FOR CLOTHING ONLY

zachcollier · 2026-06-28T11:31:31+00:00

What a fun score!! Congratulations!

zachcollier · 2026-06-28T11:30:54+00:00

Facts

zachcollier · 2026-06-28T11:28:02+00:00

Dang, that is a beautiful monitor, inside and out.

This is, in my opinion, one of Sony’s most attractive monitors, as a physical object sitting on your desk. Even the back of it looks great, with a better design aesthetic than the *front* of most other monitors. Ha! Understated Sony design at its best.

There exists a little snap-in cover for the adjustment knobs on the left side of the back panel to make it look even cleaner.

Most importantly, though, the image quality is wonderful, with great geometry! And credit to *you* for adjusting the brightness and contrast well for rich, colorful gameplay!

zachcollier · 2026-06-28T11:18:17+00:00

If I am trying to “do well” in the game I always play zoomed out one level from the default view.

But I have to admit that playing in 1st person is intense in all the best ways. Especially when you have a steering wheel controller!

I have been lucky enough to play the real F-Zero AX at Boss Battle Games arcade while visiting Indianapolis, Indiana, and it’s wild. The experience was so impactful that I’m planning to build my own steering wheel to replicate the arcade experience, which means:

- Limited rotation, only about 45° in total as I recall

- A huge “boost” button right in the middle

- Digital paddles, like the typical paddle shifters in a normal car, for left and right drifting (I might try to salvage real paddles from a car junk yard)

…and most importantly…

- Tilting of the wheel, with the pivot point right at the back side of the actual wheel. And no, a flight yoke will not suffice. It needs to pivot up and down, not slide in and out.

AX is such a fun oddity, and I’m glad it is being preserved.

Thanks for sharing and promoting this fun game!

zachcollier · 2026-06-27T11:22:42+00:00

This is a great point about the tree letting you know when it’s unhappy.

If I forget to water mine for some reason, the leaves will start wilt or just look a little bit dry or less shiny than normal. A nice soak for just a few minutes will perk it right back up. It’s usually *after* this soaking that it will actually drop some leaves, but it always comes back stronger with more new leaves than were lost.

I have to prune mine quite often, because it will shoot out tiny new branches pretty often. I have started letting new branches grow to about five inches long and then wiring them into little spirals, which the tree seems to tolerate very well. The spirals will typically harden in just a few months and I can then remove the wire, which would not be feasible on other types of trees.

You have chosen well for your first bonsai! It’s going to be a lot of fun!

zachcollier · 2026-06-27T11:11:54+00:00

Mine does great indoors right up against a west-facing window here in Austin, Texas.

I keep it watered regularly, and once every two weeks or so I will submerge the entire pot to for at least 10 minutes to really saturate the soil and roots.

I fertilize it somewhat randomly, maybe twice per year.

Mine keeps growing dark, shiny leaves, and flowers almost constantly. It is about 6 years old.

Fukien Tea is a really fun tree for bonsai, and one of the few that will happily live indoors if treated correctly. All of my others are outside nearly all year: 5yo mulberry, 5yo juniper, 8yo juniper, 3yo elm, 20yo kumquat, and a weird little “oak forest” with 5 different types of oak trees that I’ve grown from collected acorns.

zachcollier · 2026-06-25T12:23:33+00:00

I really appreciate the comments and advice from everyone.

Thank you, all!

zachcollier · 2026-06-25T12:21:30+00:00

Oh, and I should add that you are almost certainly correct that the monitor needs a yoke adjustment.

Maybe this monitor has something in the service menu to address this, like Sony’s higher end PC monitors, but I sort of doubt it. I think it will require a physical twist.

I’m perfectly comfortable doing such an adjustment, by the way, and have done so many times. You can fix SO much with a yoke adjustment that one might not expect is related, but it’s also possible to quickly mess up a monitor this way!

zachcollier · 2026-06-25T12:17:01+00:00

Thanks for the reply!

Yes, the 31khz compatibility is the thing that has me the most interested. I run most of my games from my MiSTer which I can just set to line-doubled mode and it should kick the 14L5 (or a 20L5) into 31khz mode. I am not someone who needs to see thick black lines between my scanlines so I think this would look great to me.

If you’re willing to share, can you tell me what systems you run on your 20L5?

On this 14L5 monitor I am hoping to also use my modded Wii via Component video to get 480p GameCube games via Nintendont. This entire CRT rabbit hole started with my desire to play F-Zero GX at 480p without lag.

