Wii Virtual Console

[J T]

Sony gear used to be the mutt's nuts but now it seems a long way from that.

Although LowercasE, was it a flat panel screen? Panasonic screens trounce Sony ones.

[LowercaseE]

Sony gear used to be the mutt's nuts but now it seems a long way from that.

Although LowercasE, was it a flat panel screen? Panasonic screens trounce Sony ones.

It's actually a 34" CRT Panasonic "Tau", but it's a flat tube/screen. I looked into flat panel LCD but in my opinion, CRT is still the best as far as picture (black levels, contrast, and color reproduction) is concerned. Then again, the thing weighs nearly 200lbs and is quite bulky.

[Harrison]

It's actually a 34" CRT Panasonic "Tau", but it's a flat tube/screen. I looked into flat panel LCD but in my opinion, CRT is still the best as far as picture (black levels, contrast, and color reproduction) is concerned. Then again, the thing weighs nearly 200lbs and is quite bulky.

In the UK CRT HDTV all but don't exist. I've never personally seen one. I expect some do get sold but not in any high street stores I've seen.

I do agree that CRT screens do still offer much over LCD in one big area. Scaling. Flat Panels always have to use the fixed resolution pixels they have so are limited in the way they can scale outside of their native resolution. Whereas CRT's can scale easily with no difference in quality.

But give an LCD or Plasma screen a picture in its native resolution and it will blow the CRT out of the water and show how blurred any CRT is in contrast.

It's weighing up what you need the most I suppose. I always preferred CRT monitors over LCD for a long time, but now only use LCDs. Why? Computers and graphics cards became fast enough that the native resolution of the LCD is all that you ever need to run. Games no longer need to be dropped to lower resolutions to run at good frame rates, and the high resolution and clear graphics and type are perfect in the native resolution for desktop work.

CRT only looks better a lot of the time because it's analogue technology is good at hiding imperfections by slighly bluring the screen dots together.

As for the quality of Sony products. I agree. They used to be some of the best made, but now many of the other good makes have caught up or are better. I personally think Panasonic products have always been just as good as Sony. Others such as Samsung have recently caught up and are now overtaking Sony in may areas too.

[J T]

Good points you mentioned there Harrison.

Panasonic did a range of kind-of-high-ish definition CRTs in the UK under the Acuity range. They could run at 733i resolution by some fancy scaler or somthing. Bloody good tubes but sometimes I felt the image was a little "over-processed".

They didn't do the actual HD resolutions as we know them now - they came out just before HD sets became available (possibly the standards had not been set at that point). Could also do PAL Progressive scan. They were very capable sets. I was tempted to get a refurb one cheaply. Glad I didn't now though, as I love my plasma.

[rayzorblue]

Finally got the Wii online with a Nintendo USB dongle it seems to work well enough although the update did take a while, went on virtual console and d/loaded Bomberman 93, brilliant stuff, my partner wants me to get mario bros next which would be kind of cool, cant wait to get my mates round to play multiplayer bomberman. Wasnt so impressed with the browser but that dont matter because i dont really need it anyhow. I read an interview wit Reggie Fil-Aimes were he mentioned how much he would love to see goldeneye on the virtual console but there are certain legal issues with it (like the fact RARE is now owned by Microsoft) i just hope one day we get to see it.

[cicobuff]

Finally got the Wii online with a Nintendo USB dongle it seems to work well enough although the update did take a while, went on virtual console and d/loaded Bomberman 93, brilliant stuff, my partner wants me to get mario bros next which would be kind of cool, cant wait to get my mates round to play multiplayer bomberman. Wasnt so impressed with the browser but that dont matter because i dont really need it anyhow. I read an interview wit Reggie Fil-Aimes were he mentioned how much he would love to see goldeneye on the virtual console but there are certain legal issues with it (like the fact RARE is now owned by Microsoft) i just hope one day we get to see it.

And now even RARE has gone to the dogs http://www.cex.co.uk/cex_feature.php?id=8346

Founders have quit after the poor commercial success of games since the acquisition by Microsoft.

[rayzorblue]

Its sad to see a once great company go down the toilet, but while saying that i am smiling.

Oh hope u guys linked your nintendo website account with your Wii shopping channel one as you gain shi**y stars when you buy virtual console games. And yes i did miss the free age of empires DS game on the stars catalogue, dammit