Summary
Our high-definition TVs are certainly a wonder to behold, but when playing content made for standard-definition TVs, results can be pretty mixed. After finally finding a CRT TV to buy, I tried watching a few of my favorite sci-fi classics on a tube for the first time in 20 years—and boy, was it worth it!
I’ve been spot checking places like Facebook Marketplace for a good CRT TV for a while, and eventually I snagged one. A big old 150-pound beast of a Sony Trinitron with a 34-inch tube!
My main reason for wanting this TV was to play retro games. More specifically, PlayStation and PlayStation 2 titles, but I’m looking to get 8-bit and 16-bit consoles as well when my budget recovers. The thing is, this is such a beautiful TV with superb sound, that it seems a shame to only use it for this one job… which got me thinking.
Old TV Show DVDs Look Amazing on It
The PlayStation 2 is famously also a decent DVD player, and I happen to be a collector of DVDs, so shortly after putting the TV in its spot (on temporary crates) I started trying a few classic programs I have on DVD.
Whether because of scanline nostalgia, or through an actual improvement in the attractiveness of the image with no scaling or other manipulation applied, I was immediately impressed. Don’t get me wrong, my DVDs look great on my OLED TV, but in a different way.
I also whipped out my music DVDs to take advantage of those awesome Sony speaker pods, and dropped in the first disc of myVbox set. Something that immediately struck me was that, although the image was now much softer than on my 4K TV, the show looked less cheap.
This makes sense since, after all, it was produced with CRT TVs as the delivery platform. The props, the effects, the makeup, and all the rest were budgeted and designed around standard definition TV sets. This, ironically, makes the show look better on a CRT, at least in my opinion.
What About Streaming Old Shows?
This gave me the idea to try streamingStar Trek: The Next Generationon this TV set. Sadly, I don’t own the DVDs or Blu-rays for the show (though that will change soon), so my only option is to stream it. But how am I going to get a streaming device to interface with this old TV?
Well, going shopping online provided some answers. This TV has both composite and S-Video, so I ordered an HDMI to S-Video converter. It was a gamble because it’s basically unbranded, but it wasn’t expensive, so worth a shot. Then I just needed a USB-C to HDMI adapter, which I already had.
This would allow me to connect to my iPad through a series of conversions. Would this even work? Only one way to find out.
It’s Not Perfect, but It Looks Great
Shockingly, using Netflix worked! There is some moderate overscan where some of the frame is cut off, and I have no way of adjusting that yet, but it looks pretty much as it should on this screen. Oddly enough, not every app works this well. Plex, for example, squished my 4:3 content into the middle of the screen with black pillars on both sides.
Leaving those niggles aside for now, the actual show looks phenomenal here. Just as withV,Star Trekimmediately gets a glow up in terms of the perceived production quality. I know it doesn’t look great in the image above, but believe me when I say that it looks excellent in person. Again, streaming this show on my iPad’s internal screen makes it look crisp, but everything looks like a TV set. On the CRT TV, the illusion is restored.
This was just a test I did for kicks, but I actually legitimately want to watch this show and others like it on this TV, and it’s certainly a renewed incentive to pick up more DVDs.
