How to scout for a good 4:3 CRT?

[JSR]

I've decided to get myself a 4:3 CRT. Right now I have a 32 inch widescreen that's starting to get some weird geometry issues. 90% of the games I play on it are natively 4:3, so making a switch seems like the sensible thing to do. The only problem is that good CRT's (especially 4:3 models) are getting harder and harder to find.

Right now there is a Sony Trinitron KV29X2E available a couple of hours of driving away from here. Have tried searching online for any thoughts (and specs for that matter) on it without luck. Are there any "rules" regarding CRT's like this? Is any Trinitron generally considered good? Anything I should beware of?

[vanpeebles]

Pick one that won't crack open in your face!

[dvdx2]

Go to thread 1580 in the post anything retro thread, for some shots of my sony trinitron 29" in action

Be prepared to tinker with values in the service menu though and spend alot of time to get right, as good geometry takes much longer on larger screens to get an acceptable image. The other issue i encountered, was that the 4 different consoles i use, all have slightly different geometery issues, (especially with pal/ntsc inputs) so its hard to get an image that isntly overscaned to suit them all.

[_SD_]

Considering how cheap Sony PVM/BVMs seem to be, why bother with an actual telly?

[acidbearboy]

Ask on your local Facebook group.
Check local listing on gumtree and ebay.
Check the tip & recycling centre.
Scour the streets for discarded sets.

[JSR]

Any thoughts on the Beovision MX/MS6000?

[speedlolita]

Supposedly they're rather good, as long as you have the remote otherwise you won't be able to access the service menu without pulling the rear of the CRT off and bridging the jumpers.

You will need access to the service menu for geometry reasons.

That 29" you mentioned in the opening post is pretty good too. Just prepare to spend some time tweaking the image.

[JSR]

Picked up a KV29FX60 earlier today. It got listed yesterday evening, so I got in touch with the owner as soon as I saw it. He just gave it away. Haven't really tested it yet, trying to fix some small geometry problems. Anybody know how to enter the service menu? Have found a button combo that requires me to press the "Display" button, but I have no idea which button that is, as almost none are named, just a bunch of icons.

Edit:
I got in. A small problem is that the TV defaults to widescreen mode every time I enter AV1 (my Wii, set to 4:3 mode), is this something that can be fixed in the service menu?

[speedlolita]

That's to do with the voltage provided to the TV via the SCART cable, it's not the TVs fault.

If you're not using the official RGB cable grab one.

[JSR]

But I am.

Do you know how I can store any changes I make in the service menu? Whenever I'm done changing a value, it skips back to whatever it was before. And thanks for all the answers so far.

[speedlolita]

Ah, that's a bugger then. You can't change that either, unless you can up the line voltage to 12v via an extra chip in the SCART plug.

I seemed to recalling having to hit volume + or program + to confirm the save value select thing.

Not sure if that helps at all.

[acidbearboy]

Check here for info.

http://www.servicetv.org/laboratorio/sony/servicesony.htm

[JSR]

Managed to find the "ok" button. But when I finally exit the service menu altogether, everything seems to reset again. Or is this because I'm on a RGB input, do they have their own quirks? Starting to suspect the TV is a dud, white areas tend to become bluish and reddish from time to time.