Sony kv 32fs320 in Europe?

[iceman_0]

Hi there. Want to get into CRT gaming asap and did some research already. Found out the the Sony kv 32fs320 should be among the best consumer sets out there, but the only Thing I could not find out if that TV was sold in Europe or not? If so do you guys how it was called in Europe? Or if it was not available could you recommend a TV with smiliar specs?

[Makinx]

I don't think that set has a European equivalent. It's a nice set for Americans wanting to get into retro gaming with its 2 component inputs (although I'm not a fan of the flat tube, with its geometry issues). But as a European you have a much wider selection of choices, as almost every (late) '80s and '90s set has at least 1 rgb scart input.

I'd suggest you just look around for any decent set on offer in your neighborhood. Once you have one, nothing's stopping you to continue looking for great sets on offer. Try to look for the 4:3 black Sony Trinitron sets from the early to mid 1990's. Those are excellent for retro gaming.

[Fudoh]

Sony did not offer any 31khz compatible sets on the European market, nor any other CRT consumer sets with component inputs. The only 31khz-enabled sets were the FD1 trinitrons with VGA input.

[MKL]

It's a US model so it's only found in the US. There are some macro differences (size, video inputs, SD/HD) between EU and US Sonys. No HD models in Europe and no component inputs, only composite, s-video and RGB. The biggest EU 4:3 models are 34" which is equivalent to US 32". But there are so few 34" models that the biggest common size is in fact 29" (= US 27"). The only 34" true flat model is to my knowledge the KV-34FQ75A (or D/K) which is 100Hz so not the best choice for games. I can only recommend to avoid all true flat (FD Trinitron) models and get a curved one.

[iceman_0]

Thanks for the advice. Then I will look for other models. The missing component plug in the European models is not a big deal. RGB is way more versatile anyway for gaming at least. The consoles I want to use on the old school TV are from an Area where RGB was supreme. The most modern consoles I want to use are the Sega Saturn,and the N64. The yuv port would only come in handy with my old DVD Player that Supports that of Connection. Until recently I wa watching DVD on my 4k with the xbox one S but the scaled Image to 4k does not look that good. So as I a want to a CRT for Retro gaming anway I thought I bring the old DVD Player back from the Basement and use it on the CRT.


MKL Thanks for the warning for avoiding 100hz Screens. 100 hz is no Option for me anyway. I have read that 100hz is not supporting light gun games.

[FinalBaton]

If I were you I would not hold out for a WEGA crt : I'd try just about any RGB crt around you and pick the one in best condition(probably the most important factor here).

You are bound to find many sets with great picture. IMO the curved Trinitrons look even better than the flat WEGAs. I have a top-of-the-line curved Sony RGB set from 1988 here and it looks INSANELY good for games. I also love shadowmask tubes so if I were you I would also check those out. A good rgb shadowmask tube is a glorious thing for old games. Pretty much as good as it gets.

So yeah, try all dem RGB crt near you don't discriminate! you might find a gem.

[Nodoyuna]

If I were you I would not hold out for a WEGA crt : I'd try just about any RGB crt around you and pick the one in best condition(probably the most important factor here).

You are bound to find many sets with great picture. IMO the curved Trinitrons look even better than the flat WEGAs. I have a top-of-the-line curved Sony RGB set from 1988 here and it looks INSANELY good for games. I also love shadowmask tubes so if I were you I would also check those out. A good rgb shadowmask tube is a glorious thing for old games. Pretty much as good as it gets.

So yeah, try all dem RGB crt near you don't discriminate! you might find a gem.

Which model do you have?

[FinalBaton]

Which model do you have?

Sony KV-25XBR (north american domestic model). supposedly it looks just like the top-of-the-line european and japanese Sony sets of the time

but to be honest, I expect all Trinitrons to look good when fed RGB. Heck, I expect pretty much all crts to look good with RGB (provided that it's in good condition). The "crt rgb mod thread" made me realise this. almost all screenshots I've seen in there look enjoyable and very playable, across all brands. of course you might want to avoid the very, very low end models. And higher end models should provide more accurate colour reproduction and contrast. But there's nothing like trying them in person. You never know when you might find a charming picture, even on lower end models

[Revolver Ocelot]

You could also try to look for the bang and olufsen TV sets. They seem to have a good Reputation in the Retro gaming scene as well. But not sure if they are as good the Sony though. If you want something smaller you could also look for some professional Monitor from Sony or Panasonic.

They are a bit more expensive than the consumer CRT sets though.

Let us know how your journey in the CRT realm ended. I hope it will end faster than mine. I am interested in Light Gun Shooters for quite some time, but was not able to find the perfect set yet.

[Makinx]

Which model do you have?

Heck, I expect pretty much all crts to look good with RGB (provided that it's in good condition). The "crt rgb mod thread" made me realise this. almost all screenshots I've seen in there look enjoyable and very playable, across all brands. of course you might want to avoid the very, very low end models. And higher end models should provide more accurate colour reproduction and contrast. But there's nothing like trying them in person. You never know when you might find a charming picture, even on lower end models

I concur. I own a number of crt's, among them a cheapo Sanyo 20" tv I bought in 1993. The rgb image quality is top notch. Really, the most important factors to consider when buying a crt is tube condition and picture geometry IMO.

[Taiyaki]

Just want to come in to say, people should stop assuming everyone wants to play with scart or RGB. Not everyone is after that effect.
RGB affects more than just sharpness but colors as well. RGB video is not always the result gamers are after when going back to CRT's.

[iceman_0]

I did some Research in the meantime and there are really plenty of crt for almost nothing available for nothing near me. That's very conviniant.

Also come across some old crt Monitors for Broadcasting. But they are more expensive than the consumer sets.

I know that the Monitors are supposed to be better than most consumer sets, but how good is good?

Is the Image Quality really that better, to justify the extra cost and affford to hunt them down compared to some consumer sets?

I want to us 32 bit and the 128 bit Systems on the CRT. So nothing older than, Playstation, Saturn and N64 gen?

The higher Resolution of the Broadcasting stuff might help to improve the Image Quality of the Dreamcast, Gamecube and PS2. In case I have the right Connection typ I guess. Not that big Problem, for Dreamcast and ps2, but impossible to achieve with the gamecube. I am not willing to pay a fortune for the Gamecube component cables.

But would also the older Systems, Saturn, ps1 and n64 get some benefits out of the higher Resolution the Broadcasting Monitors?

What do you guys think?

I am bit confused to be honest. Getting into the analog stuff is like a deep rabbit hole..

[maxtherabbit]

Just want to come in to say, people should stop assuming everyone wants to play with scart or RGB. Not everyone is after that effect.
RGB affects more than just sharpness but colors as well. RGB video is not always the result gamers are after when going back to CRT's.

people that intentionally choose inferior video connections are wrong

(YPbPr is not inferior to RGB )

[FinalBaton]

I did some Research in the meantime and there are really plenty of crt for almost nothing available for nothing near me. That's very conviniant.

Also come across some old crt Monitors for Broadcasting. But they are more expensive than the consumer sets.

I know that the Monitors are supposed to be better than most consumer sets, but how good is good?

Is the Image Quality really that better, to justify the extra cost and affford to hunt them down compared to some consumer sets?

I want to us 32 bit and the 128 bit Systems on the CRT. So nothing older than, Playstation, Saturn and N64 gen?

The higher Resolution of the Broadcasting stuff might help to improve the Image Quality of the Dreamcast, Gamecube and PS2. In case I have the right Connection typ I guess. Not that big Problem, for Dreamcast and ps2, but impossible to achieve with the gamecube. I am not willing to pay a fortune for the Gamecube component cables.

But would also the older Systems, Saturn, ps1 and n64 get some benefits out of the higher Resolution the Broadcasting Monitors?

What do you guys think?

I am bit confused to be honest. Getting into the analog stuff is like a deep rabbit hole..

You're gonna get different answesr on this one

Personally, for games I prefer a consumer crt via RGB.
And I'm cool with the low-end PVMs too.
But I don't like the look of high -end PVM and BVM, with their high TVL of 750 and up, and the "laserbeam"-like scanlines and very well-defined and big blanked lines.

Some people like the high-end broadcast sets better, and that's okay too, there's no right or wrong answer.

It's gonna be for you to decide.

[iceman_0]

@FinalBaton Ok thanks for the info. Yes the best way would be to try out both Screen types and decide then. But thats just easy with consumer sets because you get them for almost nothing but no so easy with the broadcast Monitors because they are not that cheap.

I checked out some YouTube Videos about the broad cast Monitors and they look nice, but the same Thing can be said about the consumer set as well. And to be honest I do not think that YouTube is the right medium to judge Image Quality properly.

I think I will go for a Standard consumer set first and stick with for a while. If I am complety happy with which is quite likly there is no reason to look for something else.

On a CRT everything looks good. Back then I was just using Composite Video on the CRT of my parents and I never had any complaints. Was using it because I was not really Aware that there are better Options out there. Was a avaid Reader of gaming magazines, but I always skipped the technical part because I was not intersted in it. I was shocked how many technical articles the magazines featured about RGB scart, when I checked them again a few month ago. Back in the 90s I never read that stuff, i was just too ignorant.

Long Story short. If was happy with Composite on a CRT I will be even more happy when I am using RGB scart this time.

[Taiyaki]

Just want to come in to say, people should stop assuming everyone wants to play with scart or RGB. Not everyone is after that effect.
RGB affects more than just sharpness but colors as well. RGB video is not always the result gamers are after when going back to CRT's.

people that intentionally choose inferior video connections are wrong

(YPbPr is not inferior to RGB )

That's just your opinion. It's not wrong at all, it's a matter of preference. When it comes to pro monitors RGB is factually going to work better than any other connection, but those kind of monitors are not for everyone. I had 2x BVM's set up with everything going to the gwscart with properly wired scart cables for all consoles (luma for ps1). Honestly I was not satisfied due to the image looking much too much like an lcd with emulated scanlines, and apparently countless others felt the same way as it can be seen all over many threads spread accross the internet of people asking for consumer crt recommendations as they made the change back to consumer crt's as well.

When dealing with consumer crt's things aren't as dry cut. While RCA>RF, S-Video>RCA are factually true, the sharpness gain provided by RGB over S-video is going to minimal at best, and the colors go through some degree of changes in some consoles (that some will describe as dryer), so it really comes down more to preference. Also eventhough RCA may be less good in terms of both color containment and sharpness, some users favor it as it is a picture they feel more familiar with from childhood, or young adulthood.

So yes some even favor RCA, and some even RF if you can believe it, which is why so many people still devote tons of hours to replicating the look of these connections, to perfect the shaders used in emulators.

Personally I favor S-video for most early consoles (for some like NES, Genesis and N64 requires some modding) and then component for Neo Geo and everything from PS2, Gamecube and Wii.

It really comes down to what the user is seeking and what their goals are by going back to the CRT's.