mame cabinet, how do i adjust the monitor the get the best picture?

[lostinarcade]

hi guys.
if this has been asked before im sorry.
i just got the cabinet up and running finally, it felt like it would never happen.
the monitor picture is too big, it fits correctly below, but it gets cutoff at the top.
tried messing with the settings on the monitor , but i just cant get it 100%. v-size brings the top down, but then the bottem goes up too much. if i turn the v-posi then it does not go down all the way...

so my question might be very simple.
1. what steps do i take in order to get the best picture for all the games?
2. what program do i use for testing and what things do i check for on it, what options etc while adjusting? i have nokia monitor test, how do i proceed with that?

what i have on the monitor chasis are these settings.
bright = obviously its brightness
v-size
v-line= whats the function of this? seems like when i turn it, the letters at the bottem of the screen go smaller or bigger...
v-posi

on the flyback i have 2 options
focus= this one is obvious
screen= have no idea what this does, and i dont want to turn it just yet...

on the chasis board i see these
b gain = blue gain?
g gain = green gain?
r gain = red gain?

also there is another one on the board but its got nothing written on it... ill try and upload a photo, i dont want to turn something and mess up stuff.

also on the v-posi the white clip is off its just the metal. i can adjust it but it kinda sucks cause its hard todo and not nearly as easy as it is with those white adjustment knobs. can i possibly buy one and put it in?

[boardjunkie]

What kind of monitor is it?

I wouldn't screw with any adj pot that is unmarked, or that is marked B+ adj. Leave that alone.

Vertical size is obvious. Vert position/center does just that.

Horiz size is  tricky to adjust. It is varied with a coil that has a threaded slug inside it.

http://www.100megspop3.com/jimbo/monitorboard2.jpg

The grey cylindrical thing on the upper L with the hole in the center is the H width coil. You *need* the correct tool to adjust it. Granted, you'll look at it and see that it has an allen wrench style fitting. This is true, but *DO NOT* use a metal allen wrench to adjust this.....ESPECIALLY WITH POWER ON. Not only will it get hot enough to burn you good when you try to remove it from the coil, but it will completely throw off the setting when removed. See, the thing you are adjusting is ferrous, and so is a metal allen wrench. So if you try this, the setting will be completely different when that metal wrench is removed due to the fact that you *added* ferrous metal to the coil when adjusting. So just resist the urge to do this. Trust me....

Here's what you need:
http://www.mcmelectronics.com/product/21-2325&t=1

There are several plastic "allen" style adjusters in there and one will fit that coil. Anyone with a CRT monitor in a MAME cab should have this tool kit.

You can adjust it with the monitor on as long as you are *careful* to not touch anything while you do it. Use a handheld mirror to watch the size change while you adjust the coil.

Now here's what the adjustments on the neck board and flyback do.....

First the "screen" control on the FB. This you wanna bring up until you start seeing retrace lines on the screen:
http://petes-emulation.com/ftp/alien_mame/pics/tube_swap4_results_hmmm.JPG

Then bring the control back down until all the lines are gone. Easy.....

Now the neck board adjustments. The R/G/B DRIVE controls adjust the overall look of each color.....color saturation. Its good to pull up a game that you know well how it should look and adjust the color drives to get the colors to look "right".
The R/G/B CUTOFF controls are there for keeping the colors only where they should be, and are normally kept on the low side. Use a game with a black background (like Pacman) and adjust these so the background doesn't have "bleed" from any color. IE, if there's a blue-ish hue to the black background, reduce the B cutoff until the blue is *just* gone from the background. Repeat this step for each color.

Brightness or black level sets the overall pix brightness and you should set this to have a nice dark black background. If it is white-ish or any other color, you may need to adjust the cutoffs again as these adjustments can be interactive.


Thats about it. You'll need to just play with it until you get the feel for the adjustments. But....its pretty easy once you know what to look for and are familiar with each control's function and how they interact.

[lostinarcade]

boardjunkie thanks for ur reply. the horizontal (left and right) settings are fine, the image is in the middle so its good... its the vertical (up and down) im having problems with. if u need the name of the monitor i can check but its nothing fancy.
still whats the true purpose of v-line knob? it seems to make stuff smaller on the screen...
some photos i took.

with nokia test program, now i can bring the image down more with the v-size knob, but that also brings the bottem up even more.
problem is how do i get the bottem and top circles to be the same. since if i play games i go to the top of the monitor its bigger and when i go to the bottem things get smaller... also notice the line space between the blocks at the top and the blocks at the bottem... how do i fix this so its the same at the bottem and the top.

another image


images of the board itself. notice the v-posi , when i turn it to one side for the image to go down i turn it and it goes down and still while turning it the same way it starts going back up again. how do i go about adjusting this since the plastic bit is missing and its causing some problems i recon...

[boardjunkie]

That is a vertical linearity control. Adjust that so the top and bottom are equally spaced with a crosshatch pattern.

[boardjunkie]

The one that is not marked is B+ adjust. Leave that alone.

[lostinarcade]

That is a vertical linearity control. Adjust that so the top and bottom are equally spaced with a crosshatch pattern.

adjusted that one but still cant get it correct... also how do i get the screen to be bigger horizontal in windows , cause that is a software issue?

[MonMotha]

also how do i get the screen to be bigger horizontal in windows , cause that is a software issue?

The best you can realistically get out of an arcade monitor is 640x480, which will make everything appear quite large in Windows.  You can go up to 800x600, but it'll be very flickery due to the requirement to use a low 50Hz refresh rate, and you'll probably have to make a lot of adjustments to get it to work right that will make native arcade resolutions not work until you adjust it back.

If you're willing to live with things being squished, you can actually do just about anything as long as it's 480 lines, so e.g. 720x480 or even 1024x480 (much higher than that and it'll be too blurry).  Windows won't offer these by default, but you can use the custom mode function of Soft15k or powerstrip to add them.  There's little reason to do so, in my opinion, but it's an option.

You have a major vertical linearity problem.  If you can't adjust it out with the V LINE control, the monitor may need worked on.

[lostinarcade]

also how do i get the screen to be bigger horizontal in windows , cause that is a software issue?

The best you can realistically get out of an arcade monitor is 640x480, which will make everything appear quite large in Windows.  You can go up to 800x600, but it'll be very flickery due to the requirement to use a low 50Hz refresh rate, and you'll probably have to make a lot of adjustments to get it to work right that will make native arcade resolutions not work until you adjust it back.

If you're willing to live with things being squished, you can actually do just about anything as long as it's 480 lines, so e.g. 720x480 or even 1024x480 (much higher than that and it'll be too blurry).  Windows won't offer these by default, but you can use the custom mode function of Soft15k or powerstrip to add them.  There's little reason to do so, in my opinion, but it's an option.

You have a major vertical linearity problem.  If you can't adjust it out with the V LINE control, the monitor may need worked on.

thanks now atleast have a name for the problem... if i cant fix it easily, ill buy a new monitor instead.