My Retro Anime Setup

[Maypews]

Some time ago I got a CRT for playing retro games. If you're here you're probably aware of this, but older games were designed for these displays and often look better visually when played on them (see pic below). However I also became interested in watching anime on it; generally there were less limitations to work around since it isn't an interactive medium so there isn't much to be gained by watching anime on one theoretically. But I do find the black bars that 4:3 shows carry with them on modern displays a bit ugly, and as such I began to experiment with it.



I suppose there are a handful of ways that you could go about this. You could just put an old PC monitor at your existing desktop for instance and then connect it to your PC with some sort of AV to HDMI adapter; this option is a no go for me because I find watching TV at my computer uncomfy. You could also just use a DVD player with your TV and buy the physical media, though this would likely be the most costly of the options and many older shows didn't receive official releases till later. My solution, however, is to used a hacked PS3 running HEN and an external hard drive connected to it via USB. This hard drive is stuffed silly with vintage 480p fansub rips.

I find it a lovely experience. Although I said earlier that outside of the black bars there's little direct incentive to watch anime on these displays, it feels much more authentic and true to how these must've been experienced many years ago as they were releasing. Also I find that CRTs feel a lot more colourful and bring out the vibrancy of the hand-painted cel backgrounds so much more. The photo I've posted below of my setup sort of captures this I believe, you can literally see the orange light from the TV emanating onto other things.

Just thought I'd share this with you all, and perhaps it will encourage others to start their own retro setups.

20260220_053845.jpg (2.34 MiB) Viewed 111 times

[Duk3]

That's a really nice setup! How big is the screen? I had a similar set up, I did use media player plus DVDs on the ps3 instead of an external hd for convenience. The crt sadly got dropped and broken by me after I thought I was strong enough to move the huge thing by myself (-_-" . I switched over to some old widescreen from 2007 so i guess it''s "retro" saying that it's almost 20 years old...

[Maypews]

That's a really nice setup! How big is the screen? I had a similar set up, I did use media player plus DVDs on the ps3 instead of an external hd for convenience. The crt sadly got dropped and broken by me after I thought I was strong enough to move the huge thing by myself (-_-" . I switched over to some old widescreen from 2007 so i guess it''s "retro" saying that it's almost 20 years old...

Thank you! It's about 20 inches so not the biggest set in the world, has a built-in DVD player (woah remember when that was like a huge marketing pull? lol) and the screen is pretty good quality since it was manufactured in the early 2000s. Sadly the VHS player doesn't work though. RIP to your old CRT , you should go looking for another sometime. Flat screens will never quite capture that same essence imo.

[Parzival]

Kino setup, I have some CRTs but I only really use them to play my 360 on and watch movies on VHS, I need to get my hands on older consoles and games. Alas, money...