Advice: CRT TV for Saturn?

[segafan2000]

I’m setting up a gaming room and would like a CRT to go with a Saturn.

Ideally I’d like something in the 21” - 27” range and possibly something like the WEGA set below from the late 90s.

Also I’m used to watch TV on OLED so what should I look out for specs-wise when it comes to black levels?

[davyk]

I have a 25" Samsung and a 21" Hitachi - to be honest both are excellent. The Hitachi may have slightly more vibrant colours but it's marginal. As long as it's a good recognised manufacturer you will be fine. I used to have a Panasonic  and it was great as well. But.... Sony is still the preferred make I'd guess.

I'd try and get a 4:3 one and ensure it supports RGB SCART.   4:3 ones are getting harder to find. You may end up having to get a widescreen set so just make sure to set it to "normal" or "4:3" mode. CRTs don't have a problem with displaying black. 

You might have to tolerate overscan so if you can get a TV that has vertical and horizontal hold controls that would be an advantage.  If the set has an engineer mode you can fiddle with it but it isn't straightforward and you can screw things up if you aren't careful - better if there are controls for it. Or if it's not too bad (in most cases it's OK) just tolerate it.

If you haven't played on a CRT before and you get a good one, prepare to be very pleased. There's still nothing like a good CRT with RGB SCART. Make sure you get a proper RGB SCART cable. Plenty of sellers on line. It is well worth it.

And don't underestimate how deep these things can be - you need space between the screen and the wall!! 

[marc]

Go for a jvc crt. You can get ones at a similar spec to Sony PVM/BVM for way less money. Look out for ones with the scart MOD. Massive scan lines. They go for around £200-300.

Just have a look on eBay and bide your time for a later one…

[buckoa51]

and I'd recommend going in person to see any set before putting down big monies.

[segafan2000]

Nov 24, 2023 14:17:23 GMT marc said:

Go for a jvc crt. You can get ones at a similar spec to Sony PVM/BVM for way less money. Look out for ones with the scart MOD. Massive scan lines. They go for around £200-300.

Just have a look on eBay and bide your time for a later one…

Oddly enough when the Saturn launched I distinctly remember our local GAME having about 5 large CRTs having from the ceilings showing Virtua Fighter (isn’t it odd how you remember little things ), they were all JVC.

We had the same TV at home (actual photo below) and I had a smaller JVC in my room. We had nothing but trouble with them, every few months something would go wrong requiring a repair. But thanks for the recommendation all the same.

[marc]

Nov 24, 2023 16:11:43 GMT segafan2000 said:

Nov 24, 2023 14:17:23 GMT marc said:

Go for a jvc crt. You can get ones at a similar spec to Sony PVM/BVM for way less money. Look out for ones with the scart MOD. Massive scan lines. They go for around £200-300.

Just have a look on eBay and bide your time for a later one…

Oddly enough when the Saturn launched I distinctly remember our local GAME having about 5 large CRTs having from the ceilings showing Virtua Fighter (isn’t it odd how you remember little things ), they were all JVC.

We had the same TV at home (actual photo below) and I had a smaller JVC in my room. We had nothing but trouble with them, every few months something would go wrong requiring a repair. But thanks for the recommendation all the same.






I was on about pro broadcast monitors, not a telly.

Some of the best monitors available, and produced far later than Sony.

Do some research on them and check out the scan lines, best out there.

[marc]

Not totally CRT related. But I will be getting my pre order in for a retrotink 4k in December. May be selling my CRT if it is as good as it appears to be.

[davyk]

Will be interested to hear about that marc

[buckoa51]

I've had the Morph for a couple of weeks now and it's really really close, with 4k the shadowmask effects are much closer to a real CRT compared to even 1440p.

[marc]

Nov 28, 2023 20:53:17 GMT buckoa51 said:

I've had the Morph for a couple of weeks now and it's really really close, with 4k the shadowmask effects are much closer to a real CRT compared to even 1440p.

I vaguely remember reading about this upscaler last year. Is yours a test unit? I’m gonna look into the specs.

It’s half the price of the retrotink 4K, and that appeals.

[marc]

Nov 28, 2023 14:36:35 GMT davyk said:

Will be interested to hear about that marc

Bucko has just mentioned the morph, and tbh, the price may just sway me.

[buckoa51]

Yeah I'm beta testing it, so far been very impressed. RT4k has better software for the moment from what I've seen but the gap is closing and the Morph also has wifi, USB and expansion port.

It isn't quite fair to say it's half the price of the RT4k, remember the base unit Morph only comes with HDMI in. The idea is you chain your existing scaler (e.g OSSC) into it for the most affordable solution. If you then want a more integrated solution, you simply plug in the analogue bridge with whatever analogue inputs you want. This is still cheaper than the RT4k too, by about $250 USD.

They've tried to design it to be the best value 4K solution for everyone, but it doesn't seem like there's much the RT4K can do that this can't, but for now we can only speculate for now how it grows and evolves.

Obviously I'm not unbiased since I'm testing and selling Morphs but I think you'll honestly have a great experience whichever one you choose.