I have an old school boob tube tv in my room, currently with a firestick running through a converter. It’s fine i guess, but i want something else because 1, the aspect ratio is off since it expects to be hooked up to a flatscreen, and 2 the privacy problem of running something from amazon. Is there something that could work here?
You must log in or register to comment.
I know it’s not the question you asked, but you can probably replace that with something more modern very easily. Check pawn shops, estate sales, auctions, thrift shops, etc. You can also try dumpster diving around colleges when people move out in May.
Given that the largest CRT ever made was 42", and you obviously have something smaller, it shouldn’t be hard to find a suitable replacement. LCDs have been the standard for about 20 years now. Plenty of old stock that people are upgrading from.
You could do something pretty cost efficiently with a Raspberry Pi that has composite video out: https://www.blakecarpenter.dev/using-a-raspberry-pi-with-a-crt-television/
I think the main Problem with raspberry pi is the video encoding and that it doesn’t have enough power to do it properly depending on the codec.
Yeah, I’m unfamiliar with the state of doing encoding with a pi, I have seen that newer models have a dedicated encoder chip for h.264 but I’ve personally never used it. Even with the first model of the raspberry pi, it included a hardware decoder, and was able to run as a media player hooked up to HDMI. I’m assuming OP wants something like that, just a media player for the CRT, and not a full fledged media server which can power everything.
Oh that’s dope as hell, I didn’t even realize Pis had composite video output at all!
This was actually new to me that the recent models have it, I haven’t tried the instructions from this blog, but it seems about right. I only used the original Pi and gave some life to spare CRT TVs like 10 years ago.
I’m curious what retropie would look like on a CRT. Would it need the overlays still or look like the original?
Imagine if the CRT filter on an actual CRT turns it into HD
FWIW you can fix the aspect ratio issue on the firestick using ADB to force the device to display in a 4:3 resolution (except when using streaming apps that force 16:9)
If you want something privacy oriented you’ll probably need to build some kind of NUC. To my knowledge no off-the-shelf streaming device respects privacy
If you can find/download the CRT TV’s remote, it may be possible to force widescreen in the menu or adjust vertical deflection in the service menu
Raspberry pi is a good option
Not if you have to encode anything and don’t have a dedicated h.264 encoder with it
I used to be real ghetto about it and use my SteamLink that I bought when they did a fire sale and they are 5 bucks each.
https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/7BE7-BB7D-D904-03AE
If you can snag a used one, maybe that could work? I dunno though, I wouldn’t let go of mine for almost anything.
They’re reasonably priced used on ebay, in my opinion. Most are around $50 with one that’s listed as “factory sealed” for $105. If I recall correctly, they originally were around $50 to begin with when Valve initially released them.
I have a few from the same fire sale. I should mess about with them.
If I was in your boat I’d probably do what you’re doing right now, because I hate Roku’s operating system. Long ago my family used this Roku for the same use case:
https://www.amazon.com/Roku-Express-Ditital-Streaming-Player/dp/B07CVH1L53?psc=1
It’s the Roku Roku Express+ 3910RW. Apparently it doesn’t get updates anymore though so your mileage may vary with this thing.
https://community.roku.com/t5/Roku-setup/Roku-Express-With-Composite-Cables/td-p/823748
