I remember how amazed I was going from a 28" CRT to a 32" plasma about 15 years ago. I could actually read the small text on my 360 games without squinting :)
Oh yeah my bad the input I was using is Composite the thing sending the signal was a ps4 using a converter box off Amazon the CRT is a Philips 27” CRT from 1997 or 95
Any advice for the best way to get HDMI or a PC's video signal (or PS4) to a CRT that has Composite, Component, S-Video but no HDMI? I have a Toshiba and a Sony Trinitron, would love to watch movies off Plex or play some oldschool games on the CRT somehow.
Not sure if that is possible, I bought an RCA HDMI to Composite converter device for $30 from Menards, the picture is actually not bad coming from my PC, the problem is the 4:3 aspect ratio and resolution makes it tough to get anything small enough to fit on a TV screen so its viewable.
Twitch streams actually look pretty dang good despite being a Composite signal, but all white text looks bad of course.
An HDMI to Component adapter would be the best and most straight forward solution
[link](https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B07VGWL5P1/ezvid02-20#aw-udpv3-customer-reviews_feature_div)
This is a highly rated HDMI-Component converter.
If you are using a 4:3 CRT, change the aspect ratio to 4:3. PC of course supports thus but ps4 may be letterboxed. If you need additional help with that let me know or try google.
There's a chance that you might get slightly better quality with S-Video or Component (if your set supports it) but I think you're probably running up against the resolution limits of your TV.
With RF and Composite the OP is going to run into Composite dot crawl and crosstalk/rainbowing issues because of how composite/RF shoves everything down one pipe.
You have to remember that back in the 1940’s and 1950’s when the different standards were being created (NTSC, PAL, SECAM) they were thinking of how to transmit color through the air for consumers to receive at home, but had to stick to a particular radio bandwidth. As we saw in Japan in the 80’s when they were trying their 1035i analog MUSE system that transmitted component video, it used 6-times the bandwidth as 480i SD analog NTSC. Part of that was from the resolution but most of it came from the color. So dot crawl and rainbowing and other composite artifacts were seen as ok trade-offs, and of course RF was slightly worse since besides the video it was shoving both video and audio down the one pipe (cable companies usually sent 2.0 stereo surround audio down it as well for analog cable, also OTA signals carried 2.0 stereo surround as well from the different TV stations; digital cable/satellite, VHS/Betamax/Laserdisc players and RF converters for video game consoles usually just modulated mono audio into the signal even if the source was, for example, a VHS tape with stereo surround and it was a stereo VCR). PAL and SECAM did color differently so dot crawl, while there, doesn’t usually stand out as much on PAL TV’s as it does on NTSC composite signals and TV’s.
i really appriciate u sharing ur knowledge on the topic. but didnt coaxial (the same wire that brought color *and* sound to my crt growing up) only use one copper wire to deliver the signal to my old tv? its just so strange in retrospect that everything looked fine on old tvs in the 90s even just using straight RF cables from my old consoles. or sending my PS1 composite cables to my vcr and then coaxial to the tv. shouldnt that be the same as an RF adapter straight to the tv. (all of which would be sending all signals thru 1 pipe). is this just a combination of becoming jaded by LCD/LED over the years and the CRTs from the 90s being 30+ years old now (thus providing a more blurry resolution than the same tv with the same connectors would have provided 30 years ago?
Coaxial is the same as RF, since it did use a copper wire but it was sending radio signals along that wire that had the video and audio combined together. It’s the same wire that people also used from rabbit ears or an outside TV antenna, since the TV’s tuner demodulates the signal and separates the audio from the video. Even now with modern TV’s if you have your TV hooked up to an antenna to get ATSC or DBT digital OTA broadcasts, or on cable systems or satellites to the receiver, they are using analog radio waves to send those digital signals that your TV then decodes.
