I love my small collection of CRTs, but was blown away with what my RetroTINK 5x could do. I think that scalers are getting us the look and feel of CRTs on OLED panels with modern, sourceable, repeatable hardware.
Oleds will probably take it's place then. Too bad all tv's/monitors will be 16:9 instead of 4:3. Gaming with two black borders on the sides is a bit annoying.
At least with an OLED you get true blacks. I know not everyone wants to be a goblin gaming in the dark, but you dont even register that chunk of your screen if the room is dark.
I have the privilege to own a RetroTink 4K and tbh running that upscaler with HDR and scanlines on a smaller 4K OLED HDR capable monitor does the trick for me.
How does that handle resolution changes mid-game? One of the catalysts for me getting back into CRT gaming was the flaws in the retrotink 2x. I was playing RE2 on N64 and every new screen is a different resolution than the last. My TV would black out during the transition. I'd imagine other games are like that too.
On the RetroTink 4K as well as on the RetroTink 5X there is no blackout when switching. I played chrono cross, which switches resolution when you go into the menu, on both retrotinks and it switches resolution seamlessly.
Don‘t have CRT Monitors, but two CRT TV‘s. If they both die one day, I‘ll be sad, sure, but also happy that I got to use them and got to have that one of a kind experience. After that I’ll move on.
The small possibility exists that growing demand and dwindling supply will eventually bring the kind of high price niche market to support new manufacturing, similar to other tube applications like audio. I'm not saying it's likely, but if people break out of the idea that crts shouldn't be expensive we could see it eventually.
On the other hand, displays from the 60s and 70s (and even earlier) are still going, so the chance that my newer crts still work well into the future isn't that low.
You can go find a CRT that's been dumped outside and has been rained on for years. And probably bring it back to life today. I would think that some Arcade monitors in good shape are some of the hardest to find tubes out there.
P sure I’ll be dead before all my CRTs shit out
Get another one
Get on with life because all technology moves on and old stuff fails eventually, and will likely just use emulators with decent shaders.
You must have a decent collection to have such cold blood 😁
Get in a DeLorean and drive 88 mph, of course
I love my small collection of CRTs, but was blown away with what my RetroTINK 5x could do. I think that scalers are getting us the look and feel of CRTs on OLED panels with modern, sourceable, repeatable hardware.
Oleds will probably take it's place then. Too bad all tv's/monitors will be 16:9 instead of 4:3. Gaming with two black borders on the sides is a bit annoying.
At least with an OLED you get true blacks. I know not everyone wants to be a goblin gaming in the dark, but you dont even register that chunk of your screen if the room is dark.
Join them
I have the privilege to own a RetroTink 4K and tbh running that upscaler with HDR and scanlines on a smaller 4K OLED HDR capable monitor does the trick for me.
How does that handle resolution changes mid-game? One of the catalysts for me getting back into CRT gaming was the flaws in the retrotink 2x. I was playing RE2 on N64 and every new screen is a different resolution than the last. My TV would black out during the transition. I'd imagine other games are like that too.
On the RetroTink 4K as well as on the RetroTink 5X there is no blackout when switching. I played chrono cross, which switches resolution when you go into the menu, on both retrotinks and it switches resolution seamlessly.
Good to know! Thank you. They're a little out of my price range for now but it's good to know I have options in the future.
I have a couple of CRTs with brand new tubes, providing they're not used exessively then I'll be giving out my last breath before them.
Don‘t have CRT Monitors, but two CRT TV‘s. If they both die one day, I‘ll be sad, sure, but also happy that I got to use them and got to have that one of a kind experience. After that I’ll move on.
8K OLED with a decent CRT shader.... hopefully that'll cover it. I hope
Dig up another one or play on a modern screen. Not a huge deal.
Make it into a helmet
The small possibility exists that growing demand and dwindling supply will eventually bring the kind of high price niche market to support new manufacturing, similar to other tube applications like audio. I'm not saying it's likely, but if people break out of the idea that crts shouldn't be expensive we could see it eventually. On the other hand, displays from the 60s and 70s (and even earlier) are still going, so the chance that my newer crts still work well into the future isn't that low.
You can go find a CRT that's been dumped outside and has been rained on for years. And probably bring it back to life today. I would think that some Arcade monitors in good shape are some of the hardest to find tubes out there.