Fudoh's ode to old display technology

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Fudoh
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Fudoh's ode to old display technology

Post by Fudoh »

Despite the rapid advances in display technology, the perfect blacks you get from new LED and Plasma sets by now and the falling prices for giant displays, old display technology remains interesting and tempting, when it comes to retrogaming. Over the past months I've extensively tested two especially interesting candidates, which certainly represent the absolute pinnacle in picture quality for playing low-res videogames.

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The first one's a class one CRT, the Sony BVM-20F1E (The E at the ends presents the European version, while the US Version ends with a U). While many users are familiar with the Sony's mid-class PVM series, the BVM models are Sony's broadcast production displays. The BVM-20F1 is a 20 inch 4:3 model. It was introduced around 1998 for about US$12,000. The price dropped to about US$8,000 when the last units were available around 2003. The 20" BVM monitors can nowadays be picked up for around $150 to $250.

The BVM series features expandable inputs by adding additional input boards. The standard connection is a combined component/RGBs input. Most 2nd hand displays came with a SDI board (with 3 digital inputs and one additional analogue component input). Further expansion boards are easily available at about $100 with two component/RGB inputs on each analogue board. The monitor itself does not contain any control elements. Instead you use an external controller board which is connected to the monitor with a RS232 cable. The controller board allows full control of up to a dozen chained displays. You also get a PCMCIA memory card slot to save and transfer settings to other monitors. Very fancy :mrgreen: When shopping for a 20F1 make sure to get a control unit with it. If the connection cable is missing, don't worry, it's a standard $5 serial cable.

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The BVM-20F1 has full digital controls including full geometry and convergence controls using built-in test patterns. The only machines I've encountered with such extensive controls were 9" CRT beamers many, many years ago. The internal storage system allows different settings on 99 "channels" and you can assign any input you like to any channel. With different underscan/overscan settings required for different sources (the PS2 for example has heavy underscan), it's easy to save perfect settings for every connected systems, even if you're running through a switch before going into the display.

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Being a classic CRT, the BVM-20F1 is a 15khz only display. It will accept and display 240p, 288p, 480i and 576i. Component and RGBs signals are accepted out of the box, but the RGBs signal requires a clean sync signal. Some systems like NTSC Saturns already have clean sync, while others don't (Playstation 1). A sync cleaner like the Sync Strike will help in these cases. Composite and S-Video inputs are only available through expansion boards. Some of the boards are NTSC-only, while others are multi-system-enabled. For my test setup I added a scan converter (Extron Emotia) to the setup in order to connect a XBox360 with VGA output.

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Remains the most important question of them all: how does the quality stack up ? In the 90s I owned a 29" Sony consumer CRT (with RGB input), followed by a number of PVM and PGM displays. Compared to any other CRT display I've ever owned, the BVM's quality is absolutely breathtaking. First of all, convergence and geometry are perfect once tweaked through the internal menu system. Colors and contrast are spot-on, just the blacks can't reach the performance of today's LED and Plasma displays. The BVM's picture is actually quite different as what you might expect from similar CRTs (21 inch PVMs for example). With 240p material you get perfectly spaced scanlines, but you'll have a very hard time to see something like a shadow mask of aperture grill. The ultra-high-resolution tube (sony claims 900 lines) makes is basically impossible to see the single R/G/B dots (mask) or lines (grill). For comparison: on Sony's PVM displays with Trinitron tubes, the aperture grill is quite obvious. The BVM's 240p picture is much closer to a digital LCD display with emulated scanlines than it is to classic CRT. If you take a look at the close up shots below, you'll see how fine the mask actually is. When playing my head was about 70cm (2 ft) from the screen and I couldn't see anything mask-related. Needless to say that the BVM is of course lag-free with all input signals.

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The BVM-20F1E is the very best CRT I've ever seen. It's form (perfectly flat side faces) makes it easily rotateable for shoot'em ups and it's flexibility with the ability to add as many input modules as you like (well, four or so) make it one of it's kind.


