Is advancing TV technology going to render older consoles obsolete to most?

[Professor Gull]

I did pick up this one with a friend for free.

 

 

It was super heavy but works great....just not for shooters sadly.

[Flojomojo]

I got a weird setup or as my friends would say a mass of wires and switch boxes and all of it ending in an up converter going to the plasma via HDMI from a s-video input.

 

The one comment I did get from friends was the plasma looked to have a smoother animated frame for the 2600 hooked directly into it over the LCD. Anyone else notice this at all? I know thats probably a generic example but a Samsung 1080p 600 Hz plasma vs a Vizio 120HZ 55 1080p LCD is more precise for people that want a little more info.

Plasma has a higher effective refresh rate than LCDs. The technology is different but the effect is noticeable. Some discussion here: https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/led-tvs-240hz-vs-plasmas-600hz-differences-pros-and-cons.2123777/

 

Our main TV is a 60" Panasonic plasma and I hope it lasts a long time. They're no longer being manufactured. It seems like a shame since everything looks so much nicer and film-like on plasma -- and it was a lot cheaper than the equivalent LCDs from the time (prob around 2012). Games look wonderful and there's no input lag like what happens with LCD.

[Professor Gull]

Plasma has a higher effective refresh rate than LCDs. The technology is different but the effect is noticeable. Some discussion here: https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/led-tvs-240hz-vs-plasmas-600hz-differences-pros-and-cons.2123777/

 

Our main TV is a 60" Panasonic plasma and I hope it lasts a long time. They're no longer being manufactured. It seems like a shame since everything looks so much nicer and film-like on plasma -- and it was a lot cheaper than the equivalent LCDs from the time (prob around 2012). Games look wonderful and there's no input lag like what happens with LCD.

I got 2 plasmas one is the Samsung and the other is an HP which I have had for 7 years.

 

Yeah weird but when we went TV shopping we compared many models but the HP seemed crisper and I liked the options for inputs.

 

http://support.hp.com/us-en/product/HP-Plasma-Television-series/435726/model/1832453

 

So its time for me to get another plasma before they are all gone is what your saying. Well I did need a bigger TV.

[Flojomojo]

I think Samsung is still making plasmas as well, but Panasonic is not anymore. I hadn't thought of HP in this space. Plasma is bulkier, uses more energy, needs a dark room, and is more likely to have burn-in, but I like it.

[keepdreamin]

I did pick up this one with a friend for free.

 

 

It was super heavy but works great....just not for shooters sadly.

 

There really isn't a use case for having one of those. Retro games won't look like they do on a standard definition set, and light guns won't work. The source is still getting upscaled so there's a potential for lag. HDMI sources will look better on a modern flat panel. Only thing I could see maybe worth keeping one around was for sixth generation consoles.

[Professor Gull]

 

There really isn't a use case for having one of those. Retro games won't look like they do on a standard definition set, and light guns won't work. The source is still getting upscaled so there's a potential for lag. HDMI sources will look better on a modern flat panel. Only thing I could see maybe worth keeping one around was for sixth generation consoles.

yeah I noticed that after I took it home and just kept my 27 inch sharp. Damn thing was heavy though and some systems did look pretty good like the xbox Original and the Saturn and PS1. but else wise not really worth keeping about.

[Austin]

I did pick up this one with a friend for free.

 

 

It was super heavy but works great....just not for shooters sadly.

 

I'm guessing because of input lag? I had that same problem on my first Samsung HD CRT. They unfortunately still do image processing on analog inputs, so unless you are running through an upscaler to HDMI, or playing shooters on modern consoles with HDMI, you are going to notice the lag, particularly with that genre, as well as platformers that require very sharp timing (Battletoads, Ninja Gaiden, etc).

 

*Edit - I'm a retard. I realize now you probably mean light gun shooters.

Edited September 10, 2016 by Austin

[Omega-TI]

A couple Black Friday's ago I bought an Emerson TV and it still had all the inputs including s-video. That was actually the feature that made me buy it.

 

I know, it's kind of sad knowing how many 'classic' game machines and computers will be thrown away as 'useless' in the coming years. The AVERAGE consumer does not know about the different types of converters, and even if some of them take the time to investigate, most will probably not want to pay the price for 'an old game machine that gets little use'.

