Are CRT HDTVs better to watch Classic Dragon Ball media?

[JohnnyCashKami]

"Classic Dragon Ball" for me encompasses Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball GT and the Movies/Specials.

I remember reading here that CRT TVs were somewhat better for an optimal viewing experience of Classic Dragon Ball, how true is that? Are LCD/Plasma HDTVs not as good?

My pop's has one of those, it's actually really, really heavy but it's from Samsung and the picture quality looks rather nice on it (for old stuff at least), so I thought since he wants to throw it out I'd take it to my place. I dunno if it's really worth the hassle 'cause it's like trying to carry a full grown pig from one spot to another.

[HakkaiBills93]

"Classic Dragon Ball" for me encompasses Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball GT and the Movies/Specials.

I remember reading here that CRT TVs were somewhat better for an optimal viewing experience of Classic Dragon Ball, how true is that? Are LCD/Plasma HDTVs not as good?

My pop's has one of those, it's actually really, really heavy but it's from Samsung and the picture quality looks rather nice on it (for old stuff at least), so I thought since he wants to throw it out I'd take it to my place. I dunno if it's really worth the hassle 'cause it's like trying to carry a full grown pig from one spot to another.

Dragon Box was made meant to be view on CRT screen , you'll definitely don't regret watching on it, don't expect colors miracle but general overall can give you the feeling that it is better, don't forget that CRT screen don't use HD resolution and higher the resolution is higher the issues can be seen

[KBABZ]

"Classic Dragon Ball" for me encompasses Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball GT and the Movies/Specials.

I remember reading here that CRT TVs were somewhat better for an optimal viewing experience of Classic Dragon Ball, how true is that? Are LCD/Plasma HDTVs not as good?

My pop's has one of those, it's actually really, really heavy but it's from Samsung and the picture quality looks rather nice on it (for old stuff at least), so I thought since he wants to throw it out I'd take it to my place. I dunno if it's really worth the hassle 'cause it's like trying to carry a full grown pig from one spot to another.

The main reason why one would advocate for CRTs is because the way the pixels are displayed will fudge some of the more unsightly details like JPEG artefacts or junk in the swathes of black colour. This is especially true if you use the yellow Composite plug like your PS1 and PS2 came bundled with; the low quality displayed on a CRT does a lot to mess with the picture information. The overscan of CRTs (that is, the slight cropping effect) would also remove things like the bright side-bar in many OG Dragon Box episodes or the curved corners of the film cells. Do note however that certain CRTs CAN display incredibly high picture quality if you play your cards right; if you get a Production Monitor, a Japanese PS2 with a Component Cable and use the Dragon Box DVDs, it'll be incredibly sharp and many of the "flaws" will still remain.

Short version: CRTs are nostalgic and they hide a couple of the more unsightly aspects of the Dragon Box video.

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

"Classic Dragon Ball" for me encompasses Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball GT and the Movies/Specials.

I remember reading here that CRT TVs were somewhat better for an optimal viewing experience of Classic Dragon Ball, how true is that? Are LCD/Plasma HDTVs not as good?

My pop's has one of those, it's actually really, really heavy but it's from Samsung and the picture quality looks rather nice on it (for old stuff at least), so I thought since he wants to throw it out I'd take it to my place. I dunno if it's really worth the hassle 'cause it's like trying to carry a full grown pig from one spot to another.

The main reason why one would advocate for CRTs is because the way the pixels are displayed will fudge some of the more unsightly details like JPEG artefacts or junk in the swathes of black colour. This is especially true if you use the yellow Composite plug like your PS1 and PS2 came bundled with; the low quality displayed on a CRT does a lot to mess with the picture information. The overscan of CRTs (that is, the slight cropping effect) would also remove things like the bright side-bar in many OG Dragon Box episodes or the curved corners of the film cells. Do note however that certain CRTs CAN display incredibly high picture quality if you play your cards right; if you get a Production Monitor, a Japanese PS2 with a Component Cable and use the Dragon Box DVDs, it'll be incredibly sharp and many of the "flaws" will still remain.

Short version: CRTs are nostalgic and they hide a couple of the more unsightly aspects of the Dragon Box video.

I have my Dragon Boxes ripped to m4v files on my laptop and the video looks decent there, at least the artifacts and other stuff isn't as noticeable.

[Chuquita]

I hooked a CRT TV up to play N64 Smash Bros a couple months ago and it looked fine (I heard of delayed input response if you hook N64's up to Flatscreen HDTVs and didn't want to try that) so classic DB should in theory also look good on a CRT.

