Sony pvm monitors for classic arcades

Cliff Clavin

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I need some advice fellas. I love the look of CRT but I am not skilled at working on them. I have a few monitors that I would like to replace with a 19 or 20" Sony pvm. I have been searching for awhile and have a somewhat sketchy local source. It's some kind of media company that bought the assets of an old tv station. Supposedly has a bunch of them on pallets that he exports out.

His prices are not cheap by any means but similar to eBay. He is very difficult to deal with. I suspect I can look at them at pickup but will not be able to power it up. Sounds like he sells higher volume so for 3-4 monitors he is not going to bend over backwards.

I have tried using Sony trinitron tvs with an encoder but the image is not great. It's hard to describe why, but while the dots are crisp there are some extraneous artifacts rendering the sprites not perfect.

Has any discerning klovrs used Sony pvm in games like robotron or stargate? How was the image? I know the Sony pvm can be used by classic gamers playing nes but I haven't seen reports of image quality in arcades. I have also seen reports that some pvm models do not accept rgb natively. Not sure whether this is an issue or not. I asked for the model numbers but did not receive them.

I have some cap kits on the way so I will try my hand at cap replacement but this seemed like a decent solution to decaying arcade monitors.

So be kind, are the Sony pvm worth pursuing ? Is the image as good as an arcade monitor or will it be like using an encoder?

Cheers fellas.
 
so yeah i only own couple of 9" models of the Sony PVM and they are so crystal
clear perfect, it's unreal. i would like to think the 19" models would do just as good.
not cheap though.

the other factor is the mounting hardware you'd need to install them in a cab.

i've attached 5 photo's of examples pcb's that were tested on the pvm's...
 

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Why not just send your existing monitors out for repair if you don't feel comfortable working on them yourself?

There are a number of members here that work on chassis from all of the popular monitors and do great work.
 
Thanks for the pics thegleek. If the seller was a bit more willing, I would consider buying a few.

Demogo, your right, shipping out the chassis is an option. I guess if I screw it up, I will try that.
 
Those do look real nice. Do you have to use a video converter?

so yeah i only own couple of 9" models of the Sony PVM and they are so crystal
clear perfect, it's unreal. i would like to think the 19" models would do just as good.
not cheap though.

the other factor is the mounting hardware you'd need to install them in a cab.

i've attached 5 photo's of examples pcb's that were tested on the pvm's...
 
Those do look real nice. Do you have to use a video converter?

nope, not at all. it's coming from the 4 video signal points on the JAMMA connector
(RED / BLUE / GREEN / SYNC), the GROUND is built-in the PVM (as I later discovered,
in my attached photo, you'll notice I hooked up each ground with a blue wire) and
purchased 4 of these 2WireBNC male adapters:
2wirebnc-green-2-wire-to-bnc-male-adapter-10pk-14.gif
 

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If you don't want to do any custom wiring you can get:

CGA to VGA pinout adapter (Female HD-15) from MikesArcade
VGA to 5 BNC Monitor Cable from anywhere

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(and a beer doesn't hurt either)
 

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In my opinion, they make great test monitors and maybe a temporary solution in a shelf mount game, but what i don't like about them is the tube face on some if not all of them (all i've seen) are curved along the horizontal axis but not the vertical axis, so they look a little weird... Not as bad as a flat crt or lcd, but not as rounded or spherical as an original arcade monitor (or tv tube)
 
Which PVM model are you looking to buy?



Wish I knew. Seller says there are all wrapped on pallets and ready for shipping. Guy wants good money for them. If it was as good as an arcade monitor it might be worth the hassle but at this point I am ready to give up.
 
Imo its a matter of preference whether they look better than arcade monitors. Their scan lines are different so the image will naturally look at little different. I like pvms more, for the fact they'll last longer and their colors look better but I'm not going in every game and replacing the monitor. I can repair the originals so I'd much rather have that instead.
 
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