Are CRT TVs Necessary for Retro Gaming? - Retro Bird 

Games played: Splatterhouse (0:00), Cannon Dancer (0:10), Final Fight CD (0:25), Catrap (1:15), Mario Golf (2:18), Gradius Gaiden (3:10), Duck Hunt (7:35), Battletoads (10:00)

You can feel the difference - it’s like a campfire vs a gas lit fireplace - there is a certain magic in original hardware -

It seems insane to me that no company has made a modern CRT TV for Retro Gaming. It is a completely untapped Market.

I feel CRT is the equivalent to watching movies in theaters or listening to music on vinyl It's not necessary to experience the medium but you're missing out on the full experience. 99% of the time a simple 10 to 20 inch basic CRT from Facebook marketplace will do just fine to get hooked and appreciate "true" retro gaming Reddit and purist are going to try and make you believe you need a Sony KVF Trinitron but truth is most of us grew up on what our parents could afford and most times it was a small cheap CRT that got the job done and nothing more

My 27” trinitron is one of the greatest things I’ve ever gotten for free. Heaven forbid anything ever happened to it because I would be searching high and low to replace it. There’s no going back to anything else for me at this point. I love my CRT ❤

I would say yes. I have an OLED for modern day gaming but the nostalgia I get from playing on my Trinitron is amazing. Those of us who have a CRT are holding on to history. Something that's quickly disappearing.

This was entirely more wholesome than I expected. This man must be protected.

That weight of the CRT was hilarious

Its the basics for me. The sound when u turn it on. The glow. The high pitch noise! The scan lines. Remembering eating cereal in front of it on Saturday mornings!!!! I'm 40 and still got one for my old systems.

Yo Retrobird respect for actually benching that CRT in bed at the end 😂

I have a 24" Sony Trinitron for retro gaming. It takes me back to the 80's and 90's playing on my original hardware. You can never get that feeling with emulation. I also use it to watch VHS and laserdiscs. It is so awesome!

Cold calling people to ask if their game mode is turned on is one of the funniest bits ive heard from you. Keep up the great work!

I haven't seen a CRT tv in at least a decade and I know exactly what you are talking about in regards to the image not being flat! I have been wanting one again, and I'm almost worried this video is going to make it harder. This is good motivation, as I remember playing these games on small 14 inch tvs just fine.

If you feel that owning an original retro console with the original games is necessary, chances are a CRT TV's are necessary also

Thanks for bringing up computer monitors. With my tv and the SNES Classic, I simply cannot consistently wall jump in Super Metroid. I was pretty upset with myself. But I hooked it up to a computer monitor I had and suddenly I could wall jump 90% of the time just as intended. I switched back and forth and still cannot consistently wall jump with the system hooked up to my big tv. Im confident it’s lag. What a big difference

I am very happy to see continued CRT related content. They are one of my main hobbies. Thanks

I think anyone who is into retro gaming should consider getting one. I suggest getting a 9" up to 14" CRT since they're lighter and don't take up a lot of space so they're easier to store. I also wouldn't go too crazy about inputs since composite looks fine on a CRT in my opinion but it's up to you if you want to go down the road of RGB modding.

your delivery of the jokes is always spot on. and they feel so original.

I absolutely dig this. I, too, don’t want to be a gatekeeper and tell someone how to enjoy playing games. The new RetroTink 4K looks to solve a lot of problems with retro gaming; that said, I have 17 CRTs so I get the appeal

It's a matter of authenticity. Even if a scaler is functionally 99% the same, that remaining 1% is where the soul lives. When you interact with something you're crafting a memory, so it's important to keep that in mind. People call this nostalgia, but there's more than a fondness for CRTs there I feel. It's more about how you experience something than the end result. I may not speak for everyone, but I'd rather Play Ghouls n' Ghosts on a Black & White baby monitor than in 4K on a retrotink because it's the more fun way to experience the medium. TLDR: I am OLD & I will NEVER throw away my CRT. It's a part of me.

