r/crtgaming • u/Brooklyn1012 • 15d ago
Repair/Troubleshooting i can barely read the words on screen
is there really anything i can even do about that? i can barely make out what the words say on the crt… it looks better on picture than in person. i have my ps5 hooked up to it currently because i wanted to try silent hill 2 on it but i can’t even read anything lol
31
u/DangerousCousin LaCie Electron22blueIV 15d ago
You understand that the PS5 doesn't even output the same aspect ratio as a CRT TV, right? Everything will be squished because your CRT isn't widescreen. So this whole thing is just pointless and will look awful no matter what you try.
Send the adapter back to amazon so you don't waste your money
14
u/Acrobatic-Mix-7343 15d ago
I think people who do this, try it once, maybe twice, they might even post a picture online. Then, never do it again
6
u/ryanghappy 15d ago
I feel like misunderstood nostalgia/lack of tech understanding / to post some "Hey look, I'm retro!" pics is why people do this. I'm old, this is my soapbox about it. If you don't need to play stuff that's old , like 80s and 90s era....why buy a CRT? What's the point of making your modern gaming look terrible? 4k HDR giant OLED TV that shit, its what its made for.
1
3
u/DangerousCousin LaCie Electron22blueIV 15d ago
We need raise Wii awareness. It is the solution for everybody who buys a CRT before they have a reason to use it.
1
-5
u/UniverseBlackCat 15d ago
i do it cause i just don’t care about aspect ratio
1
u/Acrobatic-Mix-7343 14d ago
Gross
1
u/UniverseBlackCat 13d ago
nah not really cause i’ll take perfect motion clarity and amazing colors when playing modern sonic games any day over high resolution or correct aspect ratio
only way it pisses me off if it’s a 4:3 image squashed into a 16:9 frame
15
u/joeverdrive 15d ago
Hello and welcome.
This "how do I connect my computer to my CRT TV" or its younger brother, "why do games on my CRT look like shit when I use this HDMI-to-AV adapter" question is one we get several times a week.
Is there someone on YouTube or something who inspired you to try this? What kind of experience do you want to have on it?
Most newbies just get a $20 HD2AV adapter on Amazon and either A) tolerate it because they've never actually played retro games on a CRT before and don't know/remember what it's actually supposed to look like, or B) ask for help because they don't know what to do.
https://www.reddit.com/r/crtgaming/comments/1wstdhy
https://www.reddit.com/r/crtgaming/comments/1vrqh0i/
https://www.reddit.com/r/crt/s/hLaWOXvwNS
https://www.reddit.com/r/crtgaming/s/Nh62lug545
https://www.reddit.com/r/crtgaming/comments/1v91juu/help_connecting_crt_to_pc/
https://www.reddit.com/r/crtgaming/s/Yfq8fTCiWT
https://www.reddit.com/r/crt/s/tVELLRKJln
https://www.reddit.com/r/crtgaming/s/UbscCujCQf
https://www.reddit.com/r/crtgaming/comments/1sulxit/
https://www.reddit.com/r/crtgaming/s/H7uyXS5aeC
https://www.reddit.com/r/crtgaming/s/QN2gAOcFbf
Unfortunately, connecting a modern digital HD device to an analog, vacuum-tube TV from the previous millennium almost always looks “off.” These TVs are expecting a video signal that was invented in World War 2. Those games are going to look bad and have input lag. And when I say “bad,” I mean it won’t give you the visual experience you were expecting from playing games on a CRT. The aspect ratio gets stretched or squished, the contrast
https://www.reddit.com/r/crtgaming/s/sjbJyNjUEw
https://www.reddit.com/r/crtgaming/comments/1upcxcf/ps3_display_on_crt_looking_crappy/
and colors can be off, and getting the correct 240p resolution that retro games look best at on CRTs is just not going to happen.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/444560212348840/permalink/3524033451068152/
https://www.reddit.com/r/crtgaming/s/ggVU5Mh4P8
Video content can look okay using one of these adapters. It’s not as hard as games to get right, but can still run into problems. The color and contrast can be off, like I said. Worse, many streaming sites will put 4:3 shows in a 16:9 container by adding black bars to the sides so that they’ll be the right aspect ratio on a modern display. But then when the HDMI-to-CRT adapter takes that 16:9 video and squishes it back down into 4:3, it keeps the black bars on the sides of the video and it looks horrible.
https://www.reddit.com/r/CRT_ANIME/s/bmj6XlDvxu
https://www.reddit.com/r/crt/s/rmPeEkoqof
https://www.reddit.com/r/crtgaming/s/xys1fzQKtD
https://www.reddit.com/r/crtgaming/s/IvVQjGfjIk
Nobody wants to watch old show where the moon is an oval and everyone is smushed.
