How much longer are SDTV's going to be made?

[David J.]

Seeing that many companies have closed down production lines, and when you go to the store, it's HDTV after HDTV. I'm kind of getting concerned here, since most all HDTV's don't work well with 16 and 32-bit game systems. Or will newer models be able to work with classic systems better?

I just love my Philips TV, and I wish it worked forever. '27 is perfect for Genesis, Saturn and DC gaming. Hell, even the Genesis looks watchable in composite on this TV, but not as good as it could be. and I'll be happy when I get a rgb -> component transcoder. I'm very happy with the Dreamcast and Saturn in S-video, that I don't think I need to upgrade... yet. But the Genesis, just is oh so close to looking perfect.

I don't really watch TV, but my dad has a offbrand, a Sylvania something or another. But if I need to watch HDTV, I easily can.

[Joe Redifer]

Hopefully for awhile. HDTV just can't do standard definition game systems justice, that's for damn sure. I'd like to get at least one more SDTV with a good component input, as I'm sure my Toshiba won't last forever. When I no longer have a good SDTV, I will simply stop playing Genesis/SMS/SNES/Saturn/NeoGeo/NES/TurboGrafx-16 games. It's 240p native or nothing at all.

[David J.]

Yeah I know.... I wonder if the big, bad FCC will make it illegal to sell a SDTV in the future?

I just don't really have the space at the moment. Money? Well, not for something with S-video and Component... I could make make some space, keep in the BIG box for many years or something when my philips dies.

I know that when I got the TV, that a lot of my mom's coworkers where pissed that I have a bigger TV than most of their children. Might as well spend a few extra $$$ and get something better and bigger.

[Joe Redifer]

I wonder if the big, bad FCC will make it illegal to sell a SDTV in the future?

Probably. The government has made it illegal to sell (and probably even possess) a Coke made with real sugar in the USA.

[Flash1087]

Seriously?

[Joe Redifer]

Yup. USA Coke is required to have high fructose corn syrup as its sweetener. In fact I don't think it's just Coke, I think it's pretty much all carbonated beverages. Coke outside of the USA is still made with sugar.

[evildragon]

I just had an idea on how to get an HDTV CRT do 240p, without doing it at all..

If the tube can at all do 480p (most do 540p/1080i only), it can add virtual scan lines, and bring up the contrast.. there, it would look an awefull lot like 240p (i do this on PC emulators, looks real as hell)

[Joe Redifer]

I would love it if HDTVs incorporated this, but I imagine most manufacturers won't care about older games, and they'd say it'd take time and money to adapt this for an incoming 240p signal. Maybe when HDTVs get less expensive we'll see things like this. I sure HOPE we do. I just hope it wouldn't mess up the timing by adding a processing delay.

[evildragon]

I would love it if HDTVs incorporated this, but I imagine most manufacturers won't care about older games, and they'd say it'd take time and money to adapt this for an incoming 240p signal. Maybe when HDTVs get less expensive we'll see things like this. I sure HOPE we do. I just hope it wouldn't mess up the timing by adding a processing delay.

well, i think the main problem comes with detecting 480i to 240p..

electronically, they are the same.. but the sync rates are different slightly.. they are both 15khz without a doubt, but 480i is 30Hz, and 240p is 60Hz.. but, actually implementing a circuit that can detect that, is a tad hard... that's why most TVs call 240p, as 480i, and most PC monitors say 1080i, is 540p (yep, it's reversed, and on some monitors, 540p is detected as 1080i)..

it's all timings, but it's more expensive to implement it, than it being practical.

[Joe Redifer]

Basically all 240p is is the missing flag telling the TV to advance to the next field (in a nutshell). The TV could detect the missing flag just as easily as a normal SDTV can. The problem is that if the HDTV did have this feature, light gun games would still be broken.

[evildragon]

Basically all 240p is is the missing flag telling the TV to advance to the next field (in a nutshell). The TV could detect the missing flag just as easily as a normal SDTV can. The problem is that if the HDTV did have this feature, light gun games would still be broken.

yea, it could detect the flag if it needed, but it cost more to implement it, than it is practical..

the light gun would still be broke, from one important factor: latency.. scaling ads latency..

and when the TV thinks it's 480i, there's more latency, because it has to deinterlace it too, AND scale it..

[Joe Redifer]

They should just make the TVs multisync all the way down to 240p and include everything up to 1080p, including 480i, 480p, 720p and 1080i at multiple refresh rates. It'll never happen, but I can dream.

[evildragon]

They should just make the TVs multisync all the way down to 240p and include everything up to 1080p, including 480i, 480p, 720p and 1080i at multiple refresh rates. It'll never happen, but I can dream.

yea, we could all dream

multisync tubes cost a lot.. that's why they use fixed frequency tubes

[David J.]

Probably. The government has made it illegal to sell (and probably even possess) a Coke made with real sugar in the USA.

HAHA, no. In some areas of Texas, you can buy Dr. Pepper with real sugar. Some sodas and Energy Drinks have real sugar in them... In some areas of Nevada, California, and a few other costal states it's easy to get soda imported from mexico with real sugar. And there's West Jefferson bottling in North Carolina which uses real sugar in a varity of sodas.

Now, many sodas have HFCS because it's a lot cheaper to sweeten their product. It's not illegal to use real sugar.

[Elusive]

I'd say production will still continue - probably in a highly stripped-down way, but will continue anyway. I mean, you can still buy turntables for your Engelbert Humperdink records, right?