EposVox aka The Stream Professor recently posted a video showing the SteamDeck working on CRT’s. This video is great for anyone interested in doing the same, as well as for people interested in “modern retro” games. And of course, seeing how modern games translate to CRT’s is something any retro nerd would enjoy. More thoughts below…
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As I watched the video, I wrote down a few thoughts. Sadly, the DAC issues he ran info are common these days. There used to be great cheap DAC’s readily available, but it’s near impossible to get something cheap and reliable these days. If you want a device that works the way it should, something like the HD Fury he showed is really the only way.
Next, while I loved that he showed 720p on a BVM (NERRRRD!!! ;p), I personally prefer the more “authentic” scanline look of 480p on a CRT. Funny enough, he came to the exact same conclusion and while 480p on multiformat BVM’s are outstanding, this is something you can totally use a cheap VGA CRT monitor for as well. Which is what he showed next…
And I agree, PC CRT monitors are probably the best choice for something like this due to cost. The look is almost exactly what you’d want, plus almost all PC’s can connect to them – Just make sure to use a DAC like the ones Kuro found, which don’t ruin the colors. You could try a native USB/Thunderbolt to VGA adapter, but you might be limited to specific refresh rates and resolutions – Outputting via HDMI into a DAC might be better overall. I’ve had great success that way, even running at 120 or 144Hz.
Luckily, some game even support 4:3 aspect ratios, making this even easier on PC CRT displays. Some even support a “stretched” 16:9 resolution, like Epos showed with the Mega Man X Collection – And while stretching your game to 16:9 on a flat panel is blasphemous, sending a wider signal to a 4:3 CRT and forcing fullscreen will simply result in the entire screen being filled. So…4:3! This is demonstrated in the video.
This isn’t just for 480p and up though, Epos showed some downscaling solutions that allow the Steam Deck to be playing on standard 15KHz displays, like most people had in their living rooms in the pre-2000’s. Marco’s downscaling section of RetroRGB provides LOTS of ways to make this happen in both 240p and 480i. The footage Epos showed proved lots of “new retro” games fit perfectly via the look of an old school TV and it definitely something you might consider if you already have the tools. The only downside, is the Steam Deck’s menu didn’t seem to work right when outputting in a 4:3 aspect ratio, but this might be something that can be fixed in a future firmware update.
Honestly though, the mini PVM at the end was hilarious and I loved seeing a “portable” CRT connected to a handheld like the stream deck.
Of course, to get similar effects, you could always set these games to 480p and run them through the RetroTINK 5x or 4K for a CRT emulation look on your flat panel…but that’s not nearly as cool, is it? ;p
For more CRT-goodness, check out Addie’s other video here:
