Why 240p Retro Consoles Look Bad on Modern TVs (October 2026)

If you’ve plugged a Super Nintendo or Sega Genesis into a brand-new 4K TV and wondered why everything looks like a smeary mess, you’re not alone. This is the most common frustration in retro gaming today, and it has a clear technical explanation.

The short answer: your modern TV thinks your retro console is sending a 480i interlaced broadcast signal, when it’s actually sending a 240p progressive signal. That mismatch is the root cause of why 240p retro consoles look bad on modern TVs.

I’ve spent the last few years testing original hardware on everything from cheap LCDs to OLED panels, and I’ll walk you through exactly what’s happening, why it happens, and what you can do about it. By the end, you’ll know whether you need a $30 adapter, a $300 scaler, or a vintage CRT to get your games looking right again.

What 240p Is and Why It Exists

240p is a video signal format that displays 240 visible horizontal lines per frame, drawn progressively (top to bottom, in a single pass) at roughly 60 frames per second. The “p” stands for progressive, which means every line is drawn in sequence, not interlaced.

Retro consoles adopted 240p because it was the cheapest way to render games in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The NES, SNES, Genesis, and most fifth-generation machines drew 240 lines because that’s all the hardware could comfortably push at 60Hz. The format piggybacked on the same timing used by broadcast television, which was 480i (480 lines, interlaced, in two fields of 240 lines each).

Here’s the key insight: a 240p signal and a 480i signal share nearly identical sync timings. They use the same horizontal and vertical sync frequencies. The difference is that 240p fills all 240 lines in one frame, while 480i splits 480 lines across two alternating fields.

When CRTs were the dominant display, this didn’t matter. A CRT just swept an electron beam across the screen and didn’t care whether the lines were progressive or interlaced. It showed exactly what arrived, scanlines and all.

Why Modern TVs Misinterpret 240p as 480i

Modern flat-panel TVs are digital devices. They expect to receive a defined resolution and refresh rate, then process and scale that signal to fit their fixed pixel grid. When a 240p signal arrives, the TV’s processor sees the familiar 60Hz timing and assumes it must be 480i, because 240p isn’t a standard format in the modern spec sheets.

This assumption causes the TV to apply deinterlacing, which is the process of combining two interlaced fields back into a single progressive frame. But with a 240p source, there’s only one real frame being sent twice per 60th of a second. The TV doesn’t know that, so it tries to weave two identical fields together, which creates a host of visible problems.

Some TVs handle this gracefully and just display the signal with minimal processing. Many modern sets have a “game mode” that reduces input lag by skipping some of this processing. But plenty of TVs, especially mid-range LCDs, aggressively deinterlace, smooth, and motion-interpolate anything that looks vaguely like 480i.

The result is a picture that flickers, smears, or shows comb-like artifacts along moving edges. This is exactly why 240p retro consoles look bad on modern TVs even when the console itself is working perfectly.

The Deinterlacing Problem Explained

Deinterlacing tries to reconstruct full frames from two half-resolution fields. When the source is true 480i video, this works reasonably well because the two fields were captured at slightly different moments in time and combine into a sharp image.

When the source is 240p, the TV is being lied to. The console sends the same 240 lines at 60 times per second, but the TV treats each pair of identical frames as a single interlaced field. When it tries to “deinterlace,” it combines lines that were never meant to be combined.

This produces three visible issues. First, combing artifacts: jagged, zipper-like edges appear around anything that moves, because the TV is blending lines from different frames. Second, flicker: 240p content refreshed at 60Hz can appear to strobe because the TV is processing it as 30fps interlaced material. Third, input lag: every extra processing step the TV adds (deinterlacing, motion smoothing, noise reduction) delays the image from reaching the screen.

For a slow-paced RPG, lag might not matter. For a competitive fighting game or a platformer that requires frame-perfect timing, even 50ms of lag makes the game feel unplayable. This is why retro gamers obsess over input lag and scaler quality.

Which Retro Consoles Output 240p

Most pre-HD consoles output 240p as their primary signal. Here’s a quick reference list of systems you’ll encounter:

Third generation (8-bit era): Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), Sega Master System.

