Testing & Configuring Sony's Smallest Multiformat CRT- The Sony BVM D9H1U
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The video provides an in-depth look at the Sony BVM D9H1U, a compact multiformat CRT monitor released by Sony in 2003 as part of their commercial BVM series. This model is distinguished as the smallest member of its family, featuring a scaled-down chassis that necessitates its own unique set of accessory cards rather than those used by larger counterparts like the D24. Originally priced around $5,100, the monitor came with an internal power supply but was often sold with a specific aftermarket bezel that included a built-in widescreen overlay, permanently cropping the image to 16:9. The presenter highlights a custom wood-grain bezel from a third-party creator as a high-quality alternative that fits perfectly, contrasting it with the original factory option which offered less aesthetic flexibility.
To operate this monitor effectively, users must rely on external accessories since the unit lacks built-in controls or buttons. The setup requires specific expansion cards for various input types, such as the popular BKM 129X for RGB and component video, which notably uses autoterminated coaxial cables that do not require external terminators. Control is achieved through a dedicated remote unit, such as the 11R model, which connects via a nine-pin VGA-style connector and features an SRAM memory card slot for firmware updates. Powering the device in modern setups often involves using a custom USB-C dongle capable of delivering the required 15 volts at 3 amps, ensuring the monitor boots up reliably without the original bulky power brick.
Testing reveals that while the D9H1U supports resolutions up to 1080i and can display 480p content, it does so on a 450-line tube that is physically smaller than its larger siblings, resulting in slightly lower resolution density despite maintaining a sharp image. The monitor's versatility is demonstrated by configuring multiple input slots simultaneously to handle RGB, S-video, composite, and NTSC/PAL signals from various retro consoles like the 3Dio Interactive FC10. However, users should be aware of limitations regarding sync issues with certain older consoles like the Dreamcast or TurboGrafx-CD due to the lack of a built-in VCR mode, often requiring external sync correctors. Additionally, while the monitor offers extensive alignment and deflection adjustment options for calibration, it lacks some advanced features found in larger models, such as extensive pattern generation tools.
Ultimately, the Sony BVM D9H1U is presented as a highly portable and versatile option for retro gaming enthusiasts who value its ability to switch between progressive and interlaced scanning modes, though it comes with significant setup complexity. The presenter advises potential buyers to check service bulletins on community wikis like consolemods.org, as these older units are prone to various failures that may require repairs or part replacements. While larger models like the D24 might be preferable for dedicated home theater setups due to their size and value retention, the D9's compact form factor makes it an attractive choice for those seeking a portable solution, provided they are prepared to invest in the necessary accessories and troubleshoot potential sync or hardware issues.
Read the full video transcript
All right, guys. We're going to go back
and do another test session with another
one of the D series BVMs that Sony made
in the early 2000s. And uh we're going
to jump into it. I'm going to try to
show you a bunch of modes, all the
accessories I have for it. Today, we're
going to look at the Sony BVM D9, which
is the 9in version of that multiformat
CRT. It's part of the same family of
that D24, but this is literally the
smallest one of these they made. So, I'm
going to flip over here and show you
this CRT. We're going to look at it uh
and talk about it quite a bit here
before we actually test it. So, first
off, this is obviously the back side of
this. We've got uh the D9 H1U. And if we
look at the serial number, it's 20484.
So, this is approximately like the 484th
one of these made by Sony. It was made
in 2003 in February. And it does look
like a miniature version of the back of
a BVM, the D series that you saw where
it's got like cards
uh and power stuff. And I'm going to
explain all this to you. Um first off,
you'll notice that everything here is
scaled down in size. So the very large
cards obviously can't work in this
monitor. So it has its own uh family of
accessory cards. And we'll go through
that in a minute. But just so you know,
that's something that even though these
are related uh monitors and do most of
the same things, they are slightly
different also. Okay. So, if you bought
this thing in 2003
and uh you ordered it from Sony's
commercial monitor division, you've paid
about $5,100
and some odd dollars for it in US. And
again, that isn't like the early 2000s
dollars. And it would have just come
with the BVM monitor. It most likely
would have included the power pack that
slides in here, which is this huge brick
device that slides and snaps into this
slot right here. And it just gives you a
power supply with a um threeprong AC
input into it. So, you would have gotten
that. You would have gotten the monitor.
