Proper evaluation of BVM/PVM, or any RGB monitor

[johndp977]

Hello,

I apologize in advance if this topic is posted in the wrong forum, or otherwise answered elsewhere. I am completely new to this "bleeding edge" community of retro gaming, and I've had a lot of fun the last couple weeks poring through threads here and absorbing info wherever I can.

Long story short, I've been bitten by the nostalgia/hobbyist bug and decided to dive in. I have located a Sony BVM-20F1U locally that I will check out in the next couple weeks, and I wanted to see if anyone could offer any advice on anything in particular that I should be watching for when I look at it, beyond the obvious visual inspection for scratches, burn-in, color issues, and other things that a newbie like me would know to check. In particular, is there any system/game that serves as a good visual test of the picture? Unfortunately I don't have any RGB modded consoles yet, but I do have access to just about every system to try out. And are there any common issues with these monitors that often go unnoticed with just a visual inspection?

Anyways, any experienced advice anyone has would be much appreciated. Thanks for looking!

[sky-13]

A game with a lot of red ie: super mario 2

[AndehX]

Is red special in some way, as opposed to green and blue?

[Fudoh]

The 20F1U doesn't have a composite decoder by default... Any system with component output on hand ?

[johndp977]

Sorry, I should have given more detail about the setup. The monitor comes with a BKM-20D and BKM-24N, one of which allows composite, at least according to the seller (hopefully that is correct?). So I have composite available via just about any common retro system (NES, Genesis, etc) and I believe I also have component output available via a GameCube. Given that, what would you suggest I haul along with me to try it out?

Thanks a lot for replying, look forward to your input.

[QXC]

If possible, a wii with 240p test suite is very useful for testing. The white checkerboard and lines are good for convergence and the scroll tests (particularly the sonic stage) are very good for geometry. There's also color bars for 'proper' color testing.

I'm not sure about BVMs, but later PVMs have a color temp setting. Shady sellers might set this to the 'user' setting and crank the gain up to compensate for a worn tube. Then again, I think one of my PVMs was like this and it was fresh from the hospital, so some operators might do that just to eek some more life out of it.

But I'm no expert

[Ed Oscuro]

A wii is small, and a small DVD player with a calibration disc (like Video Essentials, Spears & Munsil, etc.) will be good too. It's not important to make sure it's working absolutely perfectly in terms of screen size and positioning for a particular system, because different systems will show signals differently.

The red thing is good for treating red, which is a color that I've seen failing before. But be wary of what you see: On a BVM/PVM the colors should be about balanced when looking at white, while on a consumer Sony set red might have a nasty "bleeding" appearance which can nevertheless be easily fixed by eliminating red push. That's really neither here nor there for pro monitors.

[johndp977]

Thank you very much for the replies! I should be able to come up with a calibration DVD pretty easily, and I do have access to a Wii, so I'll certainly give those a try.

The note about looking for a color temp setting is interesting, and exactly the type of thing I would have had no clue to consider. If anyone else happens to think of anything like this buried in the menus that I could check for, please let me know.

Thanks again.

[CPC6128]

Hi,
I recommend you to verify the number of hours used by the menu "STATUS " 2.2 (towards the end of the list).
That does not allow to make sure that the tube is in good condition, because it take into account as well the hours stand by as the hours of use. But it can give you a general idea with tests which recommend you the other members.
For exemple : 10 000H is nothing for a BVM
I possess a, it who has 45000 hours is that has a very beautiful picture.