*Edit: Read bottom for "1-year later" insert.*
It was odd for me to come back to the mame scene and find that all the CRTs were pretty much gone. I built my dream cab over 6 years ago which held a Wells Garner D9200. I was hoping there had been major improvements since then, because that monitor cost me more in repairs than it was worth retail.
Now it's mid 2011 and I find myself EXTREMELY limited in choice. It seems my only option is basically the Makvision 2929D-72 "High Resolution" which is the 800 x 600 digital multisync version. This thing doesn't even sync to 15kHz horizontally so there's no way to get the look of the D9200.
H frequency is going to be 30-40kHz so we'll need to play with resolution to get scrolling games not to tear.
I placed the order about a week ago and it arrived today.
The FedEx guy pretty much dropped it from the back of the truck to the ground which was probably gentle compared to the handling it got during it's cross country trip. So I was shocked to see it in perfect condition when I opened the box. The packaging is surely what saved it with its conformed foam casing several inches thick.
I pulled it out of the box, set it on my desk and started hooking it up. It took me awhile to find the power cable because they had placed it in with the bezel. I'm glad I bought the bezel by the way. It's very nice and there's no way I could make something like that.
First impressions:
It's certainly big enough.
I'm not crazy about the flat screen though. My D9200 had a nice shape that was much more like the old school arcade screens. Certainly not a deal breaker. The OSC (screen controls) are built into a separate little panel that is unmounted with plenty of cable. This is a HUGE plus because you can mount this thing on the cabinet. Once you mount a WG monitor, it's almost impossible to adjust the screen with the OSC mounted on the monitor itself... so this is a nice feature.
Now let's plug it into the MAME computer...
The first thing I notice is the awful dpi change from mid-screen to the outer edge. This was something I was prepared for after reading these forums but it's still shocking. The clarity of the screen falls off drastically toward the outer left corners creating such a blurry image that it's impossible to read text within 2 inches of the screen's edge. My D9200 did not look like this.
I placed the convergence image in the background and tiled it. The colors lined up within a pixel or two so I was happy with that (thank goodness because I don't think there is any convergence adjustments in the OSC). It's a bit hard to tell however with the left side of the screen being so damn blurry. If this were to be used as a computer monitor, it would be completely inadequate but arcade games are quite forgiving.
I'm using an ArcadeVGA 3000 video card. The most amazing thing about this product is how fast it ships from the UK. I live in Southern California and I bet it didn't take 4 days for that card to arrive from the day I ordered it. How the hell do that do that?
I'm not sure the AVGA card is very useful with this monitor because it doesn't seem to run at all off the AVGA's vga port... so I have it running out the DVI with an adapter. I was pretty pissed when I saw all the tearing in both vertical and horizontal scrolling games. I also noticed that it never synced to any new resolution, so MAME was constantly running at 800 x 600 and just stretching the game to fit. Luckily, reading and following the AVGA instructions resulted in pretty much perfect scrolling. I've run about 10 different games with virtually no tearing... but it's not perfect looking.
I'm still performing at a much higher resolution than the game was meant for so the scanlines are almost non-existent on the older games and some games with strange resolutions don't work at all with the AVGA settings. The terrible dpi issue on the left side of the screen is actually noticeable while playing a game. It's much less so than trying to read a webpage but it still pisses me off.
Conclusion:
I probably wouldn't be recommending the Makvision D2929-72 if there was some other choice in large screens... but their isn't.
A nice >25" LCD 4:3 would probably do the trick... if someone would make one.
Honestly, if not for the terrible looking left corners, I would be pretty happy. It's certainly better than a tv... but is it $500 better than a tv?
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Ok.. so it's been almost 1 year since I bought my Makvision monitor (it's now July 2012) and I have to say that it's WAY more reliable than the Wells Garner that I previously owned. After a year with my WG D9200, I had spent well over the cost of the monitor in repairs and it was still unreliable. The new Makvision has been on for weeks at a time with absolutely no issues. I do not notice the dpi change to the outside edges at all unless I have to go into Windows (which is super rare). I run Hyperspin at 800x600 and it looks fantastic. Games are run at twice the resolution and twice the refresh to prevent tearing and they look fantastic (not as original looking as running them in the native 15kz but very very good).
Overall I'm very happy with the Makvision and would now recommend spending the $500 to others. These things are made for commercial arcades so it should last many years like this. I'm not sure a TV could hold up like this being on 24/7 but I haven't tested one yet. I would never recommend a Wells Garner but the Makvision gets my blessing. I hope this helps someone out there... good luck!
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Topic: Makvision 29/27 (2929D-72) Review (Read 15131 times)
