Why aren't my white letters on my tv clear?

) October 18th, 2010

I have an xbox 360 hooked up to an older CRT tv with regular white red yellow rca cords. i get some humming but that is not as annoying as how uncrisp the white lettering is. if the letters are smaller than about a ¼ of an inch they arent even legible. is there a tv or device setting that will clear up my whites or do i need to buy something to remedy this?

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4 Answers

I think it’s safe to say that games developed for the XBox 360 (and PS3) are relying on you having it hooked up to an HDTV. Your CRT doesn’t have a good enough resolution to pull off the small lettering and you have to add in artifacting as well, which is probably helping with the blurring.

mrentropy (17213

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It depends on the resolution of the tv screen. Low res = pixelated and fuzzy outlines. Oppps I just noticed @mrentropy said resolution also.

rooeytoo (26986

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The resolution on a CRT TV is 640 × 480. Set the monitor on your computer to that and see what happens. My shitty 19 inch TV has a resolution of 1440 × 900. Pretty much the modern gaming consoles were never designed to work with CRTs.

jrpowell (40562

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I have the same problem when gaming on my 360. My tv is CRT as well. Sadly, the only thing we can do is buy a new “modern” tv (some day) ..lol.

Hoping I can get a good enough deal on a new one this Xmas during boxing week. Never played console games on anything other than the CRT tv; so I know I’m going to be mesmerized lol.

Plucky (10319

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