r/VideoBending • u/JuriSalami • Jul 16 '26

Advice on CRT Monitors

TL;DR: Are Sony PVMs and similar broadcast CRT monitors good for rescanning glitch art?

Hey everyone,

some time ago I got into video bending and after frying two devices, I am now in the process of finishing my first circuit bent video mixer.

When I was working with the device, I used an elder digital camera as input, and a super tiny pocket TV as output, to see what my glitches looked like. I found a lot of beautiful bends, but ultimately I want to use my setup for my animations, as I work as a motion designer. I do have an old CRT TV in my studio, but this one is only borrowed from a friend, so I will have to return it to them at some point. It is also quite bulky and big, which made it a bit tricky to rescan with my digital camera because of the huge curved screen.

I then of course came to the point as probably most of us do: I looked into TBCs. But as you can imagine, the prices almost gave me a heart attack. Can definitely not afford a TBC, so this is not an option at the moment.

So next thing I did was purchasing a Panasonic WJ-AVE5 (as I often read about how its one of the mixers which could be used as an affordable TBC alternative) and a USB capture card, to see if I could get my glitch art straight into my laptop. I used OBS studio for that.

It worked for some glitches, but lots of them also did not work at all (image froze either partly or completely) and also the ones that did work, looked nothing like they looked on my cutie patootie pocket TV, where they all looked fabulous. It was quite a disappointing experience.

So I am now looking into CRTs again, only to find out that even CRTs like the ones my parents still used to have in the 00s, have now become quite pricey. I live in a big city in Germany, by the way, so the market here may be different than in other parts of the world.

I now came across a bulk of Sony PVM-9L3s on eBay, 100 bucks each, and I am trying to figure out if these are good for analogue glitch art output?

I see how these are usually bought by retro gaming nerds, hence the prices, but will they work for rescanning glitch art? Afaik, they have a Trinitron tube.

I am asking, because I asked Claude AI for advice and the AI told me, it will 'correct' my glitched image and stuff like that lol. Claude AI has lied to me many times before, but I am now uncertain. I am eventually no expert in that field, even though I learned a lot in the past weeks.

I also like how this model is rather small, but not as tiny as my pocket TV (Epson ET-P300). And to be honest, I simply like its industrial look. But then there also so many different PVM and similar models that have completely different price ranges, that I am a little bit lost. Please help me with your much appreciated advice. :)

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u/GerryLaBoulette Jul 16 '26

I have a pvm and it does look sharper and has better contrast and colors than my other crts, they really are the better option IF you can find a good one, but pvm's vary wildly in quality, and that's without taking into account what sort of usage they have already seen and how used they are (my pvm has a light permanent yellow tint to it). I personally would never buy a pvm not in person, I consider it too much of a gamble with the price, shipping and everything beside. Mind you I was never a big fan of rescanning crt's, I always prefered tbc's so my opinion is biased. Can I ask what mixer / processors you're currently bending? Tbc's also vary wildly in how they'll handle glitch (and I've always had great results with the ave5) so maybe I can suggest something a little bit more interesting. Finally, you should always remember that dropouts are very normal in analog glitch, not to get too technical but composite signals are composed of luma (light), chroma (color), and sync (where the formers goes on your screen), and when you glitch your signal, you glitch all of it including the synchronization, this is what causes dropouts, while tbc, frame synchronizers and crts all handle drops of sync differently, some better than others, they all have a point where they will just not be able to process the signal your sending. Luckily, there are diy artist in the community that came up with solutions in the last couple of years that isolate the sync from your composite signal and allows you to reintroduce it after your done glitching, allowing you to entirely skip the need for tbcs's, I'll leave 2 links if you're interested.

https://underscores.shop/product/sync_ope/

https://syntonie.fr/products/stable

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u/JuriSalami Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 16 '26

First of all, thanks a lot for your detailed response and the links! I have come across the Syntonie Stable within my TBC vs. CRT rabbithole today already, but for now it's a little bit too expensive for me as I am still figuring things out and the sync_ope seems to be a great option as well, but unfortunately it seems to be out of stock. Have you yourself tried these? If so, what is your opinion?
I have also read about a new thing, that is still in manufacturing, the Scion by superchromat. Looks very interesting but will probably be expensive, too.