I bought my first house this year and I finally have room to put whatever I want in my living room. I have a 65" OLED but I just bought a 36" Sony trinitron with the original stand at an estate sale and got it set up tonight with my snes, n64, ps2 & dreamcast. My parents had a very similar trinitron when I was a teenager so it's nostalgic for me as well.

nothing can beat the magic of an Atari 2700 played in a CRT at night. the feeling is so unique how it reflects light in to the room, with a digital screen it just doesn't feel the same way.

Anyone else look forward to Fridays @ 7PM PST like tuning in to your favorite show back in the days of cable? Retro Bird never misses!

I absolutely love my CRT TV mine has both DVD and VHS player built into it. Use it for SNES, PS2, N64, Wii

In my opinion CRTs are absolutely necessary for lightgun games. I also noticed that there's more depth to the image. The same game on a modern display looks kinda flat. I never worried too much about input lag but when I transitioned to a CRT all the problematic moments in my NES games felt much easier. Turns out I never realised how big of a difference input lag can make 😅

I recently got a CRT (a 14" Toshiba AF for those curious) and it's really motivated me to finally start chipping away at my backlog of retro titles. HDTV's are wonderful, but CRTs are king when it comes to older stuff.

Always look forward to your new video drops. Very inspiring for what I continue to do in the retro field. Keep up the great work!

CRTs were a must-have for rhythm games running on PS1/PS2 era hardware. The changeover around 2009-2010 from CRT to LCD was fraught with tons of input lag for those games and systems. You had to keep a CRT around back then because HD TVs were just unplayable then due to the upscaling that happened from Composite/S-Video. Even now, this is the main (and probably only) reason I'd want a CRT, as much as I liked them. But that being said, I've gone the other way now. For me, the mobility and the lightness of the modern panel TV is more useful to me. But I ran emulation on a PC CRT monitor back in 2001 and loved the crispness compared to a CRT TV. And when the move to LCD HD displays happened, I didn't bat an eye so I'm very acclimated to the "too sharp" pixel look. I might use a little bit of a filter to soften it up but that's about all I need.

One of the best things about old tv’s was hearing your friend scream in pain during a Smash Bros session because he forgets to blink enough and the refresh rate was so bad he had to pause the game due to eye strain. Honestly though, CRT’s can be super hard to find and cost prohibitive, so as long as you are enjoying the games and spreading the love, power to everyone.

I use a CRT for my retro games, and I use it for a variety of reasons touched on in this video. Yeah, input lag is a big one. I've been playing retro games on LCD TVs for years, usually not through original hardware. But when I finally played a real SNES with a wired controller on a CRT, it felt like those scenes in Dragon Ball Z where somebody takes off the heavy weighted training gear and were suddenly much better at everything. I also love scanlines, and yeah a lot of emulators can try to make good scanlines, but they still don't look quite right blown up all huge on an LCD TV to me no matter how much I tweak the settings, it just feels fake to me, even if I can replicate the blending effects you see in the portraits of Earthworm Jim. It just looks much nicer on the real deal. My SNES was left to me by my Grandma, and the CRT was given to me by my Grandpa So there's some sentimentality there. I've taken to giving it an extra nostalgic feel by decorating it with a bunch of stickers that feel like they evoke the 80's, 90's, and early 2000's. Etsy has been a wonderful help in finding the exact vibe I'm going for. Blockbusters logos, Nina Turtles, Pizza slices, the nickelodeon splat, Ghostbusters logo, an green alien head, a Tamagotchi, just to name a few It's like the underside of a skateboard. I love my big screen, but there's not exactly much room for personalization with the super thin black frame. Not unless I do the back, but i'm probably never going to see it.

This was a great video! And a great list of other videos to watch. I like how mame appears closer to the actual arcade on a old tube computer monitor.

perfect video to watch after moving my 32 inch CRT

A few years back I bought a 17" JVC pvm, just to play Symphony of the Night for PS1 again, and it is probably one of the best decisions I have ever made. Initially I wanted to buy a board with rgb support, but after seeing the quality of s-video on the crt, it really isn't necessary. Now I have great blacks, superb scanlines and instant response. And the pvm is also great for watching anime 😀

My wife picked me up a crt for my birthday last year and you can definitely tell the difference. The inputs just feel more responsive and crisp with retro games on the crt.

