CRT hunting in the UK

andykara2003 · Post by **andykara2003** » Mon Dec 16, 2013 6:28 pm

A bit of a specific question here:

I've been looking for good condition old CRT consumer TV's in the UK. I want to find the best quality pre-100Hz 25-29" 4:3 TV's possible.

In the UK, higher range Grundigs, Blaupunkts, Loewes, Metz & Mitzubishis are very hard to come by.

I want a shadow mask TV (less prominent scanlines) so that rules out Sony.

I'm ruling out B&O as they have tinted glass over the screen that dulls the image and a vibrant image is very important to me.

I'm ruling out all the lower tier makes such as Beko, Goodmans, Thomson, Alba, Ferguson, Sanyo etc.

So I'm left with Toshiba, Philips, Panasonic, Samsung, LG, JVC, Hitachi, etc as the easily available decent-ish options here in the UK.

Does anyone have any insight into which of these makes are better with regards to longevity, focus, image vibrancy, geometry and general quality?

Cheers..

kamiboy · Post by **kamiboy** » Tue Dec 17, 2013 7:39 am

My B&O is plenty vibrant enough for me. And this comes from a PVM owner.

See an actual set with you own eyes and stop relying on second hand information which on these boards blows even the tiniest details out of proportion.

andykara2003 · Post by **andykara2003** » Tue Dec 17, 2013 7:53 am

kamiboy wrote:My B&O is plenty vibrant enough for me. And this comes from a PVM owner.

See an actual set with you own eyes and stop relying on second hand information which on these boards blows even the tiniest details out of proportion.

Thanks for that - good to know that aspect is blown out of proportion. In that case,
if anyone has a later model B&O MX6000 or MX7000 Firmware 3.1 or higher in good condition I'll pay good money for it, with or without the remote...

cools · Post by **cools** » Tue Dec 17, 2013 9:03 am

I prefer monitors with smoked glass in front. Gets the black level right down to proper black rather than extremely dark grey. Some cabs (see the Mini Cute) use it to great effect as well with extremely dark glass - masking everything inside and making the image appear to float in midair.

andykara2003 · Post by **andykara2003** » Tue Dec 17, 2013 9:41 am

cools wrote:I prefer monitors with smoked glass in front. Gets the black level right down to proper black rather than extremely dark grey. Some cabs (see the Mini Cute) use it to great effect as well with extremely dark glass - masking everything inside and making the image appear to float in midair.

Cheers Cools, that's great to hear - I just found one

An apparently very good condition MX7000 with 4.4 firmware (2002ish). Looking forward to picking it up...

kamiboy · Post by **kamiboy** » Tue Dec 17, 2013 10:51 am

Cheers. Now stop fussing over minutia and start some actual gaming.

andykara2003 · Post by **andykara2003** » Tue Dec 17, 2013 11:01 am

kamiboy wrote:Cheers. Now stop fussing over minutia and start some actual gaming.

Thanks

Will do.

fagin · Post by **fagin** » Tue Dec 17, 2013 8:59 pm

The MX7000 is a nice set and performed much better than I expected for it's tube size (after a chassis tweak).

andykara2003 · Post by **andykara2003** » Tue Dec 17, 2013 9:12 pm

fagin wrote:The MX7000 is a nice set and performed much better than I expected for it's tube size (after a chassis tweak).

Did you have to adjust the focus or any other settings from pots inside the TV?

fagin · Post by **fagin** » Tue Dec 17, 2013 9:34 pm

Focus on neck card.

andykara2003 · Post by **andykara2003** » Tue Dec 17, 2013 9:43 pm

fagin wrote:Focus on neck card.

Cheers - I guess there's a fair likelihood that the focus will be out by at least a small amount - do you think it's worth adjusting it as a matter of course to see if there's room for improvement?

Edit: I just saw that Matt indicated that it improved his set quite a bit so I'll probably give it a go.. He said that he had help from you - can you point me to where he saw your info on this so I can learn how to do it too? (Or did you do it personally?)

Cheers

GRUSS · Post by **GRUSS** » Wed Dec 18, 2013 11:36 pm

Check out my video and opinion of the MX4000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lsOx8Yppq0

Full credit to faginrs and matt though for their YouTube videos and info.

Very happy with mine!

andykara2003 · Post by **andykara2003** » Thu Dec 19, 2013 5:33 am

Nice video, thanks for that

GRUSS · Post by **GRUSS** » Thu Dec 19, 2013 5:43 pm

Cheers.