Pros:

- the best CRT quality I've ever seen
- basically invisible shadow mask / aperture grill
- zero digital processing of the signal, so 100% lag-free
- easily rotateable
- fully digital geometry and convergence controls
- affordable by now

(Minor) cons:

- blacks are not up to today's LCD/plasma standards
- geometry/convergence tweaking can take hours
- only 20" in size
- no speakers



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The second one's a 4:3 plasma set, the Pioneer PDP-V402EU (the EU version is capable of displaying PAL signals, while the US version is probably not). The V402 was Pioneer's third and last 4:3 plasma presentation display. It was made available around 2001 and was available until 2003 or 2004. Early V402 units still have the old Pioneer logo on front, while the later ones had the new one (unfortunately just a sticker). Price upon it's introduction was US$8,000 without any accessories. Just like the 20" BVMs the PDP-V402 can nowadays be picked up for around $150 to $250 depending on the cosmetical condition and the hours the units has on it. Sometimes the 40" PDPs are listed for pick-up only and can be found under $100.

A few years ago I had a PDP-V401 already, so I knew what to expect for 480p/VGA sources, but the one thing the 402 heavily improved upon is the handling of 15khz sources. The V402 offers two sets of RGB inputs, one BNC, one HD15. The BNC one accepts RGBHV and RGBs signals, while the HD15 one accepts RGBHV and RGsB signals. S-Video and composite ports are available as well. My V402 came with an optional down converter board which allows PC signals up to XGA. Those are downscaled to VGA then before fed into the panel. To connect a 15khz or 31khz component source, you have to add a color transcoder. For the test run I used a Burosch Con-1 converter, since it does 15khz and 31khz without the need to swap any cables. Note that no other external deinterlacers, scalers or video processors have been used with the PDP during this test run.

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The PDP's controls are very rudimentary. You get a contrast and brightness control, phase and clock setting for RGB signals as well as horizontal and vertical centering controls. That's it. The service menu allows color temperature settings (freely adjustable and two presets, one very cool/blueish with 9500°K and another one very nicely tuned in at about 6500°K), has an hour counter (mine's at 4,200 hours) and offers full color test screens to deal with image retention or burn-in.

Since the Pioneer is an early plasma generation, image retention is quite obvious. If you play a 2D shoot'em up, the score display will show a slight afterglow for several minutes after you've quit the game. This has nothing to do with burn-in though and with a display properly "broken in" burn-in is nothing you have to worry it. I had an in-game pause screen showing for about 3 hours recently and the image retention from it was completely gone about 2 minutes into my next game session. The V402 on hand does not exhibit any plasma buzzing, but the chassis got five fans in the back, which can't really be called silent. Displays in private use usually don't run hot, so it might be possible to exchange the fans for something more silent. My unit came with the Pioneer speaker set, which looks and sounds quite nice. Funny thing about them is that they're not active, but passive speakers, so you need a little stereo amp somewhere to power them. Weird design decision from Pioneer I would say.

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I never had the chance to see a brand-new V402, but with only 4,200 hours on it, colors and light output of the Pioneer on hand should still be very similar to what a new display can produce. My first test was with progressive 480p/VGA sources of course and that's what the Pioneer was obviously designed for. You get a pixel perfect image without agressive sharpness. Plasma pixels (actually cells) aren't as "sharp" as LCD pixels, so the image appears a little smoother than it would on a LCD display of the same size. Colors are fantastic and the contrast is quite good. There are no blacks though. The darkest the display can produce is a dark grey, so while colorful games look fantastic, it's probably not the best display to play Resident Evil at night.

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Anyway, as said before, VGA sources look as expected (which is fantastic). What I really love about the V402 though is how it displays 15kz sources. 240p (15khz RGBs) signals are properly handled as progressive and perfectly line doubled to 480p. There's zero difference to real 480p sources. The V402 is basically lag-free and there's no (!) additional processing time for 240p signals. Compared to my main Sony LCD with a XRGB, the controls are perfectly spot-on with no delay whatsoever. Most interesting was how the V402 handles 480i signals. Those are run through an internal deinterlacer and display in 480p as well. The deinterlacer is optimized for moving video content (no filmmode available) and is VERY video-biased. This means that you get high-detail 480p for static images (menus etc), but the picture is basically reduced to linedoubled 240p for anything that moves. Now that's nothing new per se (most linedoublers from 10 years back work this way), but what makes the Pioneer shine is how sharp and pixel perfect 240-line fields are doubled and displayed. You'll notice an EXTREMELY slight judder/tremor on horizontal lines, but it's really nothing compared to any other linedoubler I know. Even the XRGB-Mini shows considerably more tremor and image degradation when used in gamemode and does nowhere perform as great as the Pioneer. The only processor close to the Pioneer is the XRGB-3 in B1 mode, but still the Pioneer performs more solid.

