Video Game Display Preferences

[bluejay]

How do you like your games displayed on your TV? What kind of TV? Some prefer the old school way of using RF with an old 80s woodgrain TV with the classic fuzzy picture and scan lines while others like their games on a HDTV via RGB or HDMI with crisp and clear graphics.

Personally, I don't much like RF, but I'm no fan of super crisp RGB video which looks "too good."

I'd go with an old school 80s TV with composite(I can live with RF if it really comes to it). Picture quality is neither too bad or too good, and the TV looks nice unlike those big and ugly silver Trinitrons.

[+jeremiahjt]

I have some on composite or s-video, but most are rf on old school television sets.

[Magmavision2000]

I'm one of those people who just play my systems on what I have. If I have an RF 2600 and an HD TV, I don't care, as long as I can tell what's going on, I'm fine. Although I do prefer a CRT whenever possible. 

[The Usotsuki]

13" composite monitor with built-in mono speaker.

[ApolloBoy]

I’m all over the place these days when it comes to displays. My main setup is an HDTV paired with an OSSC for most of my systems, and I also have a few FPGA-based consoles that output HDMI that are also connected to my flatscreen. Normally I would prefer to play my systems through RGB on my PVM, but it’s too bulky to have in my apartment right now so it’s in storage until I can get a bigger place. Once that happens, that sucker is getting set up again because I miss having it around.

 

I do have a small early 80s Trinitron set up in my bedroom though for CRT gaming.  It only has RF but I haven’t minded it too much and I have an RF modulator hooked up so I can still use consoles that have composite and/or S-video.

[Mikebloke]

I need to get a crt sometime at some point. The problem is my current (near end of life) 1080 flatscreen can natively display everything but ntsc rf and s video and I have adapters for them which make it easy.

 

I've yet to have any TV salesman convince me that any new TV I buy can run everything my current one does. 

[bluejay]

To be honest, I don't mind using RF unless it's really bad(like my CoCo and Hanimex Pong console), but when it's really bad, I do have feel like I need a composite mod.

[DragonGrafx-16]

Okay I voted for:

 

1. What type of video output? Composite (modify systems with RF)

 Except I don't mod them, I just use composite as that's easiest for me. I could use S-video for some of my consoles but not all. The only console I have that is RF only is my 2600, but it looks fine on my 24" Trinitron.

 

2. On what kind of screen? Old school 80s TV(with composite input)

 

As I mentioned above I play on a Sony Trinitron, just not as massive one (did you mean the WEGA Trinitrons? Anyway without a definite size to go by I chose 80s TV) , and while it is 1999 model it's still very much an old school TV with rounded tube with composite, S-video, and RF inputs.

 

[pablum]

I'm sticking with what I desired as a kid. To play games on the biggest screen there is. Which turns out today are digital HDTVs. 

 

These days I do go overboard and play in RGB when possible via an OSSC scaler.

I do keep a CRT around for the rare moments I want to play a light gun game.
 

Edited April 15, 2020 by pablum

[SiLic0ne t0aD]

Sure, I grew up using RF & Composite, probably just like everybody else here.. but, after getting a taste of Component, RGB, VGA, HDMI, that's what I prefer/require my consoles to output as nowadays. Sure, I have a couple killer CRTs I can still use, but I presently use my 43" Vizio & OSSC upscaler for just about everything. It's nice to have options, that's for sure. All I know is that I could never go back to composite and especially not RF (not on a flat panel anyway). Mods & upgrades have spoiled me. Lol

[Tanooki]

HDMI.  As the years progress it becomes more and more evident just how terrible SD CRTs really are, even the nice ones.  So much detail is lost, so much clarity shot down to muddiness.  I saw it years ago called viewing games through a vaseline glow which is pretty on the nose.  The first real taste of the loss came 25 years ago playing the early NES and GB emulators on my PC even if that was a CRT too, but the uptick was obvious over a trinitron.  Move forward a bit over 5 years later to 720p HD displays and it was even more clear over that when my trinitron failed what was not being seen yet so painstakingly done on even Wii games.  The really big kicker in the end, the Gamecube/Wii emulator Dolphin, seeing side by side the details lost on games seeing them on my PC vs the HDMI TV even...the conversion of that RCA cable use on a GC to the HDMI external adapter through the digital port finally syncing up to the Dolphin.  I'm glad CRT is dead, even more so that China even finally gave up on the crap not making the sets or the parts anymore, so once they dry out, that's it.

[The Usotsuki]

[jhd]

 

I do not actually own an HDMI capable TV, so that makes my choices so much easier -- I do have two CRTs (one of which is dedicated to gaming).