 

I recently bought a new Sony to replace the one and only Vizio I will ever buy and never thought about the connections. The thing has no VGA or S-Video port.

 

I also have an older 4 year old Sony Bravia that I hope never dies. It only has a 40" screen and it does not even have WiFI, but it has multiple USB and HDMI ports and even has component, S-Video and VGA inputs. I overcame the lack of WiFi with a cheap little $30.00 Chromecast device. Someday, when I'm old, half blind in a wheel chair, I hope that larger screen of the Bravia is still working... it'll be hooked up to my antique TI-99/4A so I can play Parsec, Super Mario Bros. and what ever new games are developed in the next twenty years.

[phoenixdownita]

... Someday, when I'm old, half blind in a wheel chair, I hope that larger screen of the Bravia is still working... it'll be hooked up to my antique TI-99/4A so I can play Parsec, Super Mario Bros. and what ever new games are developed in the next twenty years.

<sad_post>

If you really end up half blind in a wheel chair you won't be playing pretty much of anything trust me on that, so sad to see how most of us will end up.

 

In my mid twenties I served in a retirement house, and it's a sad state of affair.

There were 2 floors there, one for the self sufficient guests the other floor for assisted guests.

 

Both floors were sad for different reasons. The mandatory assistance floor hosted guests carrying Alzheimer, Parkinson, dementia and other "personality dissolving" diseases .... not much to be looking for there, in some of the guests there you could occasionally see the spark in their eyes and the sadness realizing they were trapped in a broken body/brain.

The floor with self sufficient guests (wheelchairs were counted as such if you assume that showers and trips to the loo require help anyway) was more upbeat but as it was they tended to die more frequently than the other floor from what we could only attribute to an heartbreak once they realized there was nothing more really that they could be looking forward to ..... so sad, so sad.

 

It got so sad that we needed to develop a healthy dose of cynicism just to be able to be of assistance. During my short 10 months stint 5 people died, I found one of them in the morning .... extremely sad.

Only positive episode I remember was me pushing a guest in his wheelchair up a river embankment during a "walk outside" and taking a hell of a risk doing that .... once on the top he said "if you didn't push me up here today I would have died without enjoying this view, I've never been here before, thank you" ... he had joined the house a couple of month earlier, aside from been on a wheelchair he was present and healthy, he'd pass away not 3 months later.

It's been more than 20Y ago and I still remember my days in there and 'cause life likes going in circle that's likely where I'll end up being, not the same establishment obviously as I now live an ocean away.

 

It's bad to actually see one's best bet for his own "retirement" years ..... I really suggest to people to live a little while they can, saving it for when they are old ain't gonna work that well. I'd trade 10Y when I am 80 or 90 for half of them happy when I am still younger.

</sad_post>

[Omega-TI]

<sad_post>

 

Oh I so know what you mean. In my early 20's I did some volunteer work for places like the Red Cross which was enjoyable.

 

I also volunteered for one place, but had to quit after only 4 short months as it got too depressing. For that place I drove a van that picked up old people and took them back and forth between hospital or doctor visits as well as on shopping trips. Some senior citizens were tied into their wheelchairs and drugged out of their minds, one guy was face down in his spaghetti dinner when I came to pick him up. These kind if instances made me mad, but there was nothing I could do about it.

 

There were a couple of neat old guys and one older lady that had a positive outlook had fun and I really enjoyed their company. Well one day the old lady died and her husband gave up and died a week later. The other guy suffered a stroke and became a vegetable. Since I was just a volunteer, I decided that I needed to get as far away from there as possible.

[phoenixdownita]

I am afraid we turned the mood of the topic to somber.

Too stern of a topic to be mixed with old TVs.

 

 

 

 

Regarding playing old consoles I think I made peace that when my last TV supporting analog inputs dies it's gonna be XRGB mini all the way, I don't use it all the time as I got an LCD that has a stunning SVideo (stunning to me) that is reasonably compatible (7800 doesn't really sync and SVideo modded NeoGeo AES depends on game, while SVideo modded NeoGeo CD works flawlessly [they fixed the slightly out of spec signal]).

