HD gamers playing on CRT in Non-HD 4:3

[PogOrion]

I have a fully capable 1080p LCD type display with low input lag and a great HD picture, but I can't help but play around with low resolutions in games, especially on newer consoles that support analog connections, mainly RGB scart. And not for the obvious types of games either (shmups and 2D fighters etc).
Recently I've been playing Battlefield 3 (X360) on my Sony PVM and due to it being on a CRT it has a natural anti-aliasing effect and looks really smooth, motion is definitely handled better on CRT. On my LCD Battlefield 3's 30 frames per second look like a choppy mess that's not so evident on a CRT. GTA4 is an example of a game that would look normal in SD on a CRT to anyone who hadn't seen it on a HD display. In 4:3 it looks like an actual GTA3 remake due to the setting which, back in 2001, was meant to be viewed through the glass of a CRT in SD.
Is anyone else into this type of thing?

[ZacharyB]

The only hurdle to this seems to be that many games have text meant to be viewed on an HD monitor or television; at normal resolution, the text is too small and blurry to make out.

[qmish]

PogOrion, and photos/camera videos?

[Austin]

I haven't tried going back to doing things like this except for 2D games (primarily shmups). However, I did use a SD CRT up until 2012 as my main set even for modern consoles. The games looked fine for the most part during gameplay, but by 2009/2010 the text became so small it was unreadable and many games were forcing letterboxing and not filling the entire display (borders on the top and bottom). Granted, this was composite. I can imagine it working better via RGB on a PVM. I have one of those now so I might be curious to try it.

[Xer Xian]

While I think modern games should be played on modern displays, some just scream for a CRT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPcYW9dTAUw

[Bananamatic]

the only thing screaming for crts are recycling companies

[Xer Xian]

Ahah but that's not the case actually - proper CRTs disposal has a negative value.. no one wants them CRTs.

[Obiwanshinobi]

I do prefer looking at the original, PS2 PAL Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance on RGB CRT via SCART to its "HD" PS3 port on LCD via HDMI. The former looks actually SHARPER that way ("HD" port is only 960x720 or so, therefore upscaling rears its ugly head). Interestingly, MGS3 benefits aesthetically from "HD" treatment (then again - it wasn't as clean-looking on PS2 as MGS2 to begin with).

I also don't expect the likes of Ico or the very first Silent Hill to ever look as good in high resolutions as they do in 240p on RGB CRT. Then there's number of "2.5D" games where models look like they would take high resolutions well, but their backdrops - not so much (Onimusha 1&2, point & click adventures).

But yeah, when captions are barely legible in low resolutions, that bothers me (The Last Story in 480i - first Wii game I would play emulated if I had a good enough PC). Many Wii games look like they weren't even tested on interlaced CRTs.

I'd like to see how Outcast fares in high resolutions (my PC simply refused to run the Steam version), or just any voxel engine other than Minecraft and 3D Dot Game Heroes. Maybe there still is a room for hardware voxel acceleration, allegedly advocated by John D. Carmack some time ago (better than polygons at rendering 3D terrain)...

[LEGENOARYNINLIA]

Virtua Fighter 5 on the PS3 looks amazing in 4:3 / 480i on a good CRT.

[FinalBaton]

I guess this is a good thread to talk about the look of remakes on HDTV vs the originals on CRTs. (OP, tell me if this is off-topic or not)

The original release of Ico as mentionned above really does look sharp in 240p, it's a real treaton crt. I will never bother with the remake.

Even though Ys VI is available on Steam, I still love playing the PS2 version on a CRT. I wish that one would be 480p(as my main CRT monitor accepts that in addition to 480i, and various higher PC resolutions in progressive scan) but I still think it looks sharp here in 480i.
Speaking of Ys, I play the Steam release of Oath In Felghana on my CRT using the Game's 4:3 mode. But I use high progressive resolutions though ^_^ so not exactly in line with the thread. although the "4:3" and "CRT" part are!
Lastly, i love to play the Ys Origins (PS4) in 1080i on my crt every once in a while. I dunno something about the top-down modern Ys games just screams CRT to me!

i always play Soulcalibur 2 (ps2) in 4:3 on my crt(albeit in 480p) instead of widescreen on my HDTV. That game(and the first one) just looks sooooo damn smooth and crisp on a crt. They're really impressive, these 2 are the games I show to friends when I want to 'wow' them with the picture quality awesomeness of CRTs.

