PC vs consumer displays, PVM's, BVM's, etc.

[headlesshobbs]

I've been trying to decide if I still want to consider the route of owning one of Sony's broadcast crts or would it be about the same if I stuck with my ossc + PC monitor setup?

My current set is on the verge of dimming out completely and I'm more then likely to be looking for a suitable replacement in the future should my time and funds permit me to do so. I will say that in addition to 240p, I still plan on playing my other systems which support 480p and it seems like what I'm doing still looks like the way to go. I'm just not sure if having a broadcast monitor will bare any difference.

[gray117]

Probably the particulars of location/availablity, personal taste, and subsequent hassle are more of a factor than anything I can say

However...

Unless the funds are of little concern, it's harder to recommend the old pro-display route just due to rarity, cost and hassle. That being said if you're all about quality, particularly in the US, this may be the route to go... That or try buying and shipping some of the remaining good condition (or NOS) arcade crts still around <- often cheaper than some of the higher priced pro-monitors and probably easier to maintain.

Consumer displays - if you can get a few at a low price - sure do it for 240p material, especially if you're scoring a larger screen. If you're in the euro zone you're laughing with scart. But if not i) keep an eye out for component crts, or ii) svideo connections not a bad compromise and are usually pretty well handled on sony crts as long as cables are in decent order, and getting your consoles to output svideo is not too awkward. The difference in look/feel is kind at a relatively low cost warrants the hassle at these larger sizes imho, and could just be the kind of benefit/upgrade in experience that your question *sounds* like you're hoping for (I'm reading into your question a bit here ?

But... if you've got a happy setup in as you are, have a lot of 480p content that you don't want to get to 240p, and are fine with the size, you may well be just best off sticking with your current pc monitor type setup than pursuing another, and perhaps putting aside some cash to look towards future options/solutions.

...

Personally my inclination for a few years has been to stick to a handful large rgb scart consumer sets that look fine, but I wouldn't be too upset cost wise if they died. Also I tinker with progrssive/hd solutions on the side, not just in case something becomes difficult to replace, but also for convenience (as much as I like my study 90% of the time, it's also nice to be able to move stuff around, have a temporary/hide-able setup in the front room etc.).

But I'm lucky enough to be euro based and have emotia/converters/cables/systems/splitters to hand already from years of tinkering. If I was starting from scratch I'd be much more tempted to just make sure I had that second bit in place - a nice means to get a decent image onto a 29"+ low lag contemporary screen, and just save all that space... especially if you ever have to move/don't have a study/get annoyed with tinkering.

[tacoguy64]

If you can get a decent rgb monitor for cheap then go for that. If not, the OSSC plus a PC monitor isnt that bad of an alternative. The higher end PC monitors match PVM/BVM monitors in quality.

[Xer Xian]

I don't have any PVM/BVM's to compare my CRT monitors+OSSC+vga converter with but I don't think I'm losing anything other than proper 480i handling wrt the former - the horizontal resolution and dot/stripe pitch on most monitor equals (or tops) that of most PVM/BVM's. On the other hand, many PVM/BVM's can't take 480p at all, so there's that.

[FinalBaton]

Honestly a nice PC CRT monitor is just as good. Well, maybe not quite on BVM level (but then again some of the best PC CRT monitors reach that level of quality), but who cares. It still looks amazing. Great clarity and contrast an colours for super enjoyable CRT gaming



You can bet that I had not lucked out on a cheap humongous quality RGB monitor that displays 240p, I would be rocking an OSSC + PC CRT setup and would be damn happy. No regerts!

[NJRoadfan]

the 17-20in Trinitron PC monitors paired with an older XRGB unit for 240p gaming looks pretty damned good (I used a XRGB-2plus with one for many years). Naturally they support 480p, but need component transcoded to RGB.

[mvsfan]

Honestly, I have to reccomend jvcs larger consumer crts. some of them are 800 TVL.

they are kick ass displays and they dont cost a lot. and they dont weigh 400 lb like a sony does.

jvc keeps a good hardware database on their US website that will help you figure out wich models are a higher TVL.

[FinalBaton]

Honestly, I have to reccomend jvcs larger consumer crts. some of them are 800 TVL.

they are kick ass displays and they dont cost a lot. and they dont weigh 400 lb like a sony does.

jvc keeps a good hardware database on their US website that will help you figure out wich models are a higher TVL.

those consumer JVCs are awesome, yes. If the OP doesn't go in expecting BVM/PC CRT levels of color accuracy and contrast, then I think he will be very pleased with them.

[headlesshobbs]

Just thought I'd show some pics for reference. You'll notice just how low the brightness is, but the contrast blooms out nicely and has pretty good line seperation in 480p, plus 240p at x2 with scanlines fully enabled.

http://oi67.tinypic.com/34qslnb.jpg
http://oi66.tinypic.com/fmqphv.jpg
http://oi63.tinypic.com/117bwie.jpg
http://oi68.tinypic.com/2jach2p.jpg
http://oi65.tinypic.com/23lcbc1.jpg