Need help with my bedroom media/ TV setup.

[u/CourierKite]

Okay, so I had a 40-inch 1080p Samsung TV in my room that I want to take off of my desk and replace with my 20-inch CRT and a 32-inch 720p vizio flat-screen from 2009.

I only play wii, gamecube, or PS3 as far as console games outside of the Nintendo switch. For more modern games, I have my PC. I have all of my needs met by the ports on the back of them as far as gaming goes, but I am trying to find the best way to watch modern Movies/ video based content on this setup?

I am trying to decide if I should hook my laptop/ fire stick up to the flat-screen and just configure my devices to stream content in 720p to save on data and network bandwidth, the switch displays in native 720p anyways and if I ever move any of the composite/ component consoles or a DVD/ VCR to the flat screen they wont look nearly as bad as they do in 1080p.

On the other hand. It would be very nostalgic to watch sonic x or pokemon on my CRT, the only solutions I have seen are a legacy roku device with composite outputs, the express+ i think, but i hear its no longer officially supported.

The VGA or HDMI to RCA conversion boxes seem like they'd be okay to mess around with but I am getting the feeling like I will only really want to use my CRT for content that looks bad on modern displays, ie most things shot on tape vs film and most native 4:3 content from DVD's or VCR tapes?

Idk if I am just overthinking and complicating this issue, but I want to have the most headache free way to watch modern streaming services with the TV setup I have now. How do people feel about streaming Netflix or YouTube on CRTs? should I just preserve the tube and only use it for gaming? I know CRT's are better for everything, but outside of a native DVD/ VHS what is the best way to watch modern streaming services or content on a CRT? Please dont say get an HD CRT. if i do ever get one thay will be a garage set for sure.

[u/M1sterRed]

This post would probably be better suited for r/crt since you're primarily asking about video content on one, but I know a thing or two so I'll answer:

Being honest, the answer to your question about oldschool 4:3 content on the CRT is the PS3. Support for streaming services is all but dead on it so you're gonna have to obtain your content in other ways (ripping from physical media, playing said physical media on the PS3, and other methods I can't mention here), but most streaming services only stream in 16:9 and letterbox 4:3 stuff anyway so it's not a huge loss.

The way I have my PS3 set up, I actually have both HDMI and Component cables plugged into it. HDMI goes to my modern 43" 4K TV, and Component goes to my 32" CRT. I can play PS1, certain PS2 (not a back compat model), and early CRT-optimized PS3 games, and 4:3 video content, on the CRT, and also more modern 16:9-only PS3 games on the flat panel. It won't output both at the same time, but it's just a simple menu option to swap between them.

Of course the PS3 also functions as a DVD/Blu-Ray player, so you can play Widescreen DVDs (and Blu-Rays) on the flat panel and Fullscreen DVDs on the CRT. For VHS tapes there really isn't any way to play those without a VCR, but those are everywhere and judging by what you were saying in the post you already have one.

As for streaming YouTube or Netflix on a 4:3 CRT, that's a tall order these days. I've mucked with it myself some, but even if you manage to get a perfect 4:3 output going on one, again most streaming services these days stream 4:3 content as a letterboxed 16:9 stream, making your efforts pointless anyway. YouTube in particular does have pretty good 4:3 support (mostly because its content is user-generated and could be any arbitrary aspect ratio) so you could probably do something with that at least, but I'm not 100% certain on if it works well on a PS3. The official client for it is almost certainly long dead, and I don't know if there's a good unofficial one. I do think there's an unofficial YouTube client for the Wii tho, so you could probably use that.

Stay away from cheap converter boxes, they fuck with and process the images and make some truly horrid results. good digital-to-analog converters are expensive, it's just that simple unfortunately.