Buying a Used Sony PVM, BVM, or Consumer CRT in Hong Kong and What to Check

You found a Sony PVM in a Sham Shui Po shop for HKD 3,000 and you have ten minutes to decide before someone else buys it. This buying used CRT Hong Kong guide tells you exactly what to inspect on the spot, from the 240p test suite patterns to the step-down transformer you need for Japanese sets. Walk away from any screen whose owner cannot power it on and show you a grid pattern.

The Sony PVM Hong Kong market runs on two kinds of stock. The first is ex-broadcast gear from TV stations that switched to digital after Hong Kong's analogue switch-off on 1 December 2020. The second is imported Japanese PVM and BVM units brought in by dealers who know the retro game crowd will pay. Both are NTSC-J sets running on 100 V. Both need a step-down transformer on Hong Kong's 220 V mains at 50 Hz.

At Golden Computer Arcade on Fuk Wa Street in Sham Shui Po, you will find three or four shops with CRTs stacked two high. The same shops sell on Apliu Street itself. Prices in 2024 ran from HKD 1,500 for a 14-inch PVM with composite and S-Video only, up to HKD 6,000 for a 20-inch model with RGB and component inputs. A BVM D24E1WU, the widescreen reference monitor, can hit HKD 12,000 or more. Those are 2024 figures. The Hong Kong Retro Game Association publishes a price watch on their forum; check it before you go.

A BVM D24E1WU price check means verifying the tube hours, the geometry at 4:3 and 16:9, and the colour balance across the full 900 TVL of horizontal resolution. This monitor was the peak of Sony's broadcast line, supporting 240p to 1080i with a service manual that runs to hundreds of pages. The Hong Kong price in 2024 was HKD 8,000 to HKD 12,000 for a unit with low hours on the tube. Above that, the phosphor wears unevenly and you will see a blue or red tint in one corner. Ask the seller for the operation manual and check the tube hour counter in the service menu. If they cannot show you, walk.

A consumer Trinitron 60Hz mod is the wrong phrase for the right problem. You do not mod the TV. You mod your power chain. A Japanese Sony Trinitron sold in the domestic market expects 100 V at 60 Hz. Hong Kong mains is 220 V at 50 Hz. Plugging a 100 V TV into 220 V destroys the power supply in under a second. Buy a step-down transformer rated for at least 200 VA, one that outputs 100 V at 60 Hz or 50 Hz. The 50 Hz vs 60 Hz difference will make the screen flicker at a rate your eyes may notice; some players do not mind it, others find it fatiguing. Test the set on a 50 Hz input before you buy to see if the flicker bothers you.

What To Bring With You

A Sham Shui Po CRT shop is your best bet for physical verification, but only if you arrive prepared. Bring a console with a 240p test suite cartridge or disc, a set of RGB SCART or component cables that you trust, and a step-down transformer if you are testing a Japanese set. The shops on Apliu Street and inside Golden Computer Arcade let you test before buying, but they expect you to know what you are doing. If you walk in and ask if the TV works, they will tell you yes. If you ask to see the 240p test suite grid and the colour bars, they treat you as a serious buyer.

When To Go

Do not go on a Sunday afternoon. The arcade is packed and the sellers do not have time to pull a screen down for you. Go on a Tuesday or Wednesday morning, arrive by 10:30, and you will have the shop to yourself. Wan Chai Computer Centre on Hennessy Road also has CRT stock, but the prices run 20 to 30 percent higher than Sham Shui Po.

How To Negotiate

If you find a set you like, pay the asking price minus a small negotiation. Haggling HKD 100 to 200 off a HKD 3,000 PVM is standard. Trying to cut it in half is not and will get you ignored on future visits.

Every used CRT in Hong Kong needs three checks before money changes hands. The 240p test suite is your tool for all three.

Geometry Check

Load the grid pattern. Look at the edges of the screen. A slight barrel distortion, where the grid lines curve outward near the centre, is normal on consumer sets. A severe pincushion, where the sides bow inward, is not. Adjust the geometry in the service menu if the seller lets you. If the adjustment cannot flatten the grid, the yoke is damaged and the unit is scrap.

Convergence Check

Load the crosshatch pattern. Look at the white lines. Red, green, and blue should overlap perfectly. If you see a red ghost to the right of a white line, the convergence is off. Minor misalignment at the very edges of the screen is acceptable on a consumer Trinitron. Misalignment in the centre is a sign of a dropped CRT or a damaged deflection yoke. Skip it.

