Hiya!! I have this question for some time now, why SNES is so lame when it comes to centering it's screen? I have tried so far 4 different CRT tv sets via scart-rgb , the picture seems it is moved towards left in all of them, like this: the left part of the wooden frame is almost missing... makes the SNES powerpak completely unusable with this small 14" trinitron set... Is there anything I can do? (there are no controls on the tv to center the picture as you can imagine... on LCD screens it comes perfect...) thanks for any info! :encouragement:
This is just the nature of scart, you get this with most RGB signals. If your TV doesn't have screen orientation controls you'll just have to live with it. One thing you can do it play on a reasonably modern widescreen TV set to 4:3 mode which should omit the problem.
Most Sony TV's (with on-screen display) have a hidden service menu where you can adjust things like geometry. It is however, a potential minefield as you can render the TV useless simply by adjusting the wrong thing.
from my decennal scart rgb experiences i had this problem twice and it was both a problem of the cable. in some tvs there's 2 scarts and only one i s rgb, and in some others there's 2 times the same scart setup like scart1 scart1... with 3 dot or an arrow -> a couple of time selecting that fixed all.
well the set only has one scart input and nothing else... I am also using an original nintendo scart cable... I managed to get into service menu But I did not find how to edit the values, I tried all remote buttons and nothing works there is still something missing...
I have succeeded in navigating the 1st menu level and enabling ntsc input as well (my CDX was not displaying correctly via scart-rgb now it does, weird....) I have also enabled an extra sharpness setting on the normal OSD , what I lack is the ability to change the values on the adjust submenu I posted above... left/right should change them (that does nothing) and all I can do is go up/down. I can change the main menu features just fine with left/right though... meh... also tried the front panel buttons, they do nothing on any menu... here is a manual I found: http://www.eserviceinfo.com/downloadsm/35915/SONY_BE-4a.html my chassis is BE-4 but all works as this, the TT codes work and the remote control supplied is exactly the same... only values on the submenu are not changing EDIT: found it! changes need to be made on a 50hz mode!!!! not a 60 one ...
Ideally, you need to display a 4:3 50Hz test card before doing this. Also not a good idea to press all the buttons as the number keys directly program the TV's micro, and you'll definitely screw it up permanently if you do that. Use only the Menu button and Fastext keys: Green and Blue to Move up and down, and Red and Yellow to change the value of an item. Do not change the values of items unless you know what they do first. Write down all values before proceeding with adjustments. Turn power off via the remote to exit Service Mode. When you first enter service mode, TT will be displayed in the corner of the screen. Proceed to adjustments by pressing Menu on the remote, and then select 'Adjust' or equivalent. *EDIT* Just saw your updated post. The service guide there pretty much sums up what you need to adjust in relation to geometry (H and V settings etc). Write all the old values down first, and make adjustments in small increments. If done correctly, you should be able to get a very good picture at the end of it all - much better than the original factory settings.
Sounds good, not all TVs have easilly accessible service menus, good luck! While my portable had superb picture I had to put up with the screen shift for years.
thanks for all the input guys OK after experimenting with values and a couple of factory resets just to be sure I have now a normal almost centered PAL screen (way better than before, it would be perfect if the tv had a H.SIZE setting but sadly there isn't one so I just centered it by cutting the same from left/right) and when in 60hz mode the same centering applies and there is a small crop up... nothing serious and I will attempt some more fine-tuning tomorrow... Tried also my rgb n64 , there is an even crop at 4 edges and the image is centered nicely, the games I tried all display their lives/time fully so I am not bothering more with it as it will break the SNES display... Will also try tomorrow with megadrive/master system and see what I get there too. I fear the picture will never be perfectly centered or sized on this tv set (too spoiled from lcd panels I guess... lol) but the image quality makes up for it, it's been years since I experienced fat crystal clear pixels with trinitron low-res scanlines and crt magic I even like that trinitron horizontal hair-line across the screen , I found the lower one but the upper one still escapes my eyes LOL
Looking at that next pic, I think the TV's light intensity is set too high or something. It's blurring the edges of objects. Can barely even make out fine details like the lower-case "a" or "e" center. (though it could be just the effect of using a camera at a TV screen...)
it's actually my phone that I use to take pictures, a 3MP blackberry one... it really can't take good ones at situations like this and the bright objects are amplified or something... it looks normal , the phone messes it up
Yes I think the contrast is set a bit too high. Turning down the Contrast to half-way and maybe bumping up the Brightness a touch will make things look a bit more natural. I have a similar Sony TV (same remote), and the Brightness is set above the Contrast, but it's a matter of taste. If you keep them at moderate levels it will preserve the life of the tube. As for adjustments, there will always be a bit of give and take between 50Hz and 60Hz. I find the picture tends to bow in at the sides a bit more when using 60Hz. If you then adjust it to compromise, the 50Hz picture will then go the other way!
Well I doubt I'll ever witness the difference. It wouldn't be worth trying to hunt down a 50hz CRT. Even if I had space, few devices in the states provide it without modding.
I'd have to disagree with that, although I do use a different TV set entirely. I usually find that having the brightness set high changes the black tones to grey, what I do with my TV is set the brightness to a level so that black tones are pure black with no white shining through, and then use the contrast to increase the brightness in the image. I always like to keep colours rich and pure, I find that brightness washes out the colours, where as contrast maintains a balance in all colours and enhances the richness in the image. Everyone has their own tastes but for me I like to ensure that black is black to get the best picture, and that typically is set through brightness.
I'm with geluda on this one , I use the same settings since my CRT pc days... high contrast and low brightness for the same reasons he mentions For the last 4 years I only used a 37" lcd tv for my retro gaming needs... an LG 37LH4000 that is a 2ms panel with great rgb and component performance (did some search on that before I get it actually because my previous lcd sets were horrible with analog inputs). But I was getting tired of 480i and 480p . They were fine and all lacked that crt feeling...
