Calling all CRT TV/monitor users

[youxia]

After many, many delays I've finally managed to release version 0.1 of CRT SCR$ Project. It's an initiative aiming to build a collection of photos of software from the SD-era, displayed on live CRT TVs or monitors. It's hosted on archive.org: https://archive.org/details/crt-scr-v-0.1

 

Since my original hardware collection is very limited, I'm hoping to get some photo contributions from fellow CRT owners, especially those who own the machines I don't (8/16 bit consoles, Apple II, TI-99, PET, VIC and many others - check the list on the website). You don't need to be a pro-level photographer, it's possible to achieve good results even with a smartphone camera. Of course, more advanced efforts would also be welcome, same for the advice about taking CRT photos which, admittedly, can be very tricky. I have some experience in that field but am still learning.

 

There is more detailed info (and photo samples) on the project's web page: https://www.arkhammanor.com/crtscr.html

[+OLD CS1]

Looks interesting.  I might be able to provide some samples in the future.  How do you see what has been submitted?  Some of your links are broken, like the link to your Valhalla article.

[youxia]

11 minutes ago, OLD CS1 said:

 How do you see what has been submitted? 

If you mean new submissions, it will only be possible in the next release, which will appear in a few weeks/months depending on my other projects and moods. I'm bit burned out from taking & tweaking the photos, which can be quite painstaking, so wanted to take a bit of a break. But if I have some interesting material from contributors then I would put it up sooner than later (so, the "weeks" option).

 

I'm especially intersted in microcomputers, because a) that's my first love b) consoles are better covered already. So if you can, please consider snapping something from your collection.

 

14 minutes ago, OLD CS1 said:

Some of your links are broken, like the link to your Valhalla article.

The site is totally DIYed by no-skillz me, and held together with glue & tape, with some ancient HTML going back 10 years Despite that, I thought it's displaying properly, at least it is on my Firefox/Win 10 machine. Valhalla seems okay too. Appreciate the bug report thou, I probably should look at it more closely...what's your OS/browser?

[wierd_w]

I have a number of old CRT based VGA monitors, as well as a commodore composite monitor.  I currently have it paired with a TI 99/4A.

 

 

[youxia]

6 hours ago, wierd_w said:

I have a number of old CRT based VGA monitors, as well as a commodore composite monitor.  I currently have it paired with a TI 99/4A.

Photos from TI & composite monitor would be very welcome. The closer to an authentic setup, the better.

 

Really old VGA monitors could also be interesting. I have only the more modern ones.

[carlsson]

So what you are looking for is typical or spectacular screenshots from various systems, on different kinds of TVs and CRT monitors? Sure, I might be able to contribute a few as well, just need to figure out what is valuable to include. Only games or also various types of productivity environments? Cracker intros, loading screens, obscure references?

[youxia]

2 hours ago, carlsson said:

Sure, I might be able to contribute a few as well, just need to figure out what is valuable to include.

Nice to see you here, since I know you have some interesting hardware. Hopefully @CatPix, and few other local CRT experts will pop in as well.

 

The most  "valuable" for me is mostly stuff from machines/CRTs I don't have, so have a look at the bottom of this page. But anything else is welcome too, since even on my hardware my abilities are limited

 

As for content, it doesn't have to be spectacular at all. It's nice to see some exquisite pixel art and great gaming moments, but the aim of this project is to preserve the entire scope of the CRT experience, so more mundane snaps are fine too. In fact, it's probably what most of the shots in current collection are. It's not that easy to capture the really cool scenes, especially in games with no pause.

 

Ditto snaps from applications, intros, whatever. The former are especially welcome since I'm biased towards gaming.

 

 

 

 

[carlsson]

Unfortunately I've begun to offload some of my hardware, but indeed I still have a number of interesting pieces I could power up and take pics of.

[marauder666]

I've got a 1988 Sony BVM-2010P, which pre dates all the digital circuitry they got later, just 15khz output.  PSU, high voltage and output circuits have all been recapped, but the input boards are stock.

 

Looks amazing, would you like some pics of it running some consoles, and a PAL 600XL with UAV.  XL will have to go through a Koryuu as monitor has no s-video inputs.

 

Pictures from this can look like emulation with scanlines.  It's very sharp, due to the fully adjustable convergence potentiometers.

Never see many articles about it, as its so old, so might be good to preserve some pics of it running.

 

[youxia]

43 minutes ago, marauder666 said:

Looks amazing, would you like some pics of it running some consoles, and a PAL 600XL with UAV.  XL will have to go through a Koryuu as monitor has no s-video inputs.

Of course, the more the merrier.

 

Quick how-to about picture taking for those who will have a stab at this. There's a bit more on my website. I'd also love to hear your advice, since I made most of this up as I went along, and I was never a very good photographer to boot

 

To start with, just point and shoot on Auto and see what happens....Try to capture the whole screen including the bezel, and also a close-up. If possible try to darken the room and rest your arms on something (if camera phone) or build a makeshift tripod (I used 5-6 tuna cans before getting a real one).

 

If you're lucky you can get a good shot straight away, but most of the time you will encounter one of the three main problems...or all of them together (at least on 15khz TVs...31khz is much more forgiving).

 

Black horizontal band - that's related to frequencey. Most common but easiest to get rid. If your camera has f-stop controls, drop below 1/60s. (I use 1/10-1/20s) If it doesn't, try to move around a bit. Sometimes different software also gives different bands.

 

Moire - it's the crazy psychedelic interference pattern which can really ruin a photo. There's not much you can do about it, apart from moving the camera tiny bit and hoping it will go away. It's much more visible on big, uniformly coloured bright areas, so if it's really bad, try an image which has less of these.

 

Colour accuracy - mostly related to white balance. A real rabbit hole, this. It can vary wildly between nigh-on-impossible to insta-correct, depends on the actual image and probably zillion other factors.You can try to tweak the WB setting on the camera, and see which preset is the closest (I use values between 6000-7000K) or, if your camera has that option, shoot in RAW format. If you can be bothered, try to correct RAWs yourself later, or just send them in.

 

Focus: oh, that's 4 problems , not 3 The problem here  is that we want the sharpest image -  but this also causes the previous two problems to flare up. Ouch.

 

This might sound a bit scary, but honestly, for now I'm happy with any submissions, even ones which contain some or all of these flaws (many - most? - of my own images do). But flawed photo is still much, much better than no photo, especially when it comes to more rare machines/CRTs. It can still be useful and interesting, even if just to see what scaling and AR was really like. You can also submit several takes, eg one which is sharper but has less moire and wrong colours (but we can see the phosphors), and vice versa.

 

 

[+OLD CS1]

8 hours ago, youxia said:

Photos from TI & composite monitor would be very welcome. The closer to an authentic setup, the better.

Got me a 10" TI monitor

[CatPix]

I HAVE BEEN SUMMONNED!

 

That sounds like a fun project

I'll try to see what I can do and what I have.

 

I does that sometime and have some examples in the forums gallery, but they weren't taken exactly to be display pieces...In fact, for clarity's sake I tend to take pictures on LCD those days

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see I snapped those with only a minimal care, for the sake of the general picture ^^

The last one is especially unforgiving because it's one of those 80's TV with a fancy protective glass panel.