Good video! I'd honestly consider adding a CRT to my household if I could find one in my area. They seem to be just getting more and more scarce as time goes on. That said, I currently play both modern and retro games on an older computer monitor. It does the job perfectly, so a CRT is more of a "nice to have" instead of an essential for me. My biggest concern is input latency of which it has never been an issue on my gaming monitor. I agree that however you play your retro games is fine as long as you are just enjoying them! 😄

Great video as always. And one I’m particularly interested in because I bought a CRT from marketplace and I just have to go pick it up from my friends place a city over. It’s a 13” with a dvd player and it’s from 2006 or 2007. I haven’t had a crt in maybe 16 years. Super excited to try it out again and I think it will look nice on my video game cart beside my desk. 😂

Happy birthday dude! Thanks for sharing your love for gaming

i have 2 "Modern" Flat TVs and 5 Crt TVs. Until the last one dies i will use em:-) The Sound when switched on or off, the "glow" in the Room... Fantastic. Love Crts. Modern Display with Retrotink looks fine but its not the same feeling you get from old hardware.

Somehow the video feels incomplete without a banana 😂

Most games do fall under the CRT bandwagon of never missing a button press, but there are some games that take the CPU opponent's button command's before yours. This doesn't happen often, but there are some games where the game either blocks commands at a certain point (Fighting games), or there are specific times where no matter what, your button press (for that fraction of a second or so) will not register.

Playing on my pvm trinitron gives me an excuse to replay classics. The thing I tell myself is, "I dont think I beat that game in RGB, lets play it again."

I play on a crt/original hardware and have old speakers and furniture from the 80s for my setup. It is a time portal and I Iove it.

Yes, absolutely, for an actual retro experience. There is nothing that even comes remotely close to the motion clarity of a CRT. Zero lag doesn't hurt either.

3:55 I've totally been the friend for this. Also one time we tweaked the tv to make Red Dead Redemption 2 have more film-like colors. I think we got it pretty close.

I plugged in my SNES classic into my OLED and it was amazing. The colors were vibrant and the contrast was better than any CRT i played on when i was a kid. Having no backlight also added to the contrast.

Yo I absolutely love your positive attitude towards retro games! Ive come across a lot of hidden gems of games watching your channel, Canon Dancer looks awesome, especially since I rly liked Strider. This is easily my favorite channel that discusses retro games!

I'm 40 and grew up playing all the retro systems on CRTs. I still have most of my original consoles and now play them on LCD TVs and honestly, I don't notice that much of a difference...and that's without using the Game mode on TVs (which I never realized reduced button lag so thanks for that)! The only time I've really experienced a real issue with button lag that prevented me from beating a game I'm great at is when I was playing Punch-Out at my buddy's house on his NES mini. I'm not sure though if that had to do with the NES Mini itself, the fact he didn't have Game mode turned on his LCD TV or a combination of both. All that being said, I do get the nostalgia part of playing those old systems on CRTs but personally, I don't wish to own one of those monstrosities again.

I'm not opposed to playing on a CRT, I just don't have the space for one. I'm very happy with my Retrotink 5X, I don't know how I ever played retro games without it.

Recently found your videos, and I'm hooked!

Happy belated Birthday to your CRT 🥳! My CRT lived in the garage for months until I was able to get a good friend and a dolly over to get it up the stairs and into my game room.

Beautiful Video! Thank you 😊

It’s a non issue for me because I exclusively play handhelds, Gameboy Pocket/Color/Advance and SP Though I have been itching for a SNES and Super Mario Kart I loved from my childhood 😃

As a big fan of original hardware that can never FULLY be replaced.. I must say modern displays with low latency, black frame insertion, good scanline/mask filters, and (gasp) even good emulators, gets close enough to the CRT experience that I enjoy playing old games almost just as much. BUT the full physical properties of a CRT screen like the glow, sounds of high voltage, flicking the switch on console hardware, original controllers, etc. cannot ever be 100% replaced. Analog just feels different from Digital in an indescribable way. Also it's just part of the nostalgia of being a kid again.

Since i started playing PS5 and PC games on my HD CRT, i can't go back. Every new game looks so crisp and soft in the same time.

I just bought a HDMI to component converter so I can use my 20" PVM as a 3rd PC monitor! It's amazing watching crisp RU-vid music videos in 4:3 480i. Also my first time ever watching Neon Genesis Evangelion and it's stunning on 4:3 bluray on my 27" FV310. It's magical stuff. Don't know why people get so offended when others enjoy CRTs like "how dare you like to watch on a crt!! it's not even the shitty one you grew up with, what's the point?" as if we're doing it for nostalgia. No this stuff just has a completely different style of viewing compared to OLED (which I have and also love). Videos and games specifically built to be played on this technology being projected on a shinny curved thick glass screen with a physical 4:3 border around it and having a vibrant glow is just something a retrotink can't compare too, FOR MY LIKING. Good for people who want to play 90s games with a dry flat sterile 4K "perfect" look. No one is hating if that's your preference. Stop being offended you fellow nerds.

I dont know if I ever told you? Mannn i love ur videos sooo much 🎉

Nothing looks quite like a Vectrex. Holy heck those things are bright. The contrast is capable of going way beyond what is comfortable.

playing retro games through nintendo switch online has been pretty cool at college since i didn’t want to take all of the original consoles and games, but man do i miss the setup i have at home

8:51 *shows lagless HDCRT Loved the episode. Love the content. You mah mah mah make me happy :)

I have an 48 inch Oled now. Good to know there is minimal lag on that. So because there is still lag it still effects the gameplay a lot when you play Mike Tyson's Punch out. Until they figure out a way to have 0 lag on the 4K tv's I will still be playing my retro games on a CRT. I do not care if the graphics are a lot better on HD or 4K. I care about 0 lag.

still have my Sony Bravia (2013) with GAME mode... it works PERFECT for everything -- lion king on my sega through the coax- cable is perfection ❤

Have my crt hooked up with my PS2 & N64. Still look great on that baby.

I like how your voice keeps going up and down just like your spaceship from Gradius. Total emersion.

love the footage of "Osman"...that game is awesome!

Love my 14" Advent flat CRT! :)

Happy birthday, Retro Bird's TV 🎉🥳

I remember playing the PlayStation 1, Nintendo GameCube and Nintendo 64 on a crt tv and those were great times. I still love playing those wonderful gaming consoles and games. I don't think you need to have a crt whatever gamers feel more comfortable with is what matters. Cool video. ^_^

Concise and informative video. I knew as much, but this is good confirmation.

Love your videos man!

Awesome video! What about rf vs composite vs s video vs component ? That would be interesting to see

Great Video

Definitely not necessary, but from my perspective they enhance the experience.

2:14 I played SO MANY games this way back in the 90s

Retro Bird and Bananas go hand in hand

Do you happen to have a guide for recording CRT footage? In your videos it's so crystal clear!

Only old gamers such as myself can have a 70" 4k TV and still miss that old 17" TV/VCR combo that broke after one too many moves.

I do have a Sony Trinatron. Both LCD and CRT are good technologies for Retro-gaming. Most of the displays I use come from thrift-stores or are bought from other people who give them up for cheap. I really like my 4:3 20-Inch Sharp Aquos that came from a thrift store.

for years now i plug in all my consoles into an onkyo av-receiver wich has an build in upscaler. worked everytime going trough different modern tvs and different onkyos as well

As someone who was born in the late 80’s and grew up in the 90’s, I’m a total sucker for my CRT. Just brings back a lot of great memories for me. Can’t wait to bring it back out of storage when we have a place with more room for it! I think I’d be a bit more open to the idea of getting myself set up with everything I need to upscale on a modern display but the price of admission is a bit high unfortunately. Game on!

Basically I always thought I need a CRT TV to play retro games ,but not anymore I just got use to using the classic DVD player or VCR for my retro games because if you see the obvious cable screw on the TV now a days it is possible

I would definitely recommend a CRT for 5th generation and below. Once you hit the 6th generation you start to get consoles with much better video quality, so a CRT is helpful, but you can fudge the results a lot easier if you just wanna hook it up to a regular tv.

