This is not accurate. The idea that, on a good tv, you can adjust the image size once and then never need to again for arcade games in nonsense. It has nothing to do with the quality of the tv and everything to do with varying resolutions.
It's just a fact that if you make the screen size perfect for a 224 line game like SF2, the image will get cut off at the top and bottom on 254 line games like Mortal Kombat.
Both my arcade monitors handle any vertical refresh rate from 47hz to 70hz. More importantly, crt arcade monitors almost always have v hold and H hold pots so, if the image starts rolling, you can stabilize it.
Even if a Sony Trinitron tv allowed v hold and h hold adjustments in the service menu, it would be hard / impossible to use the OSD with a rolling image...
A Sony PVM or other pro monitors are a different story as they usually have more conveniently located image size adjustments. I have an Ikegami TM20-90rh which I like very much for vintage gaming.
Zebra, you misunderstand me. Thus, I need to make another long post to explain.
I've said it just above, and will repeat it here: "
Arcade monitor are simpler to use, often more flexible [ie adjustable]
, but TVs often (not always) give a superior image."
After setting them up, I don't even try to adjust the image size on my TVs-cum-arcade monitors because of...... COMPROMISE!
Once I've adjusted the TV image size/location in the setup phases, I rarely change it again. Part of the reason is I've compromised and I'm happy with what I get for a very large range of resolutions/games. The TV mostly just fills the screen-space with the mode you have. Occasionally, if I have a game that runs off the screen too much, I might just run it in a slightly larger mode to give it the room to spread out. There are a lot of other things you can tweak in MAME/GROOVYMAME to help here too.
Compromise means that when I run Galaga in 288 vertical lines on a horizontal screen, I loose 2-4 lines top/bottom from overscan. Then change games, and Mortal Kombat also fits similarly, without adjustment. If I overscan a few lines in MK and yet get some black lines top/bottom in SF2 then that's OK too. In fact, it looks bloody great, and with good bezels (black background around screen) nobody can tell the difference unless specifically looking for it (and those people are nitpickers you can safely ignore). Compromise means that I never need to adjust it again.
Yes it would be nice to have easy control over the H/V sizes via pots, would make eliminating that overscan a breeze. Arcade monitors definitely have an advantage in that regard, though not all are as flexible as you might think. For example, horz width adjustment on arcade monitors is usually limited to maybe 2cm total, or just not present at all. Furthermore, the horz width coil adjustment pot on many (cheaper) arcade monitors often simply doesn't work.
Yes, you can tweak pots for every new game if you have an arcade monitor. However I also follow the principle that once you have your arcade machine fired up and are swapping between games, you shouldn't have to go making pot adjustments because that ruins the "flow", the "vibe", breaks the fourth wall or something like that. So set it to your compromise and leave it there. Also, pots deteriorate quickly with excess use and they will wear out a whole lot faster than your joysticks/buttons. Basically, I don't like constantly fiddling with pots during game-time.
Some people extend their pots so that they can adjust them from a cab's control panel. This usually involves adding a completely new pot and leaves the old one on the board, and is preferable to sneaking around the back of your arcade monitor every time you want to change games. If you have the skill to do this, you also have the skill to change pots when they wear out.
Compromise (without pots) might mean that I have to accept some black borders on certain games, or a few lines cut-off. I'm happy with that. I'm not one of those people that will throw a fit because they can see some black lines, or can't see the very top 2 pixels of the "HIGH SCORE" letters.
Now, you might think with all this "compromise" that I'm lax about quality. In fact, the opposite is true. I am very fussy, and yet I am also realistic. I'm more fussy about game "experience", and I feel that constantly opening things up and adjusting monitor pots ruins that experience, for me and for others, so it is something I'd prefer to avoid.
I also believe that monitors/cabs should be setup for certain kinds of games. Rather than trying to satisfy every possible game, I prefer to have multiple cabs. At the very least, both horizontal & vertical cabs, although I know that not everyone can do this (===> COMPROMISE). Even so, unless I had like 20 cabs, I'd run MK and SF2 on the same cab, avoid adjusting pots, and just not worry about a little bit of black border.
Comparison pics for you, freshly taken from my cab without any tweaking, and I think they look great just as they are, including black lines that you really don't even notice. Learn to love the black. PC with ArcadeVGA. RGB via SCART. TV is an older 80's period Panasonic 29" (Sony is out for repairs).