Trypticon wrote on 2025-09-14, 23:01:

Those old games were designed for 240p . ( PAL and all the special arcade cases aside). It definitely makes a difference to 480 […]
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Those old games were designed for 240p . ( PAL and all the special arcade cases aside). It definitely makes a difference to 480i.
Resolution also matters on CRTs, but it's true you have a certain flexibility.
If you want to stick to your TV-out, you don't need CRT Emu Driver. and it's probably not very beneficial.
Strictly speaking ,you also don't need it for 240p and VGA (RGBHV) conversion to component either, since you can also also use tools like Powerstrip or WinModelines on XP to setup resolutions with appropriate refresh rates.
If you want to play a lot of different stuff as accurately as possible, Emudriver can help you with that.
You could also just setup a 2560x240 resolution/60 Hz and call it a day I suppose.

Thanks, that's good to know. I have gotten responses regarding this on other forums and I get the usual "This old tech, why aren't you using newer tech" (ironically asked on a forum dedicated to tech) or "This won't work, why are you wasting your time?" and I feel like if someone could figure out how to mod these S-Video/TV Out GPUs so that they can output everything needed for GroovyMame or maybe for a HTPC, this would be a worthy shortcut. I'm old enough and aware enough to have seen so many things done that at first didn't make any sense (like when RPi3 had a hat for CRT before anyone really knew about MiSTer or something like MiSTer Cast which has super limited use case), so I'm not sure why this has been such a trigger subject for people on these forums.

I wish I could find some more definitive documentation from ATI or nVidia when it comes how this specific technology worked and maybe a more in depth answer as to why 240p was such a difficult feat to achieve on these GPUs.

I may want to look at how Powerstip or WinModelines works to see if maybe I can mess around and get 240p working? Who knows, I might luck out.

orcish75 wrote on 2025-09-18, 08:38:

I tried last night to see if CRTEmudriver would work with the S-Video port, @theelf is 100% correct, it's always fixed at 480i n […]
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I tried last night to see if CRTEmudriver would work with the S-Video port, @theelf is 100% correct, it's always fixed at 480i no matter the resolution you choose, it only works on the RGB output. I'd still say it's worth getting the RGB to Component transcoder linked above and setting up CRTEmudriver and GroovyMAME. I have my arcade cabinet setup with a gutted 21" Sony Trinitron TV tube and chassis that's been RGB modded and driving it with an ATi HD6470 (Dell OEM). I used Atom-15 to mod the BIOS on it for 15kHz and composite sync. https://github.com/antonioginer/ATOM-15

The combination of CRTEmudriver and GroovyMAME will always pick the correct resolution (240p, 256p 480i etc) and refresh rate for the game, even games with non-standard refresh rates such as the IREM games (55HZ), Double Dragon (57Hz) and a few others. It does take some effort to set it all up properly, but once it's done, the results are as close as you can get with emulation. I can't tell the difference from the original boards for the vast majority of games. There is an average total lag of about 3-6 frames for most games and I'm unable to feel it. Sure, pro gamers will probably be able to feel it, but they'll probably be using original boards anyway.

Here are a few photos of games running on my cabinet. I use it for arcade games, Sega Megadrive, SNES and the PC Engine. (Sorry for the crappy quality pics, it's the best my phone camera could do on a CRT)

Golden Axe, GroovyMAME showing the selected resolution and refresh rate for the game

R-TYPE 2 showing the 55Hz refresh rate and 256p resolution

Sega Megadrive

SNES

Willow CPS-1

Caveman Ninja

Still a WIP, just replaced the original arcade CRT and chassis with the 21" Trinitron tube as the original CRT had screen burn on it and the chassis wasn't great.

The RGB mod input

Thanks for this. I have always been curious about using a consumer CRT in an arcade cabinet IF you didn't have a cab monitor already inside. I had the opportunity to repair my CRT throughout this year, so I could easily imagine doing a setup like that if it was worth it.