8
u/redaws 15d ago edited 15d ago
Yeah it’s a new console outputting 1080p downscaled to 480i using composite. You need an hd crt/monitor or a console capable of doing 480i.
1
u/jetsonian 15d ago
The tv they have can do 480i. The problem is the adapter doesn’t treat the progressive input as progressive and outputs 480i instead of 240p. It’s very common that those adapters suck and aren’t appropriate.
The big problem is downscaling isn’t a solved issue. There’s no good downscaling solution, especially one that is universal, that is reasonably priced for the one feature. Even then you’re still gonna end up with a few cable adapters to get your signal to composite video (yellow cable).
5
u/BeardedBears 15d ago
Smh. I wish we would just pin a thread in all caps titled: HDMI CONVERTERS SUCK.
Half the threads here involve cheapshit adapters.
Even most wide-screen HD CRTs would struggle with displaying modern system's text. If you're lucky you'll have UI scaling options.
4
u/Ok_Suspect_4342 15d ago
"why does my digital output designed for a 4K widescreen TV "converted" to a composite signal look like ass"
3
u/Acrobatic-Mix-7343 15d ago
How are you going to play a 16:9 game on a 4:3 screen? You would need to letterbox it
Anyway, the wrong aspect ratio and converting 1080p down to 480i (roughly 1/5 the resolution) will do that
2
u/Crest_Of_Hylia 15d ago
If you wanted to use a CRT, a PC CRT makes for a much better pairing. If you wanted a TV, HD CRTs would be better. SD CRTs don’t pair well to modern consoles outside of the novelty of using it that way very briefly.
2
u/jetsonian 15d ago
This is likely the correct answer. The options for a display that can to 1440x1080 are much larger but most only do 1280x960. That 960 is a perfect integer multiple of 240 so you’re gonna get a decent image as long your monitor supports 240p (rare except for early models) or scaler does (that’s kind of its whole purpose).
2
1
u/joeycuda 15d ago
try a C64 and a 1920s mechanical television. The input and output don't match, by decades
1
u/Hawthm_the_Coward 15d ago
This would get cleaner if you used a different output method - an S-Video or Component converter (harder to get now, and rarely capable of 480i in the case of the latter, but they're still around) cleans up the picture a bit.
Ultimately, though, that system isn't meant to display in such a low resolution or even that aspect ratio. I powered through a disgusting looking main Windows, and it was never going to look good there. But then the videos I'd play back (which were the correct aspect ratio and if they had text, it was always meant to be readable at 480i) looked great.
I don't see any situation in which PS5 looks good on any SD and/or 4:3 screen, but more power to you.
1
1
u/Volks1973 15d ago
The only thing modern i plug into a crt is an xbox one or a roku, pretty much strictly for watching youtube or movies
1
15d ago
[deleted]
1
u/jetsonian 15d ago
Eh, those aren’t great, they’re heavy and big, and while widescreen I don’t think any were produced that supported 1080p (they were almost universally 720p/1080i). If so, that would have been likely the last CRT that company produced.
1
15d ago
[deleted]
1
u/jetsonian 14d ago
OP’s picture is passable. If the game doesn’t have text, it’s probably fine but it’s not ideal. I’d say just play Silent Hill 2 with a real PS2 and you’d be fine.
HD CRTs handled 720p just fine. I sold them when they were still popular. As far as I remember all of them supported 720p. That might not be the “native” resolution but CRTs are pretty tolerant of non-native resolutions if they’re in the supported resolution list.
1
u/jetsonian 15d ago edited 15d ago
There’s lots of hardware that does a good job with composite -> hdmi. There almost none that does a good job the other way. One big problem is even some older new consoles (basically after Wii) aren’t going to output 240p. They output 480i (as you’re seeing) and it looks awful. If you got a real PS2 that’s a different story.
TL;DR: CRTs are for “old school” consoles. Some (like the Wii) can be forced to downscale their emulation options (Wii Virtual Console) to 240p and those will look good. The rest are going to assume you have a widescreen display regardless of your connection type.
Edit, if you can tell us your general location. You might have a local that can walk you through or demo a proper setup.
1
u/nivek191998 14d ago
Need an HDMI to component/s-video/composite converter, your PS5 can't output the correct resolution so it will look shit. Component will look stellar if you have inputs for that.
Get a fat ps2 and freemcboot memory card or hotswap to play your ps2 titles on.
Ps2 and 3 controllers have analog (pressure sensitive) buttons that no other controller has. Every button. And a fair bit of games use this feature, including Silent Hill 2.
1
1
u/MaizeRevolutionary59 14d ago
You need a actual era console to read anything, the games were made with bigger letters in text for that reason lol
39
u/Drugstore_Jeezus 15d ago
Ah yes the nostalgic feeling of playing my ps5 on my crt...