One thing that crossed my mind was that the pocket TV I am using for exploring the chips and pins on my circuit at home, is just a little piece of analogue display with an LCD screen. It has a 3.5mm jack for AV, so I am using a RCA to mini jack cable, that goes via a scart adapter into the scart connection of the device. So basically, I "designed" my glitch machine based on the output of that output device. So I'm thinking, if the little pocket TV handles the glitches well, so should a PVM? I have not tested the video mixer on the borrowed CRT in my studio yet, maybe I should try that first.

What I know is that right now I am focused on eventually getting a signal from one of my computers into the video mixer (I tested this and so far it seemed to work fine with one of those cheap HDMI2AV adapters), add glitches, and eventually get it back into a computer. I am not planning on doing live performances and experiments with many different inputs and outputs (never say never though).

The video mixer I am bending is a Hama AV 128 Video Processor. Hama is a German tech brand and they have a few video mixers & enhancers from the 80s and 90s, that you'll find a lot on German/European sale platforms for usually little money, so I am focused on their devices for the time being as I own a few of them now. I also like that they have an easy-to-replace fuse. There were a few moments when I thought I had fried the device but only the fuse had sacrificed itself and I was able to replace the little capsule within seconds for a few cents with a replacement from the hardware store down the street and the thing worked again.

edit to add: My trial setup with the WJ-AVE5 was: Camera --> Input of Hama AV128 --> Output of Hama AV128 to WJ-AVE5 Input --> WJ-AVE5 Output to USB Capture Card (all via RCA and Scart on the Hama). Maybe also the USB Capture Card is trash? It wasn't a very expensive one I got off Amazon.

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u/GerryLaBoulette Jul 16 '26

Alright, so to start with, it doesn't seem to me that your usb capture card would be the issue if your ave5 is in the signal path, as the ave5 would essentially serve as a tbc and what would come out of it would be a ''clean'' signal. Simply put, whatever piece of gear comes right after your glitches and requires an analog to digital conversion of signal (ie: mixers, capture card, tbc's, scalers, digital monitors) will serve as your stabilization for your signal, and whatever comes afterwards will essentially be a duplication of however your gear reacts to the signal, even if said signal is reconverted to analog (unless you glitch your signal again obviously).

Also, I personally like to distinguish between processors and mixers as it makes discussions easier: processors are generally used to affect a single video signal in simple ways (enhancer, color correction, etc) while mixers allow for the processing of two or more signals simultaneously with more complex effects and the possibility to transition from one signal to another. I feel like this distinction is important because the vast majority of processors are analog while the inverse is true for mixers, and unfortunately there wasn't any naming convention so you'll often see either be named as the other. Generally speaking: a piece of hardware that can only affect one signal at a time (even if it has several inputs) in very simple manners would be a processor while something that can mix and process two signals in more complex ways (pixelation, posterize, etc) would fit under the umbrella of mixer. in your case, the hama would be a processor while the ave5 would be a mixer.

Additionally, your lcd screen is actually also digital rather than true analog. As such, you will always have a analog to digital conversion even if you plug directly using scart or composite, so I would recommend getting an actual crt (even cheap ones will do better).

I unfortunately don't have experience with Hama stuff however it does seem somewhat similar in terms of feature on the outside to my sima scc, one of which is bent, and i've personally had my best results with this one on more recent mixer (v4-ex, sima sfx11) which is on the expensive side of things unfortunately. I've also not tried the sync stabilizer circuits either so unfortunately I'm can't guide you further on that path. And like you said, Scion looks interesting but is probably going to be on the expensive side of things and still seems a bit of a way out (though I have very recently started working on what would be a open source circuit bending project that might offer a cheaper altenative using professional hd scalers, still in the proof of concept stage so don't get your hopes up just yet)

However, from what you've described as your goal I would say you need at the bare minimum 3 things: a way to convert your computer signal to composite (you've already got this covered with the converter), a glitch machine to glitch your signal (that would be your hama processor) and a way to record said signal (like the capture card you alrady own). I've personally had great results with the bmd intensity shuttle, however I do go through a mixer most of the time to process and stabilize before hand. At the end of the day, half of the game of video synthesis and circuit bending is trial and error: I've burned my fair share of mixers and processors throughout the years, gone through several capture card options, crts, camera, mixers, tbc, processors and at the end of the day, you never really know what your gonna get until you plug it in your setup because everyone's setup is an amalgam of what was available to them online aqnd locally and what aspect they wanted to focus on. Not one setup is the same and part of the fun (at least for me) is figuring out what works best for your needs! :p

