VMMaker settings for Sony Trinitron KV-21LS3OU

[wilch]

Hi,
I would like to know which settings I should alter in VMMaker for this TV, it supports PAL/NTSC and I use it for emulating many machines.
My specs are Winxp 32bit and ati hd 4530.
I have set the groovymame.exe path and set MonitorType = "CGA" (based on what I've read). After restarting I had a huge list of working modelines with these frequencies: 60, 59, 57, 55, 54, 52, 51. I assume it doesn't support 53, 56, 58 or 61, strange there's no 50 as it is a PAL TV.
Should I change any ini settings to achieve better results such as DotClockMin?

I would like to add some modelines to ReslList.txt to get as close to perfect amiga emulation as possible also, so would like resolutions similar to 320x256 & 640x256 while keeping the frequency closer to 50. The current modelines for ???x256 are 57hz, can I lower this frequency some how?

Thanks for reading

[Calamity]

Hi,
I would like to know which settings I should alter in VMMaker for this TV, it supports PAL/NTSC and I use it for emulating many machines.
My specs are Winxp 32bit and ati hd 4530.
I have set the groovymame.exe path and set MonitorType = "CGA" (based on what I've read). After restarting I had a huge list of working modelines with these frequencies: 60, 59, 57, 55, 54, 52, 51. I assume it doesn't support 53, 56, 58 or 61, strange there's no 50 as it is a PAL TV.
Should I change any ini settings to achieve better results such as DotClockMin?

I would like to add some modelines to ReslList.txt to get as close to perfect amiga emulation as possible also, so would like resolutions similar to 320x256 & 640x256 while keeping the frequency closer to 50. The current modelines for ???x256 are 57hz, can I lower this frequency some how?

Thanks for reading

The fact that you're getting those modelines doesn't mean your monitor can't sync to the frequencies in the middle. There shouldn't be any trouble for the whole 50-60 Hz range. It's only a matter of setting VMMaker to your specs.

Just add the resolutions you need to ReslList, including the 50 Hz refresh. Those will be calculated preserving the refresh you specify. On the other hand, if you use the option ModeTableMethod = 1, the resolutions extracted from mame.xml will be treated as "dummy" resolutions ignoring the original refresh, which will get adjusted by GroovyMAME when launching the games.

[wilch]

thanks for the reply calamity. i've been reading through the forums most of the day and i'm getting a 'slightly' better understanding of how things work. my tv has a silver chassis so guess this indicates it's probably digital? i'd love to use an analogue and solder some front mounting geometry dials as i understand that tv displays can only show 256 lines after a little service menu fiddling, which would squash all the other resolutions?

anyway i noticed the correlation between yres and vfrq so i could fiddle around and make some compromises, such as running winuae at around 53hz to allow a more suitable display size & ratio.
  
i'm still unsure how to properly set up vmmaker, should i choose custom and set monitor_specs_0 = "15700-16662, 49.50-61.00, 4.100, 4.600, 8.700, 0.180, 0.180, 0.960, 0, 0, 288, 448" as read in this thread? http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=116669.0

EDIT: i tried the above monitor_specs with monitor set to CUSTOM and most of the resolutions were nicely centred, but none of the x256 modes would sync as they were all set to 60hz, i got a display (with over-scan as expected) by dropping the dotclock slightly to bring them down to 59hz. obviously this won't help me achieve amiga modelines, but i guess something in that new monitor_specs line is centering all the modelines, if i could extract that info and omit the part affecting the dotclock of the x256 lines i'd save time whenever i run vmmaker as i wouldn't have to re-centre all the modelines

[Calamity]

thanks for the reply calamity. i've been reading through the forums most of the day and i'm getting a 'slightly' better understanding of how things work. my tv has a silver chassis so guess this indicates it's probably digital? i'd love to use an analogue and solder some front mounting geometry dials as i understand that tv displays can only show 256 lines after a little service menu fiddling, which would squash all the other resolutions?

Well I can't say for sure the chasis is "digital", but definitely that chasis will have some geometry controls in its service menu, which are digitally driven so you can't solder manual pots to do a fast v-size correction between modes.

but i guess something in that new monitor_specs line is centering all the modelines, if i could extract that info and omit the part affecting the dotclock of the x256 lines i'd save time whenever i run vmmaker as i wouldn't have to re-centre all the modelines

It's probably the hfreq what's getting out of range, try this:

monitor_specs_0 = "15700-16200, 49.50-61.00, 4.100, 4.600, 8.700, 0.180, 0.180, 0.960, 0, 0, 288, 448"

That will keep the 256-line modes in a more reasonable range for a TV. You can try higher values until you reach the maximum your TV accepts. The higher that value the closer you'll be of achieving 256-lines @ 60 Hz (for games like 1942).

But in order to achieve Amiga modelines, do it from ReslList, not by post-tweaking the modelines.

[wilch]

well i'm planning on buying a different model tv, preferably a more compatible one. my current sony has a great screen, but there are white diagonal lines running across it which are quite prominent when viewing dark images, you get used to it after a while but it must be a sign it's on the way out. i'm uk based so should be able to get a replacement easily enough. i believe Grundig, Philips and Sony are the best for mame?

i tried a few 50hz resolutions using a yres of 256, 272, 288 for winuae. as expected, the lower the number the higher the vfrq so if i want true amiga 50hz emulation i must settle for about half the screen being used with the other half in complete blackness. in arcade_osd the 50hz modelines do fill the screen (except x272 which has a thick black border at the bottom) so the amiga must have seriously over-compensated for tv overscan! if i could create a 50hz modeline similar to x288 and force a large amount of overscan then i could maybe lose much of the unused space and fill my screen with more actual game graphics... any ideas on how to do this without using the service menu?

Thanks

[Calamity]

i tried a few 50hz resolutions using a yres of 256, 272, 288 for winuae. as expected, the lower the number the higher the vfrq so if i want true amiga 50hz emulation i must settle for about half the screen being used with the other half in complete blackness. in arcade_osd the 50hz modelines do fill the screen (except x272 which has a thick black border at the bottom) so the amiga must have seriously over-compensated for tv overscan! if i could create a 50hz modeline similar to x288 and force a large amount of overscan then i could maybe lose much of the unused space and fill my screen with more actual game graphics... any ideas on how to do this without using the service menu?

Hi wilch, I think I don't get what the issue is with 50 Hz video modes. The fact is that you can create a 50 Hz for *any* usable yres you need, from 192 to 288. This is not true for 60 Hz, however, as you'll be exceeding the max hfreq. So as long as you add the correspondig resolution into ReslList.txt it will be calculated:

320 x 240 @ 50.000000 test

I think the issue can be with the older versions of VMMaker. Try with the one I posted here: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=110905.msg1273376#msg1273376

As for the best TV brand, check Paradroid's blog:http://scarthunter.blogspot.com.es/, and also his posts here, they're full of incredibly useful information on TVs, aswell as Apfelanni's.

[wilch]

thanks for the info, the latest version of vmmaker did create the 50hz modes as requested (including 320 x 240), but they all have big black borders at the top and bottom. i this normal?

regards