stand alone pedestal control panel...opinions

[severdhed]

hey guys, i currently have a gigantic 4player showcase cabinet in my family room, it i awesome and everyone loves it....however, it takes up so much space. i am thinking about getting an LCD tv and hanging it on the wall, and just having a pedestal style control panel.  I have a few concerns though...

1. will it look stupid?  (i'd love to see examples of anyone with this type of setup)

2. will it be stable enough?  i'm not sure the existing pedestal portion of my showcase cabinet would be stable enough to stand on it's own..i may need to build my own pedestal with a wider base.

3. i'm not sure how mame will look on an LCD HDTV.  i'm not planning on any vertical games on this cabinet, i already have a dedicated vertical cabinet.  however i am afraid the games will look stupid when stretched to a 16:9 aspect ratio, and having the black bars on the sides could be just as bad.  (once again, i'd love to see examples of this)

right now, my showcase cabinet has a 26" CRT TV...i'm looking at an LCD in the 32-37" range (much bigger than that and my control panel would have to be much farther away from the wall than i would like.  it seems as if most of the LCDs in this range are 720p 60hz.  i know the resolution should be fine, but will 60hz be good enough?  i have a 42" 1080p 120hz LCD in my living room, so i am going to connect my laptop to it and try playing mame on it to see how it looks, but i'm just not sure if that will give me an accurate representation. 

i also have a few other options.   in this room, i have a DLP HD projector mounted on the ceiling, with a 102" 16:9 screen.  i could possibly run a VGA cable from the projector to a side wall, then just move the control panel pedestal to the middle of the room, plug in the power, video and audio and boot it up and play on the big screen.  this sounds really cool, however when my cabinet gets used the most is when we have a large group of people over, which includes alot of children, i'm not sure having it in the middle of the room with a bunch of cables running across the floor is a great option.

i also have a second older DLP projector that i use for outdoor movies and just messing around.  it is only a 800x600 resolution, but still fine for mame use.  i could possibly set the the pedestal so that the projector is mounted in it and just point the thing at a wall and play, that way i'd only have a power cord running across the floor...i could also ceiling mount that projector and just pick a wall where i could set the control panel and have a fixed projection setup.

what would you guys do?

[TPB]

i currently have a gigantic 4player showcase cabinet in my family room, it i awesome and everyone loves it

That's you talking.  BTW, I bet there's one person in your household who doesn't "love" it.

however, it takes up so much space.

That's your wife talking.

what would you guys do?

Try sweet talking your wife into letting you keep it ?    

[lordnacho]

4 player pedestal?  That's still going to take up a lot of room and all of the space between that and the mounted tv is sort of wasted space, no?
Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think you'll be saving a lot of room in the end.

[Gatt]

You'll have the occasional moment of tearing with the LCD,  but you're pretty much going to get that with any LCD you opt for.  The 60hz refresh rate should be ok,  the 120 *might* be a little smoother,  but I'm not certain of that.  You'll still have the occasional moment of tearing with it though.

The big issue's going to be input lag.  Google your TV model number,  avsforum,  and input lag.  Like "VW246H input lag avsforum".  Some TV's have input lag issues,  and that'll be a gamebreaker for alot of Mame games since arcade games tend to be pretty unforgiving about timing. 

[Gray_Area]

4 player pedestal?  That's still going to take up a lot of room and all of the space between that and the mounted tv is sort of wasted space, no?
Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think you'll be saving a lot of room in the end.

I would bet he's thinking of being able to put the pedestal to the wall when not in use.

[Kevin Mullins]

I would bet he's thinking of being able to put the pedestal to the wall when not in use.

I think you would have to rig up some sort of removable "outriggers" (for lack of better words) in order to have enough stability while in play, but removable in order to store up against the wall.
If you just build a stabilizer setup large enough to hold the control panel steady you'd end up using just as much space as it already does now.

If any of that made sense.....

[severdhed]

if i do this, i plan on making it so that i can slide the panel up against the wall when it is not in use, and i'm sure if it was just me and my friends using it, it would be a problem...but with kids, i am afraid it would tip over.

[Gatt]

if i do this, i plan on making it so that i can slide the panel up against the wall when it is not in use, and i'm sure if it was just me and my friends using it, it would be a problem...but with kids, i am afraid it would tip over.

Use MDF,  and make sure you make it's dimensions sufficient so that it'd be relatively stable,  which shouldn't really be a problem if you're doing 4-players.  That'd be wide/long enough to be stable.

The weight of the MDF should keep it from tipping,  just make sure you do at least 3 sides closed all the way to the floor.  You'll probably end up with ~40lbs of MDF,  it's not going anywhere from a bump or two,  nor during play.

[Gray_Area]

I would bet he's thinking of being able to put the pedestal to the wall when not in use.

I think you would have to rig up some sort of removable "outriggers" (for lack of better words) in order to have enough stability while in play, but removable in order to store up against the wall.
If you just build a stabilizer setup large enough to hold the control panel steady you'd end up using just as much space as it already does now.

If any of that made sense.....

It just needs to be cut in an L shape, with the bottom 'leg' facing the wall. It'll still only be about two feet in depth, which means you can put the PC inside it. You could even be clever, and have a spring-loaded cable spool, and run a cable track from monitor to close to the floor.

[boardjunkie]

I think MAME looks like crap on computer/LCD displays, but thats just me.