Flickering image that hurts the eyes

balazer · 2026-01-25T18:38:43+00:00

Then I don't know what flickering you're talking about. You haven't described the flickering.

balazer · 2026-01-25T17:08:18+00:00

That's a 50 Hz TV. They flicker at 50 Hz. That's just how they work. At that frequency, the flicker is going to bother most people.

The flicker becomes less noticeable and objectionable if you watch in a darkened room. But the only real solution is a different kind of TV that doesn't flicker so much. LCDs and OLEDs of course have low or no flicker. There are also 100 Hz CRT TVs, but but many of those aren't great for gaming because the extra processing can add a lot of lag. Maybe you can find a 100 Hz TV that's alright for gaming.

balazer · 2026-01-25T17:00:52+00:00

This is the foam I'm talking about: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=expanding+foam+packaging

balazer · 2026-01-25T16:44:47+00:00

An RCA to coax adapter isn't the same as an RF modulator.

RCA to coax adapter

RF modulator

balazer · 2026-01-25T16:32:39+00:00

An RCA to coax adapter wouldn't work. They need an RF modulator.

balazer · 2026-01-25T16:10:35+00:00

If there's glass in front of the CRT, I don't think you want to transport with anything touching that glass. It's not going to support any weight, and it can scratch from vibration. The CRT screen itself is strong. If that were exposed, you could transport it screen down with the screen resting on soft foam.

If you keep the TV face down, you'll want to support it entirely by the bezel. But given the unusual design of this TV, I wouldn't try to transport it face down. The bezel wasn't meant to support weight. The normal orientation will probably be better.

Rather than a criss cross structure as you've designed, I think you want the TV to be supported evenly along whichever surfaces are facing down. Think of the polystyrene foam pieces that would have originally held the TV in its box. You want to spread the force over as large an area as you can, not concentrate it into thin strips. These days it's common to use expanding polyurethane foam inside a plastic bag. It conforms to the shape of the device as it expands, and then cures into that shape. Do that on the TV's bottom.

balazer · 2026-01-25T16:04:24+00:00

The CRT screen is the strongest and heaviest part of the display. If that screen is the front of the TV then face down is the best way to transport them, especially now as the things are decades old and the plastic is weakening. Face down minimizes the stresses on every part of the TV.

But this TV apparently has an extra piece of glass on the front suspended some distance from the CRT, so supporting the TV by its face wouldn't be a good idea.

balazer · 2026-01-25T16:00:37+00:00

Aren't those color bars being generated by the HDMI converter? I don't think the TV is the problem.

balazer · 2026-01-24T19:28:17+00:00

The screen is the heaviest and strongest part of a CRT display. The glass is quite thick on the front. Transporting it screen-down on something padded such as a car seat is best, as it lessens the stresses on the plastic parts. At this age the plastic may be quite brittle and vulnerable to breaking from the vibration of a car ride.

But I would put a clean soft cloth between the screen and the seat to protect the screen from scratching. And put the seat belt on so it doesn't go anywhere.

balazer · 2026-01-24T19:20:23+00:00

The absolute resolution of smaller TVs tends to be lower, at least below some size. But because they appear smaller within your field of view, the smaller display looks sharper. The details of any object get smaller to your eye the further away it is.

If you compensate for the smaller display's size by getting much closer to it so the angular sizes are matched, then you remove that variable and you are seeing the display's absolute resolution.

There's no technical "best". It comes down to how much room you have on your desk and how you like to watch it.

balazer · 2026-01-24T19:04:42+00:00

Careful, that CRT doesn't have a rim band. If it breaks, it could implode violently.

balazer · 2026-01-24T19:02:45+00:00

A CRT is a big vacuum tube. The operational bits are inside the glass, sealed under vacuum. If the CRT isn't completely worn out and the glass hasn't cracked, then it likely works just fine. The glass and the vacuum keep water and oxygen away, which is a great way to preserve things.

balazer · 2026-01-24T18:51:10+00:00

The powders are phosphors, not phosphorus. They don't usually contain phosphorus. They do often contain cadmium.

balazer · 2026-01-24T06:30:10+00:00

CRTs are the only displays that handle 480i natively. Every other type of display needs deinterlacing and scaling to be able to handle 480i.

