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Author Topic: CRT TV Monitor - will any one do for my intended setup?  (Read 2015 times)

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jasburbak

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CRT TV Monitor - will any one do for my intended setup?
« on: October 10, 2017, 03:45:40 pm »
First of all please excuse my ignorance in certain areas of this question, I have read countless threads trying to compile what I ultimately want to achieve, but my brain has fried  :dizzy: 

I am building an arcade cabinet which will house a CRT TV Monitor. Arcade monitors are not available where I am, and this seems to be the best option to reproduce close to the original feel and experience of classic arcades.

I will be using a Raspberry Pi 3 running retropie, connected to an Ipac2 for all my joysticks and buttons.

My question lies in figuring out the TV Monitor.

-I have found a Sony CRT curved TV monitor which is 29", with Scart input (I am in Europe)

     -Are all CRT TV Monitors 15khz? or are there some which exceed these specs? Essentially, will ANY CRT TV Monitor with a SCART input work, or are there exceptions?
     -Will all TV's with SCART input register the RGB, or will some not have this option?
      -I have figured my connection as Raspberry Pi > HDMI to VGA connector > VGA to SCART connector > SCART cable to SCART input on back of TV.
      -Would I need to use something like soft15khz with a Raspberry Pi?   

   Will this setup be suitable for my needs, for playing classic arcade games only Pacman, Galaga, SHMUPS, to Street Fighter 2, Metal Slug, Marvel vs Capcom, etc... (No NES and other style games, just arcade). What I mean by that is, will the display resolution using this setup with any CRT TV Monitor using SCART be as accurate as possible to the original intended format and look of these games?       

If there is any possible errors or potential problems that may arise by my intended setup, please do tell so I can read further on that particular topic: for someone getting into retro gaming from scratch there is way too much information to absorb all at once, I'm quite spread thin  :)
« Last Edit: October 10, 2017, 03:48:00 pm by jasburbak »

Paradroid

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Re: CRT TV Monitor - will any one do for my intended setup?
« Reply #1 on: October 10, 2017, 07:08:19 pm »
Are all CRT TV Monitors 15khz? or are there some which exceed these specs? Essentially, will ANY CRT TV Monitor with a SCART input work, or are there exceptions?

Yes, all CRTs work with 15 kHz. There are definitely some that exceed these specs (e.g. some Sonys happily operate in the 16.0 to 16.5 kHz range). There are excepts but very few exceptions (e.g. PAL only SCART TVs produced in Australia and New Zealand). Most European SCART TVs will happily sync anything between 50 and 60 Hz vertical frequency.

Will all TV's with SCART input register the RGB, or will some not have this option?

Again, almost all will do RGB. Very rarely will a TV only accept CVBS over SCART. Sometimes a TV will have multiple SCART ports and only one of them will accept RGB.

I have figured my connection as Raspberry Pi > HDMI to VGA connector > VGA to SCART connector > SCART cable to SCART input on back of TV.

That's a way crazy signal chain.

Would I need to use something like soft15khz with a Raspberry Pi?

Yes: RGB-Pi = GPIO to SCART. Something like that would get you a whole lot closer to where you want to go with less hassle.
My MAME/SCART/CRT blog: SCART Hunter

keilmillerjr

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Re: CRT TV Monitor - will any one do for my intended setup?
« Reply #2 on: October 10, 2017, 10:27:54 pm »
Rpi will do 15khz 240p composite natively with a quick edit of a config file and the video cord. It's not the best color like rgb, but it works easily and with all tvs these consoles were played with and newer.

Mike A

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Re: CRT TV Monitor - will any one do for my intended setup?
« Reply #3 on: October 11, 2017, 07:37:28 am »
If you have SCART, then RGB. No real reason not to. Composite? Ugh. Only as a last resort.

jasburbak

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Re: CRT TV Monitor - will any one do for my intended setup?
« Reply #4 on: October 11, 2017, 02:14:09 pm »
That makes a lot of sense, thanks for that bundle of info @Paradroid.   So as far as I understand a GPIO to SCART cable will eliminate the cluttered signal chain to just one cable. Do these, (i believe there is also one called Pi2Scart) simply allow a plug and play situation for 15khz on the RPi with no need for editing of the config file like @keilmillerjr suggested? (I have read quite a bit that SCART is superior to composite, thank you @Mike A-  and would rather benefit from that being available to me).

What I'm asking is, soft15khz is usually needed for a PC's graphics card, with the GPIO to SCART cable, and using the RPi's system, can this setup be done via the config file, or do I need to use something like soft15khz for the RPi as well? -Or do I just hook everything up with this system and voila, get the resolution and framing of the originally intended games without modification?