Scart vs VGA

[FoxbatStargazer]

The answer is almost always yes. VGA monitors can get quite sharp, especially at low resolutions; the problem is more that they might even be TOO sharp for 240p retro games. But if sharp is what you want then they will deliver.

The "minefield" is how important scanlines are to you, since you pretty much have to fake them if you want them on VGA.

[Jegriva]

I don't think you'll find many, if any, VGA monitors that could do 15hz, or even 31hz. Most are probably 50hz minimum.
There are some old VGA LCD monitors that were able to do 15hz at their lowest resolution, but they often look terrible compared to a CRT.

I think that maybe you are mistaking vertical refresh rate (50Hz in PAL, 60Hz in NYSC, 120Hz on the new fancy HDMI 2.1 tvs), and horizontal refresh rate (15kHz on consumer tv, 24kHz on arcade monitors, 31kHz on PC cathodic displays).

Btw, there were multisync CRT that could do 15-31 or 15-24, bu they were very rare and now they are probably unicorns.

I was talking about the original resolutions and refresh rates of the cores, none of my own PC VGA CRT Monitors can go as low as 15hz 320x240 (as an example), I would have to use "vga_scaler=1", or I wouldn't get a picture. So, what I was saying was that you wouldn't be able to match the same resolutions + refresh as a consumer grade CRT TV. I believe the OP wanted to know if using a VGA monitor would provide a better image, over using a CRT TV.

There never was any video standard at 15hz or 31hz, NEVER. I am buffled why anyone should have the need for an experimental CRT capable of those imaginary signals.

Those number actually are exactly 1/000 of the horizontal refresh rates for consumer tv and PC monitors (15kHz and 31kHz). These are KILOhertz, and are about horizontal refresh, not vertical. Different things.

EDIT: mistyped "horizontal" for "vertical" and viceversa.

[Jegriva]

I was wondering if a VGA CRT monitor would give a sharper image than a CRT TV via SCART. I think I'll stick with the CRT TV via SCART that I'm using at the moment. Thanks for all the advice It's a bit of a minefield..

Of course the image would be sharper. Much higher resolutions (late PC CRT were usualky 1280x1024 or even 1920x1440 and 2048x1536) and the double of the vertical refresh rate than a consumer tv. The VGA analog signal was exceptionally accurate (it didn't carry audio, tho).

PC monitor were created to be stared at from 30cm for 8 hours a day. They were supposed to be sharper and more stable.

It would be obviously historically inaccurate to play console and arcade games on them (and even many microcomputer that ran at 15kHz), but to each their own.

Also, the PC monitors actually output 320x200 and 320x240 doubling to 640x400 and 640x480, so do not expect big fat scanlines.

Attached there is my setup.

[MiSTer_Kirk]

There never was any video standard at 15hz or 31hz, NEVER. I am buffled why anyone should have the need for an experimental CRT capable of those imaginary signals.

Those number actually are exactly 1/000 of the horizontal refresh rates for consumer tv and PC monitors (15kHz and 31kHz). These are KILOhertz, and are about horizontal refresh, not vertical. Different things.

EDIT: mistyped "horizontal" for "vertical" and viceversa.

I have no idea what the hell you are on about. My PC VGA CRT Monitor will NOT work on almost any of the cores that output low resolutions like a ZX Spectrum, C64, Amstrad CPC, NES, etc..... unless I use vga_scaler=1 - but then you are not getting the stock native output of the core, you are scaling it. Quite where you are going with this, I genuinely no longer care. I said my piece, now I'm going to ignore you.

[mapf]

My PC VGA CRT Monitor will NOT work on almost any of the cores that output low resolutions like a ZX Spectrum, C64, Amstrad CPC, NES, etc..... unless I use vga_scaler=1 - but then you are not getting the stock native output of the core, you are scaling it.

The setting

Code: Select all

forced_scandoubler=1

allows you to use a VGA CRT with almost all cores without the scaler. Like the name implies it doubles the 15kHz signal to 31kHz. As the change is per line and not per frame (as with the scaler) there is no lag.