A few days ago, I was in the garage looking around for some gaming stuff that had been put in storage when I saw that my Uncle had stored his old Sony Trinitron T.V. It was just sitting there collecting dust and it was in immaculate condition because he's so strict about how he takes care of things. But I began to think that maybe playing my retro games on that thing would be way better/cooler than hooking it up to my HP LCD TV I got in 2007. Yeah, you heard me right, I have an HP T.V.! The contrast ratio isn't too good and the picture isn't too great. So I figured, what the heck, why not recycle the thing by reusing it? Even though it's 20 inches, i'm not particularly strong so I put it on a dolly and wheeled it to my room where I wiped it down and plugged in my more beat-up Saturn. If it were any bigger, I don't think I could've fit it into my room. There are about 3 other T.V.'s there but this one had the most flat screen, decent size and condition. I have a tiny room so uhm, this thing does take a bit of space in my cozy little room! But it's really neat being able to experience these retro video games like they were supposed to: with scanlines and all! technology can be a blessing and a curse still has the sticker! yep, it's a Sony i removed that darn sticker, so distracting! sorry uncle! and yes, that is a t.v. standing on a Newegg box (lols) I was upset that they didn't have the original remote, but fortunately everything is surprisingly organized in our garage so I found some old universal remotes. A little bit of reading by Googlin' how to pair it with the TV while I sprayed lysol to disinfect it (eww~ it's been there forever) made me a happy camper c:
Check it for component input. YPbPr is the nearest quality to SCART our mainstream TVs reached. Quite a bit of overscan, edge of that letter has gone off-screen.
Is there any way to fix that? I keep trying to enter the menus using the universal remote but it only seems to enter the number 1... You have a sharp eye! the bottom right of the Virtua Fighter 2 screen is going off screen which is annoying me a lot! I don't have a good idea as to how to fix it, especially being I can't enter menus. I'm hoping that when I get an S-Video cable, it some how corrects itself. This issue is more evident when I popped in Daytona USA This is what the back looks like: The model is KV-20V50
Most Sony displays have a good amount of overscan. I've recalibrated my Trinitron and even then my Wii is going over the tube on the right while my 360 is a bit too high and a handful of XBox games nail it just right. You just can't win on a tube! As for fixing the overscan check out Google to see if yours has an easily accessible service menu, mine did but mine is a lot higher end than that one is (for the time). BE VERY DAMNED SURE YOU WRITE DOWN THE DEFAULTS BEFORE CHANGING ANYTHING.
I used to volunteer at a T.V. station because in High School I was involved in T.V. Production, perhaps I can speak to my teacher about hooking me up with a PVM if they ever need to be offloaded Until then i'll tweak this thing in hopes of getting it better
I have that tv at my parents house, yeah had the same issue with the overscan on some games. By the way to get svideo to work on that tv make sure you enable it in the menu or it wont work, but I will say the quality is extermely good through svideo on that set(modified genesis-svideo looks almost rgb!). Word to the wise though the front connector wears out easily over time and has to be resoldered to stay stable so I would recommend sticking to back inputs. But I will say miss that set it was a good one.
Also most sony remotes work fine with that tv and allow access to main menu options, so if you got a universal sony remote should give you access without having to input a code.
Nice find My recently acquired CRT also has overscan where the left hand side of the screen is chopped off a bit. I'm just living with it for now.
I have two Trinitrons, one of those newer silver ones that practically everybody had 10 years ago, and a smaller one. The smaller one has a bigger overscan problem than the bigger one, and it is an older model than the OP's. I've still yet to find a good dresser/nightstand for it, as it sits on the floor with nowhere to go. Still it's a good tv, and I need to find a cheap DTV box for the heck of it.
Thanks for the tip! Yeah I was originally plugged in from the front, but I'll do it through the back, it looks way prettier that way too! Sweet! I'm having a bit of an issue with this T.V. though, I think it's interference? The screen gets all shaky... The T.V. is right next to my computer, and a router, and its connected to a multi-outlet thingy but is touching other wires. I don't know exactly how interference works on CRT's, but i'm sure all three can't be helping... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Gtyqg_wBM
My brother still has one that's very similar to these. I remember the PlayStation and Dreamcast used to look FANTASTIC on this Trinitron unit. Only the Samsung Tantus with Component input (which I stupidly sold) looked crisper. Neat find.
Both composite and S-Video should look alot better on this TV than the HP HDTV. Composite from something like the NES looks especially bad on HDTVs. While a Sony PVM is better since you can go straight for RGB, S-Video isn't bad. I actually have the opposite issue. My PVM doesn't support S-Video so for systems like N64 and GameCube, composite is the best I can get. I know N64 can be modded though. Either way it's going to look alot better than seeing it on a HDTV. Some HDTVs might do better with certain systems with a RGB or Component connection but it's still not the same.
just a note on the overscan, the TV may have a hidden service menu where you can adjust things further than just the standard options google the model number and there may be instructions of how to get into it.
The internet says Power Off, Display, 5, Volume +, Power On. I've tried it, even pressing them rapidly, and nothing. They say there's some kind of switch in the back of the early 90s models, but the only one I saw is for the speakers. I guess the heavy silver ones are the best, and I'm still rocking it, since it's the main tv.
