PVM-2054QM - external sync not working

[verden]

Ok, so recently, I joined the PVM family. Unfortunately, I'm not as yet as happy as I had expected to become. Why? Well, mine not-so-shiny anymore PVM-2054QM external sync input doesn't seem to work. I'm trying to connect my PS2 (using custom built luma sync scart cable) an Dreamcast (using either BBS Kuro Plus VGA Box and it's scart output [switched to 15kHz of course] or plain DC-scart cable) with Hydra switcher and scart to BNC cable... And it doesn't work. The picture is all jumpy and shaky, and the only option that works properly is putting PS2 in YPbPr mode with PVM set to B/component and line/RGB. Every other option causes the NO SYNC to appear. With Dreamcast, even this option doesn't work and the picture is all shaky. I've tried factory reset, different scart-BNC cables (the guy who sold me the PVM borrowed me his cable, which works, as he showed me pictures of it connected to the monitor right before he sent it, however, for me it doesn't work), every option on the monitor itself, direct scart-scart connector without Hydra, all to no avail. What to do? Is it possible that something broke while in delivery?

[H6rdc0re]

In the menu you'll have to set the output to RGB and not Component. This is the only way to get RGBS from the sockets with external sync. You can either pick RGB or Component not both at the same time.

[verden]

In the menu you'll have to set the output to RGB and not Component. This is the only way to get RGBS from the sockets with external sync. You can either pick RGB or Component not both at the same time.

There is no such option in it's menu though

Oh, but if you mean PS2, then it doesn't work either.

[buttersoft]

I don't think the 2054's have an option to do with ext.sync in the menus like later models do, but i could be mistaken. Reading the service manual might help

EDIT: i'm wrong, there is some sort of RGB Sync option in the service menus. item 110. See page 21/22/23 of the service manual (you can use the manual for the 1454QM as it's the same setup - https://www.manualslib.com/manual/13489 ... PVM-1454QM). I'm not actually sure what setting this option does, however. If you're going to try it, do so with a working composite signal first, and if the picture goes wack just flip the bit back. You might need it to go wack so it's forcing ext.sync, IDK. and ext.sync might be broken, so maybe try the below idea first.

If no cable you can directly lay hands on gives you a stable RGBS image with the PS2 set to output RGBS (try to remove all other devices from the signal chain if possible) then you should try to test the ext.sync input itself. Take your component cable from the running PS2 and plug the green RCA jack into the composite input of line A with no other devices in the middle. Set line A on and line/RGB off, and ext.sync off - you should get a stable B&W image. Now take that green cable and plug it into the ext.sync input and hit only the ext.sync button on the front, leave line A on and line/RGB off. Does anything happen? Do you get a no-sync message? How about if you plug the red or blue RCA jack into the line A input at the time?

EDIT: oh, and try setting up a component picture and then hitting the line A/RGB button. Everything stable but now the picture is green? How about setting up RGBS like one of the top two photos, then hitting line B/component. The image should be purple, IIRC, but is it stable?

[FinalBaton]

I had the 13" North American version of this monitor (1354Q).
The buttons you gotta push aren't that obvious. For sure you need the "A/RGB" face button lit and the "external sync" face button lit. Once you have that, press the "line/RGB" face button(try both of its positions). One of them will be what you're looking for.

[buttersoft]

I had the 13" North American version of this monitor (1354Q).
The buttons you gotta push aren't that obvious. For sure you need the "A/RGB" face button lit and the "external sync" face button lit. Once you have that, press the "line/RGB" face button(try both of its positions). One of them will be what you're looking for.

Err, it does show the lit buttons in the photos

[FinalBaton]

Err, it does show the lit buttons in the photos

yeah but maybe he didn't try the "line/RGB" button turned off while the other two are turned on

[verden]

I don't have a composite to BNC adapter at hand, so I'll go directly to point two.

If no cable you can directly lay hands on gives you a stable RGBS image with the PS2 set to output RGBS (try to remove all other devices from the signal chain if possible) then you should try to test the ext.sync input itself. Take your component cable from the running PS2 and plug the green RCA jack into the composite input of line A with no other devices in the middle. Set line A on and line/RGB off, and ext.sync off - you should get a stable B&W image. Now take that green cable and plug it into the ext.sync input and hit only the ext.sync button on the front, leave line A on and line/RGB off. Does anything happen? Do you get a no-sync message? How about if you plug the red or blue RCA jack into the line A input at the time?

If i understand you correctly, that my PS2 needs to be set to RGB and not YPbPr, then I'm unable to get stable image this way at all, no matter what I do. It works in component mode, but that's kinda obvious, right?

EDIT: oh, and try setting up a component picture and then hitting the line A/RGB button. Everything stable but now the picture is green? How about setting up RGBS like one of the top two photos, then hitting line B/component. The image should be purple, IIRC, but is it stable?

Everything stable and green, but when I hit RGBS, picture goes wild, and when I add line B/component, it becomes purple, but still unstabe.

I had the 13" North American version of this monitor (1354Q).
The buttons you gotta push aren't that obvious. For sure you need the "A/RGB" face button lit and the "external sync" face button lit. Once you have that, press the "line/RGB" face button(try both of its positions). One of them will be what you're looking for.

With "line/RGB" on, picture goes wild, and when it's off, there's no picture at all, just black screen.

[buttersoft]

Everything stable and green, but when I hit RGBS, picture goes wild, and when I add line B/component, it becomes purple, but still unstabe...With "line/RGB" on, picture goes wild, and when it's off, there's no picture at all, just black screen.

The "when i hit RGBS" part confuses me. You aren't changing cables between YPbPr and RGBS, right? So if you have a stable yPbPr signal up, you should have 3 BNCs plugged into the PVM (ignore audio for now). When you hit RGBS the screen goes green. All good so far. Leave the screen green. Then..

You plug the c-syc BNC into the PVM's ext.sync connector on the rear, go into the PS2 menus and set it to RGBS, the screen goes crazy. Then you hit the ext.sync button on the front of the PVM... and nothing happens, the screen doesn't sync, right?

Get some cheap PS2 RCA component cables and some RCA-to-BNC adapters from ebay for less than $10 total and test as i described above. If the no sync message comes on screen with the Y line (green RCA plug) going into the ext.sync input and the ext.sync button pressed (try both light on and light off) then your ext.sync input is borked or the PS2 is. You can actually test this with any video source, any yellow-RCA-plug + adapter from a VCR player or PS3 or whatever, can be plugged into the ext.sync adapter to try this.

[verden]

The "when i hit RGBS" part confuses me. You aren't changing cables between YPbPr and RGBS, right? So if you have a stable yPbPr signal up, you should have 3 BNCs plugged into the PVM (ignore audio for now). When you hit RGBS the screen goes green. All good so far. Leave the screen green. Then..

I meant changing output from YPbPr to RGB in PS2 menu.

You plug the c-syc BNC into the PVM's ext.sync connector on the rear, go into the PS2 menus and set it to RGBS, the screen goes crazy. Then you hit the ext.sync button on the front of the PVM... and nothing happens, the screen doesn't sync, right?

That's exactly what happens. Well, the flickering changes a bit, with ext.sync button on it flickers all around, with off - only vertically with slight horizontal movement. I also tried this config - PS2 set to YPbPr, red BNC connected to red input, blue BNC to blue input and green to sync input and ext.sync on - the image is stable, but dark. When I switch ext.sync off, it goes wild and NO SYNC appears. When i turn console into RGB output, it goes wild and becomes pink/violet tinted.

Get some cheap PS2 RCA component cables and some RCA-to-BNC adapters from ebay for less than $10 total and test as i described above. If the no sync message comes on screen with the Y line (green RCA plug) going into the ext.sync input and the ext.sync button pressed (try both light on and light off) then your ext.sync input is borked or the PS2 is. You can actually test this with any video source, any yellow-RCA-plug + adapter from a VCR player or PS3 or whatever, can be plugged into the ext.sync adapter to try this.

I've got official Sony component cable, I just need to get some RCA-BNC adapters. I've also ordered a VGA to BNC cable to see how it looks with my Kuro Plus set to output RGBS via VGA.

To be honest, it's okay for PS2, as it works in component mode, but I'm concerned about Dreamcast not working properly at all.

Edit: VGA to BNC cable arrived, i set my Kuro Plus to output RGBS via VGA, connected the white BNC to sync input, turned ext sync on and it works! But what does it mean anyway?

[nmalinoski]

Edit: VGA to BNC cable arrived, i set my Kuro Plus to output RGBS via VGA, connected the white BNC to sync input, turned ext sync on and it works! But what does it mean anyway?

The Dreamcast (and, by extension, the Behar Bros breakout boxes) output clean sync; whereas the PS2 will not without a hardware modification.

Since the Dreamcast works, and the PS2 doesn't, it sounds to me like your monitor really only wants clean composite sync on the EXT Sync input when using RGBS, which would mean you'll need a sync stripper between your PS2 and the monitor.

What I would recommend would depend on what you want and what your budget is. If you're not going to go down the everything-SCART route that a lot of people have taken, you can get a CSync cable with a DE-15/VGA from Retro-Access and save a few dollars on a VGA to BNC adapter over a SCART to BNC adapter; if, instead, you intend to start going down the SCART rabbit hole at some point in the future, you can get a CSync cable with SCART on the end and use the SCART to BNC adapter you already have; otherwise, if you're ready for SCART-everything now, you can order a new gscartsw, which includes a built-in sync stripper (called Sync Regeneration), which would allow you to use your existing sync-on-luma cable, but you'd need to also pick up a different SCART to BNC adapter (male SCART).

[verden]

Edit: VGA to BNC cable arrived, i set my Kuro Plus to output RGBS via VGA, connected the white BNC to sync input, turned ext sync on and it works! But what does it mean anyway?

The Dreamcast (and, by extension, the Behar Bros breakout boxes) output clean sync; whereas the PS2 will not without a hardware modification.

Since the Dreamcast works, and the PS2 doesn't, it sounds to me like your monitor really only wants clean composite sync on the EXT Sync input when using RGBS, which would mean you'll need a sync stripper between your PS2 and the monitor.

What I would recommend would depend on what you want and what your budget is. If you're not going to go down the everything-SCART route that a lot of people have taken, you can get a CSync cable with a DE-15/VGA from Retro-Access and save a few dollars on a VGA to BNC adapter over a SCART to BNC adapter; if, instead, you intend to start going down the SCART rabbit hole at some point in the future, you can get a CSync cable with SCART on the end and use the SCART to BNC adapter you already have; otherwise, if you're ready for SCART-everything now, you can order a new gscartsw, which includes a built-in sync stripper (called Sync Regeneration), which would allow you to use your existing sync-on-luma cable, but you'd need to also pick up a different SCART to BNC adapter (male SCART).

Okay, but doesn't the whole situation mean that the culprits are my SCART-BNC adapters, like both are wired wrong and a simple mod would make any of them work? Tbh I'd like to stay with Hydra, as It's already past return period and it won't be so easy to sell it, at least not where I live. I mean, my Kuro Plus works with VGA-BNC cable, but does not with SCART-BNC one in exactly same setting, so it could mean that something is wrong with the cable, and because of it both consoles are acting weird.

[nmalinoski]

Okay, but doesn't the whole situation mean that the culprits are my SCART-BNC adapters, like both are wired wrong and a simple mod would make any of them work? Tbh I'd like to stay with Hydra, as It's already past return period and it won't be so easy to sell it, at least not where I live. I mean, my Kuro Plus works with VGA-BNC cable, but does not with SCART-BNC one in exactly same setting, so it could mean that something is wrong with the cable, and because of it both consoles are acting weird.

I think you're right. (Sorry about the tangent.) SCART is (mostly) directional, so, if you somehow ended up buying a BNC to SCART adapter (specifically one without a directional switch, like the ones Retro Gaming Cables sells), and you're using it to adapt SCART to BNC, then it will act like sync is not connected. For sync, you should be able to get away with moving the sync wire from pin 19 to pin 20. If you're using audio from the SCART output, you'll probably also need to move the wires going to pins 1 and 3 to pins 2 and 6 respectively.

[verden]

SCART is (mostly) directional, so, if you somehow ended up buying a BNC to SCART adapter (specifically one without a directional switch, like the ones Retro Gaming Cables sells), and you're using it to adapt SCART to BNC, then it will act like sync is not connected. For sync, you should be able to get away with moving the sync wire from pin 19 to pin 20. If you're using audio from the SCART output, you'll probably also need to move the wires going to pins 1 and 3 to pins 2 and 6 respectively.

Well, one of them was built to order, and the second one is from the guy who sold me my PVM. First one is glued, so I can't open it (the guy who made it glued it because he forgot to put the connector "nut" on cable before assembling it), and the second has only pin 20 wired.

[buttersoft]

PS2 set to YPbPr, red BNC connected to red input, blue BNC to blue input and green to sync input and ext.sync on - the image is stable, but dark.

For the record, that's what we were trying to test. Dim is ok in this case because you're not running any brightness info in tho the set. If you get stable picture up at some point using ext.sync, then the set is good, the PS2 is ok, and the problem is with your signal chain (or mb in this case, the cables).

Now you know the ext.sync works fine, and that component works fine and the picture is nice, you know you're not wasting money fixing/replacing the cables for RGB

[verden]

Now you know the ext.sync works fine, and that component works fine and the picture is nice, you know you're not wasting money fixing/replacing the cables for RGB

The question is: does only the scart-RGB cable need to be fixed, or both, as it seems my PVM accepts only CSYNC, and my PS2 to scart is wired for luma.

[H6rdc0re]

Now you know the ext.sync works fine, and that component works fine and the picture is nice, you know you're not wasting money fixing/replacing the cables for RGB

The question is: does only the scart-RGB cable need to be fixed, or both, as it seems my PVM accepts only CSYNC, and my PS2 to scart is wired for luma.

Your model takes Luma Sync and Sync over Composite just fine. No need for Composite Sync cables.

[verden]

Okay, problem solved. Apparently in a male-scart-to-BNC cable the sync has to be wired to pin 19.