There's this Sony PVM-1271Q on eBay that I've been looking at lately going for $25. Although the protective glass appears to be missing and there are some scratches on the case, the guy says it's in good working order. It's a 12" (~30cm) professional video monitor with virtually every SD input: NTSC, PAL, SECAM, RGB, etc. etc. It's also within driving distance so I don't have to worry about shipping. Only problem is that I'm quite busy lately so driving there is a bit of a pain in the ass. Do you think it's worth my time, then, to get it? I mainly plan on using it for arcade PCBs and European consoles.
It depends how important PAL and PCB gaming is to you. If its in a close driving distance (as in like 30 mins or so) I would say go for it. Old monitors like this however also always come with some kind of problem or bad thing, at least judging by the ones I had. Personally I use one of the European 1084 Amiga Monitors with SCART RGB input, they are godlike too. But those are probably even harder to find for you.
I actually already have an LCD that'll display RGB and PAL signals too, but the picture is crap compared to that of a CRT. The other reason is that I sort of have a thing for any kind of professional/industrial electronics. I guess I want it more as a novelty than anything as I don't break out my arcade PCBs very often, but novelty is important to me.
I definitely wouldn't say they "always" come w/ problems... not if you realize they're old, and might not have the bells and whistles you want. That's most likely digital RGB, not analogue. In terms of old games, digital RGB is "bad" RGB. Personally, I would only get this one as a tester to get warmed up for a bigger one. Games on a 12" screen? No thanks... not at home. I can stomach a handheld on the road (or when I'm *REALLY* lazy and don't want to get out of bed) but I'm a bigger is better guy. The PVM's share an RGB input (25-pin DSUB) so you could make a cable for this one, then upgrade to a 19", 25", or 28" down the road when they pop up. Just a thought. DISCLAIMER: The smaller PVMs generally have speakers where the large ones don't. You'll need audio leads in any type of cable you make. Anyways, get involved. RGB is like having sex with a black man... as the old story goes.
Digital and analogue RGB? could someone explain please? From what I know, RGB has always been about electrical modulation as component is for example.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe GaijinPunch is referring to the way that the RGB signal is converted and displayed on screen rather than the signal itself.
Well, looks like I was wrong: http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?t=2339 Digital RGB is a CGA signal, which component is not. I knew I had heard the term somewhere, though. Maybe Calpis will see this and jump in and explain. I'm fairly certain you would have a hard time converting component to some RGB for use on a 15khz monitor. You still have the same problem w/ your LCD even if you do... old games will STILL look like complete and utter shit, so it's a bit of moot point. Get the PVM. Thank yourself later.
Ok Digital RGB is either ancient ass 3-bit (2^RGB == 2^3 == 8 color) computer signals or really modern 24-bit RGB HDMI/DVI stuff. The wacky digital connector on old monitors is of course the former and analog RGB probably won't work since they expect digital (prolly 5V) color components. The deal with LCD TVs & SD video is that they take analog SD video, digitize it, and scale (butcher) it to a fixed resolution which either causes blurriness or graininess, and introduces delay from the processing. CRTs draw the unaltered video to a screen they're made for, in real time, so it looks right.
I second GP's suggestion. Get the PVM, fuck the LCD for anything not high def. There's just no point in doing anything less than 480p on LCDs. It'll look like shit and you can't fix it. I have a Sony PVM and it's quite nice. It certainly is useful to own a good quality CRT with RGB inputs. Everything looks so much nicer in RGB than it ever did in Composite. And even a CRT with Composite will look better than a LCD on a 480i signal.
