Best monitor between Sony BVM-D20F1 vs BVM-A20F1

[nicolascarre000]

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for buying the best CRT 4:3 Sony BVM monitor.
At this point, I can see the BVM-D20F1 and the BVM-A20F1 monitors, according to the manual, these are the same, but is there still one of them better than the other ?

With all informations I have, I would prefere the A series because it is more recent, but maybe I'm wrong so please tell me.

a+

[Dochartaigh]

A-Series used to be a hard "no" because of how rare the BKM-68X card for it is (and how that card by itself used to go for $2000+ USD easy). Also because it has more sync issues than the D20F1U has. On the positive side, if you get into pretty high level calibration of it, there is a few more options the A-series has which the D20F1U doesn't have (nothing mind shattering to a novice though, especially when just playing video games on it).

There's now an inexpensive clone BKM-68X card for the A-Series (if you don't mind the wait, think it was a better part of a year? before people got their pre-orders? -- I don't know how it is now), and the clone card DOES help with some sync issues - but I was still seeing people post on The CRT Collective and Professional & Broadcast CRT Monitors Facebook groups where they still had some issues with the clone card in regards to sync.

D-Series is pretty tolerable of sync – but just like any broadcast monitor which is built from the ground-up for perfect broadcast type signals, they're still more picky than consumer CRT's, and even the PVM's are more lenient sync-wise as well.

Honestly though, in deciding between these two models, at this point in time it should simply come down to which one is in better shape, and the price. I would pretty much solely make my decision on those two things, and not much on the other info I wrote above...

[Gara]

I own a D20F1U and have seen a couple A20's in person over the years and I'd say all things being equal it would come down to the hours and overall impression I'd get seeing them in person.

If I had my D20 and an A20 with a clone card and an original 68x (just to cover my bases on obscure compatibilty problems) side by side with about equal hours and picture quality then I'd probably take the A20 just because it's newer and has a few more things to tweek. My setup is already geared around dealing with the various sync problems and I really enjoy playing with these monitors. I'd say D20 is the easier monitor to just setup and play though.

I wouldn't bother upgrading to an A20 over my D20. If anything I might be more tempted by a BVM-20E1U over my D20. 1000tvl vs 900tvl and much better calibration options. Losing 31khz support would suck, but there are better options for that. I'd probably end up keeping both