Sony PVM Score

[Tempest_2084]

Behold the wall of PVM!



Sorry for the bad pics, it's too dark in my basement and I had to use a funny setting on my camera.

I picked up the following for $25

1x JVC TM-H1750C (build date Oct 2004)
4x Sony PVM-14L1 (build dates Dec 2004)
9x Sony PVM-14N1U (build dates May 1997)

Unfortunately these don't do RGB, but for $25 they'll do nicely for my older computers and game systems. The JVC was a surprise, I didn't know he was going to have one of those. It's a nice larger 16" monitor, but I don't know how the quality compares to the PVM's. Anyone heard of that one?

Most of these will be for sale in the next week or two. I need to test them all make sure they're in good working order (although I was promised they were). If anyone wants to reserve one, shoot me a PM (I'll make a sale thread in the marketplace section soon). I'm located in SE Michigan for shipping purposes.

[LEGENOARYNINLIA]

I've had pretty good experience with JVC S-video monitors. Amazing score.

[kilauea]

I was just looking at pvm's and a jvc on ebay. Would I be right that hooking a ps2 up to one would just be a matter of converting my RGB component cables to BNC connectors? And they would be good for PAL and NTSC / 50 and 60hz?

[Tempest_2084]

I was just looking at pvm's and a jvc on ebay. Would I be right that hooking a ps2 up to one would just be a matter of converting my RGB component cables to BNC connectors? And they would be good for PAL and NTSC / 50 and 60hz?

These PVM's won't do RGB, you need to be careful that the model you're looking at supports it. They do however all do PAL/NTSC. I believe with the PS2 you don't need a clean sync so yes all you have to do is convert the cable to BNC.

I tested the JVC and the white text looked like it had a yellowish tint to it. It might be one of the color or temperature settings though, I need to poke around a bit more. I'm hoping the JVC works well because I'm thinking about using that as my main monitor along with a few of those 14L1's as they have a much later manufacturing date than the 14N1U's and an easier to use menu.

[LEGENOARYNINLIA]

I use my JVC at 9300k instead of 6500k because of that issue. You can change that from the main menu screen.

[hungar]

I have nothing to add but awesome score man

[Tempest_2084]

I use my JVC at 9300k instead of 6500k because of that issue. You can change that from the main menu screen.

Yeah that seems to work better. Thanks.

[Tempest_2084]

Ok quick question. I've been testing all these monitors and to my surprise it looks as if the 14N1U's have a better picture than the 14L1's. The colors seem more vibrant and the picture a little sharper. I would have thought just the opposite as the 14N1U's have a manufacture date of 1997 and the 14L1's are 2004. I guess they built them a little better in the later 90's?

Does anyone know if there's a build quality difference between these two models?

[Ed Oscuro]

Did you check with a pattern generator? And what's the connection? Having a better picture out of a s-video only set than out of a RGB set would be strange.

Other than that, could just be the ol' tendency for a brighter picture to look better. Could just be the N1Us are all set a bit brighter than the L1s.

[Tempest_2084]

Did you check with a pattern generator? And what's the connection? Having a better picture out of a s-video only set than out of a RGB set would be strange.

Other than that, could just be the ol' tendency for a brighter picture to look better. Could just be the N1Us are all set a bit brighter than the L1s.

I'm checking the S-Video. No pattern generator, I just checking it based on how certain games look.

These are both S-Video/Composite models, no RGB.

The N1U does seem to be brighter, but I think it's sharper too. Like I said, maybe Sony got cheap towards the end?

[Ed Oscuro]

The PVM-14L1 is contemporaneous with the 14L5, and Sony itself described it as "the Sony entry range of CRT studio display products." It still has a 600 TVL specification, though. The N6U's TVL spec is just 500 lines, but it does have a "picture improvement IC" (so I guess a comb filter and maybe some other sharpness tweaks).

Fair to say the 14L1 will need an RGB input to really show off its chops.

[Tempest_2084]

The PVM-14L1 is contemporaneous with the 14L5, and Sony itself described it as "the Sony entry range of CRT studio display products." It still has a 600 TVL specification, though. The N6U's TVL spec is just 500 lines, but it does have a "picture improvement IC" (so I guess a comb filter and maybe some other sharpness tweaks).

Fair to say the 14L1 will need an RGB input to really show off its chops.

I'm using these with my older systems that can't do RGB but are modded for S-Video (Atari 2600, 5200, Intellivision, C-64, Atari 800, etc.) so RGB would be useless. I'll do a few more comparisons but I swear the 14N1U's are sharper and have better color than the 14L1's. The 14L1's seem to be dimmer and less vibrant no matter what I do (although I didn't spend THAT much time adjusting them). They also have that weird sharpness issue. For example in one of my games (Pitfall II on the 2600) there's a rock that has a brown boarder around it, on the 14N1U it's very defined even though it's just one pixel wide, on the 14L1 it's more 'hazy' and looks almost like color bleed. I'll try taking a picture, but I'm not sure if detail like that would show up very well.

