CRT madness!

Doge

https://youtu.be/8YQQcRHt7kU

..

o1s1n

'Steam deck gaming like it's 1999'.

Starts talking about hooking his Steam Deck up to a BVM D24.

Yeah I don't know about you guys, but I didn't game in 1999 on a 2001 BVM worth $25,000. 😂

Edit - That video had me interested in seeing how much folks were paying for D24s nowadays. Just a cool €3,000 or thereabouts.

D 24 Ebay

Doge

Its a good guide though to see what games work best on CRTs and the potential compatibility issues.

o1s1n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122719248#Comment_122719248

Cool! Will give it a watch. I don't have a Steam deck but am always interested to see how folks hook up modern content to old displays.

The_B_Man

How do people test their CRTs in the absence of any real arcade hardware?

Are there any little devices that just output a colour graph or something? I don't have a PC I can hook up, but I have an old laptop with VGA out, just not sure if it can output at the correct frequency etc.

It would be handy to have some little box, or a raspberry pi add-on, that I can connect to the CRT directly, just to get a static picture output.

o1s1n

There's a rom called the 240p test suite that you can run on most major old consoles, it's exactly what you're looking for.

So if it's a consumer TV set with scart in, you just boot the 240p test suite rom on any console you have that has a flash cart.

If you want to connect it to a laptop and test it, then run the test suite in an emulator and that'll do the trick.

https://artemiourbina.itch.io/240p-test-suite

edit - I see Aliexpress even does it on carts. (no real reason to with flash carts but there's something nice about having a dedicated catridge)

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005772778706.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.main.7.4626ba75vBw0Zd&algo_pvid=27ff89cd-3343-453c-be4c-0ec0d521c796&algo_exp_id=27ff89cd-3343-453c-be4c-0ec0d521c796-3&pdp_npi=4%40dis%21EUR%2114.30%215.78%21%21%21107.78%2143.58%21%402103868817295983227113717e1ca3%2112000034297718336%21sea%21IE%210%21ABX&curPageLogUid=e6gaguqexzSK&utparam-url=scene%3Asearch%7Cquery_from%3A

Other handy way to configure an arcade monitor are the grids and colour bars that CPS2 games have in their test menu.

Steve X2

I do find it handy and kind of nice to have an standalone 240p Test Suite MD cart. I've a ton of MD cart PCB's and EPROMs so it only takes a few mins to make a fresh one or update an existing.

I think I've handed a few out to some people here as well.

The_B_Man

I have a VGA in, which is an adapter on top of the Naomi Universal cabs standard video in connector.

I suppose I'd just need to get VGA out from one of my old consoles and that'd be enough?

o1s1n

A Dreamcast would do the trick there with a vga cable and the 240p test suite burned to a disc or booting from an SD card.

Doge

Insane Portable Vectrex project that was shown last year.

Time skip to the gameplay:

https://youtu.be/zBVmCFS2sYs?t=34m2s

emo72

Lads have the old 14 inch crtv portables any value?

o1s1n

Whats the brand? Probably 80-100 if it's a Sony Trinitron.

emo72

Even more exotic. BEKO! Comes with built in dvd player. Ah sure if I get could get a coupla pint vouchers for it I'd be happy.

Inviere

Grabbed a 21" Mitsubishi there last week for free, which brings me up to 9 CRTs. I reckon I'm done now 😬

o1s1n

9 CRTs?? I thought you went all minimalist and sold everything? Welcome back to the club :D

Saying that, I'm barely part of the club these days - down to only two!

Inviere

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122977861#Comment_122977861

Yeah, sold the bulk off a few years back. Then, later, settled on what I feel is my final form collection - original hardware but with flash carts, ode's, and a few original games that I like for each system. Throw in a Mister Multisystem, and a curated emulation setup too to complete it.

I'm out of obsessively collecting games, and don't miss it one bit.

o1s1n

I think videogame collecting can get a bit more like stamp collecting. It did for me anyway. Trying to buy rare games I never actually play. It's a bit of a thrill of the chase thing.

