8liners 19" CGA arcade monitor review

[ahofle]

As promised, here is a review of the 19" CGA arcade monitors offered at 8liners:
http://www.8liners.com/parts.html

I ordered two of the new monitors, $150 each + $50 Fedex Ground shipping each (one is for a friend of mine).  As you know, monitors such as these are becoming rare, so I wanted to get one for a future cocktail project before they are impossible to find.

The monitors arrived today, about a week after ordering them.  Unfortunately, it looks like the goons at Fedex must have tossed them around, because one of them arrived with the chassis broken off and wedged up against the monitor.

I will update this topic as I progress through getting everything setup.

[ahofle]

Packing seemed good, at least better than the Betson Imperial and WG9400 I've ordered in the past.  Double boxed with foam and bubble wrap barriers.  As I opened the 2nd box, I saw an unpleasant sight...the dislocated chassis resting on the tube.  In the pictures, you can see where the plastic frame broke.  A few wires from the video connector were also dislodged and some pots were bent from the impact.

[ahofle]

Information on the tube (LG/Philips) and chassis (Wei-Ya)...

[ahofle]

Closeup of the scrambled purity rings.  They spin freely with no resistance.

[ahofle]

I emailed Victor from 8liners about the damage just a few minutes ago, so this may also be a review of 8liners customer service.  I'll hopefully have some good news in future posts.  As soon as I get in touch with my friend, I'll also take out the other monitor and hopefully get it setup.  More pics to come.

[ahofle]

Some more pics.  The cage around the tube is nice and has carrying handles.  Closeups of some of the controls and components.  Looks like good capacitors (105C).

[ahofle]

It came with a breakaway video connection cable which is nice.  Just need to hack a VGA cable and match up the red/green/blue/sync/ground pins (anyone know what the 'E' is for)?  
It also came with a spliced power cable which is a bit of a pain.  Now I have to cut up an extension cord and splice it together.  I also have no idea which color is what.

[deega]

E for Earth?

Does the chassis need an ISO xfmr?  That may explain the lack of a plug.

[BobA]

Since you have a plug with no Ground connection E or earth is probably ground.

[ahofle]

Then what is the thicker black wire for?  Looks like an earth ground for screwing into the chassis to me.

[grantspain]

the E on chinese built chassis video plugs is video ground

[ahofle]

Well I got the broken monitor hooked up and the tube was actually good.  It was way out of focus and alignment though and I'm no expert on fixing that so it's going back to 8liners.  I hooked up the good monitor and I am very pleased with the results.  I cut an old VGA cable and used this pinout guide below to connect its wires to the monitor's video connector (be sure to tie the cable's H and V sync sires together and route to the monitor for 'composite' sync) and spliced an extension cord to the monitor power cord.

[ahofle]

Geometry and convergence are excellent.

[ahofle]

Some 'action' shots (keep in mind I haven't really done any major adjustment of the picture).

[ahofle]

Some verticals

[ahofle]

So far I'm very happy with this purchase.  It sucks that one of the monitors was roughed up in shipping, but that happens.  I will update this thread when this issue is resolved.  So far, Victor from 8liners.com has been responsive and helpful.  I would definitely recommend this monitor at $150.

[wp34]

So far I'm very happy with this purchase.  It sucks that one of the monitors was roughed up in shipping, but that happens.  I will update this thread when this issue is resolved.  So far, Victor from 8liners.com has been responsive and helpful.  I would definitely recommend this monitor at $150.

Thanks for taking the time to post this review.  I've been looking at 8liners for some time and this really helps.

[Epyx]

@Ahofle

I am very intrigued by this review as I have been looking for arcade monitors since buying the last WG D9800 before they stopped making them.

I have a few questions I don't see in your review:

1) No mention of specs on website or review...what rate do the monitors run at? I don't imagine they are multi/tri sync?

2) Hand in hand with the first but what resolution do they run in?

3) Specs for 25" versus 19" any different?

Thanks in advance!

[ahofle]

These are CGA only (no multisync), so pretty much any 15khz resolutions.  
Attached is a list of some common resolutions (the 480 line and above ones would be interlaced of course).

[ahofle]

I also wanted to add that Victor from 8liners is shipping me a new replacement monitor for the broken one (before even receiving the broken one!).  Fedex should be picking the old one up from me soon.  I'll report back.

[Epyx]

Thanks much, appreciated! Looks like a great monitor to try and the service seems very good as well so that is another plus.

[mytymaus007]

Hey i wish you continued the original post ive been waiting for you to post a reply. I didnt seee this one. Monitor looks awsome. can you give the measurement from front to back of the monitor. Also what video card are you using for your setup

[Osirus23]

Ordered one of these today for my Midway cocktail build.

Was wondering, when splicing the VGA cable in is it necessary to tie all of those grounds together on the VGA cord?

[Gray_Area]

@Ahofle

I am very intrigued by this review as I have been looking for arcade monitors since buying the last WG D9800 before they stopped making them.

I have a few questions I don't see in your review:

1) No mention of specs on website or review...what rate do the monitors run at? I don't imagine they are multi/tri sync?

2) Hand in hand with the first but what resolution do they run in?

3) Specs for 25" versus 19" any different?

Yeah, it was all in the topic title.

[ahofle]

Was wondering, when splicing the VGA cable in is it necessary to tie all of those grounds together on the VGA cord?

Nope I just used pin 5 I think.  In fact, MonMotha says in another thread that you should NOT use pin 9 as it sometimes carries 5V.

[ahofle]

Well good news and bad news.  I received a replacement monitor from 8liners (and they haven't even picked up the other one yet).  The bad news is it's clearly a used tube.  I haven't hooked it up yet.  I emailed Victor last night about it and am waiting for a response.  I'm getting a little worried that this might turn into an issue.  It's not cheap to ship these things obviously and so far he has eaten the cost.  Crossing my fingers.

[Osirus23]

Got mine today, nothing wrong with it that I can see. Funny thing is mine came with no video breakout cable and the connector on it is different than the one in the picture you posted, and mine came with a regular 3 prong AC cord installed.

[BLASTEROO]

Any updates?

[ahofle]

Any updates?

I hooked up the used monitor and it does look good.  So now I have a misaligned brand new monitor (which he has to this point not had me return) and a monitor with a used tube.  He offered me a $50 refund or $60 off toward another monitor, seeing as how it would cost him another $100 to ship the used one back and send another one.  I guess I understand, but it sucks that I haven't gotten exactly what I ordered yet.  I may just keep both and have a repair shop align the rings (or I may give it another shot).  Hopefully this is just my bad luck and not a normal occurrence.  At any rate, he has been good about answering emails and working the problem.