[KBABZ]

I hooked a CRT TV up to play N64 Smash Bros a couple months ago and it looked fine (I heard of delayed input response if you hook N64's up to Flatscreen HDTVs and didn't want to try that) so classic DB should in theory also look good on a CRT.

Yeah, anything before a PS2 tends to have a delay, because the TV mis-interprets the 240p rendering of those consoles as 480i, and had to process that in order to make it work. There are ways to get around that with devices like the OSSC or the Framemeister, but those are... well, very expensive.

[Chuquita]

I hooked a CRT TV up to play N64 Smash Bros a couple months ago and it looked fine (I heard of delayed input response if you hook N64's up to Flatscreen HDTVs and didn't want to try that) so classic DB should in theory also look good on a CRT.

Yeah, anything before a PS2 tends to have a delay, because the TV mis-interprets the 240p rendering of those consoles as 480i, and had to process that in order to make it work. There are ways to get around that with devices like the OSSC or the Framemeister, but those are... well, very expensive.

I'll stick with my CRT/N64 set-up then. It's something I do only once in a while, not something I'd want to invest a decent chunk of money into (same reason I don't have an Elgato).

[Shiro97]

I don't know if it's better, but the only two TVs I own are CRTs (not by choice mind you, I got them for free from the tip when I was short on cash.) From my experience it looks fine enough, it can be a little blurry sometimes though.

[JohnnyCashKami]

I've never heard of a HD CRT before so maybe they look better on that.

The HD CRT TV I've mentioned is a Samsung WS-32Z419D [R]. HD Ready so means it's 720p.

Here's what it looks like (taken from a Google search).

Spoiler:

It's advertised as a "Slim Fit TV" but it's anything but "slim" or "fit".

[Shiro97]

I've never heard of a HD CRT before so maybe they look better on that.

The HD CRT TV I've mentioned is a Samsung WS-32Z419D [R]. HD Ready so means it's 720p.

Here's what it looks like (taken from a Google search).

Spoiler:

It's advertised as a "Slim Fit TV" but it's anything but "slim" or "fit".

Fair enough. I don't really have the wherewithal to tell you what the difference would be unfortunately. Personally I just watch movies in the background while I draw so image quality means very little to me, which is why I never bothered upgrading to an LCD.

[Robo4900]

The reason CRTs would be better for displaying Dragon Ball is because they're great at low-resolution material -- particularly interlaced, since CRT TVs are generally natively interlaced -- and generally CRTs are quite nice in terms of black level, brightness, they have a nice look about them generally...

If you're talking Dragon Box footage, then I'd say yes absolutely, try watching that stuff on a standard-def CRT, and you'll probably find it looks pretty damn nice. If we're getting into the HD masters, though... Really, it'll be a matter of opinion.

If you really want to get seriously into what the show should look like, the best way would be if Toei put out some really nice HD masters, and you watch them on a really good HD projector. That would be an experience much truer to the original film materials, which is about as close as you can get to some nebulous concept of a "Best way to watch". Anything else involving stuff like "but it was a CRT back in the day" and you immediately swerve into the territory of you having to get ahold of original broadcast tapes and watching them on some cheap CRT TV's coaxial input. Any degredation from the VHS inbetween will be rendered largely mute by the general crappiness of this way of watching; you'll have pretty much a perfect representation of what Japanese people had watching the show back in the original run, complete with the episodes running slightly too fast.

(The episodes running slightly too fast is a technical detail that's mildly interesting, but doesn't really matter much; back in the original run, the show was played in from film to a live telecine to broadcast -- or in GT's case, played onto tape from a film telecine, then broadcast from the tape, though the telecine process was handled in the same way as DB and Z... The film was run at a speed of 24fps. Not 23.976fps, 24fps solid. The signal was played back at about 59.94fps. Not 60fps, 59.94, because that's NTSC standard. The result is that since the fact the film should have been playing back at 23.976fps, it ran ever so slightly faster than it should have, and resulted in some weirdness on the original airings; you can see the various consequences of this weird process very nicely if you can get ahold of a good-quality bit of video from the original videotape master of GT. All of this does mean that technically, it would be more accurate to the original broadcasts if any and all Blu-Rays of the show were encoded to 24fps, not 23.976 as is standard for film material, but 24fps, which is a possible format on Blu-Ray. But it'd be silly, and really any restoration of Dragon Ball should pay more attention to the film than the broadcasts anyway, so the standard 23.976 speed is better)