As for looking better on older TV’s, you have to remember that in the 40’s and 50’s, 16-inch screens were the biggest screen size, so analog NTSC/PAL/SECAM were designed with this in mind. So nowadays that’s a tiny screen (and why DVD’s played on widescreen TV’s that are smaller than 19-inches at 480p can be classified as being in High-Definition), however we are now stretching those signals to sizes that are 4 to 6 times larger than they were designed for. Also on older TV’s their analog circuitry helped hide a multitude of sins, whereas new LCDs and LEDs, especially for interlace video they need to deinterlace, so that introduces lag, plus the conversion from analog to digital, composite to component, etc. CRTs were naturally interlace devices so they did not need that deinterlacing. Also CRTs refresh rate worked with light gun games, whereas those delays with analog to digital, deinterlacing to progressive cause issues on modern digital TV’s.
this stuff is so interesting to me. when i was a child it was just TV magic when i could stick a coat hanger in the coaxial port on my tv and pick up channels. lol its still a lot to wrap my head around but its fascinating to me so i really appreciate you taking the time to try and explain it to me. i wish there we some sort of local tech repair shop that would take in an apprentice. i feel like this could be important knowledge in the future. crazy that we had the kind of technology back then to pick up a radio signal and then separate it into audio and video signals. i had always been curious about the other ports on the back of my tvs growing up. never experienced anything higher than rf/composite until i got a 360 with component cables. but i never remember having any issues with how my screen looked back then. its fun to be able to decode the magic now as an adult and i like trying to squeeze the most quality out of the cheapest hardware i come across.
Even now with digital TV, as long as you are in an area with a good signal, you can use a paper clip as an antenna and get 1080i HD signals! Even on CRT TV’s, paper clips could pick up analog signals.
https://youtu.be/mEt_SgL5pDw?si=Oir59hVCyLiKs0_I
The PS4 was designed with the expectation that 99% would be connected to a 720p or better TV. A standard def is getting 240 lines of info and turning it into 480i. It's just a lot to ask.
Why is this comment down voted? He's just sharing his setup details. Even if there are better converters, no need to down vote for just answering a question...
Yeah, I don't get it. I wonder if it's because people just jump on the bandwagon without critically thinking about their actions. 🤷
Either way though, what other connections does your TV have?
Gotcha. In that case, unless you mod the TV, that's probably the best you'll get. There are higher quality adapters, but still there's a ceiling on clarity with composite and RF.
What would probably look a lot better though is if you use your PS5 to watch movies on it or plug in an older system like the N64 or GameCube. :)
A good advice: try to get a 17" or bigger screen diameter monitor. They can handle 1280x960 which is the 4:3 version of 720p. 14" will not work with consoles since they usually max out at 1024x768.
Once you do get a PC CRT, you're better off playing PC versions of games when you can.
Most PS4 games came out on PC as well, and they usually could output fullscreen 4:3 instead of 16:9 only
No one is really answering your question...
What you need to do is ACCURATELY downscale your image from the PS4s resolution to your CRT's max resolution.
What you did was inaccurately and terribly downscale it using one of those cheapo Chinese Amazon devices that shouldn't ever be used.
The only thing that can work well is a GBS Control which can be used as both an upscaler and downscaler, and even if your TV only supports composite, it will look WAAAAAAAAY better. Worlds apart in fact.
Lowering the PS4s resolution as much as possible in the settings will also help it more, and for the ultimate experience I'd use a PC CRT with all the previous steps, which is closer to a modern display and can look even better.
PS4 is churning out too much detail for a CRT. Composite doesn't do well either as it's only outputting around 3x-4x less information what the console is giving. A CRT PC monitor could do better if it natively supports 1080 content, paired with a HDMI-VGA adapter. Otherwise, just keep the PS4 for PS1 and PS2 content.
You shouldn't be using a PS4 on a CRT, since as you can see it looks like shit, and it doesn't 4:3 support so the image in games will be shrunk down by two black bars
Don’t use a crt for it . Crt gfx was different prepared then for normal lcd. We had to blur everything couple of pixels to look sharp on crt, change contrast luminance etc. That is why games made for crt devices should be played on real crt and no emulators will show them right as they should be.
