low quality graphics?

[stevejt]

I have some real arcade games in my basement.  I noticed that in MAME, with a pc monitor, the games I have look ALOT lower quality in mame?  Is that how it always is?  Would there be any increase in what the game screens look like if I switched to a real arcade monitor for mame?  How does a tv out video card picture compare?

Thanks!

Steve

[StephenH]

A real arcade monitor would look best, when running at the games native resolution.   For this, you would need a video card that run at 15Khz and AdvanceMAME, or you would need to buy Ultimarc's ArcadeVGA card, which is easier to use than AdvanceMAME.

A TV Out can look OK, but not good compared to a real arcade monitor.  When using a TV, use SCART RGB or Component Video, for best results.  S-Video can be acceptable quality, but Composite, Coax, and RF inputs usaully have very poor video quality on TV Out.

[Tritoch84]

While it would look best going thru a arcade monitor, it should look fine on your computer screen.

Your just probably seeing all the pixels and details that can make alot of 2-D games look really choppy, but this is due to your computer monitor being ten times clearer and sharper than a normal arcade monitor.

It sounds "ghetto", but sometimes when you run your signal to S-Video, it "blurs" it just enough to be ok looking, which sounds retarded, and probably is.

People are going to tell you that "ONLY GO COMPONENT IT'S THE BEST AWESOME" S-Video is a much more viable option. Mainly becaue of price. Now if you are going to buy a new TV for this deal, you might just be able to pick up an arcade monitor for around-ish the same price.

[General Zod]

When I use MAME on my PC monitor, I have at least what I like to consider, an adequate display.

Now mind you, both command line and mame32 offer the D3D feature, and with a few of the settings, you might find something a little similar to that of an arcade monitor.

[paigeoliver]

In the past I have had a lot of success simply cracking open PC monitors and blurring them ever so slightly (on the flyback), it works wonders for getting that blockiness level down.

Of course it makes text in windows basically unreadable, so don't try it unless it is for cab use.