Does anyone really use anything other than SCART / component to play retro games on CRTs that support RGB? I've ordered composite cable to see whether some games will benefit from a worse IQ (Genesis, SNES but even PlayStation). However, I remember that back in the 90s and 00s the first thing I always did when buying a console was purchasing the best quality RGB cable. Original ones could be find easily back then. I'd never think to use composite instead.

I know some games were made before RGB was even a common thing and I've seen those comparisons on yt so I know why someone might prefer to use composite but is it really that common?

In terms of picture quality they'll go from:

RBGs (in SCART) — commonly called "RGB" — which is RGB + Sync, three pure colours plus timing for crisp pixels in SD formats.

Component — which divides the signal into luminance (i.e. brightness, via the green Y cable) and two colour-difference signals (blue and red, via the Pb/Cb and Pr/Cr cables) sync is also on luminance; display losslessly converts YPbPr to RBG internally and supports HD formats as well as SD ones.

S-Video — separates video into two channels of luminance (brightness) and chrominance (colour), sync is on luminance, it gets rid of the dot crawl of Composite, but lower colour resolution than Component or RGBS and only available for SD formats (NTSC, PAL, SECAM)

Composite — also called "CVBS" — combines luminance, chrominance, and sync on one channel it produces well known composite artefacts like dot crawl.

Radio Frequency "RF" signal — radio frequency signal compatible with regional analogue television standards (NTSC, PAL, SECAM).

I used to get my consoles modified to RGB, even imported ones (e.g. US SNES). N64 was much better graphics as RGBs than as S-Video.

RGBs support over SCART wasn't always guaranteed, nor was 60Hz support in UK, but these were both feature I always required in 1980s, e.g. plugging an Amiga into a portable tele you wanted that in RGBs 60Hz and not in Composite 50Hz.

Back when I worked on games for a living, e.g. 8-bit computers and consoles — we usually used Composite video for graphics, although BBC Micro was RGB and we had monitors for that along with hardware hacked Spectrums that output RGB video too that we put on the same NEC monitors.

So RGB design work goes right back to the start of the games industry.

Yup, I know all that but I'm sure some people find it super useful - cheers. However, what I wanted to find out is whether people actually use "worse" quality connections to achieve blending etc. or do they rather go for the sharpest outcome. I've always been in the latter camp but here we pretty much had a jump from RF to SCART, unless people were using a "fake SCART" that came with PS1 and PS2 by default (i.e. composite cables with a scart adapter).

@AnxiouslyCT I get what you are shooting at, and IMO this is one of those parts of the retro hobby about where nostalgia meets the need to keep polishing; I personally grew up not knowing or caring about the difference and used composite only until I went digital with the 360 and never looked back... until the aforementioned nostalgia kicked in.

Pretty much you have already hinted at the PS1 dithering issue, so S-video I think is a nice bump above composite but anything more that ruins the aesthetic IMO. However, it seems to be the lone case where the unique architecture complements early 3d graphics, so like you, would be interested to hear if this was the case for other 5th gen consoles. Everything else seems to benefit from cleaner signals in either direction, as 2D graphics look sharp as hell and later 3D graphics had better processing.

I also have a couple of 14" composite only TVs and there is just something so right about composite PS1/PS2 on those... I chalk it up to the small screen size.

And I'm going to say it because I can; anything post-6th gen (Xbox 360/PS3) is pointless to use on CRT, since the HD support and a decent quality 1080p monitor gets you pretty good experience.

@drewizard The problem with the 7th gen and CRTs is that there's a lot of games that don't support 4:3 ratio, there were very few HD CRT TVs that were actually good and had a low input lag and they were almost non-existent here in Europe, so while it's way easier to replay those games on a good OLED monitor nowadays if you wanted to, back then the choice was pretty much either a ***** LCD or you were extremely lucky to be owning a good HD CRT TV on which the image quality was way, way better.

@AnxiouslyCT Yeah, agreed that wasn't many good options at the time with HD CRTs expensive and being pushed out by manufacturers pushing people to go to LCD, which was (and albeit more mature now but I will maintain still is!) a poor compromise. Sample-and-hold needs to die!

In saying that, it is one area where in the hear-and-now, HD CRTs have such a narrow band between most model's processing screwing with 240p and HD being pushed out for higher res that the juice is not worth the squeeze unless you have enough space for a HD CRT sitting around for just that use case. I totally would but the prices have gone bananas near me, as everyone is scooping up every last CRT for moonbeams...

Played some SNES, Genesis, and PSX games via composite today and, man… I don’t think I’ll ever want to do that for longer sessions. It’s a cool academic experience, but I’ve been used to RGB since the PSX era, and I just don’t think the limited pros can outweigh all the cons for me personally.

But it might look better on a smaller TV. My Quintrix is super nice but e.g. it reveals the 480i combing artifacts so much I prefer to play PS2 games on a smaller TV.

@AnxiouslyCT This is the beauty of ignorance, when you don't know any better everything looks good but once you have tasted the finer things... and combine that with a bigger screen making every transgression look more evident

If they weren't so expensive, I'd love to try out something like OSSC with a VGA CRT monitor for the high "TVL" and see how that makes older consoles look. At that point it would probably be functionally equivalent to RGB on a PVM though, so moot I guess...

@drewizard yeah, I 100% agree. And I still think composite does have a certain charm. Also, on discord I found out some consoles have had really good quality composite output signal so here’s that too.

Re VGA monitors - I’ve been thinking of hooking up my SS1 to one of mines too see what it would look like with its scanlines. I’ve heard it can look awesome and the input lag is only slightly increased but then - it’s there and I do really love some 240p gaming with no input lag.

Btw, I found a NEC Diamondtron tube relatively cheap (€50) where I live yesterday. It’s awesome.

@AnxiouslyCT That's the SuperStation One right? I only just noticed it has a VGA out, is it any good for the price?

And you SOB, that NEC Diamondtron is a score... not jealous at all. Always keen to see some pics if you got 'em!

In the monitor bin, have a 19" Philips 109MP with BNC connectors and a 21" Sony Multi-scan G500 but I would love to have gotten a diamondtron tube monitor to add to the collection... impossible to find locally now

You’ve got some cool displays there. I thought I’d never find a Diamondtron either and all of a sudden one appeared in my home town. Turned out a guy who runs a 90s museum was getting rid of it.

You can find some quick photos I took wi the my IP here:

https://photos.icloud.com/shared/album/03aMHMrX7pifB2ZU_GgXM4p_Q

I’ve also got a SUN GDM-20E20 but it’s VGA output broke and I need to find someone to fix it. My Philips is a standard CRT (109Bs) though, but I got it super cheap so can’t complain!

Lovely sun-kissed monitor, but screen looks in good shape; good score for 50 euro! A 90s museum is a hyper-specific thing haha, although I could probably open one in my garage with the amount of consoles, PCs, CRTs, and games from the turn of the millennium.

That is what I like about CRT monitors, even the lowliest 69khz office monitor can still look great compared to a low-end CRT TV or LCD. I have a couple of lower end 17" monitors that I have used with a ROG Ally + HDMI->VGA converter as a weird semi-portable setup haha

That Sun is not a bad screen either, bummer about the VGA. Is it a plug or circuit issue?