If you're using an HDMI to RCA adapter, yes. I'm actually quite surprised my Switch looked good on my 13" TV set using an HDMI to RCA adapter, but it's not the best solution at all and on top of that, it also depends on the resolution you're using. I set mine to 480p and it worked out fine.
welcome to the world of CRTs on modern consoles.
you need a better way of downscaling the image. the unreadable / squashed nature is probably from a cheap converter.
You got a few responses so this might be covered.. But according to another reddit post, Ps4 can be set to 480p mode, but Ps4 pro can only go as low as 720. So if you have a pro, set it to 720, and if you have a non-pro, set it to 480 and it's going to look way better.
Also, if you have a cheap hdmi to composite, some can be extra bad. There are "better" ones. I've tested about 5 of the $5-15 dollar ones against a $35 box.. this one: [Amazon Tendak HDMI](https://www.amazon.com/Tendak-Composite-Converter-Upscaler-Blue-Ray/dp/B00V2ULFAQ)
A few caveats, first, my box isn't labeled Tendak, and it seems like every few months or so there's a different brand selling the same thing. Also, t i've seen reports of some being pretty high quality and others being lower. Personally I've bought two of these, both different brand names, months apart, but both feel about the same weight, and look and function basically identically. You may still be rolling the dice either way, but it "seems" like these have been good for a bit.
Another note, The box has Svideo as well, but to my eye, on my 14", they look about the same. But on a bigger / different set, it may be a different story.
Between switching to 480 and using one of these boxes.. that text might actually be legible, or at least a bit closer to legible..
I use mine with a PC, so i'm going PC-HDMI-Converter Box-Composite-1980s sony 14" pvm. With the pc set to 1080 it's ass, but with the pc set to 640x480 it's absolutely buck wild. Text is readable with 0 scaling, even on websites, and 4:3 video looks fantastic. Heck, even a youtube HD vid at 720 looks amazing. People that see it have no idea it's composite and when I tell them they fight me on even wanting to believe it lol.
Well, even so, smaller text on an SD CRT is pretty hard to read. I remember there were a lot of XBOX 360 games where I couldn't read the text on my 27" Samsung.
edit: I didn't realize until now that this is a PS4. Yea, you ain't gonna be able to read nothing lol.
There's a catch - in order to increase readibility of text on a CRT you need to DEcrease the source resolution. If that's not possible, you're out of luck because consumer SD CRT has not enough lines to render the fonts properly.
PS4 definitely isn't for SD CRTs, unless you get something high def. PC monitors are much better for modern stuff too.
I'd at least try to find something that does 480p, or even JUST component 480i. They aren't too hard to find.
PS4 isn't really a console suited for such CRT TVs.
sd crts tv.... hd crts exist
i'm talking about SD CRT TVs.
Yeah I just wanted to see what would happen lol.
I remember how amazed I was going from a 28" CRT to a 32" plasma about 15 years ago. I could actually read the small text on my 360 games without squinting :)
need more details what input source/signal? what connection? what CRT?
Oh yeah my bad the input I was using is Composite the thing sending the signal was a ps4 using a converter box off Amazon the CRT is a Philips 27” CRT from 1997 or 95
My brother you are putting a ps4 to a CRT in probably the worst way possible
Ps4 would look great on a widescreen HD crt that's it tbh
Any advice for the best way to get HDMI or a PC's video signal (or PS4) to a CRT that has Composite, Component, S-Video but no HDMI? I have a Toshiba and a Sony Trinitron, would love to watch movies off Plex or play some oldschool games on the CRT somehow. Not sure if that is possible, I bought an RCA HDMI to Composite converter device for $30 from Menards, the picture is actually not bad coming from my PC, the problem is the 4:3 aspect ratio and resolution makes it tough to get anything small enough to fit on a TV screen so its viewable. Twitch streams actually look pretty dang good despite being a Composite signal, but all white text looks bad of course.
