Main > Monitor/Video Forum
Newbie TV walkthrough, please!
rCadeGaming:
--- Quote from: notbillcosby on July 22, 2012, 09:12:12 pm ---It's that RCA transcoder I PM'd you about
...it was $10.01 after shipping
--- End quote ---
The Audio Authority 9A60 or the RCA VHDC300. Either one sounded like it would work, just a little iffy. Certainly worth the risk at that price.
--- Quote from: notbillcosby on July 22, 2012, 09:12:12 pm ---My first control panel (they're going to be interchangeable so I don't have to have one super-cramped end-all panel) is going to be a single player 4-way stick with a custom button layout so it'll work nicely with the selection of old games that I play frequently.
--- End quote ---
Nice. Progress pics please. If you think this is off topic for this thread, you should start a build log thread.
--- Quote from: notbillcosby on July 22, 2012, 09:12:12 pm ---I WILL be doing a variant of that Sega layout on my 2 player fighting setup, just with 6 buttons each instead of 8. My fighter of choice is without a doubt Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, so more than 6 buttons doesn't need to happen.
--- End quote ---
I'd recommend a 7 button, deleting the top right button from that layout. I've been using that for a few years on my portable fight sticks, works great. The four buttons across on the bottom is important for NEO GEO and Arc System Works games. Ever played Last Blade? Easily the most underrated NEO GEO game, better than Samurai Shodown and King of Fighters.
--- Quote from: notbillcosby on July 22, 2012, 09:12:12 pm ---From what I understood, ghosting and blocking issues were really only a keyboard thing; A gamepad with only 14 contacts including the D-pad seems like it would be made specifically to NOT have these problems. I do plan on testing it as extensively as possible before gutting it and spending an hour soldering leads to the board.
--- End quote ---
Yeah probably not ghosting, but could be lag. Maybe not. I'm too picky, can you tell? Just use screw terminals and everything will be easy to swap out if you want to make a change later.
notbillcosby:
ALRIGHT! I got my TV last night! I have a Radeon 9250 that reportedly works with Soft15khz, and I have a transcoder. Next step is to get it all working together!
I haven't even looked at Soft15khz or Powerstrip yet. Do I need both of them, or will Soft15 do the trick?
rCadeGaming:
Nice.
Powerstrip is pretty much essential. Soft15kHz just unlocks low resolutions with your gfx card. Powerstrip is needed to create custom resolutions not enabled by default, and to tweak geometry in all of them. Technically Soft15kHz can do this, but not on the fly, and it's not nearly as user friendly/intuitive.
Do these steps in this order:
1. First, I'm assuming you're running XP, make sure of that.
2. Set your computer up where you can connect to either the TV or a monitor just by swapping the VGA cable.
3. Hook the transcoder up to the TV.
4. Install the graphics card.
5. Start the computer using the monitor.
6. Install the drivers for the card. Every card that's as compatible with Soft15kHz has a specific driver listed. Make sure to use that one. Restart.
7. Install Soft15kHz. Click only the Install 15k button, not 24 or 31 or user/custom, whatever. Restart when it's done. Get the computer running in 480i. At some point during this step, the monitor will stop working. Your monitor probably can't do below 31kHz video, and the TV can't do over 15kHz, so you'll have to switch over once Soft15k gets you to that point.
8. Once you get it running on the TV, then install Powerstrip, and start tweaking your resolutions.
I can give you more tips on this once you get to this point. Basically, your geometry might be crap at first, but it's easily fixed. Try a couple different resolutions, and you'll probably see that some sync up right away, and some don't. 640x480 interlaced and 320x240 progressive will probably be good starting points.
Let me know how it goes/if you need more explanation.
TalkingOctopus:
I built my arcade 10 years ago with a Sharp 27" 27uf-500 TV. It has component inputs, but does not support 480p. I've used S-Video. It looks OK, but I've always regretted not using an arcade monitor (I couldn't afford it at the time). From this thread, it sounds like I can use the component transcoder along with Soft15kHz and Powerstrip to output actual arcade resolutions w/ progressive scan for low-res games. I have a Radeon 7500, which Soft15kHz appears to support. Did I read this correctly?
Instead of using Soft15kHz/Powerstrip, could you use the transcoder with ArcadeVGA to achieve the same results?
Final question: Since booting into Windows w/ the transcoder will use 480p, could this damage the TV?
Thanks!
notbillcosby:
I've got a pretty busy week a head of me, but when I've got an hour or so to screw with things I'll definitely be doing it. Results to follow!