Sony BVM-A20F1U Faint Horizontal Lines

[BVM-PVM]

I was playing games on my Sony BVM-A20F1U the other day and noticed a problem. There are 2 Faint horizontal lines on the screen. They are most noticeable with lighter colors such as white and blue backgrounds. These lines are about 5 inches apart when measuring from around the middle of the screen. When I got the monitor most of the channels were set to 16:9. Maybe being in 16:9 for so long messed up the image? The monitor only has 46,000 hours on it. Is there anyway to get rid of these horizontal lines

[ryu]

all trinitrons have those lines, they're part of the aperture grille within the tube

[BVM-PVM]

all trinitrons have those lines, they're part of the aperture grille within the tube

Are you sure? I can see these dark lines from 4 feet away.

[ryu]

are you running the monitor at max contrast & brightness?

[Ed Oscuro]

Do the two lines divide the screen into thirds, roughly speaking? (They might be spaced slightly differently.) There is no difference in the picture above and below them? Those are the anchor lines for the aperture grille.

Time for some basic CRT info: Shadow mask displays use a relatively heavy and thick metal shield to allow the beams to focus on the correct phosphors. Sony's aperture grille design was revolutionary for its time because it allows less power to be used to gain the same brightness - the aperture grille lines absorb / deflect much less power from the electron guns. However, one result of this is that the fine wires used to set up the grille are relatively easily moved and damaged. If you smack a Trinitron while it's running you should see a faint shimmer as the wires move back and forth slightly. To prevent damage and wire movement, Sony uses a few very thin wires to anchor the aperture grille lines.

I haven't noticed the lines on my 27" Trinitron TV or my PVM 20L5. However, back when I had a Compaq P110 (a rebranded Sony) and ran it at high resolutions, I did notice it had the lines. On the other hand, I've got a Trinitron-style NEC monitor at 17" with no lines. Perhaps Sony only used the lines for a few particular monitors.

What source are you using, out of curiosity? I would expect it not to be so obvious if you were using the monitor for 15KHz (i.e. 240p/480i) sources, rather than 480p.

Also, you lucky dog, and to complain about your A-series.

[BVM-PVM]

I'm not running it at max contrast/brightness. Here is a picture with the same horizontal line distance http://www.google.com/imgres?client=fir ... =0&ndsp=23

Im running my Playstation 2 with component video at 480P.

[a][]

First off congrats getting the monitor to work and have to say I did not try reseating any of the boards since it lacked proper inputs to begin with and only had SDI and HD SDI. There were many D series with lower hours / proper inputs so I moved to those instead. Were you able to get a BKM-68x from him as well? When I was there only one monitor had something other than SDI and it was the BKM-61D which only handles composite. From what they had in their inventory there were 3 A series and looks like you picked up one of the 2 but does not mean there were not others as new pallets of items always would arrive.

Since these lines are so noticeable can you take a picture to show them instead of an illustration?

[BVM-PVM]

First off congrats getting the monitor to work and have to say I did not try reseating any of the boards since it lacked proper inputs to begin with and only had SDI and HD SDI. There were many D series with lower hours / proper inputs so I moved to those instead. Were you able to get a BKM-68x from him as well? When I was there only one monitor had something other than SDI and it was the BKM-61D which only handles composite. From what they had in their inventory there were 3 A series and looks like you picked up one of the 2 but does not mean there were not others as new pallets of items always would arrive.

Since these lines are so noticeable can you take a picture to show them instead of an illustration?

Thanks dude. Here is what happened with the seller. I emailed him that I got the BVM-A20F1U working. He was happy and said he would look for the BKM-68x board for me. He said he would message me back about repaying him and getting the board. He never messed me back. I messaged him three more times after but he never responded. So I got the monitor for free

I guess the seller was rewarding me for being honest with him.

I little more than a month later I found a BKM-68x on ebay for 249.99. The seller had two for sale. I offered him 100.00 dollars plus shipping and got it.

I cant believe all this stuff happened on my quest to acquire a monitor and finding the very rare BKM-69x board.

