Gaming on a Widescreen CRT - 16:9 240p hacks and downscaling for a Sony BVM alternative?
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 22 มิ.ย. 2024
- I’ve had a range of 4:3 CRT’s but never had a competent 16:9 standard definition set until now. The combination of a curved windscreen with Scart RGB and non-100Hz is rare and it sent me down a 16:9 rabbit hole. This video is to showcase getting the most out of a standard definition widescreen set including widescreen hacks, downscaling 16:9 HD content, and stretching lower resolution content to fit the 16:9 area. A multi-format widescreen BVM is the ideal all in one CRT to cover all resolutions and aspect ratios. But for consumer CRT’s there’s 2 alternatives
1. An HD widescreen (including PC monitors) with native support for high definition but for best results, 240p requires external upscaling.
2. A standard definition widescreen CRT to display proper 240p content, whilst displaying HD content in 480i.
Seeing 240p makes up the bulk of my gaming needs I looked for a set with the latter criteria.
Topics covered: widescreen hacks, Mister FPGA PS1 core 16:9, downscaling, transcoding ypbpr component to RGB, G-Scart lite auto switching, service menu adjustments, and gaming in 4:3
This is not a paid promotional or endorsed video, all products featured were bought with my own money. #crt #retrogaming #widescreen #crtgaming
00:00 - Intro
02:10 - Why widescreen?
04:18 - Widescreen hacks
04:59 - PS1 16:9 Mister
07:57 - Downscaling
12:39 - 4:3 gameplay
15:25 - Final thoughts
CRT’s featured:
Grundig Elegance 82, MW 82-2101 NIC/DOLBY Chassis CUC 2058
Bush 6693D Chassis AK45
PVM 20L5
Thank you to @phonedork for his informative and entertaining content, still very relevant all these years later.
/ @phonedork
Garo by the Behar Bros
www.beharbros.com/garo
Opening song credit: Jurgen paape - ofterschwang - เกม
This channel has fast become my goto for retro/crt content, the storytelling, informative technical structure and care you put into these videos shines through - another superb addition right here
Couldn’t have received a nicer compliment. Thank you
This is fantastic. Thanks for making such an informative (and humorous) video!
Thank you and I’m glad you enjoyed my video 😁
Great video!! Would love to see more CRT videos
Fantastic video! Thank you for the effort of making it!
Love the video Marco! We’ll done keep it up. 👍🏻
Funny intro, and well made video. Enjoyed it!
Bangin’ video man, excellent 👌.
Thank you!!
I just got a Toshiba HD Wide Screen CRT and it's a dream come true bro! Been playing Fallout New Vegas for 360 in 720p on it and I've never seen such depth in a game before. It's almost got a 3-D effect where if an object is in the distance it actually looks like it's farther away and not just smaller. I'm glad you are enjoying your new TV too. Life is pretty great huh?
your CRT only does 480p and 1080i.
Great to see this video, it's right up my alley. I have a Loewe Xelos 16:9 CRT with a VGA module installed. It is a 100hz set and I am aware they process all analog inputs with digital processing, unless you have the VGA module installed which bypasses it. Because it is 100hz and VGA it is a 31khz scan rate, so 480p is as low as it goes. Currently I run CRT Emudriver and GroovyMAME/CRT Switchres 2.0 through it with effect scanlines and it looks great. It's not true 240p real scanlines but the main thing is I am happy with it. To be honest it looks close enough but with the perks of native 480p and VGA geometry options. I run my desktop resolution at 856x480p at 60hz which is a custom modeline I generated that is ~16:9 as I am going to get. I hope to get a Mister some day.