 

Everything that I currently play uses composite output; the one HDMI-only console that I own is currently in storage awaiting the day when I purchase a new TV.  

 

I am a strong believer in the adage "good enough is good enough". I also hate to spend money.  

[zzip]

I could care less about what input type it uses, but I don't want to deal with large heavy CRTs anymore.    My preference is to use emulators that can add CRT effects to a HD display.

[+GoldenWheels]

I use the stock outputs for everything basically....have only had two systems upgraded I think. In one of those cases (my 7800, Joust specifically) I sometimes even miss the RF signal. Gives even better ghost-trails on an old trinitron.

 

When my CRTs die and CRTs become hard to get around here, I might give up on them. But I have a good stock and they are still very common at the local dump's recycling table.

[BassGuitari]

I use stock outputs, although there are a few systems I've given serious thought to modding for composite (Timex 1000, Atari 7800, DINA). For anything that uses RF or composite, or that has lightgun games, I use a CRT. We still have a 27" Sylvania that my wife got in college over 15 years ago(!). It used to be our main TV before we got our 42" HDTV, which itself is already 12 years old(!). Anything that uses HDMI, naturally, goes with the HDTV...although that's basically just my PlayStation 4 (which replaced the Wii U, which had been used exclusively as a Netflix box).

 

The Sylvania's a great TV, but it's actually slightly on the large size for my game room and wouldn't mind downsizing to something in the 22" range.

 

For computers I don't have dedicated or matching monitors for, I have a couple of 13" CRTs.

[John Stamos Mullet]

One of the things that always drove me crazy as a kid was that snowy, wavy, interference covered RF picture from Atari, Sega, etc. it wasn't until 3DO/PlayStation era when TVs started having composite as a standard input that I really was satisfied with the picture. 
 

now, all my systems that didn't come with composite standard are modded, and I use a 55" Sharp 4k. It's not the best TV for TV/Movies, but for gaming it's great. It has a really good response time on game mode. 
 

but these days I mostly just play my RPi modded Arcade1Up cabinet. 

[envytomdead2]

I have been jumping around a lot between a CRT and a Flat screen using the RetroTink 2x.  I also have have HD retrovision cables for my sms/genesis so sega looks fantastic on a flat screen with no lag but the CRT is still the most enjoyable. The reason I found I like it better is because when you are playing on CRT, you are closer to the screen. Something about sitting far back from a flat screen kind of removes me from the game. 

[juansolo]

In nostalgia terms it's a little bit different in the UK & EU as we started out with RF, which is impractical these days as nothing has an analogue RF tuner in it. We skipped the whole NES/Master System console era and went with 8-Bit computers, usually over RF. Then from the Spectrum 128 onwards, they had RGB, as did the vast majority of consoles. So for me the preference, and indeed the way i connect the vast majority of my consoles is via RGB to a CRT of some description. We also didn't have massive TVs here so the biggest ones I own are 20", so they're big, but they're not that big in terms of taking up space. I tried running them into panels and the results are almost always a compromise in some way. In the end it was just easier and cheaper to run CRTs. That said, the MiSTer is a definite game changer for me and is the first time I've enjoyed playing old systems on a panel. It's nice to have both options.

[bluejay]

9 hours ago, juansolo said:

In nostalgia terms it's a little bit different in the UK & EU as we started out with RF, which is impractical these days as nothing has an analogue RF tuner in it. We skipped the whole NES/Master System console era and went with 8-Bit computers, usually over RF. Then from the Spectrum 128 onwards, they had RGB, as did the vast majority of consoles. So for me the preference, and indeed the way i connect the vast majority of my consoles is via RGB to a CRT of some description. We also didn't have massive TVs here so the biggest ones I own are 20", so they're big, but they're not that big in terms of taking up space. I tried running them into panels and the results are almost always a compromise in some way. In the end it was just easier and cheaper to run CRTs. That said, the MiSTer is a definite game changer for me and is the first time I've enjoyed playing old systems on a panel. It's nice to have both options.

you won't believe how jealous I am for Europe where scart is common.

[DragonGrafx-16]

2 hours ago, bluejay said:

you won't believe how jealous I am for Europe where scart is common.

I wouldn't be, I'd take having 60hz native over having scart...

Edited April 18, 2020 by DragonGrafx-16

[juansolo]

16 hours ago, DragonGrafx-16 said:

I wouldn't be, I'd take having 60hz native over having scart...

Most of our sets are dual standard and we're used to modding our consoles to play at 60hz