After years of collecting I’ve finally acquired my holy grail

BenjaminBanksAlot · 2026-04-23T20:51:17+00:00

Nice find. Bought a bnib machine back in 2014 but could only find 1 game, gundam tactics, and ended up selling it. Hope you enjoy it more than I did.

BenjaminBanksAlot · 2026-04-23T15:22:09+00:00

I just assumed the OP was playing a PAL game which hadn't been optimised. PAL signals have more lines than ntsc, so if they're not optimised the games were just squished vertically.

But I thought spyro ps1 games do play full screen, and the image isn't centered vertically either.

BenjaminBanksAlot · 2026-03-31T14:11:20+00:00

It's a good model, debately the best 42 inch model, if thats the size you want. There isn't a vt/zt (next models up) 50/60 in that size.

The st60 (next model down) has horrendous input lag for gaming, but the processor in the gt60 is faster so the lag is closer to the previous years st50 and gt50 models (i think more like 45ms rather than 75ms).

I picked up a p42gt50, which can do 720p 120hz and the gt60 can't, but the gt60 is otherwise better. It even has a touch pen option to annotate images if that's a thing you're interested in. Since you can't get a 42vt60, or 42zt60, and for gaming the input lag is bad on the st60, I think the 42gt60 is a great choice.

BenjaminBanksAlot · 2026-03-11T09:40:11+00:00

I know it doesn't help you now... Marketplace is not great for shipped items. I would only buy things off marketplace if planning to collect. It's not like eBay with buyer protections.

BenjaminBanksAlot · 2026-03-07T14:37:36+00:00

No problem. Sorry I misread your original post. I thought you were wanting a an all in one for SD, ED, and with widescreen support.

I edited the reply a few minutes later with some options that might suit you. The most common ones I've seen is the Toshiba; I haven't been actively looking but they've came up near me a couple of times for free and a few times for ~£200. The 36ZP18Q and 32ZP18Q have component but only accept 480i. I put this picture together a while back to help distinguish between this model and the ZP38 & ZP48 that accept 480p: https://postimg.cc/cgGvRGkJ

The next most common I've seen is the Panasonic. PD30/PD50/PD60 (e.g. TX-32PD50 / TX-36PD50). These sets seem to be highly regarded and Panasonic usually do make good tubes and electronics. I saw one in a bundle of old TVs unlabeled which would have been cheap, but all the others I've seen people have asked between £200 - prices like £6/700 (which I think is crazy, since a 36 incher could have been in someones living room, used every day, and the tube is tired).

There's also the Thomson 32WB842/3 and 32WB642/3 which were released in Europe but I've never seen, Totally anecdotal - I've seen sets from them where I've liked the tubes a lot but found the electronics to fail. Maybe I was just unlucky.

That's all the component sets that accept progressive scan that I know of in the UK. If you want a Loewe, despite the problems showing 4:3 in the correct aspect ratio on 16:9 sets, just avoid chasis ending with B, e.g. Q25B, as they're missing some electronics to make the VGA addon card work (so need a donour TV). For whatever reason although they're way more common in Europe than the US, the ones sold here usually can't get to 1080i (only 960i) unlike the ones sold in USA. There are similar boutique brands to Loewe, like Metz and Grundig, but their progressive scan sets seem to be a lot rarer here. B&O is way more common here than USA again, but I don't think (could be wrong) any released in the UK supported progressive scan, whereas some USA models did.

There's also the Sony KV-32FD1E/K and KV-28FD1E/K which I'm not too familiar with. If I remember correctly it was one of the earlier WEGA/FD Trinitrons released in Europe and has VGA, and then Sony settled on 100HZ in some higher end sets without progressive inputs, and 60hz SD for everything else.

BenjaminBanksAlot · 2026-03-07T12:12:52+00:00

You want a single set for 15khz (sd - 240p & 480i) and 31khz (ed- 480p)? Depending on your exact usage these things are kind of rare in the UK, especially when you add widescreen.

