A CRT television has neither the resolution nor the gamut of a modern screen: with default settings, Kodi shows unreadable text, an off-centre picture and banding in gradients. This page gathers the settings that really make a difference on a CRT driven by a Recalbox RGB Dual or RGB Dual 2.
Some settings only appear when the Kodi settings level is set to Expert (the gear icon at the bottom left of the settings screen switches levels).
Without these settings, Kodi may not display properly on a CRT screen.
Settings > System > Display > General > Resolution
Check that the right resolution is selected:
640x480i768x576iIn most cases the correct value is already picked automatically, but it is worth checking.
Settings > System > Display > Calibration > Video calibration
By default the picture is aligned to the top left of the screen, which results in a significant offset on a CRT television. Use this calibration screen to recentre the display.
Settings > System > Display > Dithering
Dithering: EnabledDither depth: 7The Recalbox RGB Dual outputs 18-bit colour, a limit imposed by the Raspberry Pi GPIO. This can cause visible banding (stepped gradients), especially on live-action footage.
The higher the value, the less banding shows; at 8 the dithering effect becomes too obvious. A value between 5 and 7 is a good compromise.
Settings > Player > Videos > Processing > Enable HQ scalers for scaling above
Set it to 0%: high quality scaling then also applies when downscaling, which is exactly what happens on a CRT. You gain on diagonal lines (less "staircase" effect), on overall smoothness and on the flickering of thin horizontal lines caused by interlacing.
Settings > System > Audio
Send low volume noise: DisabledThis feature keeps audio devices from going to sleep. On an analogue chain, CRT televisions included, it produces a constant and unpleasant hiss: turn it off.
The settings below are found during video playback, through Settings > Video settings. They apply to the current video only: use Set as default for all videos after each change to make them global.
Post-processing: OnWhen downscaling high resolution content to CRT resolutions, the picture can look pixelated and show aliasing. Post-processing applies anti-aliasing, smoothing the edges and producing a more natural image.
Video scaling method: BilinearWhen the picture scrolls horizontally or vertically — typically in animation — some scaling methods cause flickering and distortion. Among the available options, Bilinear gives the most stable result.
View mode: Wide ZoomThis mode keeps original 4:3 content intact while fitting 16:9 videos to the CRT screen with minimal distortion. Unlike a plain horizontal stretch, it crops the less important areas at the edges before resizing, which preserves more natural proportions and avoids the "stretched" look. It also makes better use of the limited CRT screen area than letterboxing.
Settings > System > Display > General > Use limited colour range (16-235)
Set it to Disabled: unless your source requires otherwise, full range gives a better result.
Settings > Add-ons
Kodi's default skin (Estuary) is designed for high definition. Install Cobfluence ZEITGEIST instead, which is compatible with recent Kodi releases and specifically tuned for CRT screens — installation guide on axbmcuser.github.io.
Once the skin is installed, go to Settings > My skin > General > Visual options and views > Font size and pick the CRT mode: Huge Fonts. It transforms text readability at low resolution.
Settings > System > Audio
Number of channels: 2.0Keep original volume on downmix: EnabledResampling quality: HighEven if your source is 5.1, these settings guarantee the best possible downmix to the television's stereo output.
These settings are a matter of comfort and personal preference.
Settings > System > Power saving > Put display to sleep when idle
CRT screens are prone to burn-in. Enabling sleep extends their lifetime.
This can be combined with your television's own auto-off feature, if it has one.
Settings > Interface > Screensaver > General
Another protection against burn-in during idle periods.
Settings > Player > Videos > Playback > Crop black bars
Kodi preserves the original aspect ratio by default, which gives a smaller picture on non-4:3 content. This setting (8% for instance) slightly stretches the image vertically to use more of the screen — adjust it to your tolerance for distortion.
The FLIRC USB receiver behaves like a USB keyboard and lets you drive Kodi and EmulationStation with your television remote. Handy for living-room use when no controller is within reach.
If your media lives on a Plex server (NAS or PC), the PlexKodiConnect add-on connects Kodi to that server. The benefit on a Raspberry Pi: storage and transcoding are offloaded to the server, so the Pi does not have to decode every format and high resolution content plays without stutter.
The official Plex add-on already ships with Recalbox — see Kodi Media Center. PlexKodiConnect is a third-party alternative, to be installed from an external repository.