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How to use SCART for our hobby
Paradroid:
Hello again,
After posting, I did some experimenting and managed to improve the image substantially! :)
What I did was this: drastically turned down the Saturation control in Catalyst (it's now 0.45 instead of 1.0 where I originally had it) and turned up the color control on the Loewe (originally on 31 out of 63 and now set to 59).
With this combination I don't get the same level of dot crawl and distortion on the Rainbow Islands title screen. It's still not perfect but much better. The rainbows in game now look far better. Also, in Street Fighter II, the flashing KO graphic during round isn't distorting like it was and the title screen is free from the flickering edges I was seeing.
So, it's a solution of sorts. I'd be interested to know what these findings might suggest about the way my VGA card and TV are interfacing with each other if anyone has ideas...
Regards,
Dale
apfelanni:
a loewe 100 hertz tv might be a good choice for watching tv but bad for mamescart purpose. most 100 hertz tvs look very artifical with retrogaming , more like a lcd tv than a classic 50/60 hertz . all the picture enhancer + problems with some refreshrates and resolutions make em a pita. less tech on the chassis like on oldies from the nineties and the picture can be 100 % arcadestyle .
Paradroid:
Hmm. This Loewe Calida is looking pretty damn good now that I've fiddled with the saturation. Certainly, it won't sync to all modes listed in soft15khz, especially the really low res modes. However, most games I'm interested in have useful modes available and the screen looks better than many of the arcade monitors I encountered back in my youth.
I'd be interested to know what recommendations can be made in regards to brands and models best suited to the cause. I'm in Australia and the majority of CRTs don't have a SCART port. If I knew exactly what I was looking for I could watch eBay but most listing don't even state if the TV has a SCART port or not so without knowledge of specific brands and models it's hard to know what to shoot for.
Any pointers?
Paradroid:
Another update: it's hard rubbish time in my suburb so there are plenty of TVs out on the street. I drove around last night but only found a couple units with SCART ports. One was an LG Golden Eye which wouldn't come out of standby and the other was a Loewe Contur which works (but no remote).
I hooked the Contur up to my laptop and it showed a picture straight away. I started up Rainbow Islands and couldn't believe the difference! The reds don't bleed and every pixel is sharp and yet the image still has the warmth and character of a CRT. I just wish I had a remote so I could adjust the overscan.
The sound is tinny compared with the Loewe Calida and the screen isn't as huge but the difference in actual picture quality is very interesting.
apfelanni:
philips series 4xxx , 5xxx or older and grundig cuc 4xxx , 5xxx , 6xxx , 20xx make good arcadereplacement tvs , all are 50-60 hertz models with philips / philips lg tubes , sometimes maybe orion or toshiba . check philips homepage for infos or google fitforfuture pdf to list the 50 hertz grundig models . sometimes metz and loewe are an alternate option , but grundig and philips were the biggest crt tv supplieres in central europe . the eak philips tubes were build for maybe 25 years and u cab find em in many tvs sets and european arcade cabinets . the quality can be compared with toshiba or hitachi /nanao .
if u cant find european manufactured tvs u may try toshiba , lg , panasonic or orion .