You would have not gotten this
aftermarket bezel, which is on here. you
would have gotten this which is just
probably the worst bezel Sony ever made
on a monitor. Uh it has
automatic built-in widescreen overlay.
So you're getting like a 16x9
uh cut off always with this bezel. So
you would have gotten this bezel. Um now
other Sony's that were larger than this
did have the same thing where they had
this bezel but it was removable so you
could just snap it in and out. It's not
the case with this one. So, I was able
to pick up this one recently. Uh, this
is a 3D print aftermarket by Matt Ross
aka Six Tanks. It's on eBay, and I just
got in. I thought it looks pretty darn
nice. I mean, I got this kind of old
school wood grain bezel look with the
white and or cream and brown
um tan slash uh outer bezel. But it fits
nice. It's like really really quality.
It even has a Sony logo here. And
that's basically what you would have
gotten for 5,000 bucks would have been
this.
And you would of course needed something
to put video uh signals in it. And these
cards, there's a bunch of different
cards available for this. First, this
one is our main card we like to use. It
gives you RGB and component video and uh
sync support. And so that's the BKM
129X. It's a very popular card with
these. and it says the name or you can
find the name of these cards always at
the bottom corner down here 129X.
There's two styles of this. There's this
one where it just says everything in
black embossed letters. And then I've
got this other variant of it that
actually has colors for green, blue, and
then red, and then sync. So, this is two
versions of the same thing. Now, next to
that, you've got the analog card that'll
let you do composite video. So, it's got
composite, composite, and then Svideo.
And each of these have an out, so you
can connect in series this to other um
things. Now, this one, unlike its
predecessor or its big brothers, uh it
does not need terminators. So, if you
see these signals on Sony products, this
little wiggly line here, it means it's
autoterminated. So, we do not need or
want to add 75 ohm terminators on these
monitors, which is different. And that's
more like a PVM as opposed to the BVMs.
So, just remember that if you ever do
end up with one of these, you do not
need to put 75 ohm terminators. So, you
know, these cards were roughly $400 a
piece. Uh maybe ones like this would
have been more expensive. This is a
completely dead video technology at this
point. But this is a SDI 422 board
120D BKM 12D. And if we look here, it is
again the SDI 422 color input adapter.
Uh so there's again a video signal we
don't use anymore. And this big fat one
is for HD SDI. So I'm not going to get
this is the 142 HD. I'm not going to get
into too many details on this. If you
want to look up more stuff on SDI video,
you can. That's pretty much again a dead
format. There's other accessories.
You'll notice there's no way to really
control anything on this particular
model of monitor. There's no controls,
no buttons, nothing. So, you needed to
have a controller. And these are the
same as the big ones, the big boy BVMs.
So, you can use this, which is uh the
more traditional one. It is the 10R and
then it just uses a
VGA style 9-pin connector right there.
And you can run that
cord from there to the back of the BVM
in one of these slots,
parallel remote, serial remote, um,
control unit. So, you can you can sit
here and you can turn this to the
control unit. And I think you could plug
it in here and that way you can control
it with this 10R and this would have
been another $400 accessory. This was
probably more of like a a $600 accessory
at the time. This is the 11R and this
one is the one I'm going to use today to
control this monitor. It does the same
thing as the 10R. So, it has all the
same buttons and stuff on there. It's
just it's in a handy uh
controller unit that you can use like
from your hand. It even has a cool old
school uh Sony
memory card unit in it that has settings
as look at that SRAMM 64 kilobytes. So,
this is how you could do like firmware
updates on these monitors back in the
day with a card like this and you'd put
it in here and then you can load that
software onto these BVMs kind of that
way. But this is the one. It's got the
nine-pin connector up top and a mini den
and then the other end of the mini den
cable actually will plug in to the front
side of the BB BVM here. And this is how
we will control it. Like you just plug
that in there.