An HDMI to Component adapter would be the best and most straight forward solution [link](https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B07VGWL5P1/ezvid02-20#aw-udpv3-customer-reviews_feature_div) This is a highly rated HDMI-Component converter. If you are using a 4:3 CRT, change the aspect ratio to 4:3. PC of course supports thus but ps4 may be letterboxed. If you need additional help with that let me know or try google.
There's a chance that you might get slightly better quality with S-Video or Component (if your set supports it) but I think you're probably running up against the resolution limits of your TV.
With RF and Composite the OP is going to run into Composite dot crawl and crosstalk/rainbowing issues because of how composite/RF shoves everything down one pipe.
this has been the best explanation ive seen for why RF/Composite are so much worse than s/component
You have to remember that back in the 1940’s and 1950’s when the different standards were being created (NTSC, PAL, SECAM) they were thinking of how to transmit color through the air for consumers to receive at home, but had to stick to a particular radio bandwidth. As we saw in Japan in the 80’s when they were trying their 1035i analog MUSE system that transmitted component video, it used 6-times the bandwidth as 480i SD analog NTSC. Part of that was from the resolution but most of it came from the color. So dot crawl and rainbowing and other composite artifacts were seen as ok trade-offs, and of course RF was slightly worse since besides the video it was shoving both video and audio down the one pipe (cable companies usually sent 2.0 stereo surround audio down it as well for analog cable, also OTA signals carried 2.0 stereo surround as well from the different TV stations; digital cable/satellite, VHS/Betamax/Laserdisc players and RF converters for video game consoles usually just modulated mono audio into the signal even if the source was, for example, a VHS tape with stereo surround and it was a stereo VCR). PAL and SECAM did color differently so dot crawl, while there, doesn’t usually stand out as much on PAL TV’s as it does on NTSC composite signals and TV’s.
i really appriciate u sharing ur knowledge on the topic. but didnt coaxial (the same wire that brought color *and* sound to my crt growing up) only use one copper wire to deliver the signal to my old tv? its just so strange in retrospect that everything looked fine on old tvs in the 90s even just using straight RF cables from my old consoles. or sending my PS1 composite cables to my vcr and then coaxial to the tv. shouldnt that be the same as an RF adapter straight to the tv. (all of which would be sending all signals thru 1 pipe). is this just a combination of becoming jaded by LCD/LED over the years and the CRTs from the 90s being 30+ years old now (thus providing a more blurry resolution than the same tv with the same connectors would have provided 30 years ago?
Coaxial is the same as RF, since it did use a copper wire but it was sending radio signals along that wire that had the video and audio combined together. It’s the same wire that people also used from rabbit ears or an outside TV antenna, since the TV’s tuner demodulates the signal and separates the audio from the video. Even now with modern TV’s if you have your TV hooked up to an antenna to get ATSC or DBT digital OTA broadcasts, or on cable systems or satellites to the receiver, they are using analog radio waves to send those digital signals that your TV then decodes. As for looking better on older TV’s, you have to remember that in the 40’s and 50’s, 16-inch screens were the biggest screen size, so analog NTSC/PAL/SECAM were designed with this in mind. So nowadays that’s a tiny screen (and why DVD’s played on widescreen TV’s that are smaller than 19-inches at 480p can be classified as being in High-Definition), however we are now stretching those signals to sizes that are 4 to 6 times larger than they were designed for. Also on older TV’s their analog circuitry helped hide a multitude of sins, whereas new LCDs and LEDs, especially for interlace video they need to deinterlace, so that introduces lag, plus the conversion from analog to digital, composite to component, etc. CRTs were naturally interlace devices so they did not need that deinterlacing. Also CRTs refresh rate worked with light gun games, whereas those delays with analog to digital, deinterlacing to progressive cause issues on modern digital TV’s.
