Finally got an HDTV... How to properly see 240p video?

[Movax12]

I tried a second hand DVD recorder as a converter and it does okay - this is probably the cheapest route. I think it fixed the dropped frames, but it converts to 480i, which causes everything to look a little off when scrolling, but is tolerable. It can also convert to 480p, which looks good, but the frame bounces. Maybe a slightly better DVD recorder will do the trick. This is the 480i component signal captured. Pretty sure it introduced significant lag though.

[Asaki]

...I can only imagine how hard it will be to get another one in the future considering how hard it already is to find one now.

Thrift stores can't hardly give them away, they have so many.

My newest console is a Playstation 2...

I was disappointed with component video on PS2. There are very few games that support it, they looked better on an SD TV, and it seemed like the framerate dropped a bit.

But at least the official cables are dirt cheap, they use the same ones as the PS3.

Heck, even a Wii with composite video looks pretty bad on an HDTV; you can see interlacing all over the place.

This sucks.

Don't get me wrong, with component video it looks pretty great, even some of the Gamecube games that don't support progressive scan (and way, way cheaper than finding a Gamecube component cable).

[tepples]

The biggest problem I've seen with the CRT SDTVs at charity shops like Goodwill and Salvation Army is that many have only an RF input, not even the yellow composite input.

[mikejmoffitt]

I've had pretty good luck finding 27" or even 32" CRTs at Goodwill that scan at 15KHz and have even Component inputs.

Of course, there's always the route of hacking RGB inputs into your TV...

[tokumaru]

Thrift stores can't hardly give them away, they have so many.

That may be the current situation, but even those are gonna run out eventually. Since there's so little demand for these TVs, stores might even get rid of them just to regain some of the storage space.

Let's say my CRT lasts 5 more years... in that time, CRTs will probably be completely forgotten and thrift stores might get sick of those heavy things taking up all that space. My point is that this isn't something you should count on.

I was disappointed with component video on PS2. There are very few games that support it, they looked better on an SD TV, and it seemed like the framerate dropped a bit.

That's weird.

But at least the official cables are dirt cheap, they use the same ones as the PS3.

I'll probably go looking for these soon.

Don't get me wrong, with component video it looks pretty great, even some of the Gamecube games that don't support progressive scan (and way, way cheaper than finding a Gamecube component cable).

Good to know.

Of course, there's always the route of hacking RGB inputs into your TV...

I had no idea this was an option! Please tell more!

Anyway, I'll definitely be keeping my CRT. Just bought a new TV stand today so I can put it in the bedroom. The good thing is that it can hold about 5 or so consoles, so it will also free up some space in my storage cabinet. Keeping the consoles I use more often easier to access is a great bonus.

[rainwarrior]

Thrift stores around here refuse to take CRTs.

[Movax12]

Yeah I think most thrift stores have stopped taking CRTs in my area. I think that Salvation Army still does. Another place to look is "free stuff" on Craigslist.

[tokumaru]

Yesterday I realized I had a DVD recorder at my disposal (we bought it a few years back so my grandmother would record her shows but she never got along with it as she did with the VCR, so it's just been sitting there), and it can take RF and composite and output component video. I wonder if it would help with the 240p issue at all...

Does anyone have any experience with these devices? I imagine that since DVDs don't support 60fps content it will probably just see the signal as 480i, but since a few people have successfully used DVD recorders to capture video from retro consoles (maybe they deinterlaced afterwards?), it's probably worth a try.

Either way, I kept my CRT, it's in the bedroom now. And I also got a LENKENG SCART (RGB/composite) to HDMI converter, which isn't so expensive and is said to handle 240p video just fine.

[tepples]

It might depend on the make and model, but mine (a Philips DVDR3505) happens to work. I do have to split fields in the result after I have ripped it. Please see my previous posts about DVD recorder.

[Myask]

Yesterday I realized I had a DVD recorder at my disposal (we bought it a few years back so my grandmother would record her shows but she never got along with it as she did with the VCR, so it's just been sitting there), and it can take RF and composite and output component video. I wonder if it would help with the 240p issue at all...

Does anyone have any experience with these devices? I imagine that since DVDs don't support 60fps content it will probably just see the signal as 480i, but since a few people have successfully used DVD recorders to capture video from retro consoles (maybe they deinterlaced afterwards?), it's probably worth a try.

Might want to try looking over at speeddemosarchive; they seem to have a rather large experience pool with video quality w/r/t retro consoles.

[tokumaru]

I also got a LENKENG SCART (RGB/composite) to HDMI converter, which isn't so expensive and is said to handle 240p video just fine.

After several months of waiting (really, I bought this thing back in August!), my LKV362A finally arrived. Man, what a letdown.

I first tried the RGB from my US Genesis (transcoded to PAL-M back in the 90's) and my Japanese Mega Drive (bought used a couple years ago, not sure if it's NTSC or PAL-M). Both behaved exactly the same: the video was a little snowy (random white dots easily noticeable in black screens), was very saturated and had some sort of interference in the form of dark stripes scrolling from the bottom to the top of the screen. The generated HDMI signal switched inconsistently between 50Hz and 60Hz. Switching to 1080 caused all sorts of glitches (half the screen filled with blinking garbage). In addition to that, the audio was absolute shit, with loud humming (louder than the actual sound) and random distortions depending on what was playing.

Then I tried the composite video from the Genesis/MD. Complete shit. It was the blurriest picture I had ever seen coming out of a video game console, and that includes a 2600 connected through RF to an 80's TV. Colors were still oversaturated, the framerate was still unstable and the audio was still the same crap.

Then I tried the SNES. The SCART cable I bought simply didn't work. I tried it on 2 original models and a Jr. (all PAL-M), no picture at all. Composite worked much better than with the Genesis/MD, but the result was practically the same as what the TV does by itself, which means that blinking sprites are still "stripy" or translucent.

So, the converter ended up being a piece of shit device that didn't improve anything. For some reason it hates all my Genesis/MD consoles, doesn't help with the progressive/interlaced issue, and at best performs the same as my TV's internal converter. I was too disappointed to test it with any more consoles, and I'll probably just leave it rotting in its box forever. Now that was a waste of money.