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I found out all my SmartTVs don't work because they are too modern for my old computer.
I am a young owner of a Commodore 64, so please bear with me as this machine is a decade older than me.
I do have AV-video-wires that I got from eBay.
Before, I make my purchase on Ebay what older television sets would work with the Commodore-64 given I use the AV-video-wires?
TL;DR If you don't want to rely on an intermediate device, such as a "scan-doubler", then you need a screen that includes analog inputs and internal electronics capable of displaying a low-definition 240p video signal.
The real issue is the inability of those screens that do have the composite video input to correctly deal with a signal source that only sends the odd or even field (at 60Hz) rather than sending both fields interlaced (at 30Hz). Most of the retro computers and consoles that produce NTSC/PAL do so with a non-interlaced output. Interlaced NTSC/PAL is only common on the Amiga, and it is rarely used (without a scan-doubler) because there is too much "flicker" on a CRT screen at 30Hz to be usable for text display and most games.
My experience is that modern LCD TV's that have the necessary composite analog, S-video, or component style inputs can work fine with an interlaced, 480i, signal. But they will experience all sorts of syncing issues if you try to use a non-interlaced 240p signal. What a scan-doubler actually does is promote the 240p to 480p, thus eliminating the sync problems caused by 240p and also eliminating the "flicker" problem on CRT's by getting rid of interlace.
Such a 480p signal also has a 31.5kHz horizontal frequency, doubled from the original 240p 15.75kHz, and is compatible with "VGA" inputs, if you separate out the RGB and sync portions as separate inputs. So, that's why most "scan-doubler" solutions output to a VGA connector.
There are LCD screens that support 240p, but they are becoming more and more rare as this use case dies out. I have two Dell "1080p" monitors (Model #U2410, actual resolution 1920x1200) that support 240p. These monitors are already 10 years old and newer monitors tend not to support 240p.
Your best solutions for a C64, in my opinion:
Since this situation is already well-understood, none of the solutions are particularly cheap. Old LCD's with this added capability, and virtually all old CRT's, now fetch somewhat "premium" prices. Fortunately, scan-doublers are becoming cheaper and more pervasive. You might investigate the retroTINK.
Modern smart TVs may have analog inputs, but they are very "picky". They often do not work with older computers. My two Smart TVs cannot display even Amiga nor Atari ST, although they provide Composite input, RGB SCART, etc. So I have one very old TV for all my retro machines. The problem is nobody can say if your TV will work with your C64 before you try it.
One possible way is to buy any PAL-to-VGA or PAL-to-HDMI (Composite-to-VGA) converter / scandoubler, but the result does not satisfy me (there are some video artifacts on the screen and picture shakes sometimes). Maybe the expensive ones do their work better.
But a couple of years ago I have found a gadget on eBay / AliExpress, named "Car rear camera PAL display parking blah blah..." It cost around 30 USD and it is 4.3" or 7" LCD color display with PAL input (composite video). It is pretty small, but the picture is perfect, much better than the picture from any XXX-to-VGA (XXX-to-HDMI) converter I ever saw.
I have tested it with ZX Spectrum (with video signal output), Atari 130, Commodore 128 as well as my hobby "Arduino-based computer with monochrome PAL output". Unfortunately, I have not tested it with the C64, but I believe it should work together.
Assuming the problem is that your smart TVs don't have any analog video inputs, the Retrotink-2X upscaler, about $100, converts component, S-Video, and composite to HDMI.
The Framemeister XRGB-Mini used to be the best option ($200), but recently it has skyrocketed in price ($500) due to parts going out of production.
On the low end, there are various "av2hdmi" converters on eBay and elsewhere that will work if you find a good one ($10). The quality won't be as good as the Retrotink-2X, and it will add a fraction of a second of lag and make high-speed gaming difficult, but it's cheap.
You can use the RF output of your C64. Get a Chinch-RF cable and plug it into the antenna input in your TV. Then you just have to scan for the correct channel your Commodore will use to "broadcast" (remember to select "analog"). Tested on modern Samsung SmartTV (PAL)
I once plugged a Super Nintendo, via an AV cable, into an LG TV (made in about 2013) and there was so much lag that it was unplayable. (Though I do not recall whether I plugged it directly into the TV or routed it through a VCR at the time.) So keep that in mind.
The other thing I remember when I first got my Commodore 64 (C64) in the 1980s was the C64 would not work well with certain models of analog televisions: The image would constantly "bounce" up and down on the screen (and this happened with two different C64s that I tried). So if you're going to buy an analog TV, I'd test it first.
That said, if you're in the USA, and looking to get a dedicated analog TV for this endeavor, you may want to check out Freecycle.org where people give and take things locally, for free.
