u/SouthMajestic4484

Sony Trinitron KV-BT212M81 (BX1S chassis), modified for YPbPr.

Sony Trinitron KV-BT212M81 (BX1S chassis), modified for YPbPr.

As far as I can tell, this TV was a typical entry-level 21" Sony Trinitron from the early 2000s. And it's also the TV that got me into retro gaming.

The console is a Sega Genesis Model 1 High Definition Graphics revision, paired with an RGC SCART-RGB cable that uses the front stereo audio jack. I didn't want to modify the console itself since it's a fairly uncommon model. The RGB signal is converted to YPbPr using a RetroTINK RGB2COMP converter. The game is a complete-in-box copy of Contra: Hard Corps - the most expensive Genesis game in my collection.

My grandma originally bought it, and years later it ended up serving as my parents' kitchen TV before eventually being forgotten in the attic. When I found it, I thought it would make a perfect CRT for retro gaming. Little did I know how deep this hobby would pull me in.
One pleasant surprise was that it has stereo speakers, which wasn't very common on budget CRTs. The downside was that it only had composite video input. At the time, that didn't bother me because I didn't even know other analog video standards existed. My knowledge of retro gaming was basically limited to the difference between PAL and NTSC, so my only concern was running everything in NTSC at 60 Hz with the correct game speed and full-screen image.
Then I connected an NES. The composite dot crawl immediately caught my attention, and that was the moment I discovered RGB. Unfortunately, this TV only supported composite video input. Even worse, I learned that the standard OSD RGB mux mod wasn't possible because the BX1S chassis uses a single-chip design.

I didn't really want to replace the TV because I had already grown attached to it. Fortunately, after digging through service manuals, I discovered that the Main Chip actually has native YPbPr inputs and, as it turned out, Sony also sold higher-end Trinitron models based on the same BX1S chassis, but with expanded video inputs, including S-Video and YPbPr. By comparing the service manuals of higher-end models I figured out exactly which missing components and their values were needed to restore both S-Video and YPbPr video. All of the missing parts were tiny SMD components, and soldering them was very challenging for me.
After months of research and then soldering I finally completed the modification. The TV now supports both S-Video and YPbPr.

I was absolutely thrilled. That was the turning point of my retro gaming journey. Suddenly I could enjoy image quality that was essentially on par with RGB. Personally, I consider RGB and YPbPr to be equivalent in image quality. For a while I used HD Retrovision component cables with my Genesis and SNES, and they performed brilliantly. Later I switched to a RetroTINK RGB2COMP, which let me build a universal RGB setup while still using this TV.

Today I own several RGB monitors, but this humble Trinitron served me faithfully for few years, and it still gets plenty of use thanks to its upgraded video inputs.

u/SouthMajestic4484 — 7 hours ago

JVC TM-H150C and RGB-modded NES - Insanely sharp image

NTSC NES with Tim Worthington's NESRGB 4.0 kit (self-installed), connected to a JVC TM-H150C (~750 TVL) via S-Video from Retro Gaming Cables (RGC).

Running an original Contra cartridge. The picture is amazingly clean. No composite artifacts, no dot crawl, just a razor-sharp image. I absolutely love this setup.

u/SouthMajestic4484 — 7 days ago