tokumaru wrote:
For some reason, CRT TVs do make the resolution seem better, but I can't really explain why.
I remember the first time I ran Sonic 1 on Genecyst back in 1997 or so and showed it to my father... The first thing he said was "the resolution is better on the console, right?". I knew it wasn't, but I understood why he'd think that. I don't know why, but CRT TVs are great at making low resolution content look good.
Probably because CRT pixels are not really rigid squares, but the picture is created by the electron beam. VHS has resolution just a bit better than the NES, yet on our 1998 Sony VCR, even LP mode cassetess look broadcast quality. 240p is not "low resolution" for a CRT, because the cathode ray apparatus acts kinda like a natural antialiasing or how to describe it.
I wouldn't say the CRTs make the resolution look better, rather, the LCD makes resolutions any other than native look worse. I remember 640x480 and 320x200 to look great on an old VGA monitor, even through the VGA signal is crisp clear. I couldn't see the pixels on the old 14 inch VGA monitor in 640x480, but when I move my eyes really close to my 20inch widescreen LCD, I see the pixels -
in 1600x900 resolution.
It is like a superhuman wondering why everything looks so shitty when you can see every molecule in an object - LCDs are too sharp to not be shit. Hell, on my 20inch LCD,
1024x758 looks shit. All the interpolation and filtering crap has nothing on CRT.
Basically, for a normal CRT,
every resolution is native resolution. On LCDs, unless your signal is your native resolution, it will look crap.