Great vid, I still want a CRT, but the Retrotink option just seems so much more convenient. I haven't pulled the trigger on either yet, so who knows what will happen. Honestly, all that matters imo is that people keep enjoying classic games.

I use crts and HD retrovision cables with n64 and snes. Absolutely love it!

it is definitely possible to get a similar experience to CRT on modern displays, but its not worth the hassle- primarily in terms of cost and space managment. yes you can get stuff like a retrotink or upscaler, but they are actually quite expensive. the other thing people dont always take into consideration is that upscalers might be bulky AND require a powersource (and for people running original hardware, powering all those consoles mean that open/unused wall outlets around you TV can be hard to come by). There are new lightguns available also, but they are not cheap and you either need to know how to get roms on your PC to use them OR shell out for a premade console to bundle with it- adding more money ontop of your OLED, Retrotink, and light gun. thats not even including that the games included on those light gun systems technically arent legal and you're paying someone for piracy (Lets be real, if we're going down the pirate path its better that we get the roms ourselves for free instead of paying someone else to steal it) at the end of the day, you could probably buy a PVM (production video monitor) aka the cream of the CRT crop for less money than you'd have to spend on a modern display with all the addons to make it work well. so you should either get a CRT and lean into the experience, or just get some emulators on your PC and play for free (because even if its not the best experience, playing all those games for free goes a long way to make up for those shortcomings)

It's all about enjoying yourself. Who cares how you play as long as you are enjoying yourself. Period!

This is a good video. I only wished you mentioned speedrunning or the Classic Tetris World Championship in passing as a CRT is basically required in those competitive environments.

For my CRT I use a Scart to component converter. The brand is called Shinybow. It’s really nice and the colors pop. Although it ruins the dithering on the Saturn.

There was one point missing from this video and that is the motion clarity. Most OLED and TFT types of display are the sample & hold type and therefore blur moving pictures. Especially fast scenes like the bike scene in battletoads would show this problem. Plasma and CRTs don't have that big of an issue ... if I ignore negative effects of phosphor fading and subfield drive.

Cool video.

Just about to buy a Sone Wega Trinitron! pretty excited

Woooooooooh you're killing it on the Final Fight game!

I had one of those nice Sony CRTs years ago, but I gave it to a buddy after I got my first HD TV, and he probably threw it away years ago. Funny how stuff that's considered worthless back then is now quite a commodity. Personally I do love my Analogue consoles. I like the convenience of hooking them up to the modern TV in my living room. Also I have a decent sound bar that makes the music and sound effects enhanced. I haven't played on a CRT in a while but I've tried the blurring effect on some games and it gave me a headache. I do get why some people don't like the Analogue consoles, but my brothers and I appreciate them. It feels nice having a new retro console that wasn't mistreated by a child lol.

Dude you’re hilarious love it

The softer picture and the lack of input lagg is why I love my old Crt Tv:s..

I love your content specially because you are down to earth and not a snob. Sure you can get the best gear there is..but what do I need to play for half an hour a day?

Happy birthday🎉

Down to my last CRT TV at my house. Also I remember finding the Game Mode on my TV for the 1st time & I've been putting that into all my TVs on that mode ever since! This has been a huge topic 4 Retro Gamers lately & one thing I've come to realize is Hand Helds. They ALL come with a screen made 4 that game & for that time period, no need for Bibity Bobity Boo to your screen!

I always wanna hear this

I haven't had a CRT in over a decade and have needed to rely on modern consoles with rereleases or emulation. Last month I finally got a CRT again and man I felt like a kid again I beat Star Fox right then and there trying to test it. It opened my eyes once more on why retro gaming on CRTs are so integral to the experience but after having gone so long without one I now don't mind what I play these old games on. I'll be playing on both the CRT and newer displays from now on

1:00 might be the funniest joke you've made on this channel so far. In general this episode had me cracking up but damn that one took the cake, I was laughing like an idiot at that! CRTs are amazing and I'm so happy that my wife understands why I horde these giant hunks of crap :P