# CRT Display · 15 kHz A tube TV paints its picture with a beam, line by line, through a mask of red, green and blue phosphor behind curved glass. CRT puts your picture on that tube, from the cable going in to the dust on the screen. ## Controls ### Set - **Set** (Select: Classic / Living room / Broadcast / Arcade / Terminal / Security / Scope / Pocket). Picks a kind of set and puts every knob where that set has it. Classic, Living room, Broadcast, Arcade, Terminal, Security, Scope or Pocket. Power, the buttons, the magnet and the on-screen display stay as they are. ### Picture - **Brightness** (Fader, -100 to +100, rests at 0). The set's brightness knob. It lifts or sinks the whole signal before the beam draws it. - **Contrast** (Fader, -100 to +100, rests at 0). Contrast, from flat to punchy. It works on the signal, so bright lines swell with it. - **Color** (Fader, -100 to +100, rests at 0). How much color. All the way down is black and white, all the way up is vivid. - **Tint** (Fader, -100 to +100, rests at 0). The tint knob. Skin tones turn toward green one way and purple the other. - **On-screen** (Select: Off / Green / Cyan / White). The set's own on-screen display, in Green, Cyan or White. Turn a Picture fader, **Tuning** or a hold and its name and a bar come up, then fade. **Channel** shows the channel number. ### Raster - **Scanlines** (hero knob, 0 to 100, rests at 55). The hero. The dark gaps between the lines. Bright parts of the picture swell and fill them in. - **Lines** (Knob, 120 to 360, rests at 216). How many lines down the screen, from a chunky 120 to a fine 360. - **Mask** (Knob, 0 to 100, rests at 35). How strongly the red, green and blue phosphors show through. - **Mask type** (Select: Stripes / Slots / Dots). The mask's pattern. **Stripes** are fine vertical bars, **Slots** break them into staggered cells, **Dots** are offset triads. - **Mask size** (Knob, 1.0× to 4.0×, rests at 1.0×). How big the mask is. Larger reads like a small set seen up close. ### Tube - **Phosphor** (Select: Color / Green / Amber / Blue-white / White). **Color**, or a single phosphor. Green, Amber, Blue-white or White turn the picture into one glowing color. - **Curve** (Knob, 0 to 100, rests at 40). How much the glass bulges. The picture bends toward the edges. - **Vignette** (Knob, 0 to 100, rests at 55). The picture darkens toward the corners. ### Beam - **Beam** (Knob, 0 to 100, rests at 0). Draws each line as a real beam. Dark lines go thin, bright lines swell until they nearly touch. - **Softness** (Knob, 0 to 100, rests at 0). The picture softens sideways, like a signal that has lost its fine detail. - **Convergence** (Knob, 0 to 100, rests at 0). The red and blue beams miss each other, more toward the edges, so edges grow color fringes. - **Corner focus** (Knob, 0 to 100, rests at 0). The beam blurs toward the corners while the center stays sharp. ### Signal - **Input** (Select: RGB / Component / S-video / Composite / RF). The cable into the set. **RGB** is clean. **Component** and **S-video** soften the color. **Composite** adds a crawling rainbow on fine detail. **RF** is the aerial, with a ghost and weaker color. - **Chroma** (Knob, 0 to 100, rests at 30). Red and blue pull apart toward the edges of the screen. - **Tuning** (Fader, -100 to +100, rests at 0). Off the station. A little and the picture wavers and snows. Far off it rolls and dissolves into snow. - **Flicker** (Knob, 0 to 100, rests at 15). A faint, fast pulse in brightness. - **Hum bar** (Knob, 0 to 100, rests at 25). A soft band of light rolls up the screen, once a loop, like hum on the power line. - **V-hold** (Fader, -100 to +100, rests at 0). The picture rolls, one way or the other, faster the further you push it. - **H-hold** (Fader, -100 to +100, rests at 0). The picture slants and slips sideways, left or right. - **Sync loss** (Knob, 0 to 100, rests at 0). The set keeps losing the signal. Frames jump and lines tear. - **Snow** (Knob, 0 to 100, rests at 0). Static over the picture. It fills a clear background too. ### Glass - **Bezel** (Select: None / Black / Wood / Metal). A cabinet around the screen. Black, Wood or Metal. The picture shrinks to fit inside it. - **Corners** (Knob, 0 to 100, rests at 0). Rounds the corners of the screen. - **Halation** (Knob, 0 to 100, rests at 0). Light glows around bright parts, scattered in the thick glass. It takes the phosphor's color. - **Glare** (Knob, 0 to 100, rests at 0). A room light reflecting on the glass, up in the corner. - **Dust** (Knob, 0 to 100, rests at 0). Specks and smudges on the screen. ### Phosphor memory - **Afterglow** (Knob, 0 to 100, rests at 0). Bright things leave trails as the phosphor fades, turning warm as they go. - **Interlace** (Knob, 0 to 100, rests at 0). Every other line still shows the frame before, so motion combs. - **Burn-in** (Knob, 0 to 100, rests at 0). A ghost of what has been on screen lingers in the glass. ### Buttons - **Degauss** (Pulse button). Press it and the picture wobbles and swirls with color, then settles, like a set clearing its mask. - **Channel** (Pulse button). Press it to change channel. A burst of snow, the picture rolls back into place, and the number shows if **On-screen** is on. - **Power** (Switch: On / Off). **Off** squeezes the picture to a bright line, then a dot that fades. **On** brings it back. - **Magnet** (Knob, 0 to 100, rests at 0). A magnet held to the glass. The picture bends around it and stains with color. ### Settings - **Magnet X** (Knob, 0 to 100, rests at 62). Where the magnet sits, across. Place it on the Aim screen. - **Magnet Y** (Knob, 0 to 100, rests at 40). Where the magnet sits, up and down. ## Presets - **Arcade Cab**: Dot mask, fat bright scanlines and a glow, in a black cabinet. - **Broadcast Monitor**: A flat studio monitor: sharp RGB, fine stripes, the beam swelling on highlights. - **Living Room '89**: Composite into a wood-cased set: color bleed, dot crawl, glare on curved glass. - **Late Night RF**: Aerial reception past midnight: ghosting, snow, a drifting picture and a slow hum bar. - **Security Feed**: A white phosphor monitor on RF: soft, contrasty, a little unstable. - **Green Terminal**: Green phosphor text screen with a wide halo. - **Amber Terminal**: Amber phosphor text screen with a wide halo. - **Blue-white Scope**: A cool blue-white instrument screen, all beam and glow. - **Pocket TV**: A tiny portable on its aerial: big dot mask, rounded corners, snow.