I've invested in my first BVM and enjoy the toggle switches and stylistic throwback. Unfortunately the image is perfect only at low screen brightness, meaning if I turn up the contrast knob the colour red and white bleed to the right badly. If I keep the contrast low, the image is everything you'd want from a BVM - scanlines, very fine pixel pitch and geometry so crisp it's like a ruler. Tube gets very bright with the contrast turned up so I know the tube is in good shape.
The internal layout is better than my PVM-2030 but the test points on socketed vertical cards make them impossible to access 'insitu'. A visual inspection shows areas of heat-stressed flux, and spot checks of caps with an ESR meter have them all come back as new (the few I tested!). And then I found a major blow out that was repaired by the previous owner - look at the E board! Not my style of repair....
Despite the patch job, I think the E board is functioning well and the red/white bleed issue could be elsewhere.
I have cosmetically cleaned the monitor and found the anti-glare layer on the picture tube intact and free of scratches. I modified the lock on the left slide out adjustment tray to gain access to convergence and position, which I adjusted also. Being a 'P' model of it's era means the geometry and signal decoding are fixed to PAL signals at 50hz. If I run RGB at 60hz it simply sits within the frame of the PAL geometry with black bars! All the input BNCs were cleaned with alcohol and deoxit. I also removed the neck board and re-flowed each pin with fresh rosin flux and multicore solder. No change.
The service manual is excellent, and I know people always say this but so far I've been left bitterly disappointed with Sony's documentation. The BVM-1301P however is like colour by numbers, as it talks you through every step from input decoding to beam landing. I had to purchase this obscure manual and have no regrets.
As a long time lurker I'd really appreciate input from members on what could be causing this issue - it would be so nice to use the monitor without feeling like I'm wearing sun glasses! Problem images are embedded, folder of rare service manual and more photos linked.
My working folder of photos of BVM including PDF service manual for Shmups members:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=15NX_w ... ISV-fU6wOh
Issue post if embedding doesn't work/full size: https://imgur.com/a/b3M0eTE?