Either way, these are loads better than the Commodore 1702's I was using (and I used to think those were the absolute best).

[Ed Oscuro]

"Dimmer and less vibrant" really aren't good indicators of a good or bad set. I mean, most videophiles turn down brightness and disable red push on Sony monitors, even though it can make some things appear better.

Also, "dimmer" is just another way of saying that the brightness levels are set differently. I could totally see some people in security needing brighter images in their control room, while people working on editing footage would want a more accurate replication of the image, or have it set a bit dimmer for a dimmer working environment.

Same deal for vibrancy really - that's just contrast. Turning it up to 11 might make more sense for security monitors than for video grade equipment.

[LEGENOARYNINLIA]

Maybe the dimmer ones have been used at max brightness for long periods of time? I'm sure that if you sit down for some serious tweaking and adjusting you can get the picture just right for both types.

How's the JVC? I use mine for TATE gaming. Once you get the hang of the menus adjusting the picture is a breeze.

[Tempest_2084]

Maybe the dimmer ones have been used at max brightness for long periods of time? I'm sure that if you sit down for some serious tweaking and adjusting you can get the picture just right for both types.

It's possible. I have no idea how long these were used, but so far they all seem really good (no burn-in or color issues). I just naturally assumed the newer monitor would be the better one, maybe that's not always true? The menus on the newer ones are easier to use though, so maybe I'll play around with them some more and see if I can get the colors looking better.

Oddly, I've noticed that the picture isn't centered on either model. On the older ones it's pretty far to the right while on the newer ones it's still to the right but less so. It's not the individual monitors either, they're all exactly the same depending on the model. I'm assuming there's an adjust on the inside of them for horizontal position that I'll need to find as it's not in the on-screen menu.

How's the JVC? I use mine for TATE gaming. Once you get the hang of the menus adjusting the picture is a breeze.

The JVC is great. That one is being used for my Atari 800 and 5200. I wish he had had more of those.


Quick question: What does Phase do? I see that on the menu but I'm not quite sure what it does other than act sort of like Tint. I'm also not sure what the different color temps mean (I forget exactly how they were labeled but they were stuff like D65 that made no sense to me)

EDIT: ok looking at some spec sheets it appears that the 14L1 has two preset color temps (D65 and D93), but it can do from 5,000K to 10,000K, while the 14N1U only does 6,500K. Maybe that's the difference I'm seeing?

[Ed Oscuro]

Nevermind what I said about RGB on the 14L1 - I got this backwards with the N6U which is the one with RGB jacks - and also brightness settings of course - I'm sure you've attempted setting the brightness.

CNet has some blurb calling the N6U a "presentation monitor" which sounds about right for its features. It is strange that it has the higher spec connection while being older and having a smaller TVL spec. It may just be that the 14L1 really is made to the bargain price point of the PVM line.

White point settings will just affect the tint of the monitor, I believe. You should be able to check that on the L1 via its onscreen display - if it has a menu like the PVM L5 series, that is.

Beyond that, it's possible that the brightness settings aren't so high for the L1 by design, or that it's been used more than the other, if you've ruled out brightness change.

Personally I wouldn't worry terribly much about brightness settings, unless you need to drive these into the ground with a very high brightness setting. My rule of thumb is "set the brightness as low as you can."

[BazookaBen]

S-video looks great on a PVM. Awesome score!

[Tempest_2084]

BTW these are for sale, I've got plenty of spares. I was thinking about $35 each + shipping (SE Michigan). Not sure if that's a good price or not, but I see the 1702's I'm replacing these with sell for $60-$80 regularly.

[Ed Oscuro]

These are too cute not to buy one or two of at that price. I'll try to arrange something...depends on how long the trip works out to be.

[Tempest_2084]

BTW I haven't cracked open the cases yet, but is it possible to adjust the horizontal and vertical positioning on these? My 20" PVM has the adjusts on the insides and I'm hoping these do too. They're actually pretty centered already, but I'm a bit of a perfectionist.

[andy251203]

I raise you!

[Tempest_2084]

I raise you!

I have been bested.

How on earth did you split that signal between all those monitors? Don't tell me you have 15 Genesis's running at once.

[andy251203]

The PVMs have video outputs, so you can just daisy chain them all. The Sonic 2 is actually on a Wii using plain old composite cables.

[Evilmaxwar]

Damn, you have more PVMs than consoles.

[Tempest_2084]

The PVMs have video outputs, so you can just daisy chain them all. The Sonic 2 is actually on a Wii using plain old composite cables.

Oh that's right. I guess I could do that too.

[Tempest_2084]

I made a separate sales thread in the marketplace for these monitors.