Anyone using Act Labs light guns w/ HD CRT Sony Trinitron Wega ?

[BadMouth]

I picked up a monster 36" Sony FD Trinitron Wega CRT HDTV for free yesterday.
The thing is huge, 4:3 format, 36" viewable, and weighs 230 pounds.
Don't really have time for any projects, let alone another one, but couldn't pass it up.

My Act Labs S-video guns aren't working with it.
Every once in a great while, a shot will register on the screen, but there's no consistency to where the gun is pointed and where the shot appears.
I'm thinking there is some kind of upconversion or processing preventing the guns from working.
I disabled every kind of image processing I could in the menu, but it still doesn't work.
("DRC" offered three options, but not off)

Anyone have experience with this?

[Xiaou2]

Act labs guns are Crap.

  My ActLabs guns wouldnt work with a Panasonic 27" set as well.  They replied that the set was somehow not compatible.  Yet, theres no compatibility lists of sets on their site.

 I even stupidly bought the PC monitor version of the guns... and their accuracy was horrendous. One out of every 3 shots was 3" or more off of my alignment.  Garbage.

 Pretty much all of their equipment is a defective and ineffective mess.  Honestly, Im surprised they are still in business.

 Get a Topgun, ...and if the distance is too far, try the wide angle lens trick.
The Topgun accuracy is excellent.

[BadMouth]

Act labs guns are Crap.

  My ActLabs guns wouldnt work with a Panasonic 27" set as well.  They replied that the set was somehow not compatible.  Yet, theres no compatibility lists of sets on their site.

 I even stupidly bought the PC monitor version of the guns... and their accuracy was horrendous. One out of every 3 shots was 3" or more off of my alignment.  Garbage.

 Pretty much all of their equipment is a defective and ineffective mess.  Honestly, Im surprised they are still in business.

 Get a Topgun, ...and if the distance is too far, try the wide angle lens trick.
The Topgun accuracy is excellent.

  They work fine with the 32" RCA that I'm currently using.
Video - http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=116991.msg1240928#msg1240928
I'm pretty sure it's the processing in this hdtv that's screwing them up.
It has a built in line doubler that there doesn't seem to be a way to turn off. (4x actually)
If it's counting the quadrupled lines, it would exceed the resolution the guns are meant to work with.
Guess I could try a real low resolution, which kinda defeats the purpose.

[wp34]

OT - Have you connected to that TV with a DVI yet?  I've got one of those in my family room and have always wondered how it would work for MAME.

I tried connecting with component a few years ago and was happy enough with the picture.  I can't easily get to the DVI connection to try it myself.

[BadMouth]

OT - Have you connected to that TV with a DVI yet?  I've got one of those in my family room and have always wondered how it would work for MAME.

I tried connecting with component a few years ago and was happy enough with the picture.  I can't easily get to the DVI connection to try it myself.

I hooked my laptop up to it with an HDMI to DVI cable, but it switches to a 16:9 ratio with black bars at the top and bottom whenever that input is used and I can find no way to change the aspect ratio on the tv.  When I switch to a 4:3 resolution like 800x600, it still keeps the 16:9 ratio and stretches the picture, keeping the black bars top and bottom.
I haven't tried the component inputs yet.  That's probably what I'll end up using if I can't get the s-vid light guns working on it.

[MonMotha]

A great many HD CRT sets have digital scalers that cannot be disabled.  These scalers have latency and other problems that will render a traditional CRT light gun unusable.  The problem is especially evident when using a signal other than 1080i as the sets are actually fixed frequency (at 1080i) and hence are forced to scale everything else.

You basically have to treat them like an LCD/plasma and use the IR style lightguns on them.

[wp34]

OT - Have you connected to that TV with a DVI yet?  I've got one of those in my family room and have always wondered how it would work for MAME.

I tried connecting with component a few years ago and was happy enough with the picture.  I can't easily get to the DVI connection to try it myself.

I hooked my laptop up to it with an HDMI to DVI cable, but it switches to a 16:9 ratio with black bars at the top and bottom whenever that input is used and I can find no way to change the aspect ratio on the tv.  When I switch to a 4:3 resolution like 800x600, it still keeps the 16:9 ratio and stretches the picture, keeping the black bars top and bottom.
I haven't tried the component inputs yet.  That's probably what I'll end up using if I can't get the s-vid light guns working on it.

That's good to know.  I look for 27" versions of these from time-to-time on CL.