Been going the same way as yourself for a few years now. Getting Mister set up was a bit of a game changer. It's a lot more rewarding and you actually play some feckin' games too!

Colonel Panic

This is amazing!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfZxOuc9Qwk

o1s1n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122983901#Comment_122983901

That was a really brilliant watch and amazing to see that the CRT that was saved is literally the same one from the photos shared online a few years back. I remember when that popped up originally.

Absolutely bizarre seeing everyone in the video being so young though. I was expecting it to be a load of middled aged lads with beer bellies and long receded hairlines. 😂

Colonel Panic

An amazing watch for sure. Loved the story around the TV and the people that helped make it happen.

I didn't really register about their ages watching it last night, but thinking about it, I remember saying to a younger guy at work about my CRT collection and he asked it they were for playing Smash so I wonder is that where it came from for them since that was the first thing they played on it?

Inviere

Only got to watch it this morning, fully enjoyed it. I love those videos that document mental passion projects like that. The TV itself is an absolute behemoth.

fmul9798

I got a batch 1 MiSTer Pi back when they were released but have not had time to get to anything other than putting it together and booting, initial config. Time to remedy that somewhat.

As I had a Daewoo 14 crt which I saved in the back of a wardrobe as other than arcade CRTs, it was the last one in the house (Sony 29 long gone, don’t miss the weight), it was time to take it out.

I figured it was worth checking if it would accept RGB on the scart, so using a solderless vga connector (as it was an experiment..) I put together a vga rgb to scart cable, including a 470ohm resistor on the composite sync line.
fired it up, set the composite sync to 1 in the mister.ini, plugged in and powered on the tv.

Sweet - works great, and my 3.5mm jack on the same cable did the trick for audio on the tv. It seems this crt shares chassis with a Panasonic 14 of the same era (cp375) - I have not yet opened it to check the tube manufacturer but it does say on the rear that it’s made in Europe. I had to get an old universal remote to change the brightness etc. My phone camera doesn’t do it justice- rock solid image. I include the hdmi parallel output for obligatory comparison..
This should do nicely for mister console gaming. I have another mister which I will be putting in an arcade cabinet, undecided which, but expect I may use one of dav09’s lovely NOS 17 CRTs with it, as it seems right!

o1s1n

Cool! Image looks gorgeous.

I'd love to do a bit of a project to put a Mister inside the casing of a 14 inch portable TV like that. Bit like a mister version of a Sharp SF-1.

Doge

Here's an interesting take on recording CRT displays.

The top comment in the video below asks how the uploader was able to record the PVM screen so clearly:

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1B1UfX1bR2

And the uploader said he just uses his Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra as it records a better image than his DSLR Camera!

Kinda makes sense to me now as my Google Pixel phone can take brighter images in dark settings, and the brightness is much better than I see with the naked eye.

Seriously impressive voodoo magic we have with tech these days.

o1s1n

I can't seem to find a shutter speed edit setting on my google Pixel for recording my CRTs. So am forever plagued by those refresh lines going down the screen.

Wow, I can't get over how crystal clear the picture is in your link. My missus actually has that exact Samsung Galaxy, may need to nab it for some recording!

KeRbDoG

That is really impressive, wonder does the camera/app detect the refresh rate and lock to it…some testing later

Doge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123024743#Comment_123024743

I think the free and open source app called Open Camera on Playstore lets you change refresh rates and has a lot of additional settings that the stock camera apps lack.

Might be worth downloading it and giving it a go.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.sourceforge.opencamera

Doge

Heres a video tutorial dedicated to the topic:

https://youtu.be/9hmFIvCLwgA

KeRbDoG

Seems I already have shutter speed in the default Pixel camera app - handy to know

o1s1n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123026476#Comment_123026476

That did the trick, nice one! Can feck about with ISO settings now