Uh if I can do it with one hand. Let's
see.
There we go. So that's it. Now we can
control it from this controller when we
introduce power to this BVM. And uh so
that's pretty much everything. Now I
will tell you that there is kind of a
helpful guide here
uh that tells you right like look over
here. It says uh you got slot number one
input option must be installed first. So
you have to always use this left hand
slot
to at least have your first one in and
then after that you use this one and
then finally this one closest. So don't
go like closest. If you go it's all your
card here and you have nothing here
there's a good chance you'll get no
signal on the monitor at all. I mean I'm
pretty sure that's what will happen. And
uh let's see. So, for power today, I
don't have that bulky power supply. I
actually have a new solution from my
friend Shank Shank Mods, and that is
this really cool dumb dongle here. This
is a really sweet little setup. So, what
I've got is this dongle has a uh first
off,
it's got USBC here, and it plugs in to
the XLR power input right here. Just
like this. Okay. Clicks in. It's nice.
Nice big dongle. And this is how we're
going to power our BVM. But we can't
just stick any USBC power supply in
there because it won't Whoops. It won't
have enough power. So, here's what I'm
using with it. 65 watts. And the
important stuff is that it has
it puts out 15 volts at 3 amps. So, this
thing wants 15 volts and 3 amps. and 65
watts to consistently run
uh through this dongle. So, literally
all we're going to do is we're going to
plug in this dongle and this BVM should
just kick the power right on. So, yeah,
you hear it. You heard that click a
little bit maybe. Yeah. See, we're right
away we're going to kick this BVM on. Uh
because we just introduced power to it.
So, let's see it come on here. It should
be powering up. Okay.
All right, don't worry about that line.
That's normal. I'm going to use the
controller here and
we're going to press one. Well, let's
see.
Channel one. Okay, I've got it switched
over to channel one now just by pressing
one on the input board. Now, let's see
what that is. I'm pressing menu and I'm
going to cycle through the menus here.
Um,
input configuration. Okay, so input one
is set for component
and slot one and it's going to have
external sync. So, we'll have to use our
controller over here to do internal
sync. Uh, but that's the way the card is
set right now. And what we can do then
to get a signal in here is I've already
got my PlayStation 2 Slim running and
set up. So, we should just do is plug up
this
in here
and blue
and red and then sync is on green. So,
we should finally hear it probably kick
on. And now, there we go. I hear the
signal running. Let's see uh what our
signal looks like on the screen. Okay,
good. Look at this. So yeah,
obviously we have some screen settings
stuff going on here. So let's see what's
going on. Okay, so there we go. It was
on 16 by9 mode on my which is another
button you can press right here is a 169
button. So there we have it. We're on
that input. Let's back out of this menu.
And uh right now you can see down here,
well you could see if I press menu.
There we go. Channel one, 480 by 680 by
6, I'm sorry, 480 by 60i. So, right now
we're in interlaced video. And I
actually just changed the settings here.
And once we go over into a race, we
should be able to kick this thing up to
480p and maintain this awesome 4x3.
Let me set this on the
thing here. We should be able to
maintain a 4x3 aspect ratio uh once we
actually get into a race and then we'll
have it kick up to
high resolution mode.
We'll go in here into a single game.
And I forgot this in the last test mode.
You actually have to start the race. Who
cares? I mean, we'll take this crappy
Prius and just get destroyed on this
race. And Nurum Nurburgger. Now, see,
there we go. It just clicked over here
to 480p. So, that's what we're in now is
480p. And it just immediately switches
resolutions like that.
Cool thing about 480p is you will no
longer hear that uh
that high frequency noise from the
flyback.