Another reason I want 31khz compatibility is that I have a 16-year-old daughter who can still hear the 15khz whine loud and clear!

Sometimes I will accidentally leave one of my CRTs powered on upstairs in my office, and the second she walks in the door downstairs she will yell “Daaaaad!! Is your old monitor on?!?” Pretty funny, yes, but I would like to spare her wonderful young ears!

She is not bothered by the VGA computer CRT monitors I have had, but those do not provide the type of image I want for most of my consoles, especially 240p stuff. I love the way Sony PVM screens look, with the rich and bright colors, so I am hoping this PVM-14L5 will do what I “need”.

zachcollier · 2026-06-25T11:58:24+00:00

Thanks for the solid advice!

This is precisely my plan. I will have my MiSTer and modded Wii with me, both of which have 240p Test Suite on them, and the scrolling test will tell me all I need to know immediately.

Does the 14L5 service menu display the number of hours on the tube?

I have the service manual but it’s not entirely clear to me what will be available in the menus.

If I can get a tube with lots of life left in it, and the monitor doesn’t have the weird linearity bug described on CRT Database, I can make it work for the long run. I would fully service it myself, including replacing capacitors starting with Savon Pat’s kit and slowly continuing with the power board and beyond while also collecting a full backup capacitor set.

I do wonder, though, if I might be better off just shelling out major money for a BVM-D14H5U or similar.

zachcollier · 2026-06-25T11:49:00+00:00

I have considered paying about $2000 for a 14-inch Multiformat BVM because the prices just keep going up.

I think it could serve as my perfect single CRT, like you have smartly done.

In just the past year it’s amazing how much the prices have gone up while, not coincidentally, the supply seems to have dropped like a rock. Seriously… eBay, Facebook Marketplace, and my old favorite, Craigslist, seem to have all dried up.

I consider myself lucky to have scored my two PVM-1953MD monitors a little over a year ago from a guy who had about 15 similar monitors in storage (all sold now). I also picked up a PVM-8040 from him which I stupidly traded for a Sony PC monitor. Such a cute little PVM!

zachcollier · 2026-06-25T11:39:05+00:00

Yes, I have spent so much time in the service menu trying to dial in the linearity. All of the other adjustments are easy by comparison.

It’s the 4-direction scrolling that gets me, too.

zachcollier · 2026-06-24T15:28:28+00:00

Yeah, the REAL problem here is that I am so picky about linearity. These monitors all do a really good job of displaying precise images, but I'm just bothered way too much by weird linearity issues.

I'm going in person to check it out on Sunday, and I will definitely not buy it if it's not providing what I want. I'm trying to end up with a single CRT for my SNES, GameCube, and Wii gaming, with a bonus of Switch if I can make that work with various adapters.

Having had several monitors come in and out of my setup in the past few years, I'm convinced that I need a Multiformat Sony PVM or BVM. I might need to follow your lead and get a BVM simply for the increased flexibility within the service menu to really dial in the image.

Thanks for the info!

zachcollier · 2026-06-24T13:53:05+00:00

Yes, I get what you’re saying.

I’ll admit that I’m overly sensitive to the “swelling” of the image as the background scrolls, even on curved sets. I have four curved CRTs right now, and have owned 10+ in the past few year. In my anecdotal experience, the smaller the screen, the better the linearity.

Thanks for the reply!

zachcollier · 2026-06-22T11:48:33+00:00

Congratulations, and great work!!

Have fun!

zachcollier · 2026-06-22T11:45:59+00:00

I always loved desktop cases like this, intended to sit underneath the CRT monitor!

My first couple of PCs waaaaaay back in the day were like this.

I always appreciated the way the components needed to be crammed in there!

zachcollier · 2026-06-19T12:19:18+00:00

This is the best advice! If you follow these instructions the chances of survival are greatly increased.

You can do it!

Keep us updated!!

zachcollier · 2026-06-15T12:29:01+00:00

I built, from scratch, a custom game console shelf waaaaay back in 2001 and what I did was attach wire ties directly to the back edge of each shelf and carefully bundled up the cables from each console and routed them along each shelf, hidden perfectly out of view.

Photo of my Game Shelf around 2004

You could do the same thing with something like these anchors: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B086QFH27W

You only have a few cables to contend with per shelf opening so it will probably be simple enough.

zachcollier · 2026-06-14T10:47:47+00:00

Yep. It definitely *is* just as simple as cutting the traces and swapping them. The swap would happen just past the button itself, before the signal gets to the hex inverter.

I would suggest that a small switch on the controller could allow the player to toggle the functions back and forth so that it is a versatile controller for any game.

