I'm using XP32. I think I might actually have a 64 bit processor, but no copy of XP64. Maybe it doesn't matter that much.
How fast is your pc? I don't think MAME will utilitze multiple processors unless you get a special version, but 64 bit windows is helpful in that it will allow background processes to run on one processor, leaving another free for MAME.
There's nothing difficult about XP 64 beyond getting a copy. Let's just say that there are some people in the world who have copies they didn't pay for, and they work great. That's all I'll say about that, don't ask me about it.
If you do have a dual core or more, there's no reason not to take advantage of it.
I'm excited to hunt down one of those TVs. I think I'd REALLY like a curved screen, but am willing to sacrifice that detail if it means a nice picture.
Just get one of those and compare, then make your decision. Be sure you're comparing with an actual 15kHz progressive signal. A Super Nintendo would be a simple test source if you've got one. Composite will be fine for comparison, since both TV's will accept it. On the Sony's we're talking about RGB would be very slightly sharper and cleaner with better color, but the difference between your current TV will still be very clear.
What exactly is your current TV? Make, model number, and manufacture date will be listed on the back.
I'm a little scared to discharge the tube in a TV, and not sure what I'm getting into with making a frame. Will all TVs have some sort of tabs or frame around the screen for mounting? It also seems like it'd be a lot easier to safely transport an enclosed TV in the future. If I could fit a 24" in the case in my cab, that'd be awesome! But I'm not getting my hopes up
Discharging isn't hard. You'll be fine if you follow the instructions here.
The frame depends on how elaborate you want to make it. It really doesn't need to be complicated, just depends how modular you want to make it for removal purposes. Yes, there will likely be useful mounting points on a metal bracket/frame. It's also possible to hack up the plastic case and reuse parts of it.
With the Sony's I mentioned, a lot of their width is due to having speakers on both sides of the screen. After taking off the case and tossing the speakers I think you should be able to get a 24" into a 23" space. My 27" is over 30" wide in the case, but I think the actual tube is under 24". Another benefit of flat tubes is that fitting a bezel is much simpler. Also, they'll have a digital chassis with a service menu for adjusting geometry/brightness/contrast/color levels, etc.
You should check if depth is a concern.
Good to know about the MC Cthulu being able to convert to work with other systems. While it isn't a priority right now, I like knowing that I'd have the option in the future, since I'll have a tv in there anyway.
Yup. You'll need one MC Cthulhu per player, but it's lag free and works great with Windows/MAME. My thinking with my project is to build the most capable cabs possible now, even including features I don't need yet, so I have to build another one down the road.
Anyway, will MAME automatically take care the resolution switch? I guess I don't know why it wouldn't.
MAME lists the resolution of each game. Once you know the resolution the game runs in, you need to set up a suitable resolution for that game in Powerstrip; this includes tweaking it so the geometry looks good on the TV. Then you need to tell MAME to use that specific resolution for that game.
If you leave it up to MAME to auto switch, it doesn't just display the native resolution. It has to try and pick the closest resolution available in your graphics driver, and it might not make the best choice. The resolutions available in your graphics drivers will be the graphics card's defaults, plus the default resolutions added by Soft15kHz, plus the custom resolutions you've added in Powerstrip. It's up to you to tweak the defaults resolutions correctly and add custom ones where needed.
There's also the issue of setting up the refresh rate correctly.
Once you get your hardware together I can run through this step by step for an example game, from setting up Soft15kHz and Powerstrip to setting up MAME for a particular game.
Note that most games run on hardware that's shared with a lot of other games. For example, Street Fighter II runs on CPS-2 hardware, so once you've tweaked up Street Fighter II just right, you can tell MAME to use those setting for all CPS-2 games, as well as CPS-3 since it uses the same resolution. I think CPS-1 as well, but I forget.
Same thing with NEO GEO, once you've set up one NEO GEO game, you're done tweaking for all of them, etc. There's not too many games you'll be concerned with that ran on totally unique hardware.
Are there curved screen TVs that do 15khz?
I feel like maybe that was a stupid question. I should rephrase that: How will I know if a TV can display 15khz? If I'm insisting on keeping the tv in its own plastic housing, there's a number of sets that will fit and have a curved screen, but I have no idea how to tell if it's compatible. Is that something that would be obviously listed in the manual?