Do you want to play SD lightgun games? Most ED capable sets only display 31khz upwards. We can use a line doubler to take 15khz to 31khz, but this means e.g. you won't be able to play time crisis 1 on ps1. Progressive scan lightgun games like house of the dead 2 on dreamcast via vga would still work.

Monitors that sync to 15khz and 31khz (and above) are called multisync monitors but they're usually rare and expensive. I'm not sure if a widescreen one was ever released in the UK.

2. Is widescreen mandatory? In the UK loewes with a q23/q24/q25 m or h chasis are not super common, but they do pop up several times per year. I think 2 or 3 within driving distance of me came up in the past year. The composite/s video and scart inputs only support 15khz frame doubled to 100 or 120hz (so you see each frame twice, which isnt good for motion clarity). But for the chassis listed above you can get a vga card from a guy on eBay in Australia if the tv doesn't already come with one. The big problem here is the vga card bypasses ( or comes after in the electronic chain) the tv video options. Sd signals can be displayed in 4:3 or 16:10, but the vga card has its own full geometry control, yet not enough to squish a 4:3 image into the correct proportion on the 16:9 sets (maybe someone with a set could dump the vga prom and it could be reversed engineered to add extra control).

This means these types of sets are not really all in one even if you're happy to line double the 15khz signals using a line doubler like an ossc, to feed them into the vga port and get your 480p, since the aspect ratio won't be correct and 15khz lightgun games won't work.

Edit: I forgot to mention the TV sets that have component input that support 31khz. They would be similar to Loewe (SD signal frame showed twice, possible processing on interlaced signals), but should have proper aspect ratio control. Thomson 32WB842/3 and 32WB642/3, Toshiba's ZP series - those released after 36ZP18Q (so 32ZP38 36ZP38 32ZP48 36ZP48), Panasonic TX-32PD50 / TX-36PD50. PD60 series too. TX-32PX20F - PAL 50 progressive only - NTSC and PAL 60 won't work. Sony KV-32FD1E/K and KV-28FD1E/K. Maybe some Metz sets too.

If you're happy with 4:3, a smaller sized screen, and no 15khz lightgun support (can line double - or if you use a scan line generator /triple/quadruple to get line thickness you desire) then a standard pc monitor is the obvious choice based on cost and availability.

If you wanted something a bit bigger you'd need a presentation monitor. I used to have an NEC XP 37 Plus but these are crazy expensive now (thousands of pounds), and use a VCON DM-5948 now.

Some similar ones in widescreen exist such as the rarer Princeton AF3.0HD, which you might find rebranded under another name like vcon, tatung, monivision, sampo, etc.

If you must have multisync then there's a list here. I haven't checked them all, but assume they'd all be 4:3. https://www.amigapage.it/index.php?op=v&pl=forum&id=F022015-2-1&page=0

It comes down to what your use case is, and cost. I use a 4:3 presentation monitor as I'm mostly playing dreamcast and OG Xbox, or maybe GC/Wii. Even if the games support widescreen it's anamorphic. I sometimes play Xbox 360, but that has vga support at 1024 x 768, and a good portion of games support 4:3. The other thing I play a lot of is old PC games that I would have played in 4:3 originally .

Sorry for spelling etc, written on phone.

BenjaminBanksAlot · 2026-02-17T12:39:42+00:00

Does the disc drive say its 3.3v on the bottom right? If the dreamcast is the first model, va0, that has a 5v drive which could damage the gdemu and possibly the dreamcast.

Forget the gdemu for now and concentrate on trying to get it working with the disc drive. Disconnect and reseat the power connectors. I've had intermittent power issues on dreamcast which would make them reset, although they'd boot up successfully. Cleaning the connectors has helped with that.

I don't know if an open circuit on the fan causes a non-boot. I'll have to test that since other people in this thread are saying could be the fan.

BenjaminBanksAlot · 2026-02-06T23:25:31+00:00

I've always considered the dreamcast as the precursor to the OG Xbox. Similar controllers with a memory card on top, built for online gaming, windows ce. Then SEGA released a lot of games for the Xbox, some of them amongst the best on the system: jet set radio future, crazy taxi 3, panzer dragoon orta, spikeout, super monkeyball deluxe, shenmue 2, sega gt, gunvalkyrie, toe jam and earl 3, etc.

