Main > Monitor/Video Forum
Newbie TV walkthrough, please!
notbillcosby:
It's been too long since I've posted; I've been involved in a drawn-out move from one city to another that has severely cut into my ability to really work on my machine. Instead, I've spent my free time PLAYING THE HELL OUT OF IT with friends. Donkey Kong and Burger Time, man....
My Sony cuts the top and bottom off, exactly like the pictures shown above. In most/all games I've moved the screen with the MAME controls to find a compromise where I can see the bulk of what I need to in order to play the game. If I'm missing a few pixels of Score at the top and a few of how-many-lives-I-have at the bottom, it does irk me a little bit just because of the amount of time I've spent on this, but ultimately it has no real effect on my gaming. Some time ago, when my TV moved from sitting on the floor next to my computer to being gutted so the case could be cut down, and then jostled AGAIN to get into my cabinet, the geometry of the screen changed. I had to spend some very real time in the service menu adjusting things as best I could... I do not remember if the tops and bottoms were cut off before this, but I know things got slid strangely off to the side. That was an easy 5 or 6 months ago so my recollection is hazy at best.
I'm one of the chumps still using Powerstrip. The idea of starting over with a new build of MAME is extremely daunting to me, especially if it involves downloading a whole new ROMset and stuff. I'm probably going to just keep playing for now until my apartment is arranged in a way that I can comfortably dig into this for a few months again. It's just so hard to want to do the un-fun tasks of computer junk when I've got a high score to beat.
rCadeGaming:
Hey notbill, good to see you back. You don't need to switch to GroovyMAME to use CRT_Emudriver, you can use it with your current MAME setup ;D. That's what I did because I'm waiting until the new GroovyMAME with manually defined modelines comes out. Anyhow, it's just a matter of swapping out the graphics card and changing the drivers.
nadcraker:
Any thoughts on the Sony KV-27FS200? I had a KV-27FS100 but...it didn't work out :-\
The KV-27FS200 seems to be the same set, just with an extra RF adapter?
I can get one on Craigslist pretty cheap is why I am asking.
Thanks!
rCadeGaming:
I'm not familiar with either of those TV's. The 27" Trinitrons I'm working with now are the KV-27FS120 and KD-27FS170. I find the tubes to be of much better quality on the KV's (at least as calibrated from factory, I will have to try improving that on the KD's), but the KD has an interesting behavior which is *extremely* useful for MAME:
--- Quote from: rCadeGaming on April 25, 2013, 01:33:21 pm ---In addition to MAME, my TV is also set up for consoles (real hardware). So, I have my service menu geometry adjusted to a happy medium for the common ~224p resolutions from older consoles. I've found this is great for MAME as well. There are a ton of games that run around 224p. To fit a few more lines, adjust overscan, etc, you can get some vertical size adjustment using a combination of horizontal scan rate and total horizontal pixel adjustment. To fit in something a lot taller, like 256p, there is an interesting behavior of the TV that can be exploited. If you increase the total lines (total, not active) to over 288 in progressive the picture will snap to a much smaller size, and a much larger resolution will fit on-screen. If you find this value in ArcadeOSD, you'll literally see a huge change in size as you cross over it. 256p games now fit very well.
For example, I can switch between Street Fighter II (224p) and R-Type (256p) with no service menu adjustments, and have the exact amount of overscan I want in both. This works the same with interlaced resolutions (the boundary value is the same amount of lines per field, or double that amount per frame), and I have my desktop running in 704@512i, to make Windows a little more manageable. So my tip is to learn to how use these two different "pictures sizes" above and below this total horizontal line value. Optimize the smaller picture size for 224p, and the larger size for 256p.
A real console, like a SNES or Genesis will provide a good reference for a standard "224p picture size" to shoot for when adjusting the service menu. I also use a PS3 to output test patterns in NTSC standard 480i. Using a PC isn't the best point of reference to begin with because your modelines can vary all over the place.
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--- Quote from: Calamity on April 28, 2013, 05:34:39 pm ---Yes, I've heard about this before, and it's something that should be considered. I wonder if that boundary total lines value is constant or depends on some other variable like vfreq or something. If it's constant, then it would be quite easy to model it by doing two separate ranges as mikecrj is doing. I believe this was designed to make these TVs autoadustable when switching between PAL/NTSC frames.
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--- Quote from: rCadeGaming on April 29, 2013, 06:31:10 pm ---The NTSC/PAL switching theory makes perfect sense. I think the boundary of 288 lines is constant, as I've used it with a few different resolutions of varying vertical scan rate.
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--- Quote from: rCadeGaming on May 09, 2013, 02:16:36 pm ---I went back to a KV-27FS120 and I was not able to replicate this boundary value behavior. I double checked, and it works consistently with both KD-27FS170's I have, but I could NOT get it working with either of my KV-27FS120's... It just seems to start losing sync around 285 lines regardless of h and v scan rates, and from what I can see through the rolling image, the size change doesn't seem to happen at 288. The strange thing is that both models are supposed to be chassis BA-6 according to the service manual, so I feel like there must be something I'm missing.
EDIT: I just noticed that the service manuals for these models list both as chassis type BA-6, but they also have more specific chassis numbers which are different.
KV-27FS120 - Chassis no. SCC-S61N-A
KD-27FS120 - Chassis no. SCC-S61Y-A
So, it is in fact a different model of chassis.
I'm going to try driving a KV-27FS120 tube with a KD-27FS120 chassis (SCC-S61Y-A).
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If you can pick up a KV-27FS200 to test out please do. I've gone through over a dozen TV's just for testing. It sounds like it's in the range of models which should be appropriate for MAME (15kHz-only, component input). What chassis is it? Also, I'd be very interested if you could confirm or deny whether that model exhibits the 288 line boundary behavior. Having another model to look for and to recommend would be great.
What happened to your KV-27FS100?
nadcraker:
--- Quote ---What happened to your KV-27FS100?
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I put a hole in the tube.
I am very new to this kind of monitor stuff, but by all means I will try to help out. How can I tell what chassis it has?