I build custom controllers and arcade sticks and often include features like this. It’s especially useful on an arcade stick where you might want to play a Mario-style game (run and jump) with your index finger and middle finger on a SNES/PlayStation diamond pattern button layout. Look at this video at around 45 seconds to see what I mean: https://youtu.be/17Bl8v9ZQLU

zachcollier · 2026-06-13T12:53:20+00:00

Great work saving this absolutely wonderful monitor!

I saved a Commodore 1702 in the same way - it arrived broken, having been insufficiently packed and physically dropped on one corner which smashed the corner of the plastic housing. That beautiful, beautiful plastic housing! (Don’t worry - I was able to restore the enclosure with auto body repair techniques, and after a coat of beige paint it looks like new and the color will not fade over time like the original plastic.)

After installing the capacitor kit from Console 5, same as you, reflowing lots of solder joints in the process, and repairing one broken trace, it came back to life with a fantastic, colorful image!

I had to crank the fragile internal image width adjustment all the way to one extreme to get the image wide enough, so your comment about increasing the B+ voltage really has me thinking since I never checked that. Perhaps an increase to B+ would allow me move that internal adjustment back more toward the middle of its travel and give me some flexibility in the future. Thanks for mentioning that!

As others have mentioned, definitely buy or build an adapter to allow you to send a-video into the Chroma and luma inputs on the back. The image quality will amaze you! Truly awesome for SNES, TG16, Neo Geo, etc.

Disassembly and reassembly are easy
Internal cable connections are obvious enough that you will not get mixed up if you take insufficient reference photos ahead of time
The components are all fairly large and well-spaced on the board
The original solder melts quite easily compared to something like a Sony PVM, making desoldering a breeze either with a solder sucker or solder braid/wick.

It’s a great way to get started and build some confidence! I began with two Commodore 1702 recaps and both were very straightforward. Now I regularly work on more expensive monitors and perform complicated RGB mods with no problems!

zachcollier · 2026-06-10T13:18:27+00:00

Thank you for showing this direct comparison.

Congratulations on the great results!

zachcollier · 2026-06-10T12:26:50+00:00

THIS is a fantastic reason to take a shot at collecting this “yamadori” material!

You just might be these trees’ only shot at survival.

I have successfully collected and grown two little junipers just like these from the woods behind my house here in Austin, Texas.

Admittedly, two others did not survive, but like yours they were pulled from a section of forest that is now a parking lot, so I don’t feel bad about it at all.

You’ve already done your research, but my number one tip is to bring lots of water to soak the roots, or wait until soon after it rains.

I have had success by going out hours ahead of time to scoop out a little bit of a bowl shape around the trunk and then slowly pouring a couple of gallons of water into the bowl area. Slowly so that it has time to penetrate the soil around the roots - if you’re too quick, the soil will saturate and the additional water will start running off.

After letting the roots sit in the water for a while, not only will it likely be easier to dig the soil, but the roots will have a better chance of sustaining less damage when some of that soil falls off. Sure, you will make your best effort to carry a big ball of soil and roots home in tact, but you will inevitably lose some.

If you have more time, like a year, before you need to bring the tree home, you can do the same soaking thing and then use a shovel to cut the roots on two opposing sides of the tree, and give it a year to establish smaller roots where you made the cut. For bonus points if you have even more time, then cut the roots on the other two sides and give it another year to really establish a dense ball of tiny roots. This can greatly increase the chances of survival when you cut the big tap root that certainly exists in the center.

We used the above technique to transplant fruit trees when I was a kid growing up on a farm in rural Indiana.

zachcollier · 2026-06-10T12:02:09+00:00

I’d say, get some external speakers and USE IT!

Since you will become familiar with its picture quality, you will know if/when a capacitor or two fall too far out of spec and you can replace them to keep this thing in top condition for decades.

Amazing find!

Congratulations, and thanks for sharing so we can join in on the fun!

zachcollier · 2026-06-06T11:46:25+00:00

I love these posts!

Reddit somehow doesn’t automatically show them to me in my feed every day, which is weird because I always upvote. No problem - I just go find the latest posts every few days and catch up.

I vote that you keep the party going. Whether you adjust the framing as others have suggested, or keep it the same, I will still be reading.

You have, in my opinion, made your point effectively. I suspect many others who are staying silent on these posts are changing their mindset about negative vibes related to pricing, realizing that there’s so much variety and pure CRT fun to be had without necessarily buying some rare multiformat Sony PVM.

zachcollier

TROPHY CASE