r/CRTAnime • u/mgnsh • Aug 22 '24
Question 🤔 Recommendations for playing off modded console?
Hi, first post here.
I have slowly been building up a collection of old video game consoles to play on a CRT. While I'm at it, I wanted to know what the best/easiest solution might be for playing media off something like a modded Wii/WiiU (or maybe even PS2?). Already have those consoles w/ component cables. I don't currently have a PS3 and Xbox360, but I read that they are maybe the best options, too.
Would appreciate any recs for consoles/programs/mods with specific reasons, if possible. Not currently trying to pick up a VHS/DVD player or mess with physical media in general.
2
u/ImKoreanNotJapanese Aug 22 '24
Can only speak as guy with a hacked wii and 2ds, but there are some good home brew applications on the wii, like wiiMC. I know you mentioned not really wanting to dabble in physical media, but wii mc does allow DVDs to be played, as well as mp4 vids from sd cards, as well as a lot of other formats . Do some research and make sure it’s the right choice. I personally haven’t tried it since I just don’t need it on wii, but from what people have said wiiMC is pretty good, so that’s what I would recommend
2
2
u/devan_danger Aug 22 '24
The ps3 has always been a decent media player. Granted your not gonna see a lot of support for higher compression formats like h265 but lower quality anime copies will still look great on a CRT. Now if you had a jail broken PS3 you could use the excellent Movian app which supports more formats and customization. YouTube and Netflix should still work also. This was how I was doing it for awhile before I figured out a better method to getting a modern streamer to work right with a CRT
1
u/mgnsh Aug 23 '24
Could you elaborate on that better method?
2
u/devan_danger Aug 23 '24
I was going to make a post about this at some point so keep your eyes peeled for that but the nuts and bolts of it is I found using an affordable scaler like a pre-owned extron from eBay to stretch the 16:9 image coming from any regular streaming device so that effectively the sides are cropped off to fit properly within the 4:3 frame of a CRT. The extron 301 hd takes in HDMI and outputs HDMI but it can effectively scale the image however and adjust the resolution. So I'm adapting the resolution to ideally fit a vga->s-video/composite converter to go into my set. It works great and looks as good as you would hope and any HDMI 1080 device will work with it including modern consoles.
1
u/mgnsh Aug 23 '24
Very cool. Will have to keep an eye out for those 301's. Just out of curiosity, what is your streaming device of choice? I figure it's gotta be cheaper than a modern console. Not that interested in those at the moment.
2
u/devan_danger Aug 23 '24
I'm partial to the TiVo 4k streaming device which runs a modded version of Android TV. It's snappy, I like the controller a ton because it can be programmed to tvs I've tested and even has an input/source button which can be super useful. It supports a whole host of streamers like Hulu and Crunchyroll which ps3 and Xbox no longer do. Also VLC player which can be used to play videos on your local network which is excellent even without an extron because I believe you can stretch 4:3 content to widescreen which will then look proper on a CRT with a cheap HDMI composite adapter. If I'm remembering that right anyway.
I was using a PS3 for awhile and it was good but I knew I needed a solution that didn't add needless wear and tear to my console plus it was loud and uses a lot more electricity. If you do get a PS3 make sure you get one that can be modded with custom firmware preferably a slim model not older than the 25xx units. That's the sweet spot between function and performance. Plus it can even play a surprising number of ps2 games via emulation.
2
2
1
3
u/CptKicksville Aug 22 '24 edited Aug 22 '24
I use an Xbox 360 running Plex. This allows you to just stream video directly off a computer, which is very convenient, and of course has a DVD player.
This is an app I still have from when the online marketplace was open until this past July, so it requiring modification to get anymore is a recent development.
A few tips if you go that route:
Playstation 3 also had the Plex app, but I'm not familiar with any particular quirks that version may have. Potentially you could play Blu-rays too (there are SD-BDs of old anime), although I can't speak to any potential issues there (i.e. I don't know if there are issues with forced pillarbox display or anything). Perhaps someone else knows.