Okay. So, since we're in 480p, what we
can do is just go in here, and I mean,
it's going to stay in 480p. But since I
don't want to make any adjustments, I
can always um just remove this cable
right here and leave it how it is and it
will keep going. But if I want to make
any kind of screen changes, I need to
plug it in and then I can do things like
increase my contrast,
increase my brightness up there. Cool.
because it was a little dark. I also
have like I mean this thing has not been
calibrated so you've obviously got some
stuff going on there with the
deflection. So I can go in here and I
can do an alignment
um
just a quick dirty alignment
expansion like that.
And then if we go over here to vertical
size, we'll do the same thing.
And we'll kind of do it like that. We
might pull this down just a couple
hairs.
And
yeah, horizontal phase. Let's back.
Let's push this over there a little bit
so that we're not seeing any side
pieces. There we go. And there we go.
30. You can do more alignment stuff in
the minute. I'll show you how to work
through that. But there we go.
So that's what we have. We have quick
cool 480p. Now, if I just Let's see what
happens if I unplug this. Everything
should maintain the same, right? Okay,
there we go. So, now you like this is
what you would do with these monitors.
You would just set them up and then you
didn't have a controller to them and
you'd let them go and uh run.
And there we go. Let's watch a Prius get
killed in this race here for a minute.
I'm not even I'm not even remembering
what all this stuff is down here. Fuel
consumption,
I'm guessing. Oh, baby, we're flying.
How do we Why do we need fuel for a
Prius?
Push me. Push me. push me. Okay.
Yeah, baby. We might not get last place,
but we certainly aren't going to get
first place in this Prius.
So, um that's one of the great things
about this little monitor is you get
480p, but you also get 720p and 1080i,
but it is going to be up there u of
course 16 by9 mode. So, you're going to
lose uh screen size, and it also makes
the resolution on the tube drop a little
bit. Right now, you're looking at a 450
line tube. So, it's not nearly like the
thousand line tubes of the BVM
uh D24 or the D20. Those have a much
higher line count than this. But since
everything's compacted, uh it really
looks great on the screen.
But that's 480p actually. I mean, we're
not doing too bad. We're in third place
here with this Prius. Probably gonna not
need to do a pit stop. So maybe I could
run. Maybe there's a hack now. 15
seconds behind. I'm never catching those
dudes.
All right. So what we can do now is
we're going to test some of these other
things on this. Um
but that is how like it could be set up
to go. Now, if I wanted to do something
else here real quickly, you saw um the
other cards I had in the back were, let
me move that. The other card I had back
here that's already installed is this
one 27W, which allows me to do all these
other um inputs. So, what I can do just
to test this is I can actually just take
this green and plug it in here. And uh
since the sync is on the green, I should
just have like I should be able to
switch over here and and at least get
something to show up on the composite
since that's the sync line. Now, it may
not do it. Actually, you know what?
Let's go in here. We can't do that
because it's in 480p mode. So, we need
to go back out first off. I forgot.
Let's go in here and let's go back to
the exit. And then let's go back to the
main menu because we're going to need to
get this back into 480i.
And then uh and then we can do the test
of the Oh, shoot. We can do the test of
that other thing. So, let me reset this.
Right. Okay. So, if we reset it, we're
in 480i.
Now, if I sit over here, I I think I
have this scheduled like this. So, let's
try this number four input
input configuration. All right. NTS PAL
slot two, which is the 127. Uh, and if
again if you want to see that card, you
can always go over here to your status
and this will tell you. Look at this.
This tells you how your channels are set
up right now. Like so, um, there it is.
Channel four is that all the other
things are set to these.
And then if we go down on that, look at
this. We got slot number two, NTSC PAL,
slot number one, component. It doesn't
tell us like the actual card names
there, but here's everything else.
Another cool thing. Look at this. This
has uh only 696 hours on the actual um
monitor. So, this is super low hours on
this thing. It's pretty awesome.
But that's under the status.
