Comment by utopcell

Seems irrelevant to bring up cost for something that is streamline-priced today, but sure, let's move on.

> Strictly speaking, the CRT only had discrete lines not pixels.

The electron gun moves in an analog fashion, but when it hits the glass surface, it can only go through specific openings [1]. These openings are placed at a specific distance apart [2]. This distance specifies the horizontal, digital, max CRT resolution.

> No ordinary flat–panel display can emulate the rectangular pixels of the most common video modes used on CRTs because they are built with square pixels.

Today's panels have achieved "retina" resolution, which means that the human eye cannot distinguish individual pixels anymore. The rest is just software [3].

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13bpgc8ZxTo

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dot_pitch#/media/File:CRT_mask...

[3] https://www.reddit.com/r/emulation/comments/dixnso/retroarch...