CRT Gaming

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Cathode Ray Tubes offer a retro gaming experience that is still incredible and worth celebrating.

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My previous "setup" was a total mess. I rearranged my room a while ago, but didn't get around to build a nice setup until now.

The first step was to build something that my Philips 32PW9951 HD CRT could sit on. It weighs 50kg (110lbs), so I didn't bother to much with finding some piece of furniture that could hold it. I ended up using a kitchen top with 6 strong metal feet (40cm/15.7" in height) screwed into it. It ended up working pretty well.

While the drawers that my smaller Sony KV-21FX20D stands on aren't perfect, its good enough for now.

I still neede something to put all my consoles into, so I bought a used shelf for 15€ and removed the backside so that I can route my cables through.

I think it fits really well, there was also space for my VHS player, scart switch and a lamp on the side too.

I really like how it turned out. All my consoles are connected now and it's sooo much better than it all was before. I acutally want to sit down and play something now.

This is what's connected now:

  • Wii U (AV out over YPbPr, directly to the CRT)
  • PC (15m HDMI cable to HDMI switch, then to the CRT)
  • Switch (HDMI, also to the HDMI switch at first)
  • DVD Player (not yet connected, need a bigger scart switch)
  • VHS Player (also not connected)
  • Gamecube (RGB scart to scart switch, then to my other CRT)
  • Wii (same as Gamcube)
  • PS2 (also same as Gamecube)
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I need to get a remote for this TV now so I can fix the picture but otherwise I'm very happy with how this turned out!

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CRT collectors be like (www.youtube.com)
submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/crtgaming
 
 

I was watching Slacker (1991) and this scene reminded me of myself.

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Rescued old CRT (imgur.com)
submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/crtgaming
 
 

cross-posted from: https://feddit.nl/post/22643315

Rescued old CRT I put a lot of work in. Was totally dead when I got it, rescued it to be almost perfect again.

It still has an intermittent horizontal size issue and the power button has some cosmetic wear. But at least the power button works, it used to only work when you would hold it down.

Be sure to enable the audio for some good retro tunes coming from the monitor.

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Most people are over-charging for old, worn-out TVs on places like Craigslist and Ebay, now that people are realizing how much better they are for retro gaming. I saw this one for $25 and had to check it out.

I had to clean up the corrosion in the remote to be able to change to the AV input, but it works well enough. Threw it on the kitchen counter to test it out.

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The VCR in the bottom still works great too! I'm a total noob to this as I've only ever set up emulators on a regular computer. How difficult is it to set up something like a RetroPi? Or is there a better option?

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This is were I found it. I only remembered to take a picture when I already put the thing into my car. It was laying tube down on the fridge.

This was also my first time working on a CRT. Was kinda scary, but nothing happened in the end. Not even a spark when discharging. Guess these newer sets all have a resistor that drains the voltage built in (this TV is from November of 2002).

The power cable uses a connector, so I could just remove the cable and solder a new one to it. Soldering it directly to the board would have probably looked cleaner, but I guess this worked well too. I simply cut off one end of a normal power cable and soldered it to what was left of the existing one. I planned on using heatshrink tubes, but they already shrinked while soldering. I just ended up using electrical tape instead. Not the cleanest soldering work, but it does the job.

This is how it ended up looking inside the TV:

I wanted to be on the safe side when turning the CRT on for the first time, so I did it outside.

It did power on, and looks pretty damn good!

As it turns out, the tube was actually made in the UK. I think that's pretty cool, since everything has to be made as cheaply as possible today. The whole thing seems very well built in general, Rubycon capacitors everywhere.

#

Of course I don't have the remote for it, so I didn't change any setting when taking these pictures. The black levels were still pretty bad, and geometry could be better as well. I ordered a remote to dial everything in, I hope it looks even better after that.

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I tried to go for an 80's NES theme. Not perfect but not bad.

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IMG_20240209_214723_1

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submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by mesamunefire to c/crtgaming
 
 
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Updates setup (i.imgur.com)
submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/crtgaming
 
 

Hooked up to tv

Nes & Sega (Channel 3)

N64, ps2, vhs

Hdmi converter for

Roku, Nintendo Switch, PS3

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The Xbox is softmodded and the video is set to 480i non-widescreen. Any idea why it might not be outputting? What I see is the intended output on my 4k tv, but the CRT is a 45° slanted, scrolling, monochrome image that's heavily warped. My first though was that the softmod had something to do with it, but I've seen this question asked before without any answers.

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I have a Triniton Wega (480i) that I'd like to use as a separate monitor for streaming VHS rips and pixely PC games. My computer is a Win11 machine with a 2080, and I just tried usb-c output of the 2080->hdmi->component converter->TV and (to no one's surprise) it didn't work. I used Nvidia's custom resolution to use settings people have suggested online, but my TV would only accept the signal before I OKed the settings then it goes back to fuzz. Does anyone have any suggestions for what I should try or change before resorting to buying a second GPU?

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The new setup (i.imgur.com)
submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/crtgaming
 
 

Mister fpga setup with games on the nas. Using an ironclad board.

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@crtgaming s-video is a huge improvement over composite, make sure to use it if you have it

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Old setup (i.imgur.com)
submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/crtgaming
 
 
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like it says on the tin, I've read up on the safety tips and have a pretty modern set (FD trinitron KV-13FS100) so I'm knowing that reduces my risk too as those are supposed to discharge faster naturally (and I'm already planning on leaving it unplugged for at least a day).

BUT I have shaky hands sometimes so I'm looking at what my options are for gloves I can wear for incidental openings or while discharging it. As far as I've read they come in class ratings for different voltages, and I'm trying to figure out what would be a sensible class to get to keep myself covered given the other precautions I'm already taking.

I gave the wiki link on the sidebar and didn't see much advice beyond the general "gloves are good", so if any of y'all have any more info to dump or point me towards I would be in your debt. Thanks!

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submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by wavebeam to c/crtgaming
 
 

Heard about these on the CRT Podcast by RetroTech and ZezRetro. Seems insane, I’m really curious about them.

Edit: changed link, hopefully it works now?

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