Need help with what was once a seemingly simple decision...

[Dungeonsdeep]

I have been obsessing over this for the last few weeks.

What am I going to use to display my MAME games on in my cabinet?

At first I thought the answer was simple: Use the current monitor in my cab.. Just needs a cap-kit. Uh, I think. Well, maybe it needs some degaussing too... But wait, it will surely need some sort of advanced adjustment, the colors are looking very washed out.

Hmmm. There must be a better way. Arcade monitors are so few and far between in my neck of the woods (not to mention, sellers tend to "know what they're worth"  )
rCadeGaming posted a very good read OVER HERE. Maybe I will just get a Sony Trinitron with component inputs and a flat screen. People are practically GIVING those away! Not to mention, they are all fairly new, so I can have a great picture for years to come!

Wait. I need to buy a "transcoder" to get a decent picture you say? They cost around 200 bucks you say? Crap.

For that price, I'll just buy a new monitor, right? I see these LCD arcade monitors are pretty inexpensive... and cool too. They support all kinds of crazy resolutions and such. I don't really understand the difference between CGA, VGA, etc, but I realize that they are different resolutions, and different monitors support them in different ways.

Alas, it is still an LCD, why not just put a crappy old dell 19" monitor in there, be done with all the weight, fiddling, price, weird cables and such.

What should I do!?

I want a good looking picture., Bottom line. But I really don't want to spend a fortune.
If I buy the Trinitron and just run my PC output with some VGA>component cable will it really look THAT bad? Do I need a transcoder? Like, do I NEED it?

I can't find anyone posting photos of MAME through just plain old component online, I'd love to see some examples if possible.

With HLSL shaders, my LCD actually looks pretty awesome....

I just don't know anymore and would love to hear some other members and their experiences. And photos of what you are working with would be much appreciated!

[Malenko]

arcade monitors are a bit of work to get 100% functional. Sometimes the occasional weirdo resolution game (like Mortal Kombat) won't quite work right without monitor adjustment.
Yeah the whole transcoder thing is expensive, and the input lag thing....  it exists but I PERSONALLY dont think the discussed lag has the impact on gaming that its trumped up to. Your opinion may vary.

That being said, Ive found that a regular old CRT with component is the right balance of look and work.

Ive used LCDs without any complaints, main thing to worry about is response time and viewing angles , mame on a PC with a fixed resolution eliminates a TON of headaches. the HLSL shaders have come a long way, but I still prefer craftymechs miniSLG

[Dungeonsdeep]

Thanks for the response. Think you could provide an example of what your CRT looks like with just plain component through? I am having trouble finding images on the net that give this example.

There are so many purists that are really intense about their picture quality, but I don't know until I see it if that even matters much to me.

I like the idea of the SLG, because it gives a global effect to everything, but MAME's shaders can create phosphor glow, screen curvature, all that cool stuff (but it isn't global, so other emulators can't utilize it. I wish someone would write a program to use HLSL shaders across a whole system.

As far as my MAME cab goes, the screen in it current is head on (old Moon Patrol cab) so viewing angle shouldn't be an issue.

Are there any real advantages of Arcade LCDs over a standard consumer grade LCD with good response time?

[Malenko]

Are there any real advantages of Arcade LCDs over a standard consumer grade LCD with good response time?

they can support native arcade resolutions.

as for pix, http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=97260.0

theres even a video. eventually the video card died or had a driver update or something and I ended up switching to Svideo.

[Dungeonsdeep]

Nice write up. Love what you did with the vertical orientation. The picture looks sharper than I had expected. Are you just going Video card>cheap RGB to component cable>component inputs?

Tell me, how does the PC recognize the display if you are using components? Or do you have to tell it what resolution to use? Thanks.

EDIT: Hey Malenko, I saw in another thread you were trying to build a PC inside an NES...check out my signature 

[Malenko]

went from video card to component cable. nVidia card had component out.  The TV and card supported 800x600 resolution, thats the only thing I had to set.