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LG 32MN60T as a retro-gaming CRT replacement (using OSSC for upscaling)

 



My modest proposal for a CRT replacement: a fast + large LCD monitor with an OSSC to handle conversion from component to HDMI.  I still have a very good condition consumer Sony TV (27FS100) to compare to, so I can judge how well this works even if I can't photograph it successfully.

I'm using a 32" LG 32MN60T, which is big enough for playing from a couch. Because it's a computer monitor, it's super fast by TV standards (2.5ms input lag, but 8ms response time). It's only 1080p, but given what I'm going to send it from the OSSC, that's FINE.

The OSSC is set up to take 480i input and convert it to 960p using 2x BOB deinterlacing. In a somewhat feeble attempt to emulate the rapid phosphor decay of an interlaced screen, I selected the mode where rather than true line doubling it draws the current and previous frame simultaneously, but the old frame at 25% of original brightness. Think of it as 25% LACE,75% BOB. This nicely masks a lot of the BOB artifacts (flicker), and likewise the LACE artifacts (horizontal lines when the screen moves).

The result? not quite CRT quality, but before I had finished playing a single level of Ratchet and Clank I had already forgotten that I wasn't playing on a CRT. Not that I'm getting rid of my Sony CRT for now (well, make me a $$$ offer, purist) but this is a viable way forward. And FYI, I'm picky. This is the first time I felt like I had really seen a viable option that wasn't super expensive. 

You might quibble with calling this screen "fast" because of the response time. But it's an IPS which I consider mandatory if you are going to play from the couch. And the slow temporal response time between frames, in effect, duplicates some of the spatial blurring within a frame that a TV's CRT has. So pixels were pleasantly blended, ideal for old 3D games from the PS2 era. I think it would look quite good for a 2D game but didn't try that.

LG 32MN60T input lag and response time measured with the pi lag tester pro

 2021 model IPS LCD/LED monitor, 1080p at up to 75hz. Actually refreshes at 75hz if that's the signal you give it.  

Input lag at screen's top was 2.5ms. Response Time was another 8ms on top of that. The screen has several "modes" including game mode, none of which change anything. It also has a Response Time option, with 3 levels of speed. Increasing the response speed increased the brightness overshot in a black to white transition, but didn't really make the slope of the transition any faster, so the response time stayed about the same: 8ms. Perhaps other transitions fare better, but I can see no reason to use anything other than the normal "response time" setting, as that overshot surely leads to visual artifacts (I didn't test real input to see how much of an effect that was).

VESA mountable, good viewing angles.  Enormously too large for 1080p on your desktop. This is meant for more of a living room setting where you are sitting further away (coop gaming?) but why not just use a good TV instead? Perhaps because 2.5ms lag is hard to match without going very high end in the TV space.



ViewSonic VA2759-smh input lag and response time measured with the piLagTester PRO

I tested a used ViewSonic VA2759, made in 2016. Only seems to support 75hz refresh rates and below (but does scan out at 75hz).

It offers a "game" mode, but this only changes the color profile, all timing is identical across all "modes".

It does offer an option to change response time, from "standard" to "ultrafast". This did change response time, but not input lag. 

Input lag in the upper corner is 2.5ms. Response time in standard mode is an additional 10ms. Switching to Ultrafast it drops to 7ms. The luminance curves over time show no ugly artifacts in "ultrafast", at least in the black to white transition. 

It accepts interlaced video, which is displayed using BOB deinterlacing. 

Colors looked fine, but viewing angles seemed a tad narrow for an IPS.  

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