Fudoh's ode to old display technology

[Taiyaki]

What was philexile's picture problem before changing the boards do you know?

Changing the board sounds like a good idea but finding one is going to be close to impossible. They no longer manufacture them apparently (I had enquired) and finding a loose board even on ebay is going to be next to impossible I think. Sacrificing a bvm for the board would be horribly expensive not to mention wasteful, and buying a non working bvm for parts doesn't guarantee we can get a board in better condition anyway.

I think changing the electrolytic caps should be doable burt I hope someone else on this board voices their opinion on the subject before we try.

I'm at the level where I'm wondering, is an electrolytic cap the same as a regular capacitor or is it something different, lol.

[Ed Oscuro]

A second unit for parts isn't necessarily wasteful. If the tube goes on the first unit, hopefully you could switch over to the second again.

Yes, almost all can-style capacitors are electrolytic. It's almost certain that these use the old-fashioned (but still quite fine) liquid electrolyte. Those are still in production, so if you buy replacements from a good brand (something like Nichicon, United Chemicon, Nippon Chemicon, Panasonic if you can find them) they should hold up quite well. In fact, some older types from even good brands have occasionally been known to have problems. I don't think Sony monitors use any of the cheapo Taiwanese / other East Asian brands that had bad problems in the late '90s / early '00s, though, so one can't generalize too much. Ideally we could upgrade to the newer solid polymer type but those are rare and their different operating characteristics can cause problems in some cases.

Another type of capacitor which you're very used to seeing is the ceramic capacitor. These are typically the little blocks soldered directly to a printed circuit board. They tend not to go bad.

From what I have seen out of other peoples' teardowns of machines with capacitor-related problems, the capacitors that are most likely to need replacement are those near hot things, or big ones, especially those involved in the power supply section. But I don't know much about televisions in particular.

[Pasky]

Are the new DVDO Edge Green's compatible with 240p and 288p yet? IIRC it was a firmware issue, but not quite sure.

Right now I'm trying to decide between a VP50 pro and a DVDO Edge and not sure which to get for 240p gaming.

[Fudoh]

Are the new DVDO Edge Green's compatible with 240p and 288p yet

no.

Right now I'm trying to decide between a VP50 pro and a DVDO Edge and not sure which to get for 240p gaming.

neither. Why would you choose either one if your focus is on 240p sources ?

[Pasky]

Are the new DVDO Edge Green's compatible with 240p and 288p yet

no.

Right now I'm trying to decide between a VP50 pro and a DVDO Edge and not sure which to get for 240p gaming.

neither. Why would you choose either one if your focus is on 240p sources ?

To upscale them to HDTV's that don't accept them?

[Taiyaki]

Ed Oscuro, thanks a bunch!

According to the service manual it appears as though the BC board is the board that slides out in the back, the first one on the left. Is this accurate?

Wouldn't video related material be on the E board though?

[Fudoh]

To upscale them to HDTV's that don't accept them?

I thought so, but why not choose something that's a little bit higher on my top5 recommendation list for 240p signals ? Especially since neither the Edge nor the VP50pro are exactly the cheapest processors out there.

[Pasky]

I wasn't aware of your top 5. I'll try to find it and do some reading.

[jedman]

Iv'e found one of these monitors but it is very far from me and would need to be shipped, the seller has said they don't have any flight cases to ship it in and that they would box it with flow and thick bubble, they say that Previously they have done this and it has been fine and they have only ever come across one damaged monitor when doing this.

I can get insurance on it, but i'm not sure whether this is worth the risk as I've heard of people on this thread who have received damaged monitors in the post...

[Fudoh]

http://retrogaming.hazard-city.de/ scroll down a little bit and you'll find three top5 lists, one for 240p, one for 480i and one for 480p signals.

[kamiboy]

I have had many big monitors and TVs shipped to me in the past without incident. Luck of the draw I guess.

[Traveller]

Hey do these PVM screens sometimes drift with the settings for the geometry etc? I turn it on after awhile and it seems as though the vertical and horizontal may have increased or shifted a bit, the numbers don't always represent the same positioning either.