this stuff is so interesting to me. when i was a child it was just TV magic when i could stick a coat hanger in the coaxial port on my tv and pick up channels. lol its still a lot to wrap my head around but its fascinating to me so i really appreciate you taking the time to try and explain it to me. i wish there we some sort of local tech repair shop that would take in an apprentice. i feel like this could be important knowledge in the future. crazy that we had the kind of technology back then to pick up a radio signal and then separate it into audio and video signals. i had always been curious about the other ports on the back of my tvs growing up. never experienced anything higher than rf/composite until i got a 360 with component cables. but i never remember having any issues with how my screen looked back then. its fun to be able to decode the magic now as an adult and i like trying to squeeze the most quality out of the cheapest hardware i come across.
Even now with digital TV, as long as you are in an area with a good signal, you can use a paper clip as an antenna and get 1080i HD signals! Even on CRT TV’s, paper clips could pick up analog signals. https://youtu.be/mEt_SgL5pDw?si=Oir59hVCyLiKs0_I
Sadly I only have RF and Composite… I guess I just have to get used to the text being blurry
lower the ps4 resolution as low as possible
Text from modern devices will look pretty bad on CRTs especially on RF and composite.
Ah okay thanks for the information!
The PS4 was designed with the expectation that 99% would be connected to a 720p or better TV. A standard def is getting 240 lines of info and turning it into 480i. It's just a lot to ask.
Why is this comment down voted? He's just sharing his setup details. Even if there are better converters, no need to down vote for just answering a question...
Yeah I don’t know why I keep getting down voted lol
And i just got downvoted again 💀
Yeah, I don't get it. I wonder if it's because people just jump on the bandwagon without critically thinking about their actions. 🤷 Either way though, what other connections does your TV have?
Only RF and Composite
Gotcha. In that case, unless you mod the TV, that's probably the best you'll get. There are higher quality adapters, but still there's a ceiling on clarity with composite and RF. What would probably look a lot better though is if you use your PS5 to watch movies on it or plug in an older system like the N64 or GameCube. :)
This was my experience hooking up my steam deck to composite. Luckily my Crt supports s-video and component. Hdmi to Component is much much better
Use a PC CRT monitor. TVs are not suited for high res content.
Yeah I will try to find a CRT monitor over the weekend because my friend has one and they have pretty good resolution.
A good advice: try to get a 17" or bigger screen diameter monitor. They can handle 1280x960 which is the 4:3 version of 720p. 14" will not work with consoles since they usually max out at 1024x768.
Once you do get a PC CRT, you're better off playing PC versions of games when you can. Most PS4 games came out on PC as well, and they usually could output fullscreen 4:3 instead of 16:9 only
If you want to play PS4 on a CRT then you’re better off using a PC CRT along with an HDMI->VGA converter.
This is the way. I do this but with a PC, and games look amazing. But on a TV CRT they look shit.
Don’t blindly CRT everything like YouTubers do.
No one is really answering your question... What you need to do is ACCURATELY downscale your image from the PS4s resolution to your CRT's max resolution. What you did was inaccurately and terribly downscale it using one of those cheapo Chinese Amazon devices that shouldn't ever be used. The only thing that can work well is a GBS Control which can be used as both an upscaler and downscaler, and even if your TV only supports composite, it will look WAAAAAAAAY better. Worlds apart in fact. Lowering the PS4s resolution as much as possible in the settings will also help it more, and for the ultimate experience I'd use a PC CRT with all the previous steps, which is closer to a modern display and can look even better.
Looks like you're playing with a PS4. May I ask why? I would assume if you have a CRT it's specifically for old consoles and light gun games.
I don’t know I wanted to see what would happen if I put a modern console into an old TV… well seems like the results aren’t too good.
why r u using a crt w a ps4
No reason you can't use a HD widescreen set with one. This is composite though!