That’s a great setup. I’ve seen the magic that DJ Calle’s reproduction VGA card can do to those Loewe’s. With a GBS-C to simulate scanlines on line doubled 240p it looked fantastic and pretty much like native 240p. I was considering it as my next option
I was lucky enough to start on the Atari, then NES, turbografx-16, genesis.... But the ps1 was a revelation in games when it came out!
great video , thank you so much
just what i wanted to see
great video! came across this while looking for info on running 240p content on big widescreen consumer european CRTs, since there's not only a difference in display aspect ratio but NTSC and PAL have slightly different resolutions, and so I wasn't sure how to get the best actual size of the picture displayed on a european widescreen CRT.
helpful to watch this because I just got a 28" widescreen trinitron to replace my last 25" fullscreen phillips. good to know that it can work well with a mister which I also have. tbh I think constantly changing geometry in the service menu may have worn out the phillips or something (that or not using a proper VGA cable with the mister) and so I may end up just having a quick glance at the 240p test suite and then just focus on having fun with gaming.
Thanks and congrats on the new Trinitron! Widescreen really opens up the playing field (literally). If you’re into downscaling then it’s a huge advantage over a 4:3 set. Otherwise if you have a GameCube with Swiss, you can boot into 16:9 the same way the Mister PSOne core does widescreen.
And yep that damn 240p test suite is a blessing and a curse. Widescreen *should* mean you’ll never need to tweak the geometry again. I ended up fixing the left horizontal cut-off with a scart picture adjust box and I’m very happy with my setup. I hope the Trinitron serves you well and thanks for commenting :)
Will you ever do a follow-up with more consoles and use cases?
I do want to someday make a video on gaming on a Widescreen HD CRT and discuss the upscaling aspect but for that to happen I’m looking for the smallest possible widescreen. There’s not much out there under 30” but I’ll probably borrow one from a friend when the time comes. I suppose the Downscaling Chronicles is the widescreen gaming genre
I came across a brilliant widescreen JVC TV, that can do 576i/50 and 480i/60 and has no processing, unfortunately the blue emitter is dead, so the entire screen is tinted what I affectionately refer to as "Piss Yellow". I wish I could fix it somehow, but I doubt it's even possible.
Nice!
Did you manage to set up a 16:9 PAL resolution on Kodi?
I use Kodi for some media viewing only through the Raspberry Pi 4 with CRT Dual hardware running on Recalbox OS. It has all the video modes built in, but I don’t think I have much use for 50Hz
@@MarcoRetro316 Nice! Are you using RGB Dual from Recalbox? I happened to buy RGB-Pi, but I am using Recalbox as an OS because it is way better supported than the OS from the RGB-Pi maker.
I used to have it connected to a 4:3 WEGA, and it worked flawlessly, but now I got a 16:9 WEGA with 2000 hours on the tube, but wasn't successful on setting it up with a 16:9 resolution. I'll report back when I'm able to change it.
Nice score in the Wega. I tried the RGB Pi hardware and OS but the cable didn’t work in the g-scart switch and I had the exact same experience as you described with the OS and I prefer Recalbox. I didn’t have to do any hardcore setting up with kodi, I just remember selecting Pal or NTSC resolutions and I can’t fully recall if there were widescreen options or not
mate, are you in Melbourne? I need to hire you to help with my set up haha
I’m flattered 😅
This is definitely a fantastic set. We don't have these brands available in the US, unfortunately.
There are some very rare B&Os, but not Blaupunkt, Loewe, or Grundig. Strangely, there's a lot of Blaupunkt audio.
That's one that you keep forever....
We had a few German TV’s down here that used to be more common to find second hand in the more upmarket suburbs. It’s definitely a keeper
Hey Marco, I got myself a 16:9 SD Philips. From what I read the tubes these things use are very similar, and I discovered that when disabling "AKB" on the Philips SAM, the overscan cut-off also gets disabled. Might help you with your issue.
Thank you! I’ll see if I have that option though we’d likely be on vastly different chassis and OSD design. I’ve since stashed the widescreen in lieu of a very nice 4:3 Loewe but the Grundig will eventually make its way back
the setting you're looking to adjust the left side cut off is phase. mabye the phase setting is in the service menu.
Thanks! Unfortunately I don’t see that option in the service menu, only H shift and width
Looks like the set is having an HV regulation issue - the kinks in the vertical grid lines just below each horizontal line.
thanks god youtube recommended me this channel 😂
I wish these were more readily available in the states
They seem to be drying up everywhere. 2010-2020 were the golden years to find one on the side of the road
Nice Boognish pfp
How do you fix horizontal linearity on toshiba 27af43?
