I need display advice

[Donkbaca]

My options:

1) Use a 32inch crt TV, I was thinking about maybe mounting it vertical like Malenko did in his KI2 cab
2) 21.5 inch 4:3 LCD
3) 25 inch 16:9 lcd

How would you rank these options and why?

[Donkbaca]

As an update,

The wife is nixing the CRT idea.  I need to go flat screen.

So,

21" 4:3 or 25: 16:9?  Anyone?

[DirtyDachshunds]

It depends what you want to play.  If you're only looking to play MAME, I'd do the 4:3 as the usable area of the 25" 16:9 would be about the same as the 21" 4:3. 

But Street Fighter 4 would probably look better on the 16:9

[BobA]

Go for 21 4:3 it will look better for most games.

[HaRuMaN]

Nix the wife and use the 32" CRT...   

[opt2not]

Nix the wife and use the 32" CRT...   

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

I'll be willing to bet that the 4:3 has a higher resolution than the 16:9, and thus will look better at closer distances. The higher resolution an LCD the better things like scanline emulation is going to look.

[mattmayhem]

Sell the 21.5 inch for about $60 and buy a 25inch crt with svideo for about $25, then with whatever money you have leftover take the wife out for dinner. Problem solved.

If your putting anything in a midway cab, nothing looks as good as a 25" crt. Its was a easy choice for me and it looks almost OEM. The resolution in the long run will be better then if you put a LCD in there. 99% of mame games are older and look to pixeled on a lcd, they need that slight image blur to make them look nice. I thought about throwing a 26" lcd in my KI cab, and I just couldnt get past the crisp flat picture for all the old games, The lines were to sharp and there was too much motion blur caused by the lcd that it actually made it look worse! Trust me on this one, CRT is the way to go and if you look, you can find a 25" tv with svideo for like $25 on CL or Ebay or at local garage sales, flea markets, etc!

Good Luck.

[Donkbaca]

The CRT thing is pretty much out of the question.  I have to go LCD and make a slim cab.  The cab is going in our office so she doesn't want it taking up huge amounts of real estate.  Not going to fight her on it. 


Going to use it primarily for mame.  Can't even run SFIV on my rig. 

[mattmayhem]

Oops, sorry man, I though you mentioned you had a KI2 cab it was going on and I realized that you were mentioning someone elses cab. I change my vote to the 21.5, it will look better in a cab then a 16x9.

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

And besides, the 21.5 will actually have a larger image on it:

http://www.displaywars.com/25-inch-16x9-vs-21,5-inch-4x3

[Donkbaca]

FYI:

You can find 20" 4:3 LCD displays pretty easily, the 21.3" displays are harder to find.  I think 21.3 will suit me pretty well, its a nice compromise. Since I am only playing 4:3 aspect ratio games, I don't need all the side real estate, and in order to get the same 4:3 size screen I would need to get like a 27 or 28 inch widescreen, and that would just not look right.  I am putting in on ebay to try and get a used 21.3" on the cheap...

[Donkbaca]

Hey, I have a new question:

The biggest complaints about LCD tv's is the resolution, since from what I gather, it automatically upscales to its native resolution.  But, if you look on e-bay, you can find a 20 inch lcd tv, that is 4:3 that displays 640x480 native. Is this a cheap way to get a more authentic picture in a slim-style cabinet?  Has anyone used one of these old lcd's?  drawbacks?  They are cheaper than 20" monitors!

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screen-door_effect
not quite.

[Donkbaca]

that article is about projectors, not the 20 inch flat screen tv's.  I am talking about something like this:
http://www.amazon.com/Sylvania-6620LG-20-Inch-LCD/dp/B000FJCS9M/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1291855383&sr=8-2

you can find them for under 150 bucks on ebay shipped

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

Its most visable on projectors but is an issue with any lcd its just not obvious at higher resolutions.

[ragnar]

I got the cheapest 22"+ 16x9 LCD I could find.

4:3 LCDs are almost non-existant these days.  So I went 16x9 just because if the LCD ever fails, I can replace it with a new 16x9 with minimal headache.

Also, when you are playing, you don't care that it is 16x9 and not 4:3.  And it does not look stupid when not in use.

That's all I have to say.

[drventure]

I'd second ragnar's comment. Get a decently hires LCD and you won't notice any screendoor at all.

I run a dell 2405 at 1920x1200, Mame looks great. Sure, you do get black bars on the sides for most games, but it's really not that objectionable.

Just make sure you get a good graphics card that can handle some of the directx effects that Mame uses to scale up the original game screens. With the effects turned on, the games look great (but I'm no purist so take that with a salt lick 

Plus, you can run plenty of PC games in full widescreen.