About the lines. I cant attach a picture on the forums yet. I read about what you guys said about the aperture grille and that's exactly what the lines are. Thanks again for the info guys. I would be so lost without the awesome members of this site

[CPC6128]

Sorry to inlay me on your subject, but I am soon going to be the happy owner of a BVM-A20F1M. I already possess a BVM-D14H1U and a BVM-14E5U.
I would want to know if the BKM-129X installed by default on the BVM-D14H1U is compatible with the BVM-A20F1M?
Thank you

Sorry for rotten English because I use a translator

[Unseen]

I would want to know if the BKM-129X installed by default on the BVM-D14H1U is compatible with the BVM-A20F1M?

Based on the images in this PDF I would guess that it isn't, the options shown there seem to be much larger than the BKM-129X. The manual found here (skip to approximately the middle to find the english version) doesn't list it either.

Would you be willing to sell your BKM-129X? I'm still looking for one because my PVM-9L3 needs one to use RGB signals.

[Ed Oscuro]

I was about to skip posting, but I'll add what I found earlier, too:

http://www.sony.co.uk/pro/product/broad ... ccessories

It lists compatibility with the BKM-61D, 62HS, 68X.

The 68X appears essentially identical to the BKM-129X, except that it also supports HD resolutions. The 61D looks the same, but more flexible (offering SDI, but most people won't have a use for that).

I cannot guarantee that the BKM-129X would not work - my PVM-20L5, which is also a multiformat monitor, has a BKM-120D fitted in it, and it does support the BKM-129X. But it's also a different monitor entirely. I don't know how reliable the site is, but additionally the BKM-129X is not listed as BVM-D20 compatible here.

I would therefore look for a 68X or a 61D. They're probably not much more expensive than the BKM-129x, if at all, because HD monitors are the limiting factor here, not the input boards; meanwhile, the BKM-129X can be very expensive.

[CPC6128]

Thank you for your advices.
I shall try BKM-129X when I shall have received the BVM-A20 and shall tell you if it work

For Unseen :
http://www.ebay.fr/itm/Sony-BKM-129X-An ... 339c8c7356

[Ed Oscuro]

It's strange, but that D14 does support the 129X (but I'm not sure it's "standard").
However, I can't find any reference to the 20" D series using the 129X, let alone the even later A series. But maybe this is just a new line (see page 14 here) of input cards being released alongside the new monitors. At the very least, take care that the card actually fits when trying it out!

@ the eBay BKM...it's less than I had expected, but still too much. You can often find whole monitors including those input cards for less!

[Fudoh]

14" BVMs use smaller adapter boards than the 20/24/32" models.

BKM-2xxx are for non-D and D models. BKM-6xxx are for A models. The BKM-12xx boards are for smaller 14" (and maybe 9") models.

[Ed Oscuro]

OK, but the last sentence confuses me. 12xx boards do work on 20" models; I have two examples of that. They are full size boards for the expansions. The 14" models don't really seem to have smaller slots either - from what I've seen the cards are noticeably bigger in respect to the case, because the actual input boards being used aren't changed in size.

[Skips]

OK, but the last sentence confuses me. 12xx boards do work on 20" models; I have two examples of that. They are full size boards for the expansions. The 14" models don't really seem to have smaller slots either - from what I've seen the cards are noticeably bigger in respect to the case, because the actual input boards being used aren't changed in size.

This is correct. The 14 inch BVM's use the same cards as the larger variants. The manuals for these monitors even show all the input cards they can take. I have had a few 14 inch BVM's over the years and I currently have a BKM-21D sitting in a drawer that I pulled from a working 14 inch G unit. I would interchange the boards between the 20F1U and BVM-14G5U occasionally. Even the deflection/power boards are the same size across models, although they wont work on different models than what they were designed for. If I remember correctly the BKM-1xxx were the small cards for the PVM CRT's and LCD's. I could be wrong on that last one but every BKM-1xxx I have seen were for PVM's (Example: BKM-129x was an RGB/Component input card for the PVM's).

[CPC6128]

That can interest you, based on my service manual BVM-D14H1U :





Click on the image for have a clearer vision

@ the eBay BKM...it's less than I had expected, but still too much. You can often find whole monitors including those input cards for less!

Yes I agree with you, but for us European the shipping for a BVM 14" costs an arm and a leg to us!

[Fudoh]

If I remember correctly the BKM-1xxx were the small cards for the PVM CRT's and LCD's

ok, right, that's possible. And the older BVMs (e.g. the 2015) take the smaller cards as well. Maybe I was thinking of an older 14" BVM I once tried....