And so, I should be able to just take
this
right here and switch it over to that
input. And something should show up on
the screen, right? Ah, there we go. So
yeah, we don't have our color, but we do
have black and white. We're shifted
down. There we go. So this is black and
white mode,
but that proves that
this
this input works. 480i by 60i. 480 x 60i
again interlaced 480i video. So there
you go.
um looks really nice composite video and
it works. So, I'm going to take a quick
break here. We're going to um we're
going to power this off and then here's
what I want to do. We're going to power
this thing all the way down. And then
so to power it down, I'm actually just
going to unplug the USB after turning it
off. And what we will do is we'll
disconnect the component video
and we're gonna install another card
here and then we'll try to use this one
for RGB so they'll have a full load out
and all you have to do is power the
machine down and then you can literally
just slide in these cards. So now we'll
have another card to test RGB on. So,
what we're going to do is we're going to
switch over and I'm going to test some
lower resolution videos than through the
other BKM here through um RGB and then
we'll test Svideo
and composite video.
Um you just want to make sure that
clicks and then kind of screw them in.
So, we'll test all that. Now, before we
even test it, let's check to see that
this card registers um on the monitor.
So,
I'm just going to power it on like that.
Wait for it to
kick in.
And let's plug in our controller.
Channel 4. No problem. Let's go down
here to status.
And there we go.
So, it doesn't tell us the names of each
card, but it does tell us that we have a
component card in slot one, our NTSC PAL
card in slot two, and then our component
RGB card in slot three. So, right in
this current configuration, we can go
component
um and RGB on one end of the monitor and
we can actually hook in NTSC or PAL and
we can do two composite inputs and one
Svideo input however we want. So, this
actually has the ability to have up to
uh six
no five
inputs at once. All right. Well, we have
the uh probably greatest testing console
in the world, the
3Dio interactive
multiplayer FC10. Now, what makes this
one so special is that not only has it
been refurbished and restored, but if we
look back here, it has been modified for
RGB out and RF has been removed. And
then it has a little selection switch
right there that doesn't change the
channel selection. Oh, that cycles the
system uh at real time between 480i and
240p with that little switch there. So,
we can do 480i, 240p on command. And we
have Svideo, composite video, and our GB
to test through that. So, it's Sega 2
style hookups for that. And we're going
to use this Mikechi dongle here along
with an Extron cable for VGA to RGB to
use RGB on our new card. And then we'll
use the other signal uh on this card. So
I think the first thing we want to try
here is
uh plugging up the console and seeing
just how it starts up.
And um we can turn the PVM or BVM back
on. And what I'm going to use is I don't
even have the manual for this, but I
just have this like jewel case for
Captain Quazar. Big gun, big muscles,
big trouble. And uh this is again a
goofy 3dio title that will only be on
the 3Dio as far as I'm aware of. So
let's load in the captain. Actually,
first we'll leave it off so we can see
that awesome splash screen uh from the
console. And then I've got a power cable
down here.
And why don't we first off go for the
cream of the crop, which is going to be
RGB. So, I'm going to slip this
in here. I just got to make sure I line
it up correctly. We got There we go.
And then
we're going to install our controller,
which is
one of the famous things about the 3Dio
only having the single controller port
on the console. So, let's plug this in
and
turn the power on. Make sure it clicks
on.
All right. Now we should be able to just
Well, maybe I'll move that to help a
little bit more.
Monitor's turned off. So, let's
power it on. Switch over to an RGB
channel. I can't remember which channel
was RGB,
but I want to say it was like channel
five or something, but we can create a
new channel or change one of the YPBPR
channels if we need to. Let's try five
right off the bat.
No. Okay. Let's go
and put configure RGB. Okay. Oh, because
we are not using slot number one. We're
using slot number three now. There we
go. Okay. And then
where is
my sync button? That's not it. Let's go
in here and let's turn sync on.
Well, we got to turn slot three for
sync. Okay, cool.
Okay, so there we go. Look at that.
