Vintage Games in RGB, Broadcast Monitors and Sexy CRTs
Posted: 08 Feb 2017, 14:25
Well i have finally after much deliberation decided to take the plunge into vintage console games.
Now firstly i would like to say i am a PC gamer at heart, i love PC and i love all the retro remakes and emulators on PC, however nothing comes close to original hardware for that authentic look.
I have also given up on consoles after and including the PS3 / Xbox 360 era, that are just slow shit PCs with expensive games and horrible online services. I want to play on real console again!
Ever played a game on an emulator or a recent release of an old game on steam or the retro arcade on your console and think hmm this looks waaaayyy worse than i remember. Or have you hooked up your old Amega or Acorn to your 4k 40 inch display and think to yourself , wow this looks terrible?
Fun fact , its does look way worse than you remember, they where never intended to be displayed on modern pixel perfect displays , they where not designed to be up-scaled it brings out all of the flaws in the games. Not to mention the lag up-scaling old games can add as well as glitches. Some games even don't work correctly as they exploited quirks of a CRT to get better pictures, for example most displays wrongly identify a 240p signal from a console as 480i and totally scullfuck the image, samsungs , especially slightly older ones and plasmas are better at this , they usually handle the signal correctly.
Even if you kept your old TV or have a CRT PC monitor your still going to get problems, most TVs don't properly support RGB or component video, in Europe we have it good as some later TVs had full RGB scart. So , grab a good 4:3 CRT TV and hook up your beloved Megadrive via a scart to your TV and your good to go right ? Well yes but what if there was a way to get even better images from your old console.
Enter the Broadcast Video Monitor!
This is mine. ( well it will be when i go collect it)
Most people go for the mighty Sony BVM-20F1E and i would love one but they are A: Expensive as hell. B: they have 900 TV lines and in my view this is too much as this makes the scan lines far too thick, it also uses a aperture grille and in my view this is not as authentic as a shadow mask for that more arcade type look. I would love a sony and will get one one day but for now this will do.
Now, what are BVMs?
BVM is a Sony term for a broadcast quality monitor. They where used in TV studios and the likes to monitor , well stuff that needs to be monitored , camera feeds live broadcasts and the likes. To do this job properly they had to be built to last and have an amazing picture with multiple options to calibrate and configure the display.
Similar are Presentation/Preview Video monitors. They are not quite as good as a BVM and where used for editing in fancy 80s and 90s board rooms and for art installs to show video content , we still use Sony PVMs in work to this day to show video on some exhibitions.
Both have real RGB and YPbPr video inputs as well as a host of other cool shit like SDI and S-Video, you could also connect composite video as well i guess if you want to be a dirty peasant. The main difference is the number of calibration options and the quality of the components and the tube used. If it helps think of PVMs as a Model m and BVMs as a Model F , hell its a BEAMSPRING!
Now you will need some way to get your signal into the Monitor but thats a subject for another day. I will however leave you with this little spoiler
For now i would like to see who else thinks old CRTs are still cool as shit !
Does anyone else like to pay old consoles ?
Possibly you have a real arcade cab in your mancave ?
Now firstly i would like to say i am a PC gamer at heart, i love PC and i love all the retro remakes and emulators on PC, however nothing comes close to original hardware for that authentic look.
I have also given up on consoles after and including the PS3 / Xbox 360 era, that are just slow shit PCs with expensive games and horrible online services. I want to play on real console again!
Ever played a game on an emulator or a recent release of an old game on steam or the retro arcade on your console and think hmm this looks waaaayyy worse than i remember. Or have you hooked up your old Amega or Acorn to your 4k 40 inch display and think to yourself , wow this looks terrible?
Fun fact , its does look way worse than you remember, they where never intended to be displayed on modern pixel perfect displays , they where not designed to be up-scaled it brings out all of the flaws in the games. Not to mention the lag up-scaling old games can add as well as glitches. Some games even don't work correctly as they exploited quirks of a CRT to get better pictures, for example most displays wrongly identify a 240p signal from a console as 480i and totally scullfuck the image, samsungs , especially slightly older ones and plasmas are better at this , they usually handle the signal correctly.
Even if you kept your old TV or have a CRT PC monitor your still going to get problems, most TVs don't properly support RGB or component video, in Europe we have it good as some later TVs had full RGB scart. So , grab a good 4:3 CRT TV and hook up your beloved Megadrive via a scart to your TV and your good to go right ? Well yes but what if there was a way to get even better images from your old console.
Enter the Broadcast Video Monitor!
This is mine. ( well it will be when i go collect it)
- s-l1600.jpg (205.35 KiB) Viewed 7228 times
Now, what are BVMs?
BVM is a Sony term for a broadcast quality monitor. They where used in TV studios and the likes to monitor , well stuff that needs to be monitored , camera feeds live broadcasts and the likes. To do this job properly they had to be built to last and have an amazing picture with multiple options to calibrate and configure the display.
Similar are Presentation/Preview Video monitors. They are not quite as good as a BVM and where used for editing in fancy 80s and 90s board rooms and for art installs to show video content , we still use Sony PVMs in work to this day to show video on some exhibitions.
Both have real RGB and YPbPr video inputs as well as a host of other cool shit like SDI and S-Video, you could also connect composite video as well i guess if you want to be a dirty peasant. The main difference is the number of calibration options and the quality of the components and the tube used. If it helps think of PVMs as a Model m and BVMs as a Model F , hell its a BEAMSPRING!
Now you will need some way to get your signal into the Monitor but thats a subject for another day. I will however leave you with this little spoiler
- BNC.png (1.85 MiB) Viewed 7228 times
Does anyone else like to pay old consoles ?
Possibly you have a real arcade cab in your mancave ?
i have more i can list watch this space