Anyone Familiar With This Trinitron?

[Outland]

There's a 1997 Trinitron in my area by the model of KV-20S20.

It looks like typical BPC, but I was wondering if it's anything special?

Finding decent 20" sets is difficult around here, so I was wondering where this model sits in Sony's model structure.

It doesn't seem to have S-video, so that seems a bit suspicious for a '97 set.

Thanks all.

[zenithfan1]

The later '90s Sony tvs were ok but not great. The cabinets were very thin on most and like to crack around the screen. This one is a base model IIRC. If it works ok and is cheap it's probably worth getting, I wouldn't give more than 20 bucks for it. The tuners were a problem in the late '90s too if memory serves me.

[radiotvnut]

It's better than the BPC/SPC crap of the last decade; but, it's certainly not up to the standards of older Sony's. The biggest functional problems I had with these were bad connections in the horizontal, vertical, and power supply areas and any bad connections in the HOT circuit will take out the HOT and several power supply parts. And, I've seen a fair amount of weak CRT's in Sony's of this era. I would want to see it in operation before purchase and if the CRT looked good and the cabinet was not cracking, I might pay up to $20 for it if I needed a TV. Even if it works, I'd still open it and resolder the connections in the areas I mentioned.

[Outland]

Thanks guys.

I think I'll hold out for a similar model with S-Video.

Do you guys know what the difference is between the S and V suffix in the model name? This KV-20S20 only has one A/V input, but the manual mentions a KV-20V60 that has 2 A/V inputs and an S-Video input. That seems more like what I'm looking for.

I guess the V identifies a higher step in the model chain?

Also, if you guys know, is there anything to say about the KV-27V25/22? This numbering scheme makes no sense, the 22 is from '97, while the 25 is from '96.

[kx250rider]

The KV-20S20 was a bare-bones set, but noting wrong with it! Nice picture, and same CRT as in the upper end 20" models.

During the 90s, there were basically 3 line levels:

S or TS = basic TV set with some having basic mono (19") or stereo (20"-35") A/V inputs, but AFAIK all Sonys after the late 80s had remote standard with bigger than 5" tube. V = middle line TV with stereo, multiple inputs; XBR = top of the line with multiple inputs.

Not sure exactly how to decode the "KV-number-number-letter or (letter-letter)-number-number" system, but in the old system; KV-number-number-number-number-letter, it was this:

First two numbers = screen size; second two numbers = model; letter(s) = U-USA-only model (no "U" means USA-Canada-Mexico); R-remote, S-cable-ready; X-video/audio inputs; C-built-in MTS stereo decoder. That "C" only lasted a couple years, as MTS became standard on all of the X models with the new numbering system. "B" = high-resolution.

Example: KV-2675RS was a 26" set with cable-ready 160-channel tuner and remote. Had a stereo MPX decoder output socket, but not built-in stereo. KV-25XBR was a 25" set with multiple video inputs, built-in stereo decoder, and remote. This was the last of the old system, in which "X" included stereo.

The newer system seems still to use a similar letter designation, but I don't know how it works. Example: A KV-40XBR800 is a 40" set with multi video inputs, and remote, and the "B", I believe, still = high-resolution. A KV-27SXR10 was a 27" set with cable-ready tuner and built-in stereo, remote, and video inputs, but no high-resolution.

Charles