Best hdmi_mode setting for older 4:3 CRT TV?

JamesRIves

All,

I use Retropie on an old Sony Trinitron (circa 1998) via s-video using a HDMI to s-video converter. I love the results... it has an authentic old school feel, but I'm wondering what hdmi_mode I should utilize to best utilize the 4:3 television display? I set the configuration for each individual emulator for a 4:3 display. As it stands, most emulators use a good portion of the top and bottom of the screen, but there are black bars on the sides of screen (EmulationStation uses the entire screen). It seems the black bars on the sides of the screen shouldn't be necessary on a 4:3 television? Is there a more appropriate hdmi_mode setting for a traditional 4:3 TV screen that would better utilize the entire screen? Or is there some other tweak I should apply to make the emulators use more of the left/right of the screen?

Jim

youxia

@jamesrives This is a rather complex subject and I'd advise starting by reading this thread: https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/8521/best-way-to-output-scart-rgb-from-pi-3/8
And this: http://retrorgb.com/rpi240p.html

The information is out there but scattered through various websites. Settings may vary depending on the method you're using. I'm not familiar with "HDMI to s-video converter". I was using Pi2SCART personally, but there's also RetroTink and RGB-Pi. RetroTink supports S-video if that's the only "good" input your TV has.

In general, you want to disable_overscan=1 in config.txt Then, you must realize there's no one setting for all the emulators since they all used different resolutions. There's one trick which works well, by supersizing the horizontal resolution (to 1600 px, or even more) and using Custom_viewport settings (different for the assorted emulators).

If you use the 4:3 Aspect Ratio, or Bilinear Filtering you will have artifacts. I can't go in detail about this, it's been some time since I've used these methods (I had to downgrade to composite for now). There should be enough info in these threads to get you going though.

JamesRIves

Thanks. That's very helpful info! I appreciate it.

I've been working on some tweaks, and I've made some progress with the emulators, but now I'm struggling with the emulationstation front end. It appears the higher quality themes were predominately designed for 16:9 displays. I really like the newish SuperNES mini theme, but that one isn't working well on a CRT (borders chopped off). I'm not skilled enough to create my own theme, so I guess I'll go on the hunt for the best possible 4:3 theme I can get my hands on.

Jim

youxia

I use CRT Centered, it's made for CRT TV users, looks great in 240p.

JamesRIves

This post is deleted!

JamesRIves

I'll give that a try. I seem to recall there used to be a 4:3 version of the "comic book" theme, so that might also be an option.

Jim