If I'm going to be buying a CRT for arcade gaming and emulation of everything from 3rd-6th gen, would a 31khz display be best? I know there is issues with original hardware, but can MiSTer/CRT Switchres allow 31khz to work without issue with 15khz games? Will 240p content look worse on a 31khz monitor compared to a 15khz one?
I gonna assume you are a zoomer, not in a mean way, but only because you'd remember how emulation looked like on a PC CRT monitor back in the day.
Short answer:yes. You should get a cheap native 240p.
I already have a 15khz CRT (consumer TV) that I can use for 240p games, but I wanted more of an arcade monitor setup for a mistercade/retrocade, as I thought 31khz could work seamlessly with both when emulating.
Why do you use CRTs? If it's for the blur and the scanlines, stick with 15kHz, because it will have the bad image quality you want. If it's for the motion quality and latency (i.e. the attributes you can't fake using shaders), go for a 31kHz (or better yet, fast multisync) CRT and use a line doubler. Not only will it look better, it won't have the annoying 15kHz hum.
>multisync
goooood fricking luck finding that
Literally every VGA monitor.
I'm sorry to say you have no fricking idea what you're talking about. True multisync VGA monitors that'll go to true 240p mode with the scanlines between every row are rare as shit. 240p is double scanned on almost every VGA display. What's worse is that later multisync monitors were in name only and didn't have this capability. Don't reply. Don't read his replies. He's fricking WRONG and that's that.
My mistake, I meant SVGA. And those can't sync to 15kHz, but I said "fast multisync".
>240p is double scanned on almost every VGA display.
It's line doubled in the video card. Some SVGA monitors will sync to 120Hz 240p but the scanlines look even worse than on 60Hz 240p monitors.
Help me decide between
https://www.ebay.com/itm/176316214821
https://www.ebay.com/itm/176311486439
https://www.ebay.com/itm/186292387366
A lot of 31khz monitors say multisync/multiscan, I thought this just meant it can support different resolutions/refresh-rates?
A lot of them are in name only. Research carefully. What commonly happens is that they'll take modes with 200 or 240 lines but doublescan them (two fine scanlines per row, nearly invisible from a distance) to 400 or 480.
all 31khz monitors. They will not display a console picture like hardware + a TV would. If this matters to you, you'll want a rare-ass expensive-ass true multisync 15-31khz monitor or you'll give up on that dream and connect your emu-box to a 15khz TV/PVM/BVM over a transcoder. Honestly if you're gonna use a 31khz PC monitor and you're not gonna be playing old PC games on it, you may as well just buy a nice OLED and use shaders.
>OLED
>shaders
Cannot replicate CRT motion quality. CRT look involves extremely high peak brightness followed by very fast pixel-by-pixel exponential decay. There is no substitute for a real CRT.
Everyone talks up CRT motion but no one talks about phosphor decay. Granted, that's a different kind of artifact, but still.
So basically a 20 inch curved trinitron with RGB/component would be the best alternative to an arcade monitor?
Well, not EVERY arcade game. Some run at modes some 15khz TVs won't like, and if you care about vertical games you'll wanna be comfy with tilting it if you want a native mode. Irem, Midway, and Atari games are funky, with unconventional refresh rates and resolutions outside of TV standard. You'll likely have to use 480i for those or frick with them a bit. Arcade emulation's kind of a son of a b***h on CRTs if you're using native modes. But eh, a lot of games will be fine, yes.
>considering a $550 31khz monitor
couldn't be me mane, couldn't be me
If you're settling on VGA monitor please check out FB marketplace or craigslist for boomers selling them for nothin'. Ebay's probably the worst place for such things.
If you're going 15khz you're going to want a VGA to composite transcoder and an AMD card for the most authentic 240p experience with the appropriate scanlines. Note well that this will suck dick for arcade games as ones that use refresh rates and resolutions a lil out of 15khz range aren't terribly uncommon, and a lot of those games want a vertically oriented display and you don't really wanna be tilting a CRT all the time. You can always flip to 480i + bilinear scaling for those games, but eh... what's the point at that point if you wanna do it 'right'? If the scanlines and proper 240p/480i that 3rd-6th gen consoles put out don't matter to you, and you just want it sharp, just get a 31khz monitor.
Another thing to consider is size. Consumer displays (almost always TVs) are 15khz and give you a lot more range and affordability when scaling up in size. Most 31khz displays (almost always computer monitors) are 17" give or take a few.
https://www.dosdays.co.uk/topics/15khz_monitors.php examples of 15-31khz displays
Oh, also enjoy overscan variation between systems on 15khz TVs. That's a joy. Not saying don't do it, just has some fun stuff to contend with.
31khz looks too much like an lcd from what I've seen.
I've been using a retrotink to send 480p to a vga crt and it does great things for 480i games but 240p really needs a 15khz crt. The look of real 240p is just a world apart from the emulated look of even line doubling.
>people using real hardware on an unintended display
The frick's with the half-measures? I don't get retrotink at all. Go big or emulate.
It's part of my capture setup, I use it to send 480p console signals to a 480p monitor, but I'm happy with the look of 480i with the fancy deinterlacing.
Ah, sorry to be dick, honestly. Board culture, heh.
Doesn't bother me, try to wait if someone demonstrates incompetence before jumping down their throat. I always assume whoever I'm talking to knows more about the subject than I do, helps in real life too as people like to feel like they're teaching things to others - even if I know what they're talking about better than they do.
Like another anon said if you're using a 31khz monitor instead of a TV, 120hz 240 is an option but it can look a bit off depending on the display. You can also just run a simple or transparent scanline shader too. Not the same as a consumer 15khz, no, but it'll look okay.
If you value 480p dreamcast, then get a VGA monitor