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First MAME cabinet--Questions
Wackychimp:
Ok so I just looked into the Rage Fury Pro 32MB and see that there is an option for Video In/Video Out. Anyone using this to display to a TV instead of a monitor?
Wondering if it's reliable.
SNAAAKE:
yeah is reliable..i have used it..but not reliable enough...it could be just me...but tv SUCK..end of story..i dont like it at all..it will ruin your eyes..i rather have one 19" vga arcade monitor then a tv..i tried 2 different tv..sony and toshiba both with s-video...its crap..its not pure signal..i saw a vga arcade monitor 19" on ebay..try and getting that one..i am using eygo..but that will also do the trick...TRUST ME...i only paid 175$ shiped for mine...i am more then happy...i was ready to pay a lot but i got lucky..its EBAY...we love ebay...
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2120239509
i am using eygo,which is the lowest...640x480...but everything look excellent..even pc games...and one little detail,DREAMCAST GAMES LOOK UNIMAGINEABLE...i just keep wondring how is this kind of display even possible to make.also why do you think a vga arcade monitor cost like $500.the 27" onces...they are worth it..but my cabinet wont fit so i am very very satisfied with mine.good luck..and post which way to went.. ;D...
also it goes right into your computer vga port.no wiring or anything...GO GO GO WITH VGA ARCADE.
Lilwolf:
The rage pro is a great choice for tv-out cards... wont play many 3d games... so if you want to get zinc running, you might go with a radeon (make sure its "made my ati" instead of "powered by ati")... it so, it will have the same TV out chip. btw, I've seen them for 35 bucks in the last week... search around on www.pricewatch.com... but I found it looking for a harddrive....
next... I love XP... best OS microsoft has come up with... very nice and stable... but slower then 98... not by much, but it is. Why? it has protected memory... an appliciation can't access memory outside it's range... adds overhead... but MUCH more stable.
So if it's 100% mame machine... go 98 all the way.
There are some driver issues with XP (they have to be rewritten)... this might be the cause of the snaaakes problems... but it also sounds like he never got hardware stretching working.
btw, dont' use 2000. I use it at the office and its a ton slower then my home machine with the same specs running mame....not...that...I...run...mame...at....the...office...
good luck
Xenepp:
--- Quote from: SNAAAKE on July 09, 2002, 11:34:35 am ---yeah is reliable..i have used it..but not reliable enough...it could be just me...but tv SUCK..end of story..i dont like it at all..it will ruin your eyes..i rather have one 19" vga arcade monitor then a tv..i tried 2 different tv..sony and toshiba both with s-video...its crap..its not pure signal..i saw a vga arcade monitor 19" on ebay..try and getting that one..i am using eygo..but that will also do the trick...TRUST ME...i only paid 175$ shiped for mine...i am more then happy...i was ready to pay a lot but i got lucky..its EBAY...we love ebay...
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2120239509
i am using eygo,which is the lowest...640x480...but everything look excellent..even pc games...and one little detail,DREAMCAST GAMES LOOK UNIMAGINEABLE...i just keep wondring how is this kind of display even possible to make.also why do you think a vga arcade monitor cost like $500.the 27" onces...they are worth it..but my cabinet wont fit so i am very very satisfied with mine.good luck..and post which way to went.. ;D...
also it goes right into your computer vga port.no wiring or anything...GO GO GO WITH VGA ARCADE.
--- End quote ---
Just for anyone browsing through the archives (like me), if you'r in Europe you more than likely have a SCART TV (most TVs over 21"). SCART is capable of handling pure RGB which is 100 times better quality wise than s-video. It basicly makes for a poor man's arcade monitor which isn't a bad substitute and a fraction of the price (plus far more common).
Sorry to all our American friends, this is ONE thing the Brits have going for them! ;D
etumor:
--- Quote from: Wackychimp on July 09, 2002, 09:50:15 am ---Ok so 1 vote for XP and 1 against. ;) I have a copy of Win2000 is that worth it with MAME? Maybe I"ll just buy a machine with Win98 -- I've always thought that Win98 crashes a lot.
Thanks for the info on Athalon vs. Pentium. I'm going AMD. ;D
I'm thinking that I'll just use a computer monitor since there will be less issues & wiring. However, I've heard that hooking it to a TV looks good too (and is cheaper). Is there an easy solution for PC to TV? I haven't seen one around here.
Thanks!
--- End quote ---
My 2 cents:
AMD over Intel every day of the week and twice on Sunday. As everyone has pointed out, more power for less money. Plus Intel is evil.
As far as the video goes, I've used a PC monitor, a TV, and an arcade monitor. You can't beat an arcade monitor, but if it isn't in your price range, than the TV and PC solutions both work. I personally find TV's to be more trouble than they're worth -- I had trouble with several TV's because mounting them at an angle caused a color-bleed over time (has something to do with the Earth's magnetic fields, but I won't get into that here). If you do use a TV, definitely use an ATI card (I've tried nVidia cards, but the video out on the ATI is definitely superior). I tried the Rage Fury Pro, but had problems with it (don't remember what), so I ended up using a Radeon, and it worked very well with the TV. But with most TVs you have to worry about how to turn them on and off (they usually have a soft-power switch, so they can't be turned on with a powerstrip), they suffer from the aforementioned color bleed, and using Windows on them is nearly impossible.
Alternatively, using a PC monitor can work very well if you use a good video card and enable hardware stretching in MAME. This blurs the pixels a bit, which makes it look a little more like an arcade monitor. Or if you want to fight with AdvanceMame, you can get some nice scanline effects.
Really consider spending a few extra bucks to get an arcade monitor, either the U3100 (19") or the D9200 (27") from Wells Gardner -- it costs more than a TV, but less than a PC monitor, and the results are worth the