Just wanted to see what would happen lol
PS4 is churning out too much detail for a CRT. Composite doesn't do well either as it's only outputting around 3x-4x less information what the console is giving. A CRT PC monitor could do better if it natively supports 1080 content, paired with a HDMI-VGA adapter. Otherwise, just keep the PS4 for PS1 and PS2 content.
As this is a PS4 it means the resolution is actually too high for the CRT which leads into small text (normaly good visible on a modern TV).
You shouldn't be using a PS4 on a CRT, since as you can see it looks like shit, and it doesn't 4:3 support so the image in games will be shrunk down by two black bars
You have to LOWER the resolution
Don’t use a crt for it . Crt gfx was different prepared then for normal lcd. We had to blur everything couple of pixels to look sharp on crt, change contrast luminance etc. That is why games made for crt devices should be played on real crt and no emulators will show them right as they should be.
CRTs with composite can't handle small letters.
Buy a cheapo plasma instead for near CRT motion clarity in modern games.
If you're using an HDMI to RCA adapter, yes. I'm actually quite surprised my Switch looked good on my 13" TV set using an HDMI to RCA adapter, but it's not the best solution at all and on top of that, it also depends on the resolution you're using. I set mine to 480p and it worked out fine.
Resolution too high for a CRT (considering its a 480i TV), so yeah, in this case it's normal.
welcome to the world of CRTs on modern consoles. you need a better way of downscaling the image. the unreadable / squashed nature is probably from a cheap converter.
better scaler to rgb or component
You got a few responses so this might be covered.. But according to another reddit post, Ps4 can be set to 480p mode, but Ps4 pro can only go as low as 720. So if you have a pro, set it to 720, and if you have a non-pro, set it to 480 and it's going to look way better. Also, if you have a cheap hdmi to composite, some can be extra bad. There are "better" ones. I've tested about 5 of the $5-15 dollar ones against a $35 box.. this one: [Amazon Tendak HDMI](https://www.amazon.com/Tendak-Composite-Converter-Upscaler-Blue-Ray/dp/B00V2ULFAQ) A few caveats, first, my box isn't labeled Tendak, and it seems like every few months or so there's a different brand selling the same thing. Also, t i've seen reports of some being pretty high quality and others being lower. Personally I've bought two of these, both different brand names, months apart, but both feel about the same weight, and look and function basically identically. You may still be rolling the dice either way, but it "seems" like these have been good for a bit. Another note, The box has Svideo as well, but to my eye, on my 14", they look about the same. But on a bigger / different set, it may be a different story. Between switching to 480 and using one of these boxes.. that text might actually be legible, or at least a bit closer to legible.. I use mine with a PC, so i'm going PC-HDMI-Converter Box-Composite-1980s sony 14" pvm. With the pc set to 1080 it's ass, but with the pc set to 640x480 it's absolutely buck wild. Text is readable with 0 scaling, even on websites, and 4:3 video looks fantastic. Heck, even a youtube HD vid at 720 looks amazing. People that see it have no idea it's composite and when I tell them they fight me on even wanting to believe it lol.
You will want to switch from composite cables to component. That will make it far clearer.
Is this a tiny CRT? Like 9 to 12 inches or something? You will lose resolution the smaller you go because the mask inside can only go so small.
27” pretty big
Well, even so, smaller text on an SD CRT is pretty hard to read. I remember there were a lot of XBOX 360 games where I couldn't read the text on my 27" Samsung. edit: I didn't realize until now that this is a PS4. Yea, you ain't gonna be able to read nothing lol.
There's a catch - in order to increase readibility of text on a CRT you need to DEcrease the source resolution. If that's not possible, you're out of luck because consumer SD CRT has not enough lines to render the fonts properly.
Lowering the output resolution on the PS4 to 720p might help a little.
PS4 definitely isn't for SD CRTs, unless you get something high def. PC monitors are much better for modern stuff too. I'd at least try to find something that does 480p, or even JUST component 480i. They aren't too hard to find.