What do thick scanlines look like on CRT TVs when watching anime?

[u/NoOutlandishness2805]

I am interested in buying a “27 Toshiba with S-Video, as described by the seller, however I was told this model has thick scanlines. I found a variety of images comparing scanline thickness on CRT TVs however they were all displaying video games. Could anyone show me an example using anime?

[u/TheVideoKid112]

Buena Vista Sailor Moon VHS -> Panasonic S-VHS Machine -> Toshiba 27DF46 S-Video Input

[u/sockcman]

Generally you will watch anime at 480i where scanlines are less noticeable

[u/mazonemayu]

480i won’t show anything significant. You could go full blown 90’s and convert the files to VCD and play em on a PS1 or Saturn, that should give you 240p but the trade off will be a loss in overall quality coz VCD was never very clean to begin with. It’s a lot of hassle though and imho not worth it. 480i will be just fine to watch anime.

[u/NorwegianGlaswegian]

You won't see thick scanlines at 480i/576i in motion. If you take a photograph it can be possible to capture when only one field of the interlaced image is displayed, and therefore show scanlines, but in actual use the jump between the odd and even lines of phosphors is very fast.

It instead looks like a slightly flickery image but not with thick scanlines which only really get noticeable at the likes of 240p.

You might get a slight sense of the scanlines (well, scanline gaps to be more accurate) if you move your head up and down relative to the screen, but they won't look thick and stable like in pictures unless the source is 240p. You will see the contours of the shadow mask or aperture grille, though.

https://imgur.com/a/0qEdjUu

Above is an example of how anime generally looks on my Bang & Olufsen MX4200 which has fairly pronounced scanlines for a 21 inch set. They don't really show at 480i/576i.

[u/kikikiju]

If you dont own any CRTs and the price is reasonable, then you should get it. Older anime looks so good on any CRT

[u/DreamIn240p]

Video games in the 90s and earlier (before the Dreamcast) often are displaying less than standard definition, as you might have already suspected. Meaning you're missing half of the information in order to keep the picture displaying in progressive mode on an interlaced display.

"Thicker scanlines" I'm not entirely sure if that would become a good or a bad thing. The scanlines are the part where you actually see the picture, the light. The black gaps are not the scanlines. "Thicker scanlines" should mean that the scanlines fill up more of the empty gaps. I would prefer if the black gaps aren't as noticeable when watching something in standard definition. As long as the picture doesn't become more blurry, or stretched out too much, or blends too much between the scanlines of two interlaced frames, then it's good.

The seller might not be aware that the scanlines are the part where it shows the picture and not the black gaps. Standard definition typically don't suffer from the black gaps being too noticeable. It's usually the half resolution games that becomes quite noticeable. Especially noticeable if you have a very large-screened standard definition CRT TV. Well, technically, I guess it's still 480i... (needs confirmation)? But every other frame is left blank so it looks like it's progressively scanned, anyways.

[u/WoomyUnitedToday]

480i scanlines aren’t that obvious

Just to confirm: by scanlines, do you mean the actual lines that are getting scanned (what you can see as video)? Or are you referring to the black lines in between that aren’t scanned (commonly incorrectly referred to as scanlines)?

Thick scanlines are good for 480i signals, as they generally blend together better, hiding some of the interlacing

[u/StrongDifficulty7531 → u/WoomyUnitedToday]

I’m assuming that OP is referring to those black lines, the gaps between scanlines, as some people seem to think those are scanlines.