NES on an LCD HDTV, ouch!!!

[Flygon]

At least you don't have an LCD that doesn't support 240p...

Let me put it this way, one of my friends TV's literally threw up a 'Mode not supported message' when I fed it some of that 240p goodness from a Wii connected via Component (We used an emulator).

The exact same setup worked relatively well on a Plasma TV.

But yeah, I'd say use something with cleaner video output or get it modded for some (If NES2's can even do that, do they only output raw Composite too?).

[Devil N]

Let me put it this way, one of my friends TV's literally threw up a 'Mode not supported message' when I fed it some of that 240p goodness from a Wii connected via Component (We used an emulator).

That's really bizarre. I mean, if a TV doesn't support 240p, I would assume it just interprets it as a normal 480i signal (which is almost the same), and display it as such. This is of course not as good as actual 240p support, since it will deinterlace the image and whatnot, but the TV should at least be able to display it.

[retrospiel]

Many HDTVs don't support 240p via component.

[Genesis Knight]

The Nester for DC recommendation really is the best one. Sometimes it's better to emulate!

[kool kitty89]

NES and other older systems (including Atari) look fine in my SD CRT, it's a little 15" Phillips that's ~4/5 years old though. Not sure if 240p is expressly supported (scan doubling), but anything above 480i cannot be displayed at all.

[Deo]

My advice would have been to take your NES to the store (best buy, whatever) and try it out on such LCD sets. You might think this is crazy, but I know of people that have done just this.

When I go to get my fancy shmancy LCD tv next month I will definitely bring my Genesis along with me. Thanks for the idea!

[the.importer]

Guys, I've spent close to $500 in Famicom and NES games, if I wanted to stick with emulation, I would have.

[retrospiel]

Well, if you just want to play NES on your LCD, Dreamcast via VGA is the way to go.

But if you want to play on original hardware I'd definitely recommend to buy a CRT.

When I go to get my fancy shmancy LCD tv next month I will definitely bring my Genesis along with me. Thanks for the idea!

Maybe you should consider importing one from Europe that has a RGB-SCART connector. Doesn't still do much in terms of compatibility, but RGB is the best possible connector you could get.

My brother's 32" Samsung looks awesome with 240p content via RGB-SCART!

[tomaitheous]

Guys, I've spent close to $500 in Famicom and NES games, if I wanted to stick with emulation, I would have.

Yeah. And Nester emulation isn't accurate either. Sound isn't accurate, some glitches, other minor stuff.

If you want to go the emulation route, then Nestopia + PC + video out (or just run it on the monitor at hand). Nester on DC is just novelty.

[retrospiel]

v6.0 is pretty accurate. Which version did you test ?

[17daysolderthannes]

ugh, HD TVs are the devil, I swear. The technology changes every 5 minutes and I can't even get a straight answer on which is best (LCD, LED, Plasma). Some work great and look great with composite cables, some are a blurry/pixelated/fuzzy mess. DVDs look like shit on most of them. HD cables usually cost a fortune (gotten a little better recently). With CRT TVs, literally almost every TV was the same thing with just a few minor features, most of which were useless anyway. You plug an NES into any reasonably sized CRT TV and the shit just worked. Computers have gotten 1000X more uniform and easy to use, why are TVs going the opposite direction? I'm trying to avoid an HD TV for as long as humanly possible until we can decide on a standard display type and HD cables and Blu Ray go down in price.

I know this isn't fully on topic, but I share this dude's pain as to what to do with the switch from SD to HD.

[17daysolderthannes]

v6.0 is pretty accurate. Which version did you test ?

I second this. While it's not as wonderful as PC emulators, it certainly wins in the convenience and accessibility department (all games on one disc, plug into a TV, done, Dreamcasts can be bought for $20 with a controller, has a bilinear filter option). If you shell out $25 for the Total Control Plus PS2->DC adapter, you can use the Retro Con which is basically an NES controller for PS2, making the experience very close to the real thing. Then again, you could get a USB adapter for a real NES controller if you were on the PC. I guess it really comes down to what you're willing to spend.

[kool kitty89]

That and Nestopia seems to run like crap on vista. (32-bit) Rather like ZSNES, except maybe a bit worse, fine ones it's playing, but taking for ever to do anything else. (ie launching it, changing settings, chaning window size or moving the window, etc) Maybe I should try running it in compatibility mode for XP or maybe older.

[retrospiel]

ugh, HD TVs are the devil, I swear. The technology changes every 5 minutes and I can't even get a straight answer on which is best (LCD, LED, Plasma). Some work great and look great with composite cables, some are a blurry/pixelated/fuzzy mess. DVDs look like shit on most of them.

It's not that HDTVs are bad per se, they just happen to be totally incompatible to properly handle 480i/240p content and each TV handles this incompatibility different which is exactly the problem.

DVDs look great in HD, provided that your DVD player supports the DVD standard's Progressive Scan (480p, which is the lowest HD resolution and twice that of 480i = 240 interlaced lines per frame). This requires component, VGA, DVI or HDMI cables (whatver your DVD player offers) as composite and S-Video are limited to 480i/240p.

Of the available HDTVs, LCD is the currently best variant offering the best picture at the lowest price.


All in all I'd say that if you have the space and money, I'd recommend to have both an LCD for movies and modern gaming (Dreamcast, Wii, PS3, etc.), and a nice 4:3 CRT SDTV for retro gaming (Genesis, SNES, Saturn, NES, etc.).

The PS3 is an excellent way to play PS1 and PS2 games on HDTVs as it automatically outputs to HD compatible resolutions, and the Wii is a great solution to play GameCube and Nintendo 64 games (which are rendered in 480p high res).

I'd recommend the Mayflash VGA cable: http://shop.ebay.com/?_nkw=mayflash+vga+wii
which takes the Wii's native digital Y'CbCr output and converts it into analog RGBHV (VGA) - that's much better than the analog Y'PbPr component signal you get via your average component cable.

...here's the same cable for $5 less.


For hooking up the SNES, N64 or GameCube to your HDTV, this might be a good solution: http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_nkw=snes+vga+box
It isn't comparable to a real VGA signal like what Dreamcast and your PC output as it converts the S-Video signal to RGBHV but it's still better than connecting these consoles via S-Video directly (as a VGA port provides by far the best picture of all analog inputs on your HDTV).

There's no way to properly hook up your Genesis without spending hundreds of Dollars for an XRGB upscanner but I'd try to go via RGB-SCART to YUV component transcoder and see if the TV accepts the 240p signal via component. - If you can play 16-bit stuff via Wii Virtual Console on your HDTV, it does!

[runback22]

EDIT: I have no room for anything else including a small CRT!!!!

I feel your pain. I've been trying to find a solution for this as well. I dont have room for a CRT and I'd rather play on the real system than emulators, but they looked so horrible on new tv's........