Retro ... where to plug everything in?

[Dryden]

I'm laying out my basement game room/rec room and looking at a TV purchase here soon, and I'm mostly curious whether I'll be shooting myself in the foot if I get a modern high end TV set. Anyway, I've got a couple other questions for the retro gamers/collectors regarding your setups to try and save myself a weeks worth of trial and error ...

1. Do light guns/phasers/frame-rate stereo halvers like the old SegaScope 3D glasses work correctly with modern LCD or plasma TVs?

2. Can you daisy chain about 10 RF modulators and still get a cable signal?

3. What type of A/V receiver do you use for all your composite lines, presuming you've got plenty more console A/V lines than direct inputs behind your TV/VCR?

[Mobius]

1. My NES light gun doesn't even work with my CRT HDTV, so you're probably out of luck with LCD and Plasma TVs.

2. Ugh, I don't even want to know. Considering when I was younger that my mom turning on her blowdryer in the bathroom would screw up the picture on my RF connected games in my bedroom, I don't have much confidence in RF signals.

3. I have a switchbox made by Pelican. It handles S-video, Composite, and RF. I like it a lot. I also have a Mad Catz one just for composite signals. That one never gave me a problem, either.

My setup is to place newer consoles in the living room with the HDTV (PS2, GameCube, Xbox, Wii) and older ones in the extra/game room with an SDTV. Occasionally I'll move an older console out to the living room if I'm playing it a lot or want the better sound setup (which is where my 3DO and Neo-Geo CDZ are right now). But on the whole, playing old games made for SDTVs on HDTVs kinda sucks.

[Devin]

Okay, in my experience...

1. Do light guns/phasers/frame-rate stereo halvers like the old SegaScope 3D glasses work correctly with modern LCD or plasma TVs?

NO! I find my old SONY TRINITRON (flatscreen) Cathode Ray Tube is brilliant for all my retro consoles and even offers 60Hz mode... not such a big issue if your resident in the USA but essential for us Europeans!

2. Can you daisy chain about 10 RF modulators and still get a cable signal?

I have no idea. Doesn't sound too clever though. Prefer to use an A/V box myself with automatic switch. So you can just flick the power on whichever console you want a play of and the box automatically detects which channel your using and shows it on the CRT TV!

3. What type of A/V receiver do you use for all your composite lines, presuming you've got plenty more console A/V lines than direct inputs behind your TV/VCR?

JoyTech are the boys for this area. Although I have a Vivanco unit myself.

[Dryden]

My setup is to place newer consoles in the living room with the HDTV (PS2, GameCube, Xbox, Wii) and older ones in the extra/game room with an SDTV.

This was what I was going to do too.

Right now I've got the Wii on a 46" HD RPTV in my living room, and it'll probably stay there since it's the only room in the house where someone can pitch on Wii Sports and not put their hand through a ceiling fan. There's also a PS2, an FZ-1, and an N64 in this room, but I'm planning on moving those into our finished basement where I've got an old 27" CRTV now. I've got another half dozen consoles to put there too, plus carts, accessories, and boxes.

Many of my older consoles I haven't even touched in 20 years, and certainly none of them have ever been hooked to any of the TVs I own now. I was hoping to have a nice, pretty display in this room, but it sounds like that's not an option with the old consoles.

Just wanted to hear some opinions before I started my built in home entertainment/bookshelf project. It'd suck to build the TV stand only 18" deep, then realize I HAVE to keep the CRTV for my retro and need my TV shelf 3' - 4' deep instead.

I'll look into the switchboxes by Joytech and Pelican. Not too high on MadCatz products myself.

Thanks for the help, guys.