/vr/ - Retro Games

Trinitrons are godly, ain't no screen doors

>>1743172
In a nutshell, for retro you want something that can do 480i natively. That's standard definition.

Here's the long answer. 480 refers to the number of horizontal lines a typical SD tv has. If the 480 is followed by an "i", that means it is an interlaced signal. An interlaced signal is one in which every other horizontal line is redrawn every other frame. In frame one, all even horizontal lines are drawn. In frame 2, all odd horizontal lines are drawn. This alternating of lines by frame is usually unnoticable to the human eye.

If the 480 is followed by a "p", that means it's a progressive signal. A progressive signal is one in which all horizontal lines are redrawn every frame.

480i is standard definition, 480p is enhanced definition.

Most retro games will output a 240p signal. Professional monitors like those made by Mitsubishi, Ikegami, NEC, and Sony can render that 240p signal natively and perfectly. Some of these monitors support Multiscan, meaning they can also natively display video at it's correct resolution, regardless of whether it's standard, enhanced, or high definition. Consumer grade HDTVs will instead try to upscale the image to a higher resolution, resulting in lag.

Most consumer televisions of the time period will upscale the 240p signal to 480i, and fill in the image with big fat scanliiiiiiiiiiiiines. This is totally fine for retro. See example.