Flickering and wrong picture alignment SONY PVM 1454QM

[Magoon84]

Hi everyone,

I've already tried to use the search button, but I alwyas get an error message?!

I really need your help.

I've purchased a used SONY PVM 1454QM Monitor and hooked it up with my new installed emulation pc (Win 10, AMD R7 240 GPU with VGA output, latest CRT Emudriver installed and everything set up for 15khz output). I've connected my PC with a Sync Combiner (Extron RGB 109xi) and then connected it to the PVM with an BNC Cable.

But unfortunately when I start the PC the picture doesn't look right as you can see on the photos. The alignment on the left side ist uneven and the picture is flickering.

May anyone help and may tell me what I did wrong?

Would appreciate any help and thank you in advance.

[buttersoft]

You have done everything right so far. The pincushion/bowing will be coming from the PVM. Google the service manual, go into the service menu and adjust the picture. The picture being shifted to the right can be fixed this way too, possibly a phase adjustment.

Be careful in the service menu, figure out how to get in and get out, and memorise how to adjust items up and down, and how to save. Only adjust one thing at a time, and in small steps, that way if you do something that kills the picture entirely, you can use the other button to reverse the change. Or turn the set off and on again. It's unlikely you will get to that point, but best to be safe.

If the service menu doesn't go far enough, you can adjust the horizontal size and placement (and only those) with the the ArcadeOSD tool - you will find it in the directory with crt_emudriver. Changing the timing around the horizontal sync pulse and porches for a mode will move the image on the screen left and right and resize it. Play around and see, knowing that you can hit Esc to go back at any time. You then save any changes you want, for other emulators. To make these timings stick for GroovyMAME you can either redo VMM with updated timings in the monitor.ini, or edit the mame.ini file with the updated horizontal timings (starting with the crt_range0 line, which for the generic_15 monitor preset defaults to crt_range0 15625-15750, 49.50-65.00, 2.000, 4.700, 8.000, 0.064, 0.192, 1.024, 0, 0, 192, 288, 448, 576 - remember that your monitor may want a different preset to begin with, and that any specific vertical.ini, machine.ini like neogeo.ini, or game.ini files will override). Calamity insists redoing VMM works best, but i find that with the spread of modes i'm using (230p at 60Hz all the way up to 600i at 50Hz) on different monitors, i still want to set the mame.ini timings afterward.

[Magoon84]

Hi Buttersoft,

thank you very much for your reply and advice. I didn't have time to follow your guide, but will do within the next days and send you a feedback.

Hope it works that way.

I only intend to play MAME Games as well as SNES, NES and Genesis Games on it.

[buttersoft]

The Extron has a horizontal-shift option too, i notice. That will certainly involve sync-processing, and might add a bit of lag, but it's easy to try turning it on and off and adjust to see if that helps as well.

Just remember with anything you do that different video sources (PC, Genesis, Wii, PS1, etc) all put the video image in a slightly different place, horizontally. the PS1 and Wii are closest together AFAIK, so adjusting the monitor to one of them, and then making your crt_emudriver modelines match to that, is best.

[Magoon84]

Oh great thanks for the info.

Is there any alternative to the extron? Any possibility to use something els instead?

All the best

[buttersoft]

crt_emudriver allows you to output composite sync directly, so you could try that. If that doesn't work tho, then you do need a way to combine sync, and the extron is about as good as it gets. One of the dip switches will bypass sync processing, which will remove any lag and and also disable the h-shift control because it's no longer being used.

You'd have to rely on the options in the PVM's service menu then, but those should work fine, if the set is in good condition.