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Answerman - Why Is Old Anime Still Released In Interlaced Format?

All right, thanks for the answer. So the reason is because there isn't much demand for backwards compatibility with older devices anymore?

(I'd guess this will be problematic for retro gamers who want to play on the systems they're originally on. Certainly, I have a number of older game systems, and their lack of compatibility with newer TVs worries me.)

I was also gifted a device called a "retropie"--basically a small computer that comes pre-loaded with various retro emulators. I found it very difficult to play platformers because the lag between the console and displaying the image on the TV makes it very hard to do delicate jumping. You see on the screen that you are still standing on an edge but in reality you've already fallen into a pit but don't yet realize it so by the time you press the "jump" button it's too late.

I was also gifted a device called a "retropie"--basically a small computer that comes pre-loaded with various retro emulators. I found it very difficult to play platformers because the lag between the console and displaying the image on the TV makes it very hard to do delicate jumping. You see on the screen that you are still standing on an edge but in reality you've already fallen into a pit but don't yet realize it so by the time you press the "jump" button it's too late. I can play emulated platformers like the various mario or mega man games with no problem on an actual PC emulator but once it goes through my TV the lag makes jumping pits or dodging things very hard. I had a similar problem playing the FFX/FFX-2 HD remaster. The graphics looked great on the HDTV but there was a noticeable lag in the control inputs. I had trouble doing the various mini-games (especially lightning dodging in FFX and timing of gunshots in X-2) whereas when I first played the old SD version on an analog TV I had no issues with those. Clearly this sort of thing isn't a problem for every game, but it is for some games & situations.

I have a few friends who are really hardcore into retro gaming and what they do is track down used/refurbished studio monitors: basically, high-end CRTs that were meant for use in film studios & TV broadcast applications. Apparently they provide the very best performance for old-school consoles that only had analog output, and while they were several thousand $$$ new they can be had for a lot less on the used market. Sorry, I can't name any specifics as to what models they use but I'm sure you can find more on a dedicated retrogaming site.

While the emulation itself could be introducing some delay, modern TV sets take advantage of the fact that as long as they delay the audio by the same amount, they can take an extended amount of time (still measured in only milliseconds) processing the video signal. This is why ARC (audio return channel) was incorporated into later HMDI specifications and most AV recievers have an adjustable audio delay. Some HDTV sets include a "gaming mode" to bypass most or all of this processing specifically to avoid or minimize the issue you describe.

Oh yes, my HDTV has a "Gaming Mode" (and is called that on the menu). What are the disadvantages to that when doing something other than video games? That is, why are TVs not in gaming mode all the time?

While the emulation itself could be introducing some delay, modern TV sets take advantage of the fact that as long as they delay the audio by the same amount, they can take an extended amount of time (still measured in only milliseconds) processing the video signal. This is why ARC (audio return channel) was incorporated into later HMDI specifications and most AV recievers have an adjustable audio delay.

Some HDTV sets include a "gaming mode" to bypass most or all of this processing specifically to avoid or minimize the issue you describe.

Thanks. I am not a retro gamer specifically, just that I never sell off any of my old systems or games and will hook them up and play them if I feel like it.

I can say that, having worked at a donation center for a few years, CRT TVs come in every day,...

Oh yes, my HDTV has a "Gaming Mode" (and is called that on the menu). What are the disadvantages to that when doing something other than video games? That is, why are TVs not in gaming mode all the time?

I have been familiar with "Gaming Mode" for a long time, but I had no idea it affected the processing lag. I thought it was only the brightness, contrast, and color balance that was optimized for gaming rather than for film. Thanks for pointing that out--one learns something every day. Though to be honest, I do very little gaming--I'm into this more for the classic AV geek discussion!

Yeah if I was more into playing old consoles that's certainly what I would do too. I'm not serious enough about it to go track down a special model, etc. I was just mentioning what some of the really hardcore guys do. Apparently there are some who go so far as to mod their console to intercept the video signal off the actual video chips before it gets converted to the TV output and route this signal via component video to the CRT. Apparently this is the best thing, though most consumer CRTs did not have component video inputs. That's the motivation for using the "studio monitor"--not only are they very high quality CRTs but they had all sorts of fancy inputs used in the pro video industry.

Again, just fodder for discussion--not something I've done personally or have the inclination to do.

Were they ever released into the general consumer markets? I never saw any HD CRTs for sale, only at those conventions.

Well, there aren't any major gaming systems I can think of that support component without supporting either composite or HDMI. If it supports HDMI, you might as well get a modern TV, and if it supports composite, most working CRTs will work with that.

The ones they showed on Tomorrow's World were from Japan, where they had analogue HD broadcasts. From Wikipedia:

"Japan had the earliest working HDTV system, with design efforts going back to 1979. The country began broadcasting wideband analog high-definition video signals in the late 1980s using an interlaced resolution of 1035 or 1080-lines active (1035i) or 1125-lines total supported by the Sony HDVS line of equipment.

The Japanese system, developed by NHK Science & Technology Research Laboratories in the 1980s, employed filtering tricks to reduce the original source signal to decrease bandwidth utilization. MUSE was marketed as "Hi-Vision" by NHK."

Yeah, that's been my experience too--at least in the sense that there was no component connectors on the back of the console.

However what I'm talking about is a modification of the hardware itself. Inside the NES (or whatever) the video is processed in R, G, B channels in the graphics chip. The NES then converts that signal to coax for the output to TVs of the day. The really serious retro gamers will take the console apart and solder wires to the motherboard--picking up the RGB signals before they pass through the conversion to coax. They then output this signal to a CRT TV. Apparently it is the best because it avoids any loss of quality in the coax conversion process inside the console, and again in the TV. I'm sure this is a pretty small group of gamers who do this though!

Modifying old systems to work with newer output types?

1979! Most definitely I didn't see any of those. The conventions my father took me to were around 1994 to 1997 or somesuch.