There Is Now a Nintendo Wii Card for the Sony BVM CRT Monitor

Head over to eBay and take a look at the prices of CRT (cathode-ray tube) TVs. You’ll see that decent models start at a couple hundred dollars. What gives? 10 years ago, you’d have a hard time giving away a CRT TV. But retrogamers realized that CRT TVs and monitors display old video game graphics better than modern LCD and OLED screens, as those games were designed for the quirks of CRTs. As such, good vintage CRTs are shooting up in value. YouTuber Shank Mods made the most of his Sony BVM monitor by designing an amazing Nintendo Wii input card.

The Sony BVM was a unique monitor in that it didn’t have standard input jacks. Sony designed this model for professional use and so the back of the unit has several slots where users could insert input cards. For example, a television news van might have a Sony BVM with an input card slot that could accept signals directly from a camera. While it would certainly be possible to find or make an input card that accepts the video signal (either component or composite) from a Nintendo Wii, Shank Mods went the much more interesting route of turning the Wii into a dedicated input card.

The Nintendo Wii was the perfect retro console for this project, as its PCB is quite small. As Shank Mods has demonstrated in other projects (like a Wii in an Altoids tin), one can also chop off a huge portion of that PCB and it will still be functional. With the addition of USB or SD card storage for games, there is no need for a disc drive.

Thanks to those factors, Shank Mods was able to fabricate his own Sony BVM input card with the Nintendo Wii PCB attached. It receives power from the BVM and passes the video signal back. Four GameCube controller ports mount on the exterior panel of the input card, so it is easy to plug controllers in. That eliminates the need for an IR sensor and the wireless controller adapter on the PCB.

When Shank Mods turns the TV on, the Wii automatically boots up. It loads a mod interface that lets the user select any of the games available in local storage. Using a GameCube controller, Shank Mods can choose the game he wants and start playing. Those games look great on the CRT monitor and everything is self-contained in one tidy package.