My tv makes my old games look terrible.

[Composer]

So I've had this LG tv for about 3 years. it has hdmi and can display in up to 16:9 and 1080p
the picture given off by the xbox 360 and wii looks really good. however, with my old ps2, gamecube, and retron 3 the images get distorted. the text doubles on itself, sort of like it they have a shadow, everything else is blurry. the wii, ps2, gamecube and retron are all plugged into some sort of switchbox, ( i press differently marked buttons and it switches which console is displayed on the tv). at first I thought it was the switchbox, but the wii appears just fine, so I ruled that out.
I have already tried switching from 16:9 to 4:3 as well as adjusting sharpness, but it has not fixed anything.

 

[TrevHead]

Bad cables maybe? Possibly interlaced to progress scan problems, or that you are running bog standard composite analog into a LCD TV.

I don't really know tbh, but these chaps do http://shmups.system11.org/viewforum.php?f=6&sid=4a80e0a274e8587820f15882577de448

 

[Frezzato]

It has to be the AV box you're using. I tried hooking up my Genesis using the RF cable through the coax nub and the picture looked terrible, similar to what you described. Luckily my HDTV monitor has composite video inputs so I bought this cheapo cable from Amazon [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002FY0CM0/ref=wms_ohs_product] and the picture is perfect. So there's a really good video signal being generated by older consoles, it's just a matter of getting it unobstructed to the TV. In my case it was a stupid $6 cable.

There's just one thing I would suggest before your investigation escalates. Do you have any unused cables that have ferrite 'chokes' on them? Try removing one and snapping it around the video cable.

 

[an annoyed writer]

Another thing it might be is that you're using composite cables: component cables have a much crisper image, even at the native resolution of 480i. I'd recommend going and finding some component cables: the PS2 should be easy enough, but the Gamecube ones are considerably harder to find. I'm currently searching for nice cheap ones myself. Official Nintendo ones can go for 130USD or more, depending on where you look.

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

-snip-

It sounds as the source (old console) isn't pumping enough power for the data to reach the tv through the switch-box. Try using the older consoles connected directly before buying anything.

 

[Composer]

a 480i signal getting displayed on a 1080p tv is going to look like crap no matter what, especially if you must connect them using an RF cable. Image quality goes in this order:
crappiest-
RF
Composite
S-Video
Component
HDMI/DVI
best-

Your switch box is probably making it even worse. How is the box being connected to the tv?

Im not to knowledgeable about the terms but... all the audio and video cables go into different ports on the box. then the box has its own audio and video cables that plug into the tv.

 

[Tupolev]

Possible approaches:

1-Try connecting the consoles directly to the TV and see what happens. If it's a lot better, and you have the free space for the connections on your TV, this might be the most convenient approach.

2-Make sure your box is being connected to the TV with as good a connection as possible. If you can do something other than the standard single coaxial cable or yellow/white/red cables, do so.

3a-If your TV accepts YPbPr component (the green/blue/red cables), get component cables for the PS2 and Gamecube. That will give you a decent progressive scan signal, offering a cleaner and hopefully also more responsive source, though you'll still have 480->1080 scaling artifacts.

3b-Get an SD CRT, preferably a Trinitron from the last 10 years, in the 20-27" range. Even with basic composite video, such a TV will typically give a reasonably good image (once you acclimate to the combing and twitter of native interlacing, anyway), it will be free of scaling artifacts, and you'll be able to enjoy sub-millisecond display input lag for the most responsive experience possible.