You should enable scanlines and let us know how it looks
Well I turned it on today and it looked pretty bad. They weren't normal looking scanlines, rather big flashing bands...
(actually that was with SuperScale 75% Scanlines; fba's normal scanlines had no effect on the picture...)
But I gotta say, none of the blitters (SoftFX? didn't see the one you mentioned; I'm using official fba build) have a real difference on the picture. I'm 100% happy now with all effects off, using this tv. It's just really clear looking! Not as true as a proper arcade monitor like you said I'm sure, but it's great.
And to be honest that's only because of my ATI card. I used its Catalyst software to enable the tv as a monitor through S-Video, and turned on video mode in the advanced options. This makes normal window screens flicker but it doesn't effect the game screen at all. So instead of a blurry, S-Video quality picture, you get a super clean image when booting a game.
I'd still like to know if there's a way to reduce the flicker that does exist on window screens...I've actually gotten used to looking at it but new people are sometimes set off by it.
One problem I do have though, is since the video mode is on, it pushes the image past the borders a bit, so the games bottom or sides are somewhat cut off. I think this is called overscan, and I'm pretty sure I can fix it by setting the geometry of my television set, but I've yet to mess around with that. If you guys have any info on that I'd appreciate it. All I know so far is that I can go into a service mode by using the buttons on the front of the tv, and since I'd have to remove the plexiglass/bezel, I figured I'd ask here first.