Colour And Brightness

Load the colour bars. Check that the red bar does not bleed into the black area beside it. Check that the white bar is white, not blue or yellow. A Sony PVM 20L5 at 800 TVL should show clean, separate bars with no blooming. A consumer set with 250 to 400 TVL will show softer edges, but the colours should still be distinct. If the white bar looks pink, the tube is worn.

Run the test for at least ten minutes. Some CRTs look fine cold and develop a geometry shift as they warm up. If the shop will not let you run the test for ten minutes, do not buy.

Model Type	Horizontal TVL	Inputs	2024 HK Price Range	Best For
Consumer Trinitron (e.g. KV 29LS30E)	450 TVL	RF, Composite, S-Video	HKD 200 to HKD 800	Casual retro play, composite-only consoles like NES
Sony PVM 20L5	800 TVL	Composite BNC, S-Video, RGB BNC, Component	HKD 4,000 to HKD 6,000	RGB-modded consoles, SNES, Mega Drive, PS1 via RGB SCART
Sony BVM D24E1WU	900 TVL	Composite BNC, S-Video, RGB BNC, Component	HKD 8,000 to HKD 12,000	Widescreen PS2 and Xbox games, capture and streaming, reference colour grading
JVC TM-H150CG	750 TVL	Composite BNC, S-Video, RGB BNC	HKD 3,000 to HKD 5,000	Budget alternative to PVM, good RGB support, 15-inch size

RGB SCART and JP-21 use the same physical 21-pin connector. The pinout is completely different. JP-21 carries a different voltage on pin 16 and expects a different sync signal. Plugging a European RGB SCART cable into a Japanese PVM can short the RGB lines and damage the input board. If you are buying a Japanese PVM or BVM in Hong Kong, buy JP-21 cables specifically for that set. Do not use an adapter. Do not trust a cable that came with the unit. Replace it with one from a maker the Hong Kong Retro Game Association recommends.

For North American consoles like the NTSC SNES or PlayStation 1, use HD Retrovision component cables with a component-to-RGB transcoder if your PVM accepts RGB via BNC. That path avoids the JP-21 issue entirely.

Hong Kong mains is 220 V at 50 Hz, delivered through a BS 1363 plug with three rectangular pins and a 13-amp fuse. A Japanese CRT expects 100 V at 60 Hz. The difference is not negotiable. Buy a transformer rated for at least twice the wattage of the CRT. A 20-inch PVM draws around 100 W, so a 200 VA transformer is the minimum. A 300 VA unit gives you headroom for a console and a scaler plugged into the same transformer.

The 50 Hz vs 60 Hz frequency difference means the CRT's vertical refresh runs slower than the Japanese standard. Some people see a faint flicker. Some do not. The only way to know is to test the set on Hong Kong power before you buy. If the seller refuses to let you run the set on a step-down transformer, walk.

The Hong Kong Retro Game Association runs meetups every two to three months at venues in Sham Shui Po and Wan Chai. At these events, members bring CRTs for sale, and you can test them with your own console and the 240p test suite. Sellers at these meetups are more honest than random shopkeepers because they know the community will call them out. The association also maintains a classifieds board where you can find a BVM D24E1WU listed by an owner who kept the operation manual and knows the tube hours. Join the association's Telegram group before you start shopping. Ask if anyone has seen a specific model recently. The community will tell you which shop on Apliu Street has one and what the real price should be.

Two failures kill the deal on a used CRT in Hong Kong more than any other. The first is sync drop on white flash. Load a Super Nintendo game, walk into a bright room, and the screen goes black for two to three seconds. That is the scaler losing sync because the console's sync signal dips during a full white frame. The fix is to use a sync stripper or an RGB SCART cable with a built-in sync regenerator. If the seller cannot demonstrate that the display holds sync during a bright scene, do not buy.

The second failure is the HDMI handshake loop. If you are using a RetroTINK 5X Pro or an OSSC to convert the CRT's output to a capture card or a modern display, the EDID negotiation can loop, causing the screen to blink every few seconds. The fix is to set the scaler to a fixed output resolution and disable HDCP. Test this at the shop with your own capture setup if you plan to stream.

The thing that most often goes wrong is assuming the set works on Hong Kong power without testing it. You see a clean Sony PVM 20L5, you pay HKD 5,000, you carry it home, you plug it into a step-down transformer, and the geometry is warped because the unit was stored on its side for years. The 240p test suite reveals a pincushion that cannot be adjusted out. You cannot return it. The shop in Sham Shui Po does not do refunds on used electronics. Test every screen on Hong Kong power with the 240p test suite for ten minutes before you hand over any money. That ten minutes is the difference between a working setup and a HKD 5,000 paperweight.