Nice set up

[Ji-L87]

Recently I went to a guy's house to buy a used laserdisc player. This was a CLD D604, which is just middle of the road quality-wise. He wanted to re-collect his old setup from the 90s so he was done with this clunker and wanted a CLD97, which is a really really nice piece of gear. The problem was that when I demoed the unit before buying it on his massive-ass 60 LCD it looked like SHIIIIIIT.

I hope he did at least run it in 4:3?
I recently read about using DVD recorders to pass through composite from the LD to the recorder's (presumably) superior comb filter before sending that signal to a scaler or similar.
I tried that route yesterday but that LG DVD recorder we have home must be pretty bad. Image got all kind of worse, not to mention de-centered and sort of rolled-over the top of the screen to the bottom. Weird.
/off-topic

Speaking of displaying, some images appear here and there but did we have a display thread of our own? All this talk makes me curious.

[ProfessorProfessorson]

My digital cam isn't the best at taking these kind of pics, but anyway:

[SignOfZeta]

I hope he did at least run it in 4:3?

When I was there it was running in a 16:9 zoom, which is perfect for Manhatten since the movie is wide as hell. I don't know if he normally runs Roy Vegas style or not.*

I recently read about using DVD recorders to pass through composite from the LD to the recorder's (presumably) superior comb filter before sending that signal to a scaler or similar.
I tried that route yesterday but that LG DVD recorder we have home must be pretty bad. Image got all kind of worse, not to mention de-centered and sort of rolled-over the top of the screen to the bottom. Weird.
/off-topic

Yeah, I was reading about that. I actually have at lest one brand new DVD recorder in the basement but I haven't tried it yet. My only LCD is set up for PS3 in the bedroom. My "SD Room" has a CRT in it with all the LDs and 16-bit and such.

Speaking of displaying, some images appear here and there but did we have a display thread of our own? All this talk makes me curious.

That's probably a good idea, but I'm not sure I'd put much stake in it. Still photos and screen captures can only say so much. Most of the stuff just has to be seen in person to really grasp it. If you have the space I really just don't see the point in trying to ram the square peg into the round hole. There are literally a half dozen 32" Wega's for sale on Craig's List in my area for less than $75 every single day. There was even a wide one last week that was actually FREE (!) but I couldn't find a strong friend fast enough to go get it. The f*cker is 240 lbs and everyone I know is quite physically weak.

Mike's shots here look pretty good, considering there are no scan lines. I'm pretty sure I'd get tired of it eventually though. I'd much rather play on an emulator.

* Ha ha! Gotcha Roy. Your crimes against 4:3 video games will not be forgotten. I'll take it to The Hague if I have to, ya f*ck.

[Ji-L87]

There was even a wide one last week that was actually FREE (!) but I couldn't find a strong friend fast enough to go get it. The f*cker is 240 lbs and everyone I know is quite physically weak.

Hm...I'd think twice about that. I have a 32'' Wega wide that I want to get rid off, because it's doing a sub-par job with it's 4:3. It's squishing the edges of the picture ever so slightly (really noticeable with horizontal scrolling) and 16:9 looks brighter and more colorful. It's actually a noticeable difference when you change aspect ratio.

[SignOfZeta]

Is there anything in the service menu that might fix that? The thing's pretty old now, its going to have some drift.

[Joe Redifer]

The Genesis, NeoGeo AES, and Master Systems original composite is shity enough to actually full on warrant putting in extra effort to get RGB

why putting extra effort in these, when they putting out RGB natively?

The Neo Geo needs help.  It's native RGB output kind of sucks and therefore needs an RGB bypass.  The Neo Geo is not very well made, but at least it has RGB.  Also, the RGB out of the Genesis and SMS look different.  I can't recall, but I think the SMS is either brighter or darker than the Genesis for some reason (which looks perfect in RGB), so you'd have to correct for that with either an amp or a few resistors.

[Ji-L87]

Is there anything in the service menu that might fix that? The thing's pretty old now, its going to have some drift.

Can't say for sure as I've been unsuccessful in my attempts to enter service mode : |

[SuperDeadite]

Prof's shots are playable, but yeah the lack of scanlines makes everything look icky imo.

[Ji-L87]

Prof's shots are playable, but yeah the lack of scanlines makes everything look icky imo.

I must be the only one on the planet that doesn't like scanlines. Raw sprites are the way to go Scanlines are just in the way of what I want to see plus, they darken the image.

[Joe Redifer]

Scanlines, real ones anyway, offer a bit of free anti-aliasing and it helps make the picture look less jagged and blocky.  I like scanlines myself but if someone else wants to play old games on their LCD or Plasma, more power to them.  Real scanlines don't darken the image.  Scalers that add them?  I can't say because I've never used one.

[Frank_fjs]

Scanlines are part of the retro gaming experience for me. Not to mention that images move more smoothly on a CRT TV (something which no screenshot can capture) and colours often look better. I also enjoy using light phasers and 3D glasses so I simply can't live without a gaming CRT.

My Master System via RGB on a CRT TV:



^ That right there is how it's meant to be played! No darkening at all, the scanlines look gorgeous (better to the naked eye) and you can count each and every pixel.

I can get a great picture on my Plasma TV via component but it still doesn't look quite right to me:

[Ji-L87]

Scanlines, real ones anyway, offer a bit of free anti-aliasing and it helps make the picture look less jagged and blocky.

I don't mind it looking jagged and blocky. That's what pixels are - sharp & blocky. Playing games through emulators sold me on the look, I guess...even though I of course grew up playing on a CRT like everybody else.

Scanlines are part of the retro gaming experience for me. Not to mention that images move more smoothly on a CRT TV (something which no screenshot can capture) and colours often look better. I also enjoy using light phasers and 3D glasses so I simply can't live without a gaming CRT.

Yeah, that's something I'll really miss   Except I have a gun, but no games.

[SignOfZeta]

Re: scanlines "darkening" the images. Its more accurate to say that removing the scan lines brightens the image. Scanlines are a part of the overall gamma of the image. When you lose them the image becomes brighter. The original colors were all designed/chosen with scan lines in mind. To me the dithering and shading just doesn't look right when they are taken out.

Another thing, you guys with LCDs/plasmas, do the flicker effects actually work properly? Like, KOF shadows, for example? With the TV's I've seen you have one guy with a full black shadow and one guy with no shadow most of the time instead of both guys with alternating fields of black sprite/no sprite to make a transparency.

[Ji-L87]

Another thing, you guys with LCDs/plasmas, do the flicker effects actually work properly? Like, KOF shadows, for example? With the TV's I've seen you have one guy with a full black shadow and one guy with no shadow most of the time instead of both guys with alternating fields of black sprite/no sprite to make a transparency.

That depends on a great many things.
I've had problems with such effects not working properly on LCD, yes. In fact, my first post on this very forum was about image problems with Yuna 2 running on an LCD where a transparency effect utilizing horizontal lines didn't look right and led to horrible artefacts when in motion.
I just got a VP30 scaler with a de-interlacing card and in one of the two game-modes those flicker effects actually work. In the other game mode, they look like they did on my LCD set. As in, doesn't always flicker, becoming distorted when in motion etc.

[Frank_fjs]

Another thing, you guys with LCDs/plasmas, do the flicker effects actually work properly? Like, KOF shadows, for example? With the TV's I've seen you have one guy with a full black shadow and one guy with no shadow most of the time instead of both guys with alternating fields of black sprite/no sprite to make a transparency.

Many effects are lost with LCD/Plasma TV's. If you have a Mega Drive, check out the waterfall areas of Sonic where they used dithering - it looks off on an LCD.