Can we connect Raspberry pi to old CRT television as monitor?

RasPi has a composite video output which can connect to a TV that has composite video input.  The resolution is poor, especially with color.  You could in principle use an RF modulator and use a TV's antenna input, but the result would be even worse.

Many people have had luck with HDMI to VGA converter boxes, some of which cost less than a RasPi.  Others have had trouble with them, and you may have to play with config.txt settings.  Take a look at the RasPi Wiki here and here.

There is another option. If you already have a regular desktop computer and you are willing to do a bit of command line work to set it up, you can use ssh to work on the Pi.

You don't even need a keyboard or a mouse. You do need the Pi to be running a network connection, but that is part of the setup.

http://www.adafruit.com/blog/2012/12/20/tutorial-adafruits-raspberry-pi-lesson-6-using-ssh-raspberry_pi-raspberrypi/

EDIT: Actually, I just checked and (unusually for AdaFruit) this link probably isn't the best. It is using a funky serial cable. I use a plain ethernet connection since I want access to the internet from the Pi (and I think most people would). A quick Google for 'ssh -X' didn't produce anything that stood out as a connect-the-dots tutorial, sorry.

The windows that would normally appear on the Pi display appear on your computers desktop instead.

It's not a solution for everyone, since you don't get that Raspberry Pi desktop environment to launch programs. Instead you launch a terminal window and start programs that way. This arguably a better way to get used to the operating system anyway, its the way the Pro's do it. Another advantage is that you don't have the extra keyboard, monitor and mouse cluttering up your surfaces.

Like I said, not for everyone, but it's the way I do it.

Another option is to use VNC. I described it a bit in this thread.

http://www.element14.com/community/message/65613#65613/l/re-pi-screen-display

Mike

> There is another option. If you already have a regular desktop computer and you are willing to do a bit of command line work to set it up, you can use ssh to work on the Pi.

This implies that you are limited to using the command line for remote access.

But actually you can use "X forwarding" or VNC for remote access using a GUI.

Using X forwarding gives you X11 on the RPi without the usual slowness because

the rendering is not done on the RPi.

Yup, I never intended to imply this was a command line only solution. What I meant was, 'you do need to do some initial command line work to get it set up'. Not so much after that.

Once working, you have windows on the computer monitor exactly as if you were sitting at the Pi except, as coder27 says, with less load on the Pi because the host renders the windows.

'ssh -X' Wouldn't be without it

In fact if you go all the way and set up Bonjour, you can just use:

ssh -X raspberrypi.local -l username

Yes we have had this issue with a projector, it just bleeds off the edge of the screen and is not usable. There are some "forced" resolutions hashed out in the /boot/config.txt file that can be unhashed (to make them work) or set to whatever the monitor/projector is happy with.