Let's face it, no one wants to sit 5+ people around a 32" SD CRT for a Home Theatre setup that can't output 1080p with your modern consoles - that's just an undeniable fact - sure BVMs are an option but 32" is still the limit in terms of size and damn are BVMs difficult to get your hands on! Often times you'll run into a whole set of new problems if you try to upgrade to a more modern display I'm sure the majority of us here are very familiar with like Input Lag, 480i misinterpretation and inaccurate scaling.
There are of course high-quality devices to circumnavigate this like the Framemeister or the OSSC but personally, they've always felt like a cop out to me - something you feel like you have to do to get the best experience out of your HDTV. What I'm interested in is an all inclusive setup with as little compromises as possible and finding that best sweet spot between a Home Theatre experience and a Retro Gamer's Haven has been my goal for awhile now.
You may remember about a month or two ago I was talking about the NEC PX-42VM5 I happened to stumble on and to my surprise found out that it actually accepted RGB in all it's form at a the original Horizontal Frequency of 15khz. It's the combination of HDTV's generally not having support for this oddball kind of frequency in addition to mishandling of 480i that causes a majority of input lag issues. Add poor handling of scaling ontop of that and you're looking at a disaster... but what if there was a display without these connectivity issues? That's where it all started for me with the NEC PX-42VM5 - unfortunatly it only has a native resolution of 480p (It's older brother in the same line being capable of native 720p) so while it can accept signals as high as 1080i, everything modern ends up getting downscaled to the displays actual native resolution which ends up being a different kind of compromise all over again.
So let's do better and go over a list of ideal requirements for the kind of display we're looking for.
A Plasma or OLED Panel
The closest we can get to the deep, rich blacks and vibrant colours of a professional grade BVM CRT.
LCD and LED displays just don't make the cut.
Analog RGBs & RGBHV via either BNC Inputs or a D-SUB 15 (VGA) port @ 15khz Horizontal Frequency.
Since RGB over SCART cannot carry a 480p Progressive Signal, these other two port types will be our saving grace. The TV would need to natively understand the 15khz RGB signal that these old consoles generate since in this example we are doing away with expensive compromise solutions like the Framemeister or OSSC. Ideally we would then want to use the TV's built in Integer Scaling of x5 (amazingly this does seem to exist - more on that later) to scale the 240p signal into a 1600x1200p signal that shows 120 Vertical Pixels lost in vertical overscan just like an old CRT used to - effectively turning the 240p 15khz signal as close to a native 1080p image as possible.
There is some hope there however with some other options as potential Framemeister/OSSC alternatives such as the Extron RGB-HDMI 300 A and this add-on board for the Extron ISM 824 Matrix Switcher which are a lot more affordable. They can can convert Analog RGB into HDMI and scale up to 1080p and 1600x1200. I had a talk to an Extron Employee aboout the RGB-HDMI 300 A apparently the high quality scaler in the device is more powerful than the one found in their 8x8 HDMI 1080p Matrix Switcher as the device was manufactored much more recently and hasn't yet been retired. Unfortunately, even after he consulted with some technicians about the RGB-HDMI 300 A, Extron was unable to confirm for me if the device would work with 240p signals - something I'll have to test comprehensively when I can as am currently still without RGB Cables for my consoles.
Native 1080p Resolution.
4K displays are worth consideration but honestly the technology needed to upscale an image to 4k is ridiculously difficult to get your hands on but it does exist in the form of devices like the Extron DXP HD HDMI 4K Matrix Switchers with Audio De-Embedding
As far as 4K goes for HD Content, I have also yet to be convinced that spending that kind of money would be worth it without actual native 4K content to watch - so unless you're able to scale to 4K or you're really concerned about getting the most out of an Xbox-One-X in the future, a 4K display is completely unnecessary.
And finally... at least 55" in size.
The main perk of an actual Home Theatre sized display right there.
One particular display I think I found that highlights all these into one would be the Panasonic TH-65PF11UK. Hell, it even seems to directly have some kind of support for integer scaling without the help of an external device... something I'm still having a hard time believing to be honest.
In regards to Plasmas, I'm led to believe they don't make those kinds of displays anymore so if you're looking to try and find one that has the kind of conditions we would desire as Retro Gamers then you'll likely need to look for one pre owned. If there's an OLED alternative however that still suits my needs then that's awesome but I would be very surprised to find an OLED display that natively understands analog RGB signals at 15khz.
Which finally brings us to my original inspiration for starting this thread! I'm looking for a larger list of TV models to widen my search parameters and help find the kind of displays that suit our needs but for setups more akin to a Home Theatre. If you have anything to add or you'd like to help me look and explore please leave your thoughts in the thread.
Thank you for taking the time to read and I look forward to seeing what pops up from the discussion.
Submitted by Hablaskakaf | #Specialdealer Special Offer Online Shopping Store 2016
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