FFX remake looks amazing but the ps2 original on a good CRT is still a sight to behold. The color work in that game is truly stunning. it always looks so vibrant and otherworldly on a CRT, I enjoy that experience a ton.

Now comes old-school Resident Evil. And I'll preface by stating : I'm very weird with my Resident Evil. My choices don't always make sense. lol. Just accept it, aight?
-RE : I know I'm crazy but I prefer playing the playstation original. Yes it's ghetto 3D but 240p looks crisp on a crt and besides that's just how the game is supposed to look to me. When it comes to REmake though, I go with the Gamecube over PS4. Gamecube one looks ace on a CRT. game looks a good deal better on PS4 but i dunno, I still prefer REmake on GC because of how impressive it was for the era.
-RE2 : i love the playstation original, it looks great. Still got a copy on Dreamcast though, that's the one i play most nowadays, that version looks closer to Code Veronica on DC, which is the sweetspot for me when it comes to the look of the series.
-RECV : Dreamcast all the way. game looks so crisp, so polished in 480p on my crt that I will never bother with the PS4 remake. There's just something about the look of that game on a crt in 480p... it's just hits all the right spot to me. A perfect storm, you could call it. I adore that look.
-RE3 : Dreamcast baby! in 480p on my crt
-RE4 : now here's a twist. I prefer this one on ps4. This game screems for high resolution textures and high resolution in general. Now will I play it on a CRT? well I might experiment with it but I'll mostly stick to flat panel for this one

[d0s]

CRTs are great for 240P/15kHz stuff but why on earth would you want to play games not at that res on one, do you enjoy headaches and eyestrain?

[FinalBaton]

CRTs are great for 240P/15kHz stuff but why on earth would you want to play games not at that res on one, do you enjoy headaches and eyestrain?

I'm sorry but Dreamcast games at 480p look incredible on a CRT that supports that res in progressive scan.

As for HD games well, for me It's just fun to mess about with every now and then. Like a mad scientist type of thing. Isn't it the point of games? to have fun?

[Obiwanshinobi]

Anybody with a GameCube or Wii and a component or RGB CRT oughtta revisit Super Monkey Ball (1st); also, Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance on PS2 (presumably either port as well) - both doing aesthetics unsurpassed to this day. I also can't remember any Splinter Cell game on PC that would impress me more than 1st's humble PS2 demo (technically a downgrade from Xbox original) on RGB CRT back in the day - now that was a work of art.

A word of advice to those who seek natural anti-aliasing & motion blur - play in a darkened room (most apparent in the movies, but works for even 60 fps games too).

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Playing FX-Zero GX & AX on the GC with and old-school CRT is ace (looks mighty fine on a SVGA monitor as well via a modded Gamecube D-Terminal to VGA cable setup with 480p).

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[PogOrion]

Virtua Fighter 5 on the PS3 looks amazing in 4:3 / 480i on a good CRT.

PS3 is an oddball in PAL territories, even though it supports HD resolutions, for SD it will only do PAL 576/50i, though this causes games such as Destiny to have a sort of unlocked frame-rate where it will go above the "locked to 30" frame-rate cap.

[Despatche]

A lot of earlier 360 games work well on regular 4:3 CRTs, since the HD switchover didn't happen until about 2008. I don't know about PS3.

[LEGENOARYNINLIA]

PS3 is an oddball in PAL territories, even though it supports HD resolutions, for SD it will only do PAL 576/50i, though this causes games such as Destiny to have a sort of unlocked frame-rate where it will go above the "locked to 30" frame-rate cap.

Yeah, I know. I have a NTSC-J PS3 for that reason. Playing Virtua Fighter with 50 visible frames per second would be torture.

[FinalBaton]

It just popped in my head that I need to give a shoutout to Virtua Fighter 2. That game looks so smooooooth and crisp, thanks to its high horizontal resolution. It looks unbelievable on a crt.

Also gonna mention that 480i titles in general look better on a crt. So much so that I would even recommend it to peeps who prefer to play their retro games on flat panels via an upscaler.

With how difficult the deinterlacing and upscaling of 480i is, it's so nice to just plug that sucker in a standard def crt and get a solid picture.

[tommyb]

CRTs are great for 240P/15kHz stuff but why on earth would you want to play games not at that res on one, do you enjoy headaches and eyestrain?

Came to say this. I can see playing ports of old games on an older, SD CRT but I can't for the life of me understand why you'd do that for an HD game.

[Strider77]

Even though Ys VI is available on Steam, I still love playing the PS2 version on a CRT.

Why? Konami shat all over that game. Those (crappy) 3D models replacing the sprites is/was horrible looking.

[FinalBaton]

Why? Konami shat all over that game. Those (crappy) 3D models replacing the sprites is/was horrible looking.

I actually like the 3D characters far better. Those 2D sprites in 3D levels look goofy to me. They only have 8 direction they can face and artistically they don't blend in as well. The 3D models are a plus for the PS2 version as far as I'm concerned. Add to that the fact that changing Adol's armor/shield/sword will change his in-game appearance.

PS2 version also has extra dungeons.

It also allows you to enable English or Japanese voice-acting (with english text still on there)

I can understand that some people prefer the PC version, but the PS2 version definitely has it's advantages. I personnally prefer it to the PC version. Quite a few people seem to prefer it as well.

[BrianC]

It also allows you to enable English or Japanese voice-acting (with english text still on there)

I definitely recommend the latter since some of the English dubbing is extremely poor. Dogi sounds like an idiot in the English dub.

[FinalBaton]

I definitely recommend the latter since some of the English dubbing is extremely poor. Dogi sounds like an idiot in the English dub.

Indeed. I roll with the japanese voice-over myself

[Strider77]

The 3D models are a plus for the PS2 version as far as I'm concerned.

#Gross

[FinalBaton]

#Gross

Nah. sprite character in 3D polygonal environment is.

[PogOrion]

Came to say this. I can see playing ports of old games on an older, SD CRT but I can't for the life of me understand why you'd do that for an HD game.

It's less to do with the resolution and more to do with the display technology behind a CRT and how it handles the image.

[Lawfer]

CRTs are great for 240P/15kHz stuff but why on earth would you want to play games not at that res on one, do you enjoy headaches and eyestrain?

LOL why is Rei Ayanami with an ahegao on your avatar, this is completely un-Rei-like, Rei would never make this face, you sick fuck!

Anyways, there are several reasons, 480p is very hard to find natively speaking on a modern display, so you won't get good visual results on LCD/LED/OLED/PLASMAS, unless you can get your hands on something like the Pioneer PDP-V400/401/402 or a similar Plasma which have a native resolution of 640x480.

Also 720p is problematic because there's like maybe 1 or 2 LCDs models in the world that had a native resolution of 1280x720 as 99.99% of "720p" displays sold more than a decade ago were not actually 720p as advertised, but 1366x768.

If you play a game a that is 1080p or higher on a 1080p LCD/OLED/PLASMA, it will look as good as it possibly can because you are playing a game native 1080p outputted on a display who's native resolution is also 1080p, so you get the best picture possible, this is not the case when playing games that are below your LCD/LED/OLED/PLASMA native resolution, CRTs on the other hand do not have such downside.

With a CRT like say the Sony BVM-D/A, you can have native support for 240p, 288p, 480i, 576i, 480p, 720p (1280x720) and 1080i.

There also input lag on modern displays, unlike CRT.

[FinalBaton]

Lol. That first sentence was great, Lawfer.

Good post overall too

[JBC]

I have my PS3 hooked up to a CRT using component & it's the only way I'll play quite alot of games. The flaws you can spot in the 720p/30fps titles on an HDTV all but disappear at the sacrifice of straining to see text sometimes. It makes Dark Souls much more bearable but if you really want to see it shine the Ninja Gaiden titles are absolute heaven this way. I can also verify what was said about Virtua Fighter 5 earlier - it's simply gorgeous.

[gameoverDude]

Even though Ys VI is available on Steam, I still love playing the PS2 version on a CRT.

Why? Konami shat all over that game. Those (crappy) 3D models replacing the sprites is/was horrible looking.

IINM there are fewer enemies in the area at one time in the PS2 version. It's locked at 30 FPS. Going full 3D was probably too much for PS2. This should've been brought to PS3 if they wanted 3D models.
Also, the CG opening is really meh.