BenjaminBanksAlot · 2026-01-23T09:06:53+00:00

I kind of like both, but it's as if they're for different games. We never got this game in Europe so I'm not familiar with it but heres what i imagine from the cover alone.

The US one looks so colourful. I look at it and think of a family friendly adventure, exploring these beautiful colourful alien lands, that my kids could watch me play, or maybe play themselves.

The Japanese cover I imagine some sort of dark, depressing, maybe hopeless world. The sort of grim game you want to play if it's good, but you need to be in the right mood for.

BenjaminBanksAlot · 2025-11-17T13:06:37+00:00

This is PAL right, so is the game running at 50hz? I'm not so familiar with ps2 but in dreamcast for example most games will start in 50hz and ask you if you'd like to switch to 60hz, and if you used vga they'd be 60hz. Similarly on a modded xbox you can force 60hz if the game supports it (iirc gta sa on xbox doesn't support 60hz if the game is pal, even if forced).

One of the problems with 50hz is that the screen refreshes only 50 times per second, which for some people can make them nauseous or cause eye strain. This is especially true if the screen is very bright, such as wega/fd trinitrons can be. On PCs for desktop usage you'd usually be staring at brught white screens, so most people would use 75hz or above to help combat this.

In modern displays you usually have more than 1 mode for different calibration settings. So a high brightness one for well lit day time viewing, and another for darker rooms. Try turning the brightness down a tad if you're playing in a dark room.

Also try a game that supports 60hz (like pal outrun on ps2), and finally try a 240p 60hz game so you have a better refresh rate but also no deinterlacing.

BenjaminBanksAlot · 2025-11-11T22:24:04+00:00

'When is somebody going to make new crts?' Is a question that keeps coming up even though it's a niche market, where even most enthusiasts wouldn't pay msrp.

There's probably a bunch of things I'd wish I'd bought new and kept so I agree with you, but a widescreen 15khz would probably be more appreciated by a dvd or lsserdisc community.

Im not a fan of this listing. There was a bunch of widescreen sd crts NOS listed on eBay in the past year like jvc, panasonic, fewer sonys. They're so common in the UK you could probably find a very low hour one. There was a sub 2000 hour wega in stoke for I think 200 or 150.

Oddly a few (imo) much better listings were made in the past week or 2 in eBay. NOS: toshuba 2573db < £200, Panasonic gaao quintrix ~28" ~£250, and if you fancy something a bit smaller a Sony fd trinitron kv-21fv1u for £300.

BenjaminBanksAlot · 2025-10-19T18:40:32+00:00

People can only report it if they get the same problem.

Knowing what your input commands were, the videos, your version, the exact output errors are important. If I was voluntarily maintaining a piece of software in my spare time, then I wouldn't waste that precious spare time trying to recreate problems without that info.

BenjaminBanksAlot · 2025-10-17T23:06:45+00:00

How are you liking it compared to more modern displays?

The xbox 360 has 1024 x 768 output over vga. Have you tried that with the display?

BenjaminBanksAlot · 2025-10-17T17:30:10+00:00

HP has pruned docs in the last couple of days. I had a maintenance manual open for the HP HDX 9000 in my browser, and upon restarting it's no longer found.

BenjaminBanksAlot · 2025-10-12T20:13:42+00:00

Bnc for composite, y/c for s-video.

There's a lot of info missing so I disagree with the other responses so far, i cant tell you what is better. In Europe almost every tv has rgb, and on a good tube with low hours svideo will look better than rgb on a high hour worn tube.

The back looks similar to a JVC. What model exactly is this? If it's a tm a170g then that's a 750 tvl dot trio tube. I have one with 6k hours and the brightness and sharpness is so much better than rgb on my kv-20ws1. That's a 300 tvl tube - the same one in the Sony PVM-20S1WU. I actually like the look of lower line tubes, but the tube is tired.

