Composite -vs- HDMI

[Mux]

How big a deal is it for a new game console to only have composite rather than HDMI? Would that be a dealbreaker for buying one? A lot of 'tabletop' games still have composite, presumably to keep the price down.. Personally, I don't really care as I have a bunch of CRT's at home but...

 

-Mux

[+save2600]

I'd prefer that game consoles always offer a lag-free connection.   

[CatPix]

And why not having RF out? Or a dial-up modem?

I dunno about you, unless you talk about emulation machines, but playing HD games on a SD display is horrible. I tried that with my PS3 and it was nearly impossible.

And remember the complains from gamers that the Wii didn't had HDMI?

[Mux]

14 minutes ago, CatPix said:

And why not having RF out? Or a dial-up modem?

I dunno about you, unless you talk about emulation machines, but playing HD games on a SD display is horrible. I tried that with my PS3 and it was nearly impossible.

And remember the complains from gamers that the Wii didn't had HDMI?

I'm not talking about HD games on SD. Basically stuff like the standalone paceman and what not. There's really no need (other than convenience) to have HDMI for games that are essentially 256x224. Ironically, people will then try to emulate a CRT by putting a filter / scanlines over it 🙂

[Pixelboy]

It comes down to how many people in the target market have a high-def screen. People with CRTs are a dying breed, and that's why many are interested in CRT-like scanline options on their modern TVs. Since modern TV makers tend to ditch the composite connectors, if you release a new game console with composite out, a lot of people out there will simply be unable to plug it into their TVs, so they won't bother buying it.

Edited July 12, 2019 by Pixelboy

[Mux]

You'd be surprised how many TV's still have a composite-in! Sometimes they masquerade as regular headphone type plugs, but there's actually quite a few still out there.. But yeah, I generally agree.. It's definitely narrowing down your audience if it's composite only. 

 

 

Edited July 12, 2019 by Mux

[+save2600]

Just bought a brand new Onn brand 24" TV the other day. Was pleasantly surprised to see it has composite, component, VGA and HDMI, USB, headphone and optical out! After seeing all those connections, was a little surprised it doesn't have S-video in.  lol

 

https://www.walmart.com/ip/ONN-24-Class-HD-720P-LED-TV-ONA24HB19E02/937979110

[DragonGrafx-16]

I really love my 32 inch LCD Toshiba HDTV... 

3x HDMI, 1x Component, 2x composite, 1x VGA, and 1x RF.  It might have S-Video but I don't know. Back when it was my  only TV it was great for retro consoles. 32 inch is about the highest you can go with HTDVs and still have a decent composite picture.

[Mux]

3 hours ago, save2600 said:

Just bought a brand new Onn brand 24" TV the other day. Was pleasantly surprised to see it has composite, component, VGA and HDMI, USB, headphone and optical out! After seeing all those connections, was a little surprised it doesn't have S-video in.  lol

 

https://www.walmart.com/ip/ONN-24-Class-HD-720P-LED-TV-ONA24HB19E02/937979110

Damn! 88 bucks???? SOLD!

[DragonGrafx-16]

1 hour ago, Mux said:

Damn! 88 bucks???? SOLD!

Seems a little expensive for a 720p TV... especially a Walmart in-house brand. The best deals are at thrift stores. I saw a 40ish inch Samsung today for around $120!

Edited July 13, 2019 by DragonGrafx-16

[DJ Clae]

On 7/12/2019 at 1:59 PM, Mux said:

There's really no need (other than convenience) to have HDMI for games that are essentially 256x224.🙂

Except that most modern TV's won't handle the 240p signal correctly, instead usually treating it as 480i and then deinterlacing it. Not to mention the source signal (composite) is blurry, noisy and washed out to begin with. That's why you need an external upscaler to convert the 240p signal to HDMI.

[Mux]

On 7/18/2019 at 6:53 AM, DJ Clae said:

Except that most modern TV's won't handle the 240p signal correctly, instead usually treating it as 480i and then deinterlacing it. Not to mention the source signal (composite) is blurry, noisy and washed out to begin with. That's why you need an external upscaler to convert the 240p signal to HDMI.

As compared to getting throwing a scanlines + NTSC filter on the HDMI signal to make it look more 'real' 🙂

[Newsdee]

In my experience many modern TVs do a crappy job upscaling their own composite input.  It became obvious when I tried upscaling my composite consoles via an XRGB and got a much better image.

 

So I prefer HDMI nowadays, and give the job to upscale to the source device/console. If they do a poor job with it (e.g. Pandora's Boxes) then I am automatically less interested.

 

TL;DR: composite could be decent, but it is stifled by cheap electronics in modern TVs.

[DJ Clae]

1 hour ago, Mux said:

As compared to getting throwing a scanlines + NTSC filter on the HDMI signal to make it look more 'real' 🙂

Nope. I don't like the look of fake scanlines. Prefer sharp pixels.

 

It has to be upscaled for that screen one way or another. Either you can use a high quality upscaler or let your TV do a crappy job.