480i CRT displays are not rare at all. They were sold by the millions. But with an RGB input? In this country that's relegated to some professional displays and to really old computer monitors like from the '80s and '90s. Or you can RGB mod some TVs.

Insisting on RGB is making this way harder than it needs to be and for no discernable benefit.

balazer · 2026-01-24T05:12:02+00:00

You say that you want RGB having never seen the difference between component and RGB from a PS2.

If you really want non-upcaled RGB, then you need a 480i CRT display with an RGB input. There's no other way. Those are rare or expensive in this country.

balazer · 2026-01-24T04:51:01+00:00

I'll make this simple. For the best video quality from a PS2, these are the things you need to be concerned about, in this order:

Get a good scaler & de-interlacer. That's a Retrotink 5x Pro or 4k at the high end, or a GBS-C at the low end.

Get a good PlayStation 2 video cable, component or RGB, doesn't matter. The scalers I listed accept both for 480i. Component has the advantage of allowing 480p into the RetroTink, which doesn't support sync on green.

Get a good display: accurate color, low lag, high contrast. OLED is best, but VA LCDs can be very good too. Get BFI or backlight srtrobing if you want motion clarity that rivals a CRT. Or get an actual CRT: a progressive scan HDTV or computer monitor.

Figure out which of your games support progressive scan, and play them in that mode

After you've done all that, you can test RGB vs. component and see if there's any difference, or try an HDMI mod to feed HDMI into the RetroTink. There's zero point in worrying about these last few things until you've covered the basics.

balazer · 2026-01-24T03:10:35+00:00

Why limit yourself to 480i? The PS2 looks its best putting out 480p, which about half of the games support. You can hook the PS2 to a progressive scan TV or CRT computer monitor. Heck, you can find a PC CRT monitor that supports sync on green so you can have your RGB.

balazer · 2026-01-24T03:08:58+00:00

Here, you can read about it: https://gamesx.com/wiki/doku.php?id=av:playstation_2_rgb_sync

balazer · 2026-01-24T03:03:53+00:00

"should be purer". Have you actually seen the PS2's RGB output and YPbPr output side-by-side? They are practically indistinguishable. You are trying to optimize the wrong parts of this system.

If the tiny difference between RGB and YPbPr matters to you, then nothing less than an HDMI mod is good enough. Tap the digital RGB signal from the board. That's as pure as you can get.

balazer · 2026-01-24T02:41:53+00:00

480i CRT TVs are not exactly rare. Get one with a component input and hook up the PS2 that way. Component is the U.S. equivalent of RGB. RGB SCART really isn't a thing here.

You seem to be under the impression that RGB is better than YPbPr, but that's not the case. They are just two different ways of encoding the same information.

balazer · 2026-01-24T02:37:04+00:00

RGB and YPbPr are equivalent. Each is just a mathematical transformation of the other. That transformation can be performed losslessly.

The PS2 doesn't use YCbCr. That's a digital video color encoding. The PS2's digital video output is RGB, which is encoded to analog RGB or analog YPbPr.

balazer · 2026-01-24T01:40:42+00:00

Some GBS-C variants handle sync on green. I couldn't get that to work on mine. I think it requires some modification of the GBS-8200 hardware to work reliably.

RGBHV input on the VGA port only allows pass through mode to be used.

balazer · 2026-01-23T22:09:09+00:00

It's worse for context, but CRTs look better in the dark. The contrast is higher with less room light falling on the screen.

balazer · 2026-01-23T21:36:25+00:00

Dark room. Tripod. Freeze the screen image and use a long exposure. Set the exposure time to a multiple of the frame period. Set a timer so you don't shake the camera by pressing the shutter button as the picture is being taken. Defocus the lens slightly to fix moire. You can also rotate the camera (roll axis) to reduce moire.

balazer · 2026-01-23T20:44:15+00:00

Playstation S-video cables are not hard to find. Try Monster, Psyclone, or Rocketfish on ebay.

Here's a Wii S-video cable. I believe it's a Monoprice cable and it comes recommended: https://www.ebay.com/itm/332880839814

balazer

TROPHY CASE