We'll turn it into
16 by9.
And we have
what everybody loves to see, the storage
manager device here. Let's see. What are
we in here? We in I mean it looks to me
like we're already in 240p
but
yep. So it's hard to see on this one but
that's right now we're in interlaced. So
you got real time interlaced and then
over 240p.
So we'll load this up. Let this kick on
over.
And there's our good old captain.
You guys are really like missing out on
this terrible music for this game
because there's no audio support on
these BBMs. This thing has like about
the worst entrance song you've ever
heard about Captain Quazar.
Is it just loading? What are we doing
here?
There you go. Chief's office. Yeah. So,
I mean,
you can tell when you're watching it
when it goes from 240p in this video
mode to 480i when it's in person, but I
don't think you're going to be able to
see that on the camera at all.
Like that resolution difference. And you
can even see how the resolution is
shifted horizontally
for this console versus even the other
consoles we were testing and uh RGB like
the PlayStation. Well, actually that was
component. So um that makes sense in the
shift even more.
So, we can go in here
and kind of do the same thing.
Alignment, and it'll redo all this
stuff.
Phase, baby. Let's go shift this to the
right some.
Let's expand that size. Get Captain
Quazar. Looking good.
I mean, I'm sure it's still widescreen a
little bit, so we're not going to do too
much. There we go.
And channel five is set.
Look at that guy getting stuck in his
trousers.
What a goofy game, dude.
Again, we're not even playing the game.
This is all just cut scene.
Anyway, um,
while it's running, I'm gonna go ahead
and plug in I'm not even sure what
happens when you plug in like multiple
outputs on this thing. Hopefully, it
doesn't blow up the 3Dio,
but if we go and plug in I mean, we
haven't tested SVideo or composite
really that great yet. So, let's try
that.
I'm going to kick the light on.
All right, let's see here. Now, I'm
going to plug in the top Svideo plug,
which these are sideways, so it's not
like it goes in straight up top.
Actually goes in sideways.
Okay.
Now, the cool thing is you don't have to
have any kind of adapters for Svideo
with this monitor. You just need to use
a regular Svideo cable.
All right. Now, if I plug this in, will
the video stop or will it come out of
both ports at the same time? I cannot
remember. All right. Let's go back now
and check channel one. I'm just going to
press channel one on my controller and
we're going to see if it shows anything.
No sync. Okay, that means
let's go to input configuration. Oh,
that's that's why it's number one. The
number four. Let's try channel four.
No sync. Okay. Let's do input
configuration. NTSC PAL. Okay. Yeah.
Now, what we should do here is slot
number
two is right, but it's input number
three because it's the bottom one.
Aha.
So, if we go
like look at how how awesome is the
3Dio. Look at this bad boy. So, we've
got Svideo right now. And if I press
What channel is this? I can't even
remember. Channel 4. If I press channel
five, boom, baby. We're upgrading to S
or RGB.
And then finally,
I can even take this sucker, plug in the
composite video, and my goodness, this
thing is a powerhouse. Did you know the
RNG or the uh 3Dio was such a powerful
machine? You could do all three at the
same time, you think? You think you
could do all three outputs in video
mode? So, let's see. So, we've got
channel four and then let's go and check
out channel three, which is all whacked
out. And we're going to go input
configuration. No, we're going to go
NTSC PAL.
And then we're going to go
input number one. There we go. So, let
me change nothing on this except for
we're going to get out of 16 by9. All
right. composite.
So I changed it.
All right, channel three. So this is
composite video
240p 480i. I mean, there's no way you
can see the difference on there. Let me
see if I can get it closer. But um
what I've done is I've configured the
remote control here to just go
for uh Come on, baby. Come on, Captain.
There we go. All right. So, I've
switched it to just go and and output
everything. Um
so, again, like if we're looking here,
this is NTSC PAL. This is input number
one. So, this uh channel three is
composite
Channel four, NTSC. Uh, and this is
input. This is Svideo. And then finally,
we got the Mac Daddy of them all, RGB.
