To be honest, I am not 100% satisfied with the image quality of my SONY PVM-2030.

1) Compared to my 13" Commodore 1084S-D1, the scan-lines (which I love to have, don't get me wrong) are STRONGLY pronounced, and the actual R, G, B pixels standout prominently: Maybe this phenomenon is a feature of the Trinotron tube, but the image quality of my 1084S-D1 is much sharper/smoother. (Maybe it is the size of the 1084S-D1, but everything seems sharper.)

2) I managed to open my PVM-2030 and adjusted many settings, but I still could not get to produce the image that I came to love and adore with my 1084S-D1.

3) Using my SONY PVM-2030, when I launch different emulators, the image is completely off, so I have to spend time and manually adjust for each individual emulator. On my 1084S-D1, amazingly they stay pretty much centered and the way I like, (not to mention that 1084S-D1 features the adjusting knobs in the back for easy access, unlike the PVM-2030, which force me to leave it opened all the times for constant fine tuning.)

Obviously, this is a very subjective matter, but in my opinion, my 1084S-D1 is capable of producing a more sharper image. I will post some images to prove my observations.

After all the time and money spent, I guess I am back to my trusty Commodore 1084S-D1 for retro gaming emulation, but I think it was worth the try.

What circuit did you add ? I guess from reading your previous posts a bit better it is a sync combiner.

The picture must be very good this is a broadcast quality monitor

I ended up using this diagram:




At the following http://www.geocities.ws/podernixie/htpc/cables-en.html



It looks great and all but the screen is a bit off, and there is no knobs to adjust the position or the shape of the picture.

How do I open this monitor up for fine tuning?

Thanks.



Best,
c0dehunter

Is the picture stable like that or does it also move ?

It definitly is a sync issue. Did you try adjusting the horizontal sync of the monitor ?

Thanks for your message. The picture moves a bit and as you see is distorted.

when it is OFF, I get NO picture at all. When I turn it to ON, I get the image, but as you can see, it is distorted.

I`ve lost a good link

But for first just solder them together. Should work. On the UMSA I use 4060 IC plus some elkos. But this is a overkill for your needs.

Hello bencao74,
Thanks for your message, I really appreciate it! Yes, I am going to just solder them and see what happens. Another option is that I have a good, unused 25pin (one end male, other is female) so I can cut it and connect (and match!) its wires to a cut ready made VGA cable.

 

Thank you so much, one quick questions: what does the user in other forum means when he says that I have to combine V and H signals to make a composite one? (my video card can already send a 15Khz signal via Soft 15Khz to my Commodore 1084S-D1 CRT monitor)

"you need to convert horizontal sync and vertical sync into composite sync, as a PVM-2030 won't accept separate syncs when feeding analog RGB."

I really appreciate your comments, you are the best!

p.s. hey bencao74, I love your blog and website, very interesting stuff! keep it up!

Well, thanks for the reply but my Sony PVM-2030 is a NTSC model and does not feature SCART (I live in North America). As for the forums, it seems informative, but unfortunately it is in German and I don't speak the language!

Hello All!
OK, I am about to make a custom cable in order to connect a Sony PVM-2030 (with 25pin connector) to a modern PC's VGA (15pin), and use MAME and other emulators (currently I am connecting my Commodore 1084S-D1 and it looks great!)

The VGA to 25pin schematic table is as follows:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/48901682@N02/7588179296/in/photostream/lightbox/

The table comes from this forum post, however the actual diagram is INCORRECT:
http://nfggames.com/forum2/index.php?topic=4028.0

I was determined to make a CORRECTED diagram, so I made this diagram instead:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/48901682@N02/7588180386/in/photostream/lightbox/

The question that I have is this:
In the original table, it states that pins 15 to 24 are GROUND (corresponding to pins 6,7,8,10 on Sony's 25pin connector in the back). Do I need 10 (ten!) cables to ground these pins?

I can solder pins 6, 5, 4, 3, and 11 (R, G, B, H-Sync, V-Sync) but I am not sure about Ground pins.

Would you kindly let me know what pins (how many cables!) I need to ground?

also why the person who posted this table (RGB32E), states that: "The only pin you could optionally ground is pin 2 - audio select."

Any help regarding grounding those pins are much appreciated!