"A complete waste of time" or "Lets see if this works"

[IG-88]

So, after reading a few posts here and over on KLOV the past few days I got inspired to revisit an old project I started probably 6-7 yrs ago. A bit of back history, I found acquired an old 13" Zenith TV, circa '79-'80 on the curb near my house and brought it home. Not sure what to do with it and still being fairly new in the hobby I decided to see if I could use it in a scratch built bartop mame cab. After nearly EVERYONE said it wouldn't output very good video, I went ahead and ignored all that and tried it anyway. I remembered that the results weren't all that bad IMO but one thing led to another and it got shelved. Well, I pulled out the TV and all the parts I bought and put it back together. Here are the results. I think it looks pretty good. YouTube doesn't do it justice. Whats your opinion?


Video of TV running Rygar here. I used a couple different cameras that I have to see which gave the best video:
http://tinyurl.com/d9sahdd

If anyone is interested in the hardware I used, I can post some pics of those as well...

[Dekieon]

I think it looks pretty good, for an old TV like that.

I love that channel selector.

[mystic96]

Man, I loved Rygar.

I think the video looks good for a late 70s tube! As for using it in a cab, hey that TV was hi res compared to most (all?  ) arcade monitors of those days, right? I think using an era-similar romset would really set it off. I envision a 3/4" bezel hugging those curves in a dark-stained ash wood mini bartop with 1/2" black leather t-molding and I gotta say, the pants get a little tight.

I then envision the same monitor in a 27" cab and the pants get loose again. But I'm a proportion guy - I don't mind a little junk in the trunk if the rack is stacked, know what I'm saying? 

I'm eager to here more about this project, looking forward to reading what you decide! Good luck 

[Gray_Area]

Looks pretty *damn* good from here. I'm surprised neither camera nor phone will show detail close up. You can see the phophor elements when I put my phone up to the tube. How did you connect it an all?

[IG-88]

Here is what I used. Bought the PC to TV converter for <$15. Had the rest of the hardware. The converter is nice in that it lets you do all kinds of adjustments to the picture to get it to fit the screen properly. Kinda like the front panel of an old CRT computer monitor.

Tonite I will try Crafty's cool little scan line do-hicky to see how it looks.

@ Mystic96. Good ideas. Not really sure what I should do with this mess.

[IG-88]

I should add it's hooked up in order of the pictures...

[lilshawn]

sooooo...many... converters. 

vga to composite

composite to RF (75 ohm)

RF 75 ohm to RF 300 ohm

surprised it looks as good as it does. I imagine the VGA to composite converter is a better quality one.

[IG-88]

sooooo...many... converters. 

vga to composite

composite to RF (75 ohm)

RF 75 ohm to RF 300 ohm

surprised it looks as good as it does. I imagine the VGA to composite converter is a better quality one.

I know!!!     It's crazy that it even works.  The converter is/was just a standard Chinese ebay special. Didn't cost much.

That uhf/vhf transformer do-dad is about 20+ years old too. Everything on this is old and or cheap crap. Just goes to show if you really want to play you can.

I got a whole stack of plywood in the shop. I should just build a dedicated cabaret out of this. Run Rygar exclusively...  Ha!   

[gonzo90017]

Looks good to me.