Don't you like how it has an aggressive
switch over there? And this like you can
actually see defined scan lines in the
picture here compared to like the it
it's there. It's just muddier. You're
definitely getting a resolution kick up,
but how cool is that?
Okay, let's do this. All right, just so
you know, there's um
not as much inside of this as there is
the D24 or D20. The D24 and D20 actually
have like a lot more inputs or I'm
sorry, yeah, a lot more input
configuration pages available whereas we
saw this only has basically nine inputs
that you can put together. There's only
nine channels on this one. Um, so again,
if we go to status, it only has nine
channels that you can configure. But if
you go into the BVMD20 and D24, I mean,
it has like 90 channels that you can
configure. And if you go into the high
90s, it has built those monitors have
built-in uh patterns for calibration
checks and stuff. So that's not in this
monitor, but you do have those channels.
And then again, this is how you check
all the information under the status
page two for your stuff. Now, if you do
like we talked about the alignment menu
here, which is going to be set um
thankfully you can configure it per
channel. So, you can do nine different
types of uh adjustments there on that
page. But if you want to do the main
alignment, you go in here to system
configuration
and uh you go to page two, very bottom,
maintenance, and it asks for a password
again. One, one one.
So four ones. Enter. And it gets you
into this. And it's interesting because
um these other things I can't I I didn't
know you could look at this. So, you can
actually change some settings on here uh
based on like the colors for just the
NTSC color card. This is literally just
that color card there. It says 127W.
But if we go out of that, we can go into
the main system. This is how you check
change color and white balance is under
the video section.
But if you want deflection, you can go
in here and change deflection settings
from the master set list. And there's
three pages of well, this page you don't
get to use. You don't get to do anything
with those, but you have two pages of um
deflection settings you can run through
to set the master levels on the monitor.
Now, unfortunately, in the maintenance
mode here, there is no VCR mode built
into this. So, this monitor will not
sync properly on RGB with certain um
consoles natively. Like when I showed
you, if you want to see the footage from
we had sync problems, we would still
have sync problems with things like the
Turbo Graphics and the Dreamcast. They
don't like to sync to this monitor
properly a lot of times through RGB. So,
just be aware of that. You'll have to
get some kind of sync stripper or sync
corrector to actually get it to work on
this particular one there because again
there's no VCR mode.
But uh I can't really think of much else
to tell you about this BVM.
Um
so what I'm going to do is power it off.
And the kind of last bit of information
I can talk about would be something like
these. These are 129
X
um replacement cards. All of them. These
were designed gosh a long time ago. 2020
by Martin
Heinfelds. Our good old buddy Martin.
2020. Man, these cards. Golly, I can't
believe it. So, there's got to be much
better versions of this out there. But
these cards,
man, I can't believe it's almost been
like seven years since these things have
been out. Here's another one. So, that
one's a VGA style. These can be these
are open source, so they can be
homemade. There are some people making
aftermarket ones that actually look
better than this cuz again, this one is
super old. Let's see. Another 2020
probably. Yeah. So, there you go. OG's
in the uh OGs in the chat will know
everything about Martin and how many
times he's saved us with these BVM
replacement cards and really anybody
else who's made these things. They're
awesome. But he saved us with this one
and the A series, which I'll cover
someday. Uh but that's replacement
cards. You can slip them in the same way
the back of the BVM.
Uh like this one. Uh really fun project.
There's a lot of things that can be done
with this monitor. My friend Shank has
made like custom cards that slide in
that have whole consoles on them full of
games. So, you can do like a whole
all-in-one package on this thing and not
even need a console. You could do that
if you're a real genius. I don't know
how to do that stuff, but maybe one day
Shank will hook me up with one of his
cards to test. We'll see. Guys, I really
love this monitor. I'm glad that uh I
was able to add it to my collection
here. I might do more stuff involving it
in the future. Uh but for now, I think
that's a dagon lot of info on this CRT.