Picked up a early MX7000 this morning for peanuts, it was local to me so I thought why not!
It's a early one so I can't access the service menu through the be04 remote so I'm goings to have to whip the back off and follow faginrs's video.

Will follow it up with a review video though

andykara2003 · Post by **andykara2003** » Thu Dec 19, 2013 5:50 pm

GRUSS wrote:Cheers.

Picked up a early MX7000 this morning for peanuts, it was local to me so I thought why not!
It's a early one so I can't access the service menu through the be04 remote so I'm goings to have to whip the back off and follow faginrs's video.

Will follow it up with a review video though

Looking forward to seeing how the tune up goes & how much you can improve the focus etc.

GRUSS · Post by **GRUSS** » Thu Dec 19, 2013 8:03 pm

Yeah I'll see how it goes

I'm not sure if I'm going it use for gaming at the moment. I have been playing sonic 2 on the MX7000 tonight and although the picture wants the geometry shifting etc it does seem to sound better...

I'm running my MD1 @60hz through a RGB modded scart with headphone stereo connection. How could I split the signal into both B&O 's? So I could choose which set I fancied playing on?

Could I use a decent scart splitter.. MD>>scart splitter>>MX4000
¥
MX7000

Or will it have consequences on the overall quality?

Interested to hear people's thoughts.

andykara2003 · Post by **andykara2003** » Thu Dec 19, 2013 8:33 pm

GRUSS wrote:Yeah I'll see how it goes I'm not sure if I'm going it use for gaming at the moment. I have been playing sonic 2 on the MX7000 tonight and although the picture wants the geometry shifting etc it does seem to sound better...

I'm running my MD1 @60hz through a RGB modded scart with headphone stereo connection. How could I split the signal into both B&O 's? So I could choose which set I fancied playing on?

Could I use a decent scart splitter.. MD>>scart splitter>>MX4000
¥
MX7000

Or will it have consequences on the overall quality?

Interested to hear people's thoughts.

Just out of interest, what apart from the sound would make it more preferable to game on the MX4000 rather than the 7000?

GRUSS · Post by **GRUSS** » Thu Dec 19, 2013 8:40 pm

Do you mean the MX7000 28" or the MX4000 21"?

andykara2003 · Post by **andykara2003** » Thu Dec 19, 2013 8:46 pm

Just wondering how the mx4000 compares to the MX7000 image quality wise. Does the larger screen size of the MX7000 give a significantly more pixellated/washed out look compared to the MX4000?

GRUSS · Post by **GRUSS** » Thu Dec 19, 2013 8:50 pm

Let me answer that in a week or so... I've got the mx7000 running now and it does look good but it's probably a little early to come to any opinion...

Could you possibly help with my scart question above?

andykara2003 · Post by **andykara2003** » Thu Dec 19, 2013 9:11 pm

GRUSS wrote:Let me answer that in a week or so... I've got the mx7000 running now and it does look good but it's probably a little early to come to any opinion...

Could you possibly help with my scart question above?

Sorry - I'm not an expert but I looked into this recently and I think you need an amplified scart distributer like this:

http://www.keene.co.uk/electronic/keene ... 9/sda.html

Keene seem to be a good quality make. From my findings, you can spend a lot more but it's probably not necessary (The Keene is £100)

You can get cheaper ones I think but they might be fairly low quality. The most important thing is that the signal is electronically amplified and distributed and not just passed through & split to both devices. I want one but I've hesitated so far due to the price.

Does anyone have any better ideas/suggestions?

GRUSS · Post by **GRUSS** » Thu Dec 19, 2013 9:36 pm

Thanks for that I was looking on their site earlier but missed that one. Am I right in thinking that this will only split the signal to other inputs ie megadrive to Keene then 2 scarts going to each B&O thus showing 2 pictures at the same time.

It's not a splitter, so I can't connect other consoles up and select them? Sorry if that doesn't make sense

I've just tried a scart to scart between the 2 B&O's. I can get pictures and sound but one is black and white.. Does anybody know why?

Just found a slightly cheaper one...
http://www.ukwholesale.info/av-switches ... 28580.html

andykara2003 · Post by **andykara2003** » Thu Dec 19, 2013 9:46 pm

GRUSS wrote:Thanks for that I was looking on their site earlier but missed that one. Am I right in thinking that this will only split the signal to other inputs ie megadrive to Keene then 2 scarts going to each B&O thus showing 2 pictures at the same time.

