Another new user with a question... Screens

[badgerjohn]

Hi all,

Just starting to source bits for my first attempt at an upright cab and wanted to get an opinion on screens.

Decided to go down the CRT monitor route and wondered what people thought was the absolute smallest screen size to use and still have a good looking cabinet? Do you think a 19" CRT would suffice?

Thanks for any help/advice!

[smalltownguy]

LOTS of cabs came with the 19" monitors in them back in the day, so that should be fine. Most used them in vertical configurations, but some were horizontal. With a 19" monitor, you'll probably need to use some bezel graphics to avoid lots of dead space between the edges of the monitor and the sides of the cab. Or, you could do a 18" wide cab 

[badgerjohn]

Thanks, good to know! be interested to hear anyone else's views too..

are there any projects out there that look good and have a 19" CRT monitor that you know of?

[smalltownguy]

Mine does -- At least I THINK it looks OK. I used to have a 17" CRT monitor in it, and it was just WAAY too tiny. I just finished installing a 19" decased computer monitor. Tonight when I get home I'll snap a shot of it and post it.

[badgerjohn]

Thanks, that would be great!

So in your opinion it's better to de-case the monitor?

[smalltownguy]

I de-cased mine, but it was because it was the only way it would fit. My cab uses a squat design, and there's not a lot of room in the monitor area. The Rolling Thunder cabinets had their speakers mounted in between the monitor and the control panel.

My cab:



FYI....the shotgun sitting next to the cab is my next project -- I'm going to transfer my Aimtrak into it. I'm researching solenoids right now, and eagerly watching this thread:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=100880.0

If we can figure out how to properly capture the gun output from Terminator 2, that would be the BOMB.

[severdhed]

a 19" screen is a common size for alot of classics...it really depends on the style of cabinet you are looking for.  if you try to put a 19" monitor in a cabinet designed for a bigger one, it can look silly.  I had a 19" LCD in a dynamo cabinet that was designed for a 25" monitor..it looked really stupid. 

But i currently have a 19" LCD in my primary 2player mame cabinet, i'm not sure what the cabinet was originally, but it did have a 19" monitor, so it fits well.  I also have a 19" CRT in my Donkey Kong, which is what DK originally had, so it works fine.