Could someone recommend an old 4:3 CRT that accepts NTSC signal?

[danstan21]

I'm aware I've been asking questions in other topics to get to the answer to this question but I'm not really making much headway so I'll just go for broke and start a topic to get to the answer.

I'm looking to get hold of an old 4:3 CRT for some retro gaming. Preferably in the 21-25" size range, but I could go bigger if needed. Thing is, I also have a Japanese Gamecube and some imported US games for other consoles, so I'd need one that accepts NTSC signals. I know I could just get a modded RGB cable for the Gamecube, but given the cost I really don't see it as a worthy trade-off as I don't really have enough games to make it worth it. So does, anyone know of a CRT that fits the criteria? Any searches into google yield no helpful results.

If for some reason such CRTs just don't exist, recommendations on a cheap NTSC to PAL signal converter would be nice.

[dvdx2]

most old tvs accept ntsc signals - just look on the back and it usually says 50/60hz

and seeing the gamecube in rgb is well worth it for f-zero gx alone...

[speedlolita]

You don't see the trade off of RGB?

Lame.

[danstan21]

most old tvs accept ntsc signals - just look on the back and it usually says 50/60hz

and seeing the gamecube in rgb is well worth it for f-zero gx alone...

Oh I have a PAL Gamecube as well - and around 50 PAL games, one of which is F-Zero GX. That GC is already hooked up with an official RGB cable so I'm seeing it at its finest (minus the fact it's currently hooked up to a 19" widescreen HDTV... at least F-Zero supports widescreen). I only have 10 Japanese GC games, but I bought a cheap orange NTSC-J console in order to save on Namco's games like DK3 and Mr Driller.

As for the 50 / 60Hz thing... my old 14" Trinitron supports 60Hz for PAL games, but hooking up my JP Gamecube gives me a black and white image, so I thought there was more to it than that.

You don't see the trade off of RGB?

Lame.

Well, given that the last modded RGB lead posted on this site was sold for ?45, and that's about thrice what I'm looking to spend on a TV, it doesn't really seem worth it, no.

[speedlolita]

Why don't you just modchip your PAL Cube then?

[moonwhistle]

I'd ditch the Japanese Gamecube and use the PAL one with a freeloader.

[danstan21]

Why don't you just modchip your PAL Cube then?

I'd ditch the Japanese Gamecube and use the PAL one with a freeloader.

I actually do already own a Freeloader for the couple of NTSC-U 'cube games I own , but I'd really rather not do either of these things. The first reason for this is that with a modchip or a Freeloader, Namco games don't save, due to the check of the memory card that all Namco-made games do. The second (and bigger) reason is that on quite a few NTSC-J games the text doesn't display correctly due to the PAL BIOS not having the Japanese fonts required - which is actually a big deal to me as I read basic Japanese (and intend to get better). Having Japanese video games is a good recreational way of supplementing the language-learning.

So, back to the original request: do CRTs that accept NTSC signal just not exist, or are they just not very common?

[dvdx2]

I actually do already own a Freeloader for the couple of NTSC-U 'cube games I own , but I'd really rather not do either of these things. The first reason for this is that with a modchip or a Freeloader, Namco games don't save, due to the check of the memory card that all Namco-made games do. The second (and bigger) reason is that on quite a few NTSC-J games the text doesn't display correctly due to the PAL BIOS not having the Japanese fonts required - which is actually a big deal to me as I read basic Japanese (and intend to get better). Having Japanese video games is a good recreational way of supplementing the language-learning.

So, back to the original request: do CRTs that accept NTSC signal just not exist, or are they just not very common?

Just buy a trinitron and be done with it; they all accept an NTSC signal.

[speedlolita]

My 21" Ferguson does. Depends on the CRT.

[danstan21]

Just buy a trinitron and be done with it; they all accept an NTSC signal.

Well, as I said earlier, my 14" Trinitron gives me a black and white image from my JP cube - but if you're sure that the majority do accept the signal then I won't worry about it and get a 25" or something. If you know first-hand of any models that accept the signal they would be useful to know.

My 21" Ferguson does. Depends on the CRT.

Excellent - at least they do exist!

EDIT: I apologise if I'm appearing difficult here - I really do appreciate all the help / input you guys are giving.

[speedlolita]

Get a silver one.

[Shadow_Zero]

It was my understanding that for quite some time the majority of PAL televisions accept NTSC. Philips would be my pick, since my Philips tv accepts RGB over both SCARTs and even shows color on all s-video and composite (NTSC) signals I've thrown at it so far (while I had others tv's for which RGB SCART needed to be used).

[Mayhem]

They can handle 60Hz yes, but not necessarily the NTSC colour frequency. So you'll get a stable but b/w picture. My 14" Sony Trinitron is like this for example, so I have to use RGB with it.