines or whatever that 80-s era's TV had...

[@ChancerRoonibois]

Your way of explaining the tv was perfect lmao

[@unimatrix82]

I had an old roommate once who had an old Apple CRT cinema display and it was an absolute behemoth and the picture quality was glorious.

[@prabhdeep8947]

This just reminds me of the old days, Time just flies!

[@MichaelThomas-be7gq]

We had a Panasonic Quintrix CRT for years, 32'' and 60kg. So heavy that Panasonic supplied it with a cabinet. It was a legend of a TV and lasted 15 years with us. In the end, it went up in the free ads for £50 and it shifted the day the paper came out. We've had a 43'' Panasonic Viera plasma since as it was the only thing close to the contrast & colours that the CRT could produce - still going strong 14 years later.

[@SneefyQuaffles]

so weird that despite the fact i remember playing games on something like this, my memory of the game is full clarity 4k

[@drruncmd]

Just paying attention to the sound alone is nostalgic enough. But for sure does have that PS2 gaming session vibe!

[@kevinbuchanan67]

I miss crt, they don't blur at all, but every flat screen does. I wish they'd bring them back

[@Jcvlasmesas]

What I really love are plasma TVs. They look awesome and are as slim as LCD screens. The only problem with them is the burn in effect from still images and the amount of heat and energy they consume. Apart from that, they're really awesome so much that I still use one for my Xbox 360 setup

[@TheStone2203]

We had a Pioneer plasma tv, that my family payed waaaaaaay too much for back in 2004. It was "only" 720p, and came with a big-ass tuner to put under a table or such, but man were the sound and contrats great. It finally died a few days ago, after having developped huge burn-in and start-up issues during its' last year. But at least it worked for numerous hours each single day, since 2004.

[@Jcvlasmesas]

@@TheStone2203 I have two LG plasma TVs, one from 2005 and the second from 2006. Both with HDMI one being upscaled 720p and the other one being native 720p. They both look awesome but in the 2005 the burn-in is a lot more noticeable and a lot easier to get. Still, they are both great and look really good from an adequate distance.

[@gamingchinchilla7323]

personally I think the CRT blurriness and distortion of the image gives it a bit of a charm. Perhaps its just the old boomer in me, but the CRT quality speaks to me on a certain personal level. I'd even say the detail of Fallout 4 looked on par to Donkey Kong Country 1's renders in the industrial portion of that game. Perhaps a bit of a weird comparison but I remember being autistically impressed with the 3d rendering of those games back in the day and admiring them on the CRT tv's of that time. And the shanty looking structure of the city there you had on screen seemed to bring back those distant memories of my fawning over those old game graphics. I am indeed an autistic boomer and proud of it!