You would have a very hard time finding a curved TV that is NOT strictly 15kHz. There might be some in existence, but I've never seen one. It's when you get into flat tubes that you have to worry about the TV scaling 240p to 480p instead of displaying it correctly. The Sony's I mentioned won't have this problem.
It may or may not be listed in the specifications in the manual. If it is, it may be explained in different terminology.
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I think I should make some things clear about video. Sorry to everyone here that's already familiar with all this.
Scan RateA CRT draws each pixel one at a time in order. It starts at the top left corner of the screen and draws individual pixels from left to right, drawing a line. Once it reaches the end of a line on the right side, it jumps back to the left side and down a little bit to begin the next line. It keeps drawing lines like this until it reaches the end of the last line at the bottom right corner, completing a full picture, or one frame. Then it jumps back to the top right to start the next frame.
15kHz refers to the horizontal scan rate, which is the physical speed at which the display can draw from left to right. In order to draw 240 progressive lines at 60 frames per second, the display must draw from left to right at a speed of around 15,750Hz, or about 15kHz. To draw 350 progressive lines, the display must draw at about 24kHz; and to draw 480 progressive lines, the display must draw at about 31kHz.
240p = 15kHz progressive = CGA resolution
350p = 24kHz progressive = EGA resolution
480p = 31kHz progressive = VGA resolution
Note that despite it's name a "VGA cable" doesn't have to carry 480p, it can carry whatever resolution you want.
Vertical scan rate (also called refresh rate or refresh speed) refers to how fast a display can draw from top to bottom. The standard (at least in NTSC territories) is 60Hz, regardless of what the horizontal scan rate is, which results in 60 frames per second.
So far I've only been discussing progressive scan. Progressive scan means that the display draws every line order, completes a full frame, and then draws the next frame.
In interlaced video, the display draws only the odd lines, completing one "field," then draws only the even lines in the next field, and so on. Vertical scan rate remains at 60Hz, so the display still draws from top to bottom at 60 times per second, but each time it does so it only draws half of the lines. Since the display only has to draw half of the total number of lines per field, it can draw twice as many total lines in interlaced video as it can in progressive at the same horizontal scan rate.
In 240p the display must draw from left to right at 15kHz, but it can draw 480i at 15kHz as well. The display is still only drawing 240 lines 60 times per second, whether it's 240p or 480i.
Allowing twice as much resolution without increasing horizontal scan rate is a neat trick, but interlaced video isn't without it's problems. Each frame is actually made of two visible fields, so there's technically now only 30 full frames per second. Since the two fields that make up each frame are actually drawn at slightly different times, if something is moving it will show up in two slightly different places. If the display is sharp enough you can visibly see this.
ScanlinesI think you're already aware that what us gamers call "scanlines" are the black lines in between each line of resolution in low resolution graphics. The reason for these are visible is that a CRT TV will draw lines at the same width, regardless of what resolution it's displaying. That's why a TV with strong scan lines at 240p may have little or none visible at 480i.
If a CRT TV's picture is fairly sharp, it is drawing fairly thin lines. The lines of 240p are fairly spread out, so there's a little black space in between where nothing is drawn. However, when 480i displayed, twice is many lines are visible in the same space, so there may not be any room left in between them.
ScalingScaling means converting an image from one resolution to another. In the current context it usually refers to scaling a lower resolution to a higher one, like something around 240p to 480i or 480p.
The first problem with this kind of scaling is that whatever scanlines would have been visible will be greatly diminished or lost entirely.
When scaling 320x240 to 640x480, everything translates evenly. Each original pixel will translate as a block of 4 pixels after scaling. However, most classic games use something close to 240p but not quite. This is the second problem. 392x224 does not translate very smoothly to 640x480.
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On the curved TV you have now, it may be difficult to tell the difference between proper native resolutions around 240p and things scaled to 480i. Depending on how sharp it is, you may or may not be able to see scanlines or make out individual pixels clearly in 240p.
On the TV's I recommended, it will be clear as day. In anything around 240p, scanlines will be prominent, and individual pixels will be fairly clear. If this is scaled to 480i, that will be lost.