Which PVM or CRT to pick - and why?

Whoa - not even a month ago, I would not have even thought about picking up a PVM or CRT.
Obviously Sony (of course) was one of the biggest players.

But how about JVC, Panasonic or whatever?
It is really hard to find more infos on the internet.

What are your CRT best practices, in terms of:

  • brand?
  • size (just for displaying or re-scanning)?
  • preferred in- and outputs?
  • preferred resolutions / line numbers?
  • preferred manufacturing period?
  • good or bad experiences?

Cheers

flo

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If you want CRT aesthetic, will it be for your own personal viewing pleasure or do you intend to capture (rescan) via video camera?

That may influence your decision…
For me, I’m not interested in scan lines so monitor via LCD since digital captures will invariably be viewed on a modern screen

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Sony are certainly the most available monitors out there. But I’m fond of Panasonic; JVC aren’t bad either. If you can find one at a good price point, Ikegami are among the best. I think you are going to have to pick from what’s available locally - shipping a CRT is going to be expensive!

I have a 19" and I’m finding its really too big. I think the sweet spot is 13-14".

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I’ve got 4 small (9") jvc ones - they work well for me! composite only… component goes to a bigger sony lcd… I capture either via rescanning with an iPhone or a BMD micro chain (analog->sdi/updowncross/3g recorder) which I can use with either component or composite

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-Sony, JVC, Panasonic, Ikegami are the ones I’ve seen.
-8-14 monitoring, 13-14 feedback, 17-20 rescan, 5-36 installations.
-Composite, S-Video, Component, RGB (retrogaming)
-Depends on display size. Higher the better but even a 20" @ 600TVL looks pretty good to me. Depends on the look you’re going for.
-mid-90s onwards.
-Good: They look great, no latency, take glitched out signals like a champ.
-The Bad: You may be paying a high price for something that may die any day and will be hard to find someone to service it. Sweet looking image on CRT can look dull and boring on digital capture. Cumbersome and heavy.

It really depends what you plan to use them for. PVMs are intended to be more accurate and have many input types, but at the same time if you are using a capture card, the PVM might not be a good representation of what the digital capture will end up looking like.
I would start off by grabbing a standard 13-14 inch TV locally that has composite video input.
I have a lot of PVMs but my 13" consumer Trinitron gets just as much usage for things like camera feedback and quick monitoring.
I prefer larger screens when rescanning, it leaves more room for all the lovely phosphors to do their thing.
If you want more info on PVMs, you can look up CRT Retrogaming groups, they’ll tend to have READ MEs with info on all models. Retrogamers are always looking for PVMs and will be your main competitors. What they are usually looking for are PVMs with analog RGB inputs which many consoles output natively, so non-rgb PVMs may be easier to find.
I love my Sony PVMs but I think my MVP is a 17" JVC TM-H1750GU which is really sharp (750 TVL) with color that pop (maybe less accurate…) and the size is a good compromise.

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Dunno if you know about burn-in? At TV stations, monitors frequently have a time code area burn in. Make sure to ask for pictures of it turned on. Better yet, buy in person so you can check it.

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Main purpose is re-scanning, in order to get rid of my glitch-blue-dead-screen problem :face_with_thermometer:

@prakodr
Burn in and odor are the two questions I am always asking.

Both aspects are fine on my Sony PVM-6041 QM - but with 5" it’s maybe too small.
Found a JVC PVM TM-1010PN on eBay Kleinanzeigen for 105€ (those were about 50-60 a year ago).
But I was too curious to give it a miss.

@Vdot
Thanks for sharing your thoughts! I am currently running my first re-scanning trials (and yes - picture looks WAY better on CRT compared to the scanned picture). Let’s see, what color grading can do :nerd_face:

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