 

If it becomes such a big deal and there's a market for it I wouldn't be surprised innovative solutions would creep up, maybe a modern day CRT (hopefully much lighter for a decent screen size, I've got only room for one hernia) or maybe new LCDs that can sync over a wider spectrum of vertical refreshes than the HDMI (to be fair there exists LCD/Plasma TV sets that do accept slightly off HDMI signal and the XRGB Mini has a mode that is almost pass-thru wrt vertical refresh [within reason]).

If instead it goes the way of the dinosaur so be it .... really for inasmuch as I like basking in the light of the old days maybe at that point I could just move on and let it go.

 

It's not that I spend much time these days in watching silent b&w movies of old, and when I did it was over Netflix .... didn't care that much to complain for compression artifacts, slightly off playing rate etc....

[Cobra Kai]

On topic: I think that the situation certainly becomes more and more challenging to keep up. For myself, I have an S-video to HDMI upscaler, so I'm set as long as the system has s-video. Which means I've had to order special cables, or have the console modded, as was the case with the Atari 5200 and Sega Genesis. I can pretty much play anything I want of importance on my newer tech TV.

 

People like me are outliers though. I can imagine some people who may have casually played their old systems once in awhile decided to give up once they realized that it was going to take some work to get that compatibility back (and some $$$ investment). I'm confident I will always be able to play old systems hi-tech however. I am really annoyed that the industry is trying to rub-out HDMI in favor of HDMI 2.0, it took alot of work to get where I'm at now.

[keepdreamin]

I am really annoyed that the industry is trying to rub-out HDMI in favor of HDMI 2.0, it took alot of work to get where I'm at now.

 

ugh, that would be annoying. Needing a HDMI to newer HDMI converter

[Osgeld]

I am really annoyed that the industry is trying to rub-out HDMI in favor of HDMI 2.0, it took alot of work to get where I'm at now.

 

well if it makes you feel better 2.0 is backwards compatible with 1.x, so unless you start using 4k everything and using the absolute rock bottom cables (for 4k content) you might never notice it other than the marketing sticker on the box

[Video]

To most? Yes. Current Tv is already there (my newest has no analog tuner or componant or vga) it wont bother those who are actually interested. Since the 90's I've been using adapters so for me a tuner box or vga-hdmi or whatever the new switchboxes are is nothing new.

 

People are inherently lazy, some still feel the need to justify said laziness though "but my Tv doesn't have blab blab blab" come on. Just say you aren't interested in (deposit computer/game console/media player here) no one (mature) is going to be offended.

Edited September 8, 2016 by Video

[Professor Gull]

Anyone planning a 4K mod for the 2600?

 

I know people rave about the Framemeister as a substitite input device but I also know lots of folks with a good sound system and awesome receiver which also converts video. I know not really comparable in options and probably not in quality but there are lots of options for now for new TV's.

 

I will just be sad when the old TV's and CRT's get to the point where none get repaired anymore and all get tossed out or recycled. Where then can I get that Amber monitor for my IBM XT?

[Rick Dangerous]

So I was at Mal Wart yesterday looking at TV's because I now need a new one for my house.

 

The 55" Samsung I was looking at had:

 

-2 HDMI ports

-1 RF input

-1 AV/Component dual purpose input.

 

Contrast this with my old Samsung from 5 years ago

 

-3 HDMI inputs

-1 RF

-1 VGA

-2 Component

-3 Composite

 

Yeah.....

 

Seems like earlier 2006-2012 era LCD TV's are more desirable for gaming and input options.

 

The new TV's are SPARSE as hell on the inputs...Guess they figure everyone has one or two HDMI's, and if they have more, hey go buy a receiver! lol

[CRTGAMER]

I did pick up this one (TOSHIBA HD CRT) with a friend for free.

 

It was super heavy but works great....just not for shooters sadly.

 

I noticed that after I took it home and just kept my 27 inch sharp. Damn thing was heavy though and some systems did look pretty good like the xbox Original and the Saturn and PS1. but else wise not really worth keeping about.

