My MiSTer FPGA to CRT TV via Composite Video Setup
This video shows the quality and quirks associated with my MiSTer to CRT over composite video setup
This post is to document how I got my MiSTer running on my old CRT TV over composite video input, with zero configuration changes necessary to the MiSTer itself. This means I can pickup my MiSTer and take it to my big HDTV and play while sitting on my couch or get the pure nostalgia on my CRT in my "retro corner".
I recently took the plunge into the MiSTer FPGA world by buying the bare minimum amount of stuff necessary to get started. My original plan was to upgrade to other I/O boards and a nice case over time, although at this point I have basically everything I want working out of my MiSTer as it is. Conversely my MiSTer setup is a lot more cumbersome and not nearly as nice looking as the usual stacks you'll see.
One thing I was afraid I wasn't going to be able to do unless I upgraded my MiSTer setup was play on my old CRT TV which is really the way to get that pure nostalgia rush because it makes the games look they way they did back when I was a kid.
My main problem was that the CRT I have now is a very cheap/common set that only has composite video and mono audio inputs, and most of the guides you'll see online are about using the analog I/O board and outputting the much higher quality S-Video or RGB signals to more expensive sets that are harder to come by these days.
There's a good reason for this - the quality difference is stark! Back in the day I had a nice Sony Trinitron with all the inputs so I'm aware of how much higher quality those signals are over composite. That said, we got rid of that set decades ago when large screen HD LCD's came out, and now that I have kids I don't have the room to setup a large CRT. What I have now may be lower end, but it was free from some friends who just wanted to get it out of their house, and their trash is quite literally my treasure!
Note that if you want to get the best quality, you will want the analog I/O board and a CRT with at least S-Video or even better, RGB inputs. This post is about making the best I can with the equipment I have. It's also quite easy to do and if you have a composite only set, you'll need an external dongle or converter to make this work anyway.
It turns out I actually was able to get this working and pretty well with my very basic setup thanks to having some extra equipment laying around from other projects over the years. The video above shows the limitations of this setup and I wanted to document exactly how I got it working.
Here's a quick diagram showing the sequence of how things are hooked up:
Here's what it looks like by my CRT in my "retro corner".
The primary limitation is that when I turn on the MiSTer, load a core, or load a game, the screen will flicker and take a few seconds to orient itself on the screen. Once that's done everything plays normally and flawlessly.
Note that the picture wasn't perfectly filling the screen through my VGA to Composite converter, but luckily the converter itself has it's own OSD menu that allows it to scale the horizontal and vertical dimensions of the picture and align it on the screen. These settings are saved to the converter itself, not the MiSTer.
Also note that because I don't have the analog I/O board I needed to use an HDMI audio extractor which then went to a dongle to convert the RCA plugs to a headphone jack I could plug my stereo speakers into.
If I didn't have all this equipment laying around, even though it's cheaper than the I/O board, I'd still buy the analog I/O board and the VGA to composite converter just for the ease and cleanliness of getting the hookups.
That all said, the picture quality is shockingly good to my eyes, but it's been well over a decade since I've seen a CRT with RGB input out of real hardware. Almost any old CRT setup these days will make the games pop to my eyes after years of playing on LCD monitors through emulators.
Here are some additional pictures of what things look like:
Full Disclosure: I get no money from any of the links below and have no sponsorships of any kind. I'm just listing and linking what worked for me.
Here's the list of parts I'm using:
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