I am guessing this is just because CRT's image displays aren't an exact science so to speak and can drift a little?

[Taiyaki]

Yes when they start up the vertical is a bit expanded. I noticed it was quite sronger with the bvm but that may be because the geometry is so good that when it's off even slightly it's more noticeable. After about 20 or 30 minutes it should be perfect again.

[Traveller]

Ok, so don't attempt to adjust it at all then?

Thanks.

[cools]

Warm up time affects the picture. Adjust after 20-30 mins of power.

[jedman]

Whats a decent number of hours to have on one of the sony bvm's? found one which has 63063.

[brittonal]

What is the purpose of the underscan button on our PVM's? I have the PVM4MU and I'm going to use it for my JVC X'eye and Playstation 1. Should I adjust my grids with underscan on or off?

[grumly54]

I would like to find the service manual of BVM 20G1 series in PDF, anyone ?
thank you

[Superblatt]

Hey everyone. New member here that's been on the GAF RGB board for quite some time. I just picked up a BVM in fantastic shape with 18,000 hours from a local production studio for only $160. Hooked it up last night using scart to BNC and ran into an issue I can't figure out...

When I turn it on, there are wavy lines which look like bad interference of some sort. This exact same interference is visible when I turn on my NES or SNES via RGB. That tells me it's not my cables.

But, here's the weird part. If I wait 5-7 minutes it goes away entirely. It's almost like the BVM needs to warm up. What could be the issue here? Am I missing something obvious in the settings? Or, am I never supposed to turn it off?

[Yamato]

Yeah, got my SCART/BNC breakout cable from Retrogamingcables.com today!

Last week I was already pleased to see that the BVM-20F1E's Composite picture looks remarkingly better than on my old Sony consumer CRT. But now that I was able to fire up actual RGB sources I'm absolutely blown away! It's by far the best CRT picture quality I've ever seen. It looks simply perfect. But not in an emulation alike "too perfect" way - it is still pure CRT goodness by all means. There is something to the picture that no LCD with emulated scanlines could replace for me up to this day. So I'll definitely keep the BVM for retro gaming

One thing I noticed is that you somehow get different save slots for the ALIGNMENT setting.

You actually get four slots (overscan 4:3 and 16:9, underscan 4:3 and 16:9). You can totally disregard their notation and just use them for whatever you like.

This is nothing new, but now that I could test all of my signal types / cabling, I just wanted to confirm that you actually get four slots for 60Hz signals and an additional set of four slots for 50Hz signals. The BVM recognizes if you power on a 60Hz or 50Hz source and switches automatically between the four 60Hz-Alignment-slots and those extra 50Hz-slots depending on your signal type. It doesn't matter wether it's a NTSC or PAL signal and wether it's RGB or Composite: All 60Hz signals share the same 4 Alignment slots and so do all 50Hz signals. I think this is not documented in the manual at all. Nevertheless, this is a very useful feature for Gamers who happen to own both 60Hz and 50Hz-only sources like me

EDIT: I corrected the text above, because I was a bit wrong yesterday. It actually doesn't count if you feed in NTSC or PAL material. It's all about whether it's a 60Hz or a 50Hz signal!

-----
Something different: I used to hook up my N64 via S-Video cable + SCART adapter to my old CRT TV. Is there a way to display this S-Video signal on the BVM? I have the 21D board if that helps. (As I barely play N64 these days I don't want to invest in a RGB mod.)

[Xan]

Maybe how Composite looks differs between BVM sets, on my 1454D that looks horrendous actually. Dot crawl all over the place. I think my consumer FD Trinitron set is better here...

[Fudoh]

Is there a way to display this S-Video signal on the BVM? I have the 21D board if that helps.

you need an extension board with a Y/C decoder. The 21D only does composite.

[Yamato]

Maybe how Composite looks differs between BVM sets, on my 1454D that looks horrendous actually. Dot crawl all over the place. I think my consumer FD Trinitron set is better here...