And uh should be able to help anybody
who runs into this thing at least get
started on it and understand what they
can do with it.
All right, everybody. I just want to say
thank you again for watching today. I
hope you enjoyed this rundown of the
Sony BVM D9. Um just some final notes on
this monitor. Uh you can often run into
this much easier than you can the D24
or like the D20. Um you'll run into this
D9 and the D14 probably more frequently
because there were a lot more of those
made and sold um in the early 2000s than
the D24. And they've managed to stay um
you know they're much easier to like set
somewhere and forget about than the D24.
D24s are pretty darn big and have um
quite a lot of value in them. So, people
are pretty easy it's pretty easy to see
a big D24, but sometimes in uh
commercial or um industrial environments
where they might have ended up with one
of these D9s. These can get hidden
somewhere and never used. I mean, look
at this one. I had under a thousand
under 700 hours on it, which is pretty
nuts. Um I don't know. There's probably
only two other times I've seen ones that
are uh BVMs that have this low of hours
on them, but most of the time it is this
D9 because look at it. I mean, you can't
really get into it if you don't have a
controller. Uh it's got that weird bezel
and then it might not even have any
proper input cards for you to even send
in a video signal and it's super
complicated on setup. Um
I don't know. I mean, they're very cool.
I think that if you want to grab one,
um, you know, try to make yourself find
a good deal on them. But I will also
warn you that you should check out the
wiki page on consolemods.org
for this BVM. It has a ton and ton of
failures in it where it would just fail
and Sony had to send out ways to try to
repair it and parts and things and
service bulletins. This is a mile long
list of things with this BVM
particularly that would uh go bad. I
don't think this is like a perfect one
for even though it has all that if you
have all the bells and whistles like I
have, it's still kind of a pain um to
use if you want to for some reason use
Dreamcast or Turbo Graphics or possibly
even Sega Saturn. I think that there
might be an issue with that one. Um you
may have to like convert everything over
to component video. That way you can
actually use it through component. Um,
and uh, so like for the price here,
you're going to be better off with
going a route of like a 13-in PVM as
opposed to this if you want it for retro
gaming. Um, the one way I could see
wanting this for for whatever reason is
the fact that it goes from 240p up to
1080i and it's small and and very
portable. But getting it will require
you to have to probably follow up on
some of those service bulletins
eventually. Um, you'll also have to
study the monitor and how to work it.
And you'll have to be able to uh be
prepared to invest in some uh
accessories to use it cuz you're going
to need them. I will show you one more
thing on this. There is a way
um to use this monitor
through
looping into other monitors or other
controllers. If you don't have the BVM
controller, you can loop it in parallel
mode uh with a VGA cable like here. You
should be able to just put it right
here, tell it to go, and you may be able
to control it from another BVM. So, if
you have like multiple BVMs, there is a
way to put them in parallel mode where
you can have a master monitor control
all the additional monitors because it
should say like uh an out mode or
something like there it is. So, like you
go in here and you probably go out here
if you wanted to connect a third, a
fourth, a fifth, a sixth, a seventh BVM
in series for whatever reason. So, you
don't actually need the controller for
every single uh one of your BVMs if you
do that method.
Well, guys, that's another long video.
I'm about to head out to Retro World
Expo. Um, I hope that a lot of you guys
get a chance to come out there and hang
out, but I don't know if this video will
even come out before the expos expo
happens. Thanks for watching. Please
remember to hit the like button if you
did like this. I always appreciate your
feedback. If there's anything I forgot
or got wrong about the Sony BVM D9 back
here, please feel free to leave it in
the comments. I tried to cover just
about all the bases, but um it's again,
it's all done from my head and from
sitting here running my mouth with you
for 40 minutes. Uh so anyway, if there's
anything I forgot, please feel free to
put it down there in comment in the
comments. Let me know if you have one of
these. Um and if you use it, if you like
it, whatever. All right, guys. I'll see
you next time with some more retro
content.