It's not a splitter, so I can't connect other consoles up and select them? Sorry if that doesn't make sense

I've just tried a scart to scart between the 2 B&O's. I can get pictures and sound but one is black and white.. Does anybody know why?

Ahh - youre right it works that way - is that not what you were looking for? sorry if I got that wrong.

Check out this for scart switchers for switching between several consoles to one TV:

http://www.videogameperfection.com/av-g ... h-roundup/

GRUSS · Post by **GRUSS** » Thu Dec 19, 2013 9:52 pm

Andy your right, it's just me asking 2 questions

I'm after both really (if that makes sense) something that will split the signal into the 2 CRT's and also something that I can switch ie if I add more consoles in the future (which I plan to)

The powered AV distributor will save a lot of unplugging and messing about between the 2 CRT's. I suppose the easier way would be to connect one megadrive to each TV

and then I could choose which set I want to play on. The only issue there is that I have a totally stand console so wouldn't be able to enjoy full screen 60hz action...

It's a shame the Keene one is quite expensive, I've edited another cheaper one in the above post as well..

Edit.. The above link is what I've been reading and trying to find the scart splitters for sale. Small place the internet

andykara2003 · Post by **andykara2003** » Thu Dec 19, 2013 10:07 pm

GRUSS wrote:Andy your right, it's just me asking 2 questions

I'm after both really (if that makes sense) something that will split the signal into the 2 CRT's and also something that I can switch ie if I add more consoles in the future (which I plan to)

The powered AV distributor will save a lot of unplugging and messing about between the 2 CRT's. I suppose the easier way would be to connect one megadrive to each TV and then I could choose which set I want to play on. The only issue there is that I have a totally stand console so wouldn't be able to enjoy full screen 60hz action...

It's a shame the Keene one is quite expensive, I've edited another cheaper one in the above post as well..

Edit.. The above link is what I've been reading and trying to find the scart splitters for sale. Small place the internet

I saw various iterations of these around as well - they look like the Keene but I'm really suspicious of them as they seem to be either unbranded or a little known brand. It might be great but if/when I get one, it'll be the Keene just so I can be sure it's not sub par..

andykara2003 · Post by **andykara2003** » Thu Dec 19, 2013 10:37 pm

I'd really love to hear if anyone has a better or cheaper way of doing this though......

fagin · Post by **fagin** » Fri Dec 20, 2013 10:41 pm

andykara2003 wrote:
fagin wrote:Focus on neck card.
Cheers - I guess there's a fair likelihood that the focus will be out by at least a small amount - do you think it's worth adjusting it as a matter of course to see if there's room for improvement?

Edit: I just saw that Matt indicated that it improved his set quite a bit so I'll probably give it a go.. He said that he had help from you - can you point me to where he saw your info on this so I can learn how to do it too? (Or did you do it personally?)

Cheers

Matt didn't see any info. We know each other well and I went to see him to set it all up for him, once he told me he appeared to have a focus problem.

No set should need focus adjustment as a matter of fact. I always have a play, simply because I can.

You'll probably be fine.... Try using it first before looking at adjustments.

andykara2003 · Post by **andykara2003** » Fri Dec 20, 2013 11:22 pm

fagin wrote:
andykara2003 wrote:
fagin wrote:Focus on neck card.
Cheers - I guess there's a fair likelihood that the focus will be out by at least a small amount - do you think it's worth adjusting it as a matter of course to see if there's room for improvement?

Edit: I just saw that Matt indicated that it improved his set quite a bit so I'll probably give it a go.. He said that he had help from you - can you point me to where he saw your info on this so I can learn how to do it too? (Or did you do it personally?)

Cheers
Matt didn't see any info. We know each other well and I went to see him to set it all up for him, once he told me he appeared to have a focus problem.

No set should need focus adjustment as a matter of fact. I always have a play, simply because I can.

You'll probably be fine.... Try using it first before looking at adjustments.

Cheers

GRUSS · Post by **GRUSS** » Sun Dec 22, 2013 10:11 pm

Bought a shinybow 4:2 and a 1:11 powered scart distributor box. Will update and review in the coming weeks.

andykara2003 · Post by **andykara2003** » Sun Dec 22, 2013 10:54 pm

GRUSS wrote:Bought a shinybow 4:2 and a 1:11 powered scart distributor box. Will update and review in the coming weeks.

Nice one - what is the make and cost of the distributer?

shmups.system11.org

CRT hunting in the UK

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