 

Nice HD widescreen CRT, I own 4:3 HD CRT Sonys and love them. I do not believe any post concerning input lag for CRTs. Enjoy your HD CRT with retro and even modern consoles taking advantage with each systems best video connection. The upscale is a non issue, all video will be crystal clear with none of the so called input lag which is really the pixel dot crawl on LCDs. As you mentioned retro lightguns do not work, but then for games such as House Of The Dead, the Wii covers that nicely.

 

Really, try some older consoles such as the NES on your HD CRT and prepare to be surprised. HD TV signals can be set from 480i-720p-1080i; look beautiful with a bright screen even when viewed at extreme angles on the HD Tube. Standard definition TV also come in clean on the HD CRT; unlike an LED/LCD TV with fixed resolution which displays SD with a blurry pixelated picture. Until ALL TV is sent in HD, the HD CRT is the best screen to view all the resolutions of SD and HD TV stations.

 

Watching DVDs and Bluray will be impressive too on your Toshiba HD CRT, though the newer flat screens will have the edge at 1080p. Oh, the quality tube TVs do have a distinct advantage in the sound department; the huge enclosure a great "bose refex" speaker housing!

 

Edited September 8, 2016 by CRTGAMER

[jdollatari]

i think this is true to some extent but mostly because of quality and well lack of interest though that has improved. the good news is these games are getting rereleased and sometimes remastered perhaps as a result. also as far as the tvs they all seem to have composite but i miss svideo and some tvs need far more connections

 

finally many of these systems can be modded to work as well but this is exactly why old school gamers are buying old crts up

[Rick Dangerous]

I did pick up this one with a friend for free.

 

The problem for me with TV's like this (Big heavy CRT's with a flat screen) is that you can't use them for shooters. For me I want one LCD flat screen for gaming in my game room, and one curved tube CRT for shooters and other CRT related gaming! But there are too many good light gun games from pre 2001 systems to not have a light gun capable TV..

 

I have been hunting for a gaming LCD and found this GEM (negotiating with seller right now)

 

It's a 2005 (great year for many inputs) Samsung with

 

-2 Composite/S-Video (!) inputs

-1 HDMI

-1 VGA

-2 Component inputs (!!)

-2 RF cable inputs

 

They just don't make them like this anymore folks...

[Rick Dangerous]

The more i look into this I realize there are converter boxes for everything but..

 

-More cables and things to break

-They all require a power source! (find me a composite to HDMI that doesn't)

 

Luckily there are component switchboxes

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001TK9SEE/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&fpl=fresh&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=&pf_rd_r=5CRV36N547GE5XEDV1FJ&pf_rd_t=36701&pf_rd_p=6aad23bd-3035-4a40-b691-0eefb1a18396&pf_rd_i=desktop&linkCode=ll1&tag=atariage&linkId=a014038e9d24903127052a741de1c97b

 

Still requires a power source and a remote....

 

Good options for people who game with one or two systems but for the rest of us with 20-30 systems not a great options.

 

It turns every system into a sega CD requiring 2-3 plugs. Gaming bricks are a big enough problem as it is without needing a cell phone charger for each systems converter as well.

 

Oh well, the hunt for a perfect retro gaming flat screen continues...

[Austin]

It turns every system into a sega CD requiring 2-3 plugs. Gaming bricks are a big enough problem as it is without needing a cell phone charger for each systems converter as well.

 

Incorrect. If you have 20 or 30 systems hooked up, then you hook everything into switchboxes. You then run a single cable from a single switchbox to your upscaler or converter. You're making it sound more complicated than it really is.

[Master Phruby]

 

Incorrect. If you have 20 or 30 systems hooked up, then you hook everything into switchboxes. You then run a single cable from a single switchbox to your upscaler or converter. You're making it sound more complicated than it really is.

That is exactly what I do. I have nine systems hooked up. The audio goes to the stereo and the video to switchboxes that go to my upscaler.

[Professor Gull]

That is exactly what I do. I have nine systems hooked up. The audio goes to the stereo and the video to switchboxes that go to my upscaler.

I got 2 options one is a series of switch boxes handling composite to s video to the up converter and then the Component box which handles my Wii,Xbox stuff. It also helps to maybe not have everything out at once so I tend to stow the 2600/7800/Jaguar and PS1 but have space and cables ready for them to go if need be. I just need a smaller VCR for the 2600/7800 I think although direct input seems alright.