Sony PVM 20L2 vs 20M2

Regarding these 2 PVMs, is there any difference in these besides 20M2 being manufactured in the late 1990s while the 20L2 was manufactured in the early 2000s?

Any functional differences? I know they both have 600 TVLs and should presumably perform the same.

Any help is greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance!

They're pretty much the same thing. Also pretty much the same as the PVM-195X series as well. Sometimes they switch phosphors and whatnot, but nearly identical.

The one change you will notice is the OSD (On Screen Display - menu) is vastly different on the L2. Same stuff is in there but in a different menu structure. My 14L2 has the not-so-uncommon problem of the menu liking to disappear for no good reason (think I made a post on Shmups about this and found a bunch of other people, and other posts on other forums that had the same thing happen to them). Ideally you shouldn't be going into the menu constantly, but when you need to and it doesn't work it's a PITA.

For condition, there's no hour counter on either of these so there's really no way to tell if one is on it's way out or not. The easiest deciding factor is simply going to be which one you find first and if the price is decent (I've seen WAY more M2's and L2's for sale around me...).

Ok cool, thanks a lot for that info. I didn't know about the menu and I suppose that can be annoying but as you said I shouldn't have to be using it constantly anyway.
Theoretically the L2 should have less hours than the M2 because it's newer, but that doesn't mean the previous owner didn't use it a lot. I have the option of getting an L2 or M2 so I think I'm going to stick with the L2.
Thanks again!

If you can, it's great to test a unit before you buy of course, especially these monitors since long long hours can really give you a fuzzy picture that, imo, ruins the whole point. I'd rather have a sharp consumer Trinitron than a blurred out PVM. Unfortunately the year of manufacture doesn't tell you anything in that regard. The 240p test suite is ideal for this, if you can get it loaded on any of the multiple systems it's compatible with. Modded Wii, burned DreamCast disc, flash carts on any of the cartridge systems will do. I like to use the horizontal lines and just see how much they blur from the edges of the screen towards the center. There are many more handy tests as well.

http://junkerhq.net/xrgb/index.php?title=240p_test_suite

Hey thanks for that link! I picked up 2 PVMs(20L2) and they both work great. I was not able to test them first, but the seller was very trustworthy and I took the risk.
Thanks for the input, I will be reading through that link now on my lunch break!

I have a 14L2 and find that switching to another input channel will bring the menu back on that input. Far as I can tell the disappearing menu problem is mainly on the RGB/Component input and has something to do with the geometry/picture settings.

I'm not so sure the L2 and M2 are identical either. I didn't have an M2, but I did have a 20M4. On that monitor, signal re-sync in games that switch between 240p and 480i was instant. On the 14L2 there's a 1-2 second delay with a black screen. A minor annoyance but worth mentioning.