VGA questions

[MikeyJ122]

SO... I built my Arcade machine with an old Dell Dimension I had lying around my house. It won't run ANY disc based systems, so the newest it WILL run is N64. Which I have accepted that, but thats not why I'm here. It ONLY has VGA outputs, should I get a HDMI converter? Is it necessary? I don't really want to upgrade, because the machine works fine, even though I know it's pretty OLD even by emulation standards. I have always hooked it up to TV's via the VGA output, which for most arcade games, seems fine to me. But now that Nintendo is releasing their plug and play systems, I would like my machine to be as good as possible (video speaking). SO will getting a converter make much of difference? Will I get lag? ANY thoughts some of you might have, I would appreciate. Thanks

[buttersoft]

If you're using the same old (or old versions of) emulators on the same old PC, i doubt there's much benefit to converting VGA to HDMI - as long as your TV can handle VGA, of course. And yes, the analog-to-digital conversion would introduce lag, which really annoys some people.

[MikeyJ122]

Thanks 👍
Yes my TV does support VGA (that's why I bought that particular model). Lag would REALLY bother me, so I dont want to go that route. Thanks again.

[rrcade]

I’m in the same boat I got an old computer I want to hook up to a new smart tv to run Hyperspin with a bunch of emulators but the computer only has vga out. Are there any new smart TVs with vga in? I assume as mentioned the vga to hdmi converter will affect video and make it lag, etc?

[buttersoft]

Not only that, the smart TV itself will process the image and add more lag. Sadly this is the way LCD's and LED's work. When i was looking at TV's about a year ago none of them had VGA ports anymore. You might look into something by HD fury to convert the VGA signal to component video, i guess, if you get a TV that will take that. Or a similar unit from another manufacturer.

[MikeyJ122]

Walmart sells a couple different brands of low end HD TVs that still have VGA inputs. I feel they work pretty good for Arcade machines. Maybe not as good as a CRT, but I wouldn't use a CRT TV at this point regardless. They are just so big and heavy.

[Mike A]

Walmart sells a couple different brands of low end HD TVs that still have VGA inputs. I feel they work pretty good for Arcade machines. Maybe not as good as a CRT, but I wouldn't use a CRT TV at this point regardless. They are just so big and heavy.

A 19 inch arcade CRT is easily manageable. Geez. People act like they weigh 600 pounds.

[MikeyJ122]

It's not just the weight, but the bulk of them as well. Besides, I dont want a 19" ANYTHING. Its 32" for me, and I have a 32" CRT, and that thing is a BEAST. I'd MUCH rather have a 32" flat screen.

Besides I'm more into MAME than I am genuine Arcade, so flat screens are a lot more user friendly.

[Zebidee]

If you want to stay with non-CRTs, at some point you're going to have to choose between a new graphics card (with DVI or HDMI out) and a new TV. I'm pretty sure the graphics card will be cheaper, esp as it doesn't need to be fancy to do MAME.