Maybe, I can only talk about my BVM-20F1E. The perfect geometry/convergence as well as the high resolution improve the shitty composite signal a lot from my point of view. Have you set up the right comb filter in the menu? I can select between two on my BVM. The right choice makes a dramatic improvement here!

Comparing the 20F1E composite picture to the composite picture on my old KVFX30E (also a FD Trinitron), the BVM gives it quite a RGB-feel. Although a real RGB picture looks a million miles better obviously, so I would absolutely recommend to RGB modify your NES, Famicom or whatever (if you play them a lot).

I just noticed that, because I hadn't had a proper BNC breakout cable when I got the monitor, so I could only fire up composite, hehe

you need an extension board with a Y/C decoder. The 21D only does composite.

Y/C decoder… all right, I found the model numbers in the BVM manual, thanks!

[Xan]

On my BVM the only option related to that, as far as I can tell, is "358 TRAP FILTER", which pertains to NTSC signals obviously. I only have PAL consoles.

[hector]

there is a greenish tint on the top right corner of my Sony PVM-14L2. Is there a way for me to fix or help this?

[Taiyaki]

I have a non working 24N (picture tends to start flying up and down after a while) and I could never figure out S-video. I have a S video to 2x BNC adapter and hooked them up properly through multiple ports yet the best I could get was a black and white picture. IMO BVM's are just not S-video friendly. Maybe someone else who's managed to get it to to work can explain how they did it.

As for the Composite connection quality it really varies per console. IMO the NES composite comes through very clean on the BVM but the Genesis is atrociously washed out and dull. I compared composite on a consumer toshiba crt and it came out much better than on the BVM believe it or not.

[Yamato]

IMO BVM's are just not S-video friendly. Maybe someone else who's managed to get it to to work can explain how they did it.

Does your specific BVM model contain a Y/C decoder or provide expansion slots for additional inputs?
For the BVM-20F1E, Fudoh explained some posts earlier that you would need the right expansion board for S-Video. It is either the BKM-24N (NTSC), BKM-25P (PAL) or the BKM-27T (both NTSC/PAL) according to the manual. Again, I don't know if these boards will fit your BVM model. Maybe you can find its manual online?

I compared composite on a consumer toshiba crt and it came out much better than on the BVM believe it or not.

Depends on the BVM model.

[Taiyaki]

As mentionned above I tested with a defective 24N decoder board, even though it's defective the picture should have worked but I only got S-video in black and white with the right settings. I also have a S-video to 2xbnc cable which is what I read was needed and it still wouldn't work right.

I have a BVM-20G. According to specs the only difference in picture between the G and F is the additional 100 lines of pixels. I highly doubt the Composite of the Genesis would look any different. It's just atrocious composite. I tried with a Japanese Megadrive too and it's the same. On the consumer crt the colors are exagerated and because the composite of the genesis gives out a dry and washed out image the consumer crt gives a better, more colorful picture than the bvm. Once you go scart though there's no going back. It's BVM all the way.

However with the NES I find composite does much better with the BVM + comb filter. It delivers a great picture.

[mihilux]

Hello there, I recently enter this wonderfull world of Professional Monitor for retro gaming, I got a BVM- 14G5U HR triniton, I hooked up the PS2 with component monster cables, and the Wii with regular component cables, the picture is superb on both PS2 and Wii very sharp and with beautifull vivid colors. However when I switch to 480p on the Wii settings, I get a weird split screen, like a multiplayer screen? Does it really support 480p?

My model
http://i.imgur.com/xU0YYWD.jpg

My problem
http://i.imgur.com/zYb06j7.jpg

[jedman]

Got my BVM today, it managed to survive the postage intact, but there are a couple, of small chips in the glass. These are very small but they do cast a shadow onto the screen and I know it will irritate me, I havnt tested any video material yet but they can be clearly seen when the monitor is switched off. Anyone else had this problem? do you know if this is fixable or should I just send the monitor back?

Thanks