Fourth generation (16-bit era): Super Nintendo (SNES), Sega Genesis, TurboGrafx-16, Neo Geo AES.

Fifth generation (early 3D): PlayStation 1, Sega Saturn, Nintendo 64, 3DO. Note that some PS1 and N64 games can also output 480i for higher-detail modes, which complicates things further.

Sixth generation (later 3D): PlayStation 2, Dreamcast, GameCube, and the original Xbox. These consoles support both 240p and 480i modes depending on the game and regional settings. The Wii can output 240p in Virtual Console mode.

Handheld consoles like the Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, and original DS also output 240p (or lower), but connecting them to a TV requires special adapters that have their own quirks.

Solutions: Scalers, CRTs, and Console-Specific Fixes

You have three main paths to fix the 240p problem, ranging from free to expensive. I tested all three during the past year across multiple TVs and consoles.

Option 1: Use a CRT television. This is the original solution, and many retro enthusiasts still swear by it. A CRT handles 240p natively, displays proper scanlines, and has zero input lag. The downside is size, weight, and scarcity. Good consumer CRTs from the late 1990s and early 2000s are getting harder to find, and they don’t survive moves well.

Option 2: Buy a video scaler. A scaler sits between your console and your modern TV. It detects the 240p signal, processes it correctly, and outputs a clean HDMI signal at a resolution your TV understands. The two most popular options are the OSSC (Open Source Scan Converter) and the RetroTINK 5X. Both handle 240p correctly, offer low input lag, and let you choose between scanline-accurate output or pixel-perfect integer scaling.

The OSSC is line-doubled, meaning it scales 240p to 480p by repeating each line. This preserves the original look but doesn’t add resolution. The RetroTINK 5X is more flexible, supports multiple input types, and can apply CRT-style filters if you want them. For most people, the RetroTINK 5X is the easiest “set and forget” solution.

Option 3: Use a console-specific HDMI adapter. Some adapters, like the RetroUSB AVS for NES or the Mega Everdrive Pro with HDMI output for Genesis, handle 240p internally and output HDMI directly. These are plug-and-play solutions with no external scaler needed, but they’re locked to specific consoles and tend to cost more than a generic scaler.

Option 4: Cheap HDMI adapters from Amazon. These do not work. Generic HDMI converters assume you’re feeding them composite or component video from a modern source, and they have no idea what to do with a 240p signal. They’ll give you an image, but it’ll have all the same flicker and combing artifacts as plugging directly into your TV. Save your money.

Choosing the Right Solution for Your Setup

If you only have one or two consoles and want the simplest possible setup, a CRT is hard to beat, provided you can find one locally for a reasonable price. They’re bulky, but the picture quality is genuinely what game developers designed for.

If you want to play on a modern flat-panel TV, get a RetroTINK 5X. It’s not cheap, but it handles every common retro output (composite, S-Video, component, RGB SCART, VGA) and outputs a clean HDMI signal. It’s also the only solution here that works across multiple consoles, so the per-console cost drops if you have a collection.

If you’re on a budget and only need RGB SCART output for one console, the OSSC delivers excellent results at a lower price point. It requires RGB-modded consoles or SCART cables, though, which adds to the cost.

Finally, before buying anything, check whether your TV has a game mode or a “PC” input label. Some TVs handle 240p reasonably well on certain inputs with game mode enabled. It’s worth testing your specific setup before spending on hardware, because in some rare cases, a settings tweak is all you need.

Frequently Asked Questions

The Bottom Line

The reason 240p retro consoles look bad on modern TVs comes down to a format mismatch that existed since the 1990s but only became visible once we moved to digital displays. Your console is doing exactly what it was designed to do; your TV is the one misinterpreting it.

If you want the authentic experience, find a CRT. If you want to play on your modern TV without compromise, invest in a quality scaler. Either way, you no longer have to accept the smeary, laggy image your TV produces by default.

I’ve personally settled on a RetroTINK 5X for daily play and keep a CRT around for the games I want to experience as they were originally designed. Both setups have their place, and now you have the information to choose what fits your situation.