Ask any retro gamer what consumer CRT they would prefer and you're probably going to hear Sony Trinitron. Few Sony products carry the same gravitational pull as the Trinitron with over 280 million tubes sold and name recognition on par with the Walkman. The apreture grill technology used in the Trinitron line gave Sony's products a unique look and made the name Trinitron a synonym for the best quality TV sets and computer monitors around. So with all of this going for the Tiritron CRT why would you choose anything else?




In the late 90s and early 2000s JVC or Japan Victor Company produced an outstanding line of CRT TVs called the D series. While they don't have the apreture grill technology used in the Tritron's they have outstanding picture quality and great sound. I recently acquired a JVC AV027D500 and all pictures in this article have been captured off this TV. Let's take a look at whats included with this TV and why it matters for Retro Gaming:

* 1X set of Component Inputs
* 1X set of S-Video/Composite Inputs
* 700 Horizontal Lines of Resolution (800 on 32" models)
* Lightweight
* Curved Screen
* SCART Moddable



Component is the best you get for analogue on retro retro consoles. The component inputs on this TV are great for plugging in the HD Retrovision cables or a SCART to component adapter. The D series is SCART modable but it's not worth the added cost since component is built in. While not as great as component the S-Video input is still great and is a substantial improvement over composite. Consoles that have cheap and native S-Video support like the Dreamcast and GameCube look great. The curved screen allows for 100% light gun compatibility. The JVC D series is substantially lighter than the equivalent Trinitron. A 27" Trinitron weighs in at 98lbs while the JVC AV-27D500 weighs in at 78lbs. The biggest draw for the JVC D series is the horizontal resolution. At 700 lines for the 27" and 800 lines for the 32" the vertical resolution surpasses most consumer TVs (450 lines) and comes very close to a PVM/BVM. If you've been looking for a cheaper alternative to a PVM/BVM that has all of the features you need in a Retro Gaming TV take a look at the JVC D series.

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