I always heard that the Trinitron was a good as it gets for CRT gaming until you are ready to get a PVM. However, the My Life in Gaming guys posted a "get the best out of CRT gaming" episode and they pointed out that though Trinitrons are quite crisp, they have an inherit bowing issue that supposedly comes from the fact that the screen is flat.
I saw what they were talking about and, since then, I can't unsee it. IMHO, a Trinitron is a nice screen but isn't for me. I'm not sure what the best, standard tube TV is, but that's what I'd prefer.
So, to answer your question, this is normal and it sucks. However, check the features and see if there are any settings that adjust those values. You may be able to fix it. Old TVs use to have a feature that would arc the edges at different angles to adjust the picture.
a) there's a secret service menu button combo you can Google that will get you the settings you want to mess with (UPIN, LPIN, HBOW, VBOW, and several others.) I think it's like, POWER, DISPLAY, 5, VOLUME UP, POWER or something like that.
however....
b) BE SURE TO WRITE DOWN THE SETTINGS THAT ARE STORED FOR EVERY SINGLE VALUE BEFORE YOU CHANGE THESE.
Trust me. I spent ages tweaking these settings to get it as good as it's going to get (and honestly I rarely notice the bowing, which is on the right side for me, because I have it overscanning ever so slightly, which isn't a problem with 99% of games), but I accidentally forgot to write down the default settings. If you screw it up—and especially if you use the command to overwrite settings—you're going to want to know what those settings were before you started changing things.
I definitely wouldn't say that's normal for a flat screen TV. They have geometry problems, but yours are pretty glaring. Look up the service manual to your set and somewhere the geometry adjustment settings should be explained, hopefully with pretty pictures.
Otherwise replace all the caps, spend a perfectly good evening adjusting geometry and convergence settings and cursing at small problems that can't be fixed, beg for help online to the smallish handful of folks who know what they're talking about on arcade forums. That's my usual routine with CRT problems. Mostly not joking.
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I saw what they were talking about and, since then, I can't unsee it. IMHO, a Trinitron is a nice screen but isn't for me. I'm not sure what the best, standard tube TV is, but that's what I'd prefer.
So, to answer your question, this is normal and it sucks. However, check the features and see if there are any settings that adjust those values. You may be able to fix it. Old TVs use to have a feature that would arc the edges at different angles to adjust the picture.
Picture bows big time. Pulls in on all corners.
https://imgur.com/gallery/pSTLm
So....
a) there's a secret service menu button combo you can Google that will get you the settings you want to mess with (UPIN, LPIN, HBOW, VBOW, and several others.) I think it's like, POWER, DISPLAY, 5, VOLUME UP, POWER or something like that.
however....
b) BE SURE TO WRITE DOWN THE SETTINGS THAT ARE STORED FOR EVERY SINGLE VALUE BEFORE YOU CHANGE THESE.
Trust me. I spent ages tweaking these settings to get it as good as it's going to get (and honestly I rarely notice the bowing, which is on the right side for me, because I have it overscanning ever so slightly, which isn't a problem with 99% of games), but I accidentally forgot to write down the default settings. If you screw it up—and especially if you use the command to overwrite settings—you're going to want to know what those settings were before you started changing things.
Otherwise replace all the caps, spend a perfectly good evening adjusting geometry and convergence settings and cursing at small problems that can't be fixed, beg for help online to the smallish handful of folks who know what they're talking about on arcade forums. That's my usual routine with CRT problems. Mostly not joking.