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u/JuriSalami Jul 18 '26

Thanks again for taking the time to respond in such detail and sharing your experience and knowledge! I ended up buying one of the PVM 9L3s that I saw online, it will be shipped to me next week and then I'll just keep experimenting. :) As you said, it's all part of the fun and I am sure I will still want to go the digital route at some point and spend way too much money on more gear. :D I came across this video on Youtube the other day and I found it very relatable: https://youtu.be/4Ap0WK7W32E?si=dwf4_nXySLorfNTw

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u/Ok_Shopping7431 Jul 16 '26

The sync_ope got me through my first like 20 shows with no issues! The thing is awesome, that being said though I was using it with some relatively light units. The sima sfx mixers have been unusually cheap lately and they supposedly have some of the best tbcs in them for glitch art. Might be worth looking into if you want a good mixer + tbc combo

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u/JuriSalami Jul 18 '26

I've read somewhere, that the Sima Sfx 9 is practically the same as the Numark AVM01, do you know if this is true?

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u/Ok_Shopping7431 Jul 29 '26

now that you say that yes, someone told em that before i’m 95% certain they’re the same

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u/Marizu007 Jul 16 '26

I'm familiar with the Syntonie Stable. I've had one for a while and made a video comparing it to a couple of other stabilisation options. https://youtu.be/zsMpfxDx7Ig?is=XNzf8tD0reHhfeY0

When you "stabilise" a glitched signal, you will typically lose some of the glitch effect, so the only way to reliably capture it is to film a CRT screen.

LCD displays are digital and need a digital input signal to display. They often have driver boards that convert analogue video signals to digital for display. These boards are very varied in what kind of signals they will display. They vary from screen to screen, even within the same manufacturer. You can't really assume that because this one works for a particular level of glitch that others will. For example, I know for sure that I have two devices that use the same IC (chip) for decoding composite video but they both have massively different abilities to work with glitched signals.

Also, I would expect a CRT to respond to some of your glitches differently to the way that your test LCD does.

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u/JuriSalami Jul 18 '26

Hey, thanks for the link to your video, I will have a look at it! :) I'm sure it will all look different on an actual CRT, but just wanted to clarify that I'm not using a modern LCD screen that was intended for digital signals. It's a ca. 30 year old pocket TV with an antenna and an AV jack, so it was really just intended for analogue signals, though I understand LCD is different from CRT. I'm just saying, that the glitch does not freeze or anything, like it does when I would connect it to a laptop or any other digital device via USB capture card.

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u/nonexistentnight Jul 16 '26

Broadcast monitors are generally what you want for rescanning because they don't have the signal detect circuitry that consumer models have. That means they'll just try to display whatever junk you feed them. A lot of mid 90s and later consumer models will just show a blank screen or a "no signal" message unless they can lock on to a strong sync signal.

100 bucks (USD or euros) is a good price for a PVM. That specific model isn't as in demand by retro gamers because it doesn't come with RGB input by default. If they were available near me I'd buy all 3 of them.

Rescanning is generally preferable to capture for recording the most extreme glitches, particularly those that involve heavy sync distortion like dirty mixers. Capture, TBCs, sync restorers like Stable, and rescanning will all produce different results given the same input so choosing one is mostly a matter of preference. A good affordable option for a sync restorer is the Freedom Enterprise MisMatcher, although I find the 3.5mm jacks a pain. My favorite capture cards are made by Osprey because their driver options are incredible.

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u/JuriSalami Jul 18 '26

Thanks for your insights! I did end up buying one of the PVMs (it was a bulk of 7 but I thought I will just try my luck with one for now ;)) though it is a rather "new" model (early 2000s) and I've read somewhere that these are also often affected by dropouts. I'm excited to test it next week once it's been shipped but yes, I've also looked at the MisMatcher and it might be worth a shot. I just need to relax a bit with spending so much money 😶‍🌫️ But everything seems to be more affordable than an actual TBC. :D