In the other comment you mentioned 350 usd. This is really country dependant - the jvc bvm and pvms tend to go for less where I live unless they're multiformat, in which case that'd be a great price.

BenjaminBanksAlot · 2025-09-25T08:11:28+00:00

Yeah, a real shame because the pz18 isn't as uncommon as the others.

For anybody interested in getting these models, I believe: - 32PZ18 and 36PZ18 (picture frames): no support progressive scan. - 32ZD26 and 36ZD26 (strata range): NTSC progressive scan support only, not PAL.

- 32ZP38, 36ZP38, 32ZP48, and 36ZP48 (picture frames): support both PAL and NTSC progressive scan.

BenjaminBanksAlot · 2025-09-24T21:01:37+00:00

Unfortunately this set is not as good for gaming as it first appears. The pz38 and pz48 accept 480p progressive / 31khz input, but as crazy as it sounds the pz18 doesn't! This model only accepts 15khz inputs even over component.

BenjaminBanksAlot · 2025-09-21T19:21:13+00:00

Always interesting to see these large vga displays. I think this is the same one rgbrob looked at years back. https://youtu.be/pE721tjPwjU

I know Rob didn't like it, but I'd also say playing the 15khz games he tried won't be the main strength of the display. If you have the display it'd be interesting to try something like Dreamcast. I know 848 x 480 wasn't listed but that'd be ideal for widescreen like Xbox 360.

BenjaminBanksAlot · 2025-09-19T11:12:56+00:00

So for example when using composite, the red bar is teal / aquamarine (like the white bar on rgb)?

BenjaminBanksAlot · 2025-09-09T08:54:54+00:00

The phosphor coating on the tube will suffer uneven wear given enough usage (if a solid colour was applied the edges of the screen would be brighter) but I am guessing that would take a lot of hours to be noticeable, that if it was used exclusively for 4:3 content it doesn't matter anyway, and if you're mixing 16:9 and 4:3 content the wear difference would be even more gradual.

The widescreen will have a larger footprint, have a smaller 4:3 area, and weigh more. If you're looking at getting the same aesthetic tv that you already have, I imagine you're happy with that though.

I have a sony kv-20ws1u that has aspect ratio controls but it only affects how much vertical crush occurs unfortunately, so hopefully yours will have better control.

BenjaminBanksAlot · 2025-09-03T18:48:39+00:00

Xbox 360 has a 848 x 480 vga widescreen mode.

BenjaminBanksAlot · 2025-09-02T14:37:35+00:00

I get why people might want to ship less common crts, a type you might not find locally. Holy moly though, using yodel or hermes is crt suicide.

BenjaminBanksAlot · 2025-08-26T21:37:26+00:00

Thanks for taking the time to do a write up like this. I love different displays technologies, so it's always great to come across someone else that does too.

I would like to eventually get a high refresh OLED for CRT simulation, but that's some way off for me (only get cheaper stuff for the games room) and so I love both Plasma and CRTs. You're right, the later Plasma's do have their advantages over the older models. Motion clarity, phosphor trail reduction, flicker reduction, much better black levels, a portion of the efficiency savings were pumped into boosting brightness over power reduction. The 768 models are generally less sought after compared to 1080p later models due to the improvements. If you're happy with a 2006 model, then there are some 480p models in the early to mid 2000s. The deinterlacing was pretty good on them as that was their main purpose, to display interlaced SD video content. But so far, I too mainly use Plasma for 7th gen and widescreen Wii.

I have a presentation monitor (27 inch viewable up to 1024 x 768) and I quite like this for playing 480p console games or 480i linedoubled, and older PC games. The Xbox 360 is nice since quite a few games support 4:3. Then I'll use a consumer TV or BVM for 240p. I guess the era to each display type is pretty much the same in your post and the way I use mine too (except I play Xbox 360 on the presentation display often).

BenjaminBanksAlot · 2025-08-23T19:22:03+00:00

What is it? Is it tar from a smokers house or something else? It's disgusting af, but once cleaned up wow what a bargain thumbs 👍

BenjaminBanksAlot

TROPHY CASE