just got a CRT, but won't, I need help.... alotta it

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nowI'm_the_OldGeezer
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just got a CRT, but won't, I need help.... alotta it

Post by nowI'm_the_OldGeezer »

I decided to go all out and play my beloved retro-games on a CRT which in 2021 is not easy to acquire, it's a Panasonic TX-86PW300A. It is a widescreen but not HighDefinition so I don't know why I'm getting the picture I'm getting and after lurking here, r/crtgaming and on the 'My life in gaming' channel I'm finally going to interact with a forum(rare for me); you lot seem to know a fair bit about CRT televisions so here I am.

So this is what you should be seeing
Image

My tv has a 100Hz mode which shows this
Image

It also has a 75/833i mode(which was the default) and a progressive mode which show this
Image

So about my set up-
I have a Raspberry pi that uses Retropie which outputs hdmi but it runs through a hdmi to YPbPr converter and as can be seen it works on the cheap flat screen, it even automatically sets the 4:3 aspect ratio. But when I plug the same component cables into the tv I get that I also had to set the 4:3 ratio myself. I accessed the service menu but it didn't seem helpful. If you need any more information to resolve this problem then ask me, I would really love to play retro-games they way they were meant to be played!
please help!
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Josh128
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Re: just got a CRT, but won't, I need help.... alotta it

Post by Josh128 »

The obvious answer is that you are sending 31kHz+ signal to a 15kHz TV. Your LCD will not accept 15k, so you MUST be sending 31+ to be getting the picture you are showing. Sending that same signal to a non-HD, non-VGA+ CRT will get you a non-synced picture.

Unless Im missing something, you need to make your RA output 15kHz/240p or 480i before sending to the component transcoder. The component transcoder does not modify resolution of the input signal, it simply transcodes it to analog YCbCr/PbPr.
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Krushal
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Re: just got a CRT, but won't, I need help.... alotta it

Post by Krushal »

Yeah, seems like you probably just need to edit the config file to output the correct resolution & frequency.

Found this article (https://www.retrorgb.com/rpi240p.html) which gives an overview of analog video options for RPi, with examples of config changes.
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nowI'm_the_OldGeezer
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Re: just got a CRT, but won't, I need help.... alotta it

Post by nowI'm_the_OldGeezer »

Thank you Krashal I reread this viewtopic.php?t=64797 and realised that I misunderstood what was being said and you lot at shmups had already answered my question.
As it turns out ALL raspberry pis need to have their config.txt changed it doesn't matter what hardware you have in between it and the CRT tv.
SuperSpongo
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Re: just got a CRT, but won't, I need help.... alotta it

Post by SuperSpongo »

nowI'm_the_OldGeezer wrote: it doesn't matter what hardware you have in between it and the CRT tv.
Unless that hardware is a downscaler :)
nowI'm_the_OldGeezer
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Re: just got a CRT, but won't, I need help.... alotta it

Post by nowI'm_the_OldGeezer »

SuperSpongo wrote:
nowI'm_the_OldGeezer wrote: it doesn't matter what hardware you have in between it and the CRT tv.
Unless that hardware is a downscaler :)
I thought a downscaler was for playing modern game consoles on a CRT?
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Guspaz
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Re: just got a CRT, but won't, I need help.... alotta it

Post by Guspaz »

A raspberry pi outputting 480p+ over HDMI would pretty much qualify as "modern".
nowI'm_the_OldGeezer
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Re: just got a CRT, but won't, I need help.... alotta it

Post by nowI'm_the_OldGeezer »

i guess the way i saw it is the sinal was a 480i signal being sent over hdmi and the converter is just unlocking it per se (but i failed to tell the rapberry pi the right signal). I wonder if there is a comparison between a downscaler and a converter? would there be much of a difference?
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Guspaz
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Re: just got a CRT, but won't, I need help.... alotta it

Post by Guspaz »

The Pi isn't going to send 480i over HDMI by default. You shouldn't need any conversion, you should just be able to set the mode line on the Pi appropriately, as earlier posters suggested.
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