Sony PVM professional video monitor and the VIC20?

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highinfidelity
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Sony PVM professional video monitor and the VIC20?

Post by highinfidelity »

While looking for a 5'' colour CRT TV that could fit my needs (not finding any...), I've seen that many retro-gamers use with great fulfillment professional video monitors of the Sony PVM family.

Of course these monitors have a specific array of connections on the back, and what I fail to understand is if there is a way to satisfactorily connect the VIC20 to one of them, perhaps via the RGB/component connectors. I also completely ignore if there would be any of the "traditional" issues coming from the different NTSC and PAL systems. Does anyone have better clues, perhaps? Here is a picture of the back of the unit which would match my needs, in which the connections available can be seen. Thanks for your insight!

Image
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Re: Sony PVM professional video monitor and the VIC20?

Post by orion70 »

Looks like it has "wrong" video in. Also, if it's marketed in the US, it's both NTSC and fed by 110VAC PSUs.
(btw, I have a Philips monochrome monitor which doesn't like NTSC VIC-20s, but my 17" Samsung LCD TV does accept both PAL and NTSC with no problems at all - so are there more and less selective monitors?).
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Re: Sony PVM professional video monitor and the VIC20?

Post by groepaz »

Looks like it has "wrong" video in.
? all you need is a little adapter. often those come with the monitor, if not you can always get one for a dollar or so :)
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Re: Sony PVM professional video monitor and the VIC20?

Post by highinfidelity »

Thanks for the alerts, but the "wrong" video-in is the standard 75 Ohm connector used also in oscilloscopes and such. No problem for me, I deal with that stuff every day.

110 V is absolutely no problem for me either, I use variacs every day.

The question is: can the VIC video/audio output be adapted to these professional monitors? And how?
Last edited by highinfidelity on Tue Feb 28, 2017 7:20 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Sony PVM professional video monitor and the VIC20?

Post by groepaz »

just connect it? should work just fine
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Re: Sony PVM professional video monitor and the VIC20?

Post by highinfidelity »

It's the difference between should and will that bothers me.

Are the "Line" array of connectors on the back assigned for what is usually called a "composite" (not "component") signal?

In composite mode, will it work just as well with a PAL VIC20 than with an NTSC VIC20? I seem to deduce by some readings that composite signal is coded always the same way and it is some sort of "universal" standard, but I haven't found any paper that positively asserts it is so.
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Re: Sony PVM professional video monitor and the VIC20?

Post by groepaz »

video in at the top is composite. whether the monitor can do PAL or NTSC not only depends on the specific model, but also on the "modules" installed in it (PVMs can be equipped with various "modules" that add features).
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Re: Sony PVM professional video monitor and the VIC20?

Post by orion70 »

:oops: Sorry Hi, I wasn't aware about the jack adapter - I read "video in", and supposed it had to be a standard composite, so as groepaz pointed out, I'd be optimistic about the monitor being OK at least for the NTSC VIC. And this brings up the question I asked - why is some composite either PAL or NTSC, and some accepts both?
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Re: Sony PVM professional video monitor and the VIC20?

Post by Bobbi »

To clear up some confusion (I hope) ...

'Composite' describes a raw video signal which is not modulated onto a carrier frequency for transmission. 'PAL' and 'NTSC' are two video systems - they have different numbers of lines vertically, different frame rate and different ways of encoding colour. Accordingly NTSC composite video is 30 fps, 480 line while PAL composite is 25 fps, 580(?) line. Totally different.

Some modern TVs can accept both types of composite signal (they are 'multistandard'). However I am told that most TVs sold in the US today can not accept PAL composite.

Older equipment is typically NTSC-only if made for North America (or Japan), PAL-only if made for Europe (or SECAM-only if made for French market, but we won't talk about that!).
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Re: Sony PVM professional video monitor and the VIC20?

Post by highinfidelity »

Thank you very much Bobbi :) I appreciate the details you provided, but these are not TVs. They are professional monitors.
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Re: Sony PVM professional video monitor and the VIC20?

Post by highinfidelity »

I've found a user's manual, which has even the Italian chapter (how convenient!), in which it is finally specified that these monitors can automatically deal with NTSC, PAL and SECAM signals! :D

I think I'm going out for hunting... 8)

http://pdf.textfiles.com/manuals/STARIN ... -6041Q.pdf
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Re: Sony PVM professional video monitor and the VIC20?

Post by groepaz »

PAL/NTSC actually refer _only_ to the type of color encoding... it could be applied to any regular b/w video signal, which is why a PAL monitor would display NTSC composite fine, except without color (and the other way around).
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Re: Sony PVM professional video monitor and the VIC20?

Post by eslapion »

groepaz wrote:PAL/NTSC actually refer _only_ to the type of color encoding... it could be applied to any regular b/w video signal, which is why a PAL monitor would display NTSC composite fine, except without color (and the other way around).
Nope!

As said above...
NTSC composite video is 30 fps, 480 line while PAL composite is 25 fps, 580 line. Totally different.
Having had the opportunity of checking on a number of different TV sets, monitors and varied display systems, I have never seen an NTSC specific display CRT or monitor being capable of displaying PAL properly except for ONE: my old Amiga 1080 monitor - it did display PAL composite/S-Video signals in BW.

I have an RCA 20" flat NTSC CRT and the only thing you get if you feed it PAL signals is a solid blue screen (which means no video signal is recognized).

The Viewsonic N6 converter I use with VGA monitors also supports ONLY NTSC signals, PAL signals will result in a blank screen with a message saying "no signal".

Since I have both the VIC-20 and C64 in both PAL and NTSC varieties, I have to use a 19" flat RCA TV (no s-video input) with my PAL computers. This flat panel TV is reputed to be compatible with both norms and will briefly display on screen a message indicating the type of signal received at power up or signal start.
Be normal.
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Re: Sony PVM professional video monitor and the VIC20?

Post by orion70 »

Agree with Eslapion. Attempts connecting a NTSC VIC to several PAL color and b/w monitors always ended with failures. My Samsung LCD TV is a modern multistandard set, accepting both signals, as Bobbi explained. Probably, the Sony professional monitor Hi is hunting for is specifically made to accept all signals, but it's an exception.
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Re: Sony PVM professional video monitor and the VIC20?

Post by groepaz »

oh please, you can read it up on wikipedia even. the different frequencies of the regular monochrome video signals are not directly related to the colour encoding used with them. there is PAL in 60Hz as well, for example. every PAL display, tv-sets and monitors, i have used could display NTSC composite for that matter (in b/w, of course). at worst you'll get a rolling picture, which you can usually fix by some knob twiddling.
Last edited by groepaz on Wed Mar 01, 2017 2:41 am, edited 1 time in total.
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