I don’t have experience with that set and I’ve done the googling for you and there’s a service manual online. Service mode is initiated by holding volume down and number 9 on the remote for more than a second. There’s most of the typical adjustments there including item number 8: V. linearity. Make sure to write down the previous values before adjusting anything
8:21 which projector are you using?
It’s a 1080p BenQ but unsure of the model number. It’s 10 years old and running strong
I got a game boy color with links awakening for my communion. Thanks Jesus lol
Edit: there was a 1080i Samsung 30" near my parents house. I was way tempted to get it for our home setup. It finally was sold after like 3 months on the market
Catholicism delivering the goods 🤣 Some of my friends have an HD CRT in their setup exclusively for 480p content alongside a dedicated 15Khz CRT, I see the appeal for a 1080i set but just isn’t for everyone as a dedicated all-in-one display
RGB mod improves bit or little focus for CRT TV but at focus level, CRT TV can never match any CRT monitor-studio multimedia (eg: Sony BVM/PVM...) because the dot pitch's size of CRT TV is not enough. 😉
Anyone know the name of the arcade game at 2:31? Thanks
Can someone tell me how or with what device I can watch my SNES on the wide screen TV in 4:3?
I don't want the image to be stretched
What display are you sending the SNES to?
@@MarcoRetro316 to SONY KV-29FS120
That’s a 4:3 display, so your SNES is getting stretched to 16:9? Is it hooked up via scart? If so, it could be due to scart pin 8 not receiving ~9v from the SNES for automatic 4:3 switching. If not, one would assume there’s a 4:3 option via the remote
Many 7th gen games actually run faster in 480i mode thanks to the output resolution of the console actually effecting the internal resolution. Most modern consoles just downscale the resolution but the 7th gen consoles were a bit different. PS4 Pro also does this in some games where if selected to run at 1080p the game would sometimes just output 1080p instead of downscale. I could also see this set up as perfect for some modern pixel art games like Sonic Mania which actually does run at a true 240p
Also man it's a shame the DBZ home releases have been treated so badly. They shoud not be in 16:9 but rather 4:3. Not only that but they have poor colors and since they are ion 16:9, much of the image is actually cut off.
Thanks for that insight I didn’t know 7th Gen internally mis-handled the vertical frequency of 480i. Also good for me to know that downscaling externally has some benefit although at the cost of some lag. I’m planning a video entirely focused on downscaling so thanks again for this tip. And yes to DBZ being poorly digitised! It’s at least acceptable for me to watch in 16:9 than how I was zooming in to fill a 4:3 display with a ton of video lost in overscan
@@MarcoRetro316 I wouldn't really call it mishandled for 7th gen. It's more that those who played on Standard definition or Enhanced Definition TVs got a better experience than those who played on HD TVs. Even outputting 720p would occasionally provide a boost in some games. So it was like they had a maximum resolution they could output at but the consoles would cause some games actually just scale in game resolution with that.
Great stuff. A widescreen is always on the back of my head for 6th gen + wii but I feel the loss of overall size for 4:3 pictures is too much. Here in Europe the typical widescreen you'll find is 32 inches. Which to me feels very small for 4:3 content. There's the odd 36 inch Sony, but we are talking 100hz unfortunately.
Some great points on the video though. Fueled my curiosity for widescreens again :)
Play PS4/Xbox One on Widescreen CRT
this video hurt my back
I haven’t moved the CRT since this video unless there’s a dam good reason to 😁
And 576i/288p?
Yep it handles them no problem. I often incorrectly refer to interlaced 15KHz as 480i and progressive as 240p as blanket terms
@@MarcoRetro316 and also i imagine running this TV at 1024x768 interlaced with 89.752 Hz refresh rate... Or 864x648 at 59.854 progressive... Or true 120
there's cocaine in your TV mate 😂
00 flour was the best I had to film that bit and was waiting for someone to comment on whatever else it looked like. I’m surprised it took a year but you’re comment is the first 🤣🤣
Are ya Australian?
Yep
@MarcoRetro316 Knew it from the accent. Also, an Australian