this post was submitted on 09 Sep 2024
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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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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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[–] Tash 7 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Nice saving a CRT (although interesting picture quality on the other photo).

Grab a Pi 3 or similar that has proper 480i analog output and connect directly to the RCA jack like it is 1993.

[–] MrJameGumb 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

The tape I put in to test it is probably from 1993 and not in the best shape but I didn't want to risk one of my good tapes if it decided to eat it lol

I will look up Pi 3 thanks!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Have you ever disassembled a TV before? It wouldn't hurt to give the VCR a good cleaning and check-up.

If you haven't disassembled a TV before, that CRT will still be likely holding a hell of a charge so read up on safety steps first.

[–] MrJameGumb 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I think I actually have a tool for discharging a CRT that came with a tool kit around here somewhere, but yeah I would definitely want to study up on it a lot first!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Cool. I didn't want to suggest a disassembly if someone didn't realize that wire likely coming out of the top of the tube wasn't there to be a convenient handle.

CRTs are one of the few electrical devices that scare me, actually. It's not that bad, but I choose to maintain a healthy level of fear in that regard.

[–] MrJameGumb 3 points 3 months ago

That's probably a good idea! I've heard of people getting electrocuted pretty badly from these old CRTs!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

The only issue I see you’re gonna have is getting the Pi to output an analog video signal to send to the tv. Otherwise it shouldn’t be much different from any other retropi/emulator setup

[–] MrJameGumb 3 points 3 months ago

I have an adapter on another CRT that does HDMI to coax that I use to stream old SD format shows from a Roku box and it works amazingly well! It even has a little remote you can use to resize the picture!