I first tried 480i with real high-res titles, but I then moved on to those troublesome 480i titles which have originally been 240p titles. Titles like Mushihimesama and Ibara on the PS2 or all four volumes of the Taito Memories series. Those titles look acceptable on CRTs (but there they show combing) and they look ok with proper deinterlacers like the Framemeister (with highly tweaked settings), but it's unbelievable how good these titles look on the Pioneer. The video-biased deinterlacer works wonders on those and makes them look NEARLY like genuine 240p titles. The picture's a little bit softer than on a real 240p source, but that's nitpicking. They look so good, that I lost hours and hours on the Taito Memories recently. Something I never did, because I could never live with the cheap 480i emulation. This is also the ONLY display or processor I found so far on which PS2's Mushihimesama and Ibara conversions look really good. Sengoku Ace 1 & 2 and Dragon Blaze (which are also 480i) look fantastic as well! I actually just finished Sengoku Ace for the first time around.

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The Pioneer PDP-V402 is very interesting display. First of course it's size. 40" in 4:3, perfectly rotateable to both sides for TATE sessions, but more important, the outstanding quality it delivers for 240p, 480i and 480p sources without any additional processing along with the ability to play all those tragically converted 480i arcade games (Taito Memories, Capcom Generations etc) in the best quality you'll find anywhere. For anyone with a 50+ inch television at home already, the 40" are nothing special of course, but given that the only thing with quality close to the Pioneer is a XRGB and that alone costs more than the PDP and you certainly end up with a higher input lag compared to the Pioneer, the V402 is a highly recommend display for anyone who can find one and has the space to put it.



Pros:

- cheap rotateable 40" 4:3 display with pixel-perfect image
- fantastic 240p and 480p quality
- perfect deinterlacer for 240p titles running in 480i (classic compilations)
- basically lag-free for 240p, 480i and 480p

Cons:

- no blacks, merely dark greys.
- five noisy fans in the back
- Pioneer speaker set requires external amp
- power consumption (~250W at medium contrast setting)
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Re: Fudoh's ode to old display technology

Post by Ji-L87 »

An interesting read for sure! :)
I wonder if that's the only Pioneer monitor with those features and capabilities? That sounds totally sweet and should really be used in more TV sets....as I'm not sure I can squeeze in a 40" anywhere right now :(
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Re: Fudoh's ode to old display technology

Post by Fudoh »

I wonder if that's the only Pioneer monitor with those features and capabilities?
I'm pretty sure about it, since I've been following the market ever since and it's just been going downhill since. That's why I'm usually focusing on upscalers and deinterlacers which make current LCDs and Plasmas look pretty.
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Re: Fudoh's ode to old display technology

Post by Dave_K. »

Great reviews, thanks Fudoh! Sounds like this is the largest 4:3 flat display you can buy?
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Re: Fudoh's ode to old display technology

Post by Fudoh »

As far as I know, yes. Hantarex had the same size. Hitachi ended at 37" I think. The Pioneer is the only affordable one and can at least be found sometimes. Still far from common though.
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Re: Fudoh's ode to old display technology

Post by emphatic »

Awesome write-up, thanks a lot!
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Re: Fudoh's ode to old display technology

Post by gabe »

Excellent write-up as always...

...Though I wish I could read your posts without immediately thinking about the inadequacies of my equipment. :lol:
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Re: Fudoh's ode to old display technology

Post by Ed Oscuro »

The built-in test patterns on the BVM are a huge plus. I'm sure I can just deal with the colors already present on my new Wega, but being able to calibrate is a big plus. You will still need color filters to do some color calibration, though, right?

I am not a fan of that almost beige screen (when off), though. Maybe it's an unavoidable side-effect of better phosphors? I have always wondered about that.

