Sony PVM 1350 worth getting?

[Yayitsdan]

There are a couple for sale in my area, but I can't find much information about them. This would be my first rgb crt monitor and I'm not sure if it would be a waste it buy. What do you guys think?

[Ed Oscuro]

checklist for you
- price
- big enough
- enough features (sufficient resolution, comb filter?)
- inputs you require (RGBs, YPbPr component?)

[BazookaBen]

If it's $10 or $20, just go for it. You can get a bigger one later. If it's more expensive, definitely go and have a look at it first. Bring a system with test patters on it, like the 240p test suite. Last time I bought a PVM, I brought a PS3 (and component cable) loaded with .PNG's from this site:

http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/

- enough features (sufficient resolution, comb filter?)

Comb filter shouldn't be a big deal if he's using RGB/Component/S-video, right?

[Yayitsdan]

Thanks guys, this is helpful. I think I'm going to hold off until something better comes along. They're going for $50 each and it's something that I'd want to replace as soon as I find something bigger.

[BazookaBen]

Never hurts to have two or three CRT's. They won't be made again by humans until the universe re-big bangs. So you might as well have a backup or two for when your main one dies, because they'll be much harder to find 10 years from now.

[Yayitsdan]

Looks like I'm in luck. I found a PVM-20M2MDU in my area, but it seems a bit expensive at $380. I sent a message to see if I can test it in person before I try and work out a price. Unfortunately, I'm not sure what exactly I should be testing for. I don't think I have any consoles at the moment that use rgb, so I might have to pick up something quick. Any advice for what I should be looking for and what hardware I need?

[BazookaBen]

That PVM also takes component and S-video. If you have a PS3, you can load the images from the site I linked above and display them on the PVM to see if it looks OK.

You will need 3 RCA female to BNC male adapters for component.

[cyborc]

Looks like I'm in luck. I found a PVM-20M2MDU in my area, but it seems a bit expensive at $380. I sent a message to see if I can test it in person before I try and work out a price. Unfortunately, I'm not sure what exactly I should be testing for. I don't think I have any consoles at the moment that use rgb, so I might have to pick up something quick. Any advice for what I should be looking for and what hardware I need?

IMO, that is way too expensive. I have that exact monitor, and while it is nice, I would not pay that much for it. I paid $250 for mine but it was brand new. Even at that price I felt a little silly paying so much for a crt. If anything $380 is more in line with BVM pricing these days.

[BazookaBen]

Yeah, I paid $50 for 20M2MDU a few years ago, and it was in top shape. You should be able to haggle the price down pretty far. Especially if the guy doesn't know about the retro games market.

[Ed Oscuro]

My 20L2-MD-ST units, from 2004, were $75 each a couple months back. These are about the same spec (same TVL spec for example), except newer. So yeah, $380 is probably too expensive. But you are limited by what's available.

I should add that you should check out auctions - look up local auction houses, look up government surplus auctions (like http://www.publicsurplus.com/ where a forum member just got a 20" BVM, or http://www.govdeals.com/ as well as the more local auction houses which sell surplus from your local and state governments) and also see what you can do with inquiries to local TV stations or other sites (like universities) that might have TV or video production.

Re: the resolution / comb filter advice, these are things that the smaller PVMs may not support. I'm not completely sure about whether the comb filter has any utility outside of composite, but having a good digital three-line ("3D") comb filter can make even composite look stunning, especially in conjunction with a good tube TVL spec. The 1350 has 450 TV lines - in the center - probably about as good as a consumer TV and possibly better than some other small PVMs and pro monitors (I recall seeing some monitors that do only 250 lines!) While this is good enough for retro gaming, it might be visibly less sharp than other displays, especially if you ever hook up consoles getting closer to 640x480 / 480p resolutions. 600 is probably close to a sweet spot for 240p (no super defined scanlines, no odd looking pixels, but everything is perfectly defined).

Retro games market might not matter anything about haggling - I was very forthcoming with the guy I bought the tubes from, because I'd rather people think these are worth saving, even if that means the price doesn't go down terribly far. They just want to turn a profit from their salvage work and contracts, and it doesn't need to be very high. Selling an old tube over a few hundred dollars would be a windfall but that is probably more profit than they're expecting from old equipment. What's more, our market is small so we really haven't been driving up the price on these much. Finally, the weight and disposal problems means that these tubes are essentially a nuisance unless proven otherwise - so even under $100 is welcome for recyclers.

[mvsfan]

I recently bought a pvm14n6u that is in awesome shape. It was made in 2003 too. It cost me $40 shipped.

if your not shipping it i think one could be had for less.

that 20" pvm is way too expensive. i wouldnt pay more than about $150 for it.

youve also got to consider what kind of pvm it is. How many Tv lines does it have? a 500-line 20" pvm
will look very similar to a 500 line trinitron television with component. but the trinitron tv is way way cheaper.

I have the 14" pvm and i also have a sony kv32fs120 wega television that im running through a scart to component converter. they look about the same except the television is a lot bigger.

[Yayitsdan]

Retro games market might not matter anything about haggling - I was very forthcoming with the guy I bought the tubes from, because I'd rather people think these are worth saving, even if that means the price doesn't go down terribly far. They just want to turn a profit from their salvage work and contracts, and it doesn't need to be very high. Selling an old tube over a few hundred dollars would be a windfall but that is probably more profit than they're expecting from old equipment. What's more, our market is small so we really haven't been driving up the price on these much. Finally, the weight and disposal problems means that these tubes are essentially a nuisance unless proven otherwise - so even under $100 is welcome for recyclers.

Thanks for the advice. I've been talking with the seller and he's very open to me coming by and testing it before I buy. I just sent him a message to try and negotiate a price before hand so we're not wasting each others time. I made an offer of $130, but encouraged him to try and get his asking price beforehand since my offer is much lower.