[?]are scanlines important for you?

nothing gives a better game feeling than playing our old beloved 8/16-bit games (as well 32-bit 2D arcade stuff) on a good ol' low-res CRT, since it produced very natural scanlines which let all 2D games looking much more arcadish (IMO).
not so anymore on all those new hi-res Full-HD-ready 1080i blabla TFT/Plasma-flatters etc. also via Wii VC.

so, are scanlines an important factor for you to really enjoying the ol' games or not?

comments are welcome as well

 

yes, i like them, always did.

 

Very important indeed!
I had my retro consoles already hooked up to an 720p/1080i HD display but after a few months, it became unstandable. Painful to look at even. In the end I decided to connect every retro console to a good old lowres TV (via RGB if possible) and leave it with that. There's nothing better than a sharp RGB 2D-game on a CRT. The only thing I do with my HDTV is watching movies and playing some Xbox 360 and GameCube (though I already thought the GC would look better on a CRT as well...?).

A CRT is really the way to go for lowres games.

 

It's not so much that I like scanlines as I hate the alternative, which is crudely upscaled/emulated video. Far too bright and too many visual artefacts.

No question.

 

I'm a fan...even through my small Samsung crt via composite. I really need to invest in an RGB monitor and therein lies my dilemma - Do I go spend the money on an HDTV for my 360, or try and source an RGB (NEC XM29) for the supergun and vert shooters?

 

I dunno, as much as i like the look of the SNES on a CRT, i like it just as much the way that i have it setup up now. I connect all of my old consoles to my computer, via my tv tuner card, and use dscaler to upscale it and send it out to my tv ( a 42" 1080i plasma). Using Dscaler gets rid of a lot of the visual artifacts that Alchy mentioned. Either way looks fine to me!

 

Yes and no. There is a certain holistic quality to it, but at the same time I think there's much more in something like 'how it was meant to be seen'.

For instance, when I was little playing mario on the NES I never knew there was a score because the old tv/rf combo cut off a chunk of the bottom.

The issue tends to be: yes they were made to look as they do on low quality displays, BUT such displays tend to have other issues that are not universal etc.

On the other hand, when I first got my Dreamcast I played Evolution 2 for a few days on an old B+W tv because it was all I had access to. Looked great when I compare to playing via vga box just due to inability to see aliasing and such.

It would be nice to see some sort of analog fuzz-u-lator for vga to give that low quality display look to new high end games.

 

Dscaler can add fuzz if the fuzz is enabled. Seriously, everyone with a classic console, a PC, and a HDTV should look into the method i mentioned before.

 

DUNNO CUZ IM VERY IDIOT

 

Hmm, I've never played any old video games on an LCD / Plasma HDTV before.

If I decide to get one in the future, which would be best, LCD or Plasma? Perhaps I should make a new thread, not trying to derail this one. I'd like one for my 360 games, I might keep my old one for my other old games, too.

 

LCD and keep your old TV. I wish mine didn't break. I don't have the room anyway though.

 

I'm trying to figure out a way to say "ugh" without coming across as an elitist asshole, but I can't. I'm guessing that's composite through TV tuner?

If you're wanting to play old games, then... neither.

 

Yep, Composite into my computer and VGA out of the computer. Its not perfect but using dscaler and upconverting a SNES game to 1080i looks a hell of a lot better on my tv than just hooking up the system by itself and running in 480i. Dont knock it till you tried it:icon_bigg.

 

All my old games on my 720p look good enough to play at least, as long as there through Svideo or component. I still wish I had a good ol' CRT or a 480p or something but whatever. Wii looks really nasty though for some reason.

 

Not necessarily. Our Euro trash friends have access to new CRTs with RGB. Just about any 15-khz friendly arcade monitor is better than any commercial TV w/ RGB. In the states, your easiest way to get one is rip one out of an arcade cabinet and make a box for it.

 

Composite as a source is horrible, end of story. Composite to digital through a cheap TV card, then back to analogue for VGA, and then back to digital at the set, is not a recipe for a decent signal.

Any time 480i/240p is upscaled by any TV/card I've seen, it's been horrid. The exception was a very expensive external upscaler, but I don't think that really counts.

Component should be ok, but S-Video will be nastily upscaled.

 

On my TV the Wii and PS2 look really bad on component. Mostly 3d stuff. On Svideo 2D stuff looks pretty good. I think my component inputs must be fucked up or something since that makes no sense. Really, it's doable, but it does suck vs what I want to use. It's for the 360 mostly so whatever.

 

I'd presume that's because they're outputting 480p which doesn't scale nicely to the native resolution for your screen. Buy an expensive upscaler, or... a TV/monitor capable of RGB.

 

Scanlines you say sir?

It depends on the game naturally - I use a WEGA EDTV CRT 4:3, should be around 40'' and it's a marvel.

it can support all the various home console (well not all if you want to be a dick and mention Muse or something) resolutions in interlace and progressive scan (progressive scan only through component) and it's a joy even for modern consoles such as my Wii.

Indeed, I d rather play my Wii on my WEGA CRT at 480p native instead of hooking it up to some evil upscaling modern equipment (see LCD TVs).

The only downside is that my ps3 runs at 572p and my 360 at 480p, negating any HD advantage in games. I might buy an HD set at some point when I put some order in my life, like getting a steady job and a house=/

 

I'll live. Someday when I move next year I do want to find a CRT or something.