About the Pioneer - do you have any info on hours in use? It would be nice if the older-style 4:3 display circuitry type (not cluttered, maybe with improved speed) was retained or even improved for newer sets. I would be somewhat worried about limited lifespan as seen in early Plasma screens. Still, the cited 30,000 hours to half brightness (which is likely not a problem, actually) is very respectable - nearly three and a half years of constant use, which I doubt any well-treated retrogaming set will be subject to. Who knows what horrors many sets have already been subject to, however.

One final question: Does the BVM do Raiden II / DX? I might consider picking up one of the 20" units if so. (Would be lovely to ditch the X-RGB 2 as the weak point in my display chain when it's not needed.)
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Re: Fudoh's ode to old display technology

Post by Fudoh »

You will still need color filters to do some color calibration, though, right?
I don't care for videogames. My movie screen is calibrated though. The BVM can connect to a colorimeter/spectroradiometer and does automatic color calibration.
About the Pioneer - do you have any info on hours in use?
The 402 I have now has 4,200 hours on-time. The 401 I had two years ago had 11,000 hours was still looking ace.
One final question: Does the BVM do Raiden II / DX?
don't know, sorry. I might be able to borrow a Raiden Fighters sometime to give it a try (RF runs at 54Hz as well).
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Re: Fudoh's ode to old display technology

Post by Fudoh »

heads up: there's a PDP-V402 on eBay Austria right now, so maybe some lucky gamer is looking at a new display quite soon!
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Re: Fudoh's ode to old display technology

Post by Ed Oscuro »

Fudoh wrote:
You will still need color filters to do some color calibration, though, right?
I don't care for videogames.
Hmm, good point. I'll probably try it someday, using a calibration DVD + some color filter, which shouldn't be break-the-bank expensive.

I ask about Raiden II / DX specifically because a standard NEC MultiSync FE700+ (or whatever it is I've got) and X-RGB 2 will do SPI games, but not Raiden II (and probably not DX). They are different beasts. Raiden II and DX are just wacky games. :lol:
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Re: Fudoh's ode to old display technology

Post by STG »

Rather perfect timing for this post since I was doing some research on the BVM series (in particular the 20F1U) over this past couple weekends as I'm thinking of buying one to use as a vert-only display, and to be honest I think my XM-29 Xtra might be a little too heavy for me to constantly rotate. :( I was originally considering another PVM until I started reading about the signal formats that this monitor series accepts when I was viewing an online brochure about it, so it's nice to see that this monitor will absolutely suit my needs and have picture adjustments that are easily accessible.

Looks like a beast visually, the photo's look stunning.
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Re: Fudoh's ode to old display technology

Post by 16shot »

Very enlightening read, superb equipment!

Although, is that really so that Sony's semi pro/pro crts *demand* a spotless sync signal in order to display a perfect picture throughout the entire raster?

I started a thread about this a little while ago as i have been trying to determine whether my monitor (a PVM) was faulty or not, my mind oscillating between the two!

Thinking about it, it would sort of make sense for a production/broadcast monitor to expose any imperfection in a given video signal before the whole thing goes to air...
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Re: Fudoh's ode to old display technology

Post by Fudoh »

Although, is that really so that Sony's semi pro/pro crts *demand* a spotless sync signal in order to display a perfect picture throughout the entire raster? I started a thread about this a little while ago as i have been trying to determine whether my monitor (a PVM) was faulty or not, my mind oscillating between the two!
What do you consider "spotless" ? I don't have too many systems left which still use RGB with composite video as sync, but I tried a PS1 (which doesn't output raw sync) and it didn't sync unless I added a stripper. I might be a weird design decision, since the BVM supports YPbPr out of the box and it wouldn't have caused much trouble to run an unclean RGBs signal through the same IC (Luminance in a YPbPr signal is similar to composite video as sync).
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Re: Fudoh's ode to old display technology

Post by fagin »

Fudoh - you're behind on realising that the true king is CRT for retro, but as flaming always, you seem to collect the cream of the crop which makes even the likes of me "a crt fanboy" scratching his head at another load of CRT crap he needs to invest in! :mrgreen:

You're my personal legend! :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
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Re: Fudoh's ode to old display technology

Post by Fudoh »

Fudoh - you're behind on realising that the true king is CRT for retro
I just took a time out - from 2004 to 2012 :!:
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Re: Fudoh's ode to old display technology

Post by Arasoi »

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Re: Fudoh's ode to old display technology

Post by 16shot »

What do you consider "spotless" ?
Spotless as in raw indeed.

+1 for the PDP also, been using one of the later plasma ones as every day TV set for years. They pretty much do what they say on the tin, that is being good, no gadget on board, well engineered screens and will display pretty much anything you throw at them!
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Re: Fudoh's ode to old display technology

Post by ryu »

Since the Pioneer is an early plasma generation, image retention is quite obvious. If you play a 2D shoot'em up, the score display will show a slight afterglow for several minutes after you've quit the game.
don't all plasma panels have this issue? i've had this on my panasonic plasma from 2011 as well and even a couple minutes of static imagery were enough to cause a noticable afterglow on dark pictures.
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Re: Fudoh's ode to old display technology

Post by fagin »

To add some constructive criticism to the Sony set......

I suspect this set is very much like one of the high end Toshiba FS arcade monitors I have seen. These Tosh tubes have "almost" perfect convergence, geometry & colour. Sounds good on the face of it but when you see these kind of clarity in action, you may actually have a differing opinion. IMO it was too clean, too sharp and looked like very much like emulation on a LCD screen. It was that "perfect" I decided against the tube and had one of my Naomi's fitted with the normal Grade B stock tube.

So.... imo you can go too perfect and those imperfections on normal grade tubes and chassis are actually what makes the image what it is.... or should be. ;)

Perfect isn't always the best. :mrgreen:
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Re: Fudoh's ode to old display technology

Post by Fudoh »

don't all plasma panels have this issue?
to some degree, yes. On the Pioneer it really doesn't make a difference if you have a high-contrast edge for 30 seconds or for 2 hours - causes the same retention.
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Re: Fudoh's ode to old display technology

Post by Fudoh »

The tri-sync arcade CRTs I've seen don't have very nice 15khz pictures. They usually have extremely strong scanlines which distract from the actual graphics, especially when sitting close (which you automatically do with a cab).
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Re: Fudoh's ode to old display technology

Post by kamiboy »

Up until last month I was the blessed owner of a NEC XM29 and SONY PVM 2530.

Unfortunately since I am going to be moving from Canada to Europe next year I had to see them both go for the sake of lightening the load.

Parting with the SONY was the hardest. It was a rare specimen. Production date of '91 but clearly with very few hours on it and a long life ahead of it. I'll be regretting that loss for decades.

Although I now play games through a Framemeister I already have the replacement CRT units in mind for when I get back to Europe.

Other than picture quality I've decided to factor in one more priority this time, which is style.

The XM29 and especially the PVM had flawless PQ but their bulky unattractive form factor left a lot to be desired. So this time I want to buy a CRT that will blend in with the living room interior so I am not forced to dump the wonderful thing into the spare room, out of view.

Fortunately Europe has many now affordable options when it comes to high quality RGB capable CRT's sporting a sharp design. For me there is only one choice though, a Bang & Olufsen CRT. I'll prolly be grabbing one of the last CRT models they put out in the early 2000's such as the BeoVision 1 below:

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Look at that thing. Worth buying for the decorative qualities alone. But B&O products are known to marry design and function in equal measure.

I might even buy one of those early 90's AV 9000's if I can find one that has not seen too heavy a use:

Image

I've spent time with a Bang & Olufsen CRT TV designed in 1980's before and the picture quality was very agreeable. I can prolly not expect a SONY PVM or BVM quality from a B&O set, but they are a manufacturer of upper scale equipment and make no compromise with design or quality so I expect it to be close, or at least much better then what I can get from a pedestrian LCD/XRGB combo.

Because the BeoVision 1 is so compact if I end up liking the quality I'll prolly pick up a backup unit for posterity. Gotta love the bargain prices people are selling these for in these flatscreen days.

Of course I need to get my hands on one before I can attest to the picture quality for certain, but judging from that old 80's unit I think it is a fine choice to consider if you want something easy on the eyes even when it is not turned on.
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Re: Fudoh's ode to old display technology

Post by Fudoh »

You might also want to check out some of the late 80 / early 90s Loewe sets. Great design and functionality.
or at least much better then what I can get from a pedestrian LCD/XRGB combo.
I want to stress that while I find the BVM's and the Pioneer's quality quite excellent, I don't think that my LCD/XRGB is any worse - especially for 240p material. I also like real 480i better through a good video processor and nicely upscaled 480p beats raw 480p in my opinion. Of course the lag is a problem and those titles I talked about (240p games running in 480i like Taito Memories) are an exception to this rule. Here I would say: Pioneer > CRT > LCD. In the end, it's just matter of money.
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Re: Fudoh's ode to old display technology

Post by fagin »

Fudoh wrote:The tri-sync arcade CRTs I've seen don't have very nice 15khz pictures. They usually have extremely strong scanlines which distract from the actual graphics, especially when sitting close (which you automatically do with a cab).
This specific Tosh I'm referring to does not have a problem with 15khz pictures. Something that it's specifically renowned for (not having a problem I mean). To be honest all my current Sanwa screens, chassis combo's and picture settings don't suffer from this being a distraction either if I'm being honest... however I understand it can be a personal / subjective matter.

I would sort of suspect that the 240p clarity of the Sony you are experiencing would be akin in some ways to a good quality Sony PC CRT, being fed a linedoubled image (480p) going through a SLG. Using an XRGB-3 in this instance (for a great quality 31+khz CRT) would, I suspect shine, since you're combining great PQ with a unit that was actually designed for CRT feeding.

I've recently bought a 21" high end Sony PC CRT to do some testing with just to see / compare.
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Re: Fudoh's ode to old display technology

Post by kamiboy »

I've heard praise of Loewe TV's before, unfortunately they are very rare where I am going. In fact I've only ever since one set in my whole life, a long time ago behind the window of a dealer.

I believe Lowe is a German brand so it might be more plentiful there, but where I am going B&O TV's are the most commonly sold brand of CRT's on local listing. Prolly because those sets are the only CRT TV's people would even think of trying to sell rather than just throw out.

Having just got the Framemeister and spent a few days testing all my systems I have to say I am not as impressed by it as I was by my PVM. For one each systems takes too much fiddling to get the best out of with the XRGB when the PVM just worked for everything.

For 240p some systems look acceptable on the mini, like my RGB modded PC-Engine RFU combo, while most other systems merely look better than when hooked up directly to the TV. Mostly due to fake scanline support.

No system looks as good as it did on the PVM though, that is for sure. My first generation Genesis looks especially bad for some reason. Prolly related to composite sync vs raw. All games lack vibrancy no matter how much I fiddle with the settings. Lastly there is the vintage sharp yet organic CRT look which you cannot emulate.

As for 480i content, I would still give the edge to the PVM. Games just looked sharper in my opinion. But the stable scanlines are nice as opposed to the jittery ones you get on CRT's when displaying 480i. But that never bothered me much to be honest. Most 480i content were polygon games anyway.

I'd say the only place where the Framemeister shines is when fed a 480p signal because you can add scanlines to the upscaled image. I have to say, that is an amazing feature. Sure, it only comes in handy for maybe a handful of games, but it sure is nice to have. I am specifically talking about Wii ware sprite games like Cave Story, the Konami ReBirth series, Mega Man 9, 10 and La Mulana.

I always thought those games begged for 240p like scanlines and now they have them.
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Re: Fudoh's ode to old display technology

Post by speedlolita »

That BVM is fucking lovely Fudoh. I like my PVM but damn.

Also I thought that the "HR" models supported 480p?

EDIT: http://i.imgur.com/p1PgE.jpg

Here's my retro heaven. :lol:
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Fudoh
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Re: Fudoh's ode to old display technology

Post by Fudoh »

Also I thought that the "HR" models supported 480p?
would have been great, but no, 15khz-only.
speedlolita
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Re: Fudoh's ode to old display technology

Post by speedlolita »

Ah okay. More verticle lines though I suppose?
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SunJammer
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Re: Fudoh's ode to old display technology

Post by SunJammer »

i use one of the HR trinitons (a PVM-20M4U) and according to the manual it supports 800 TV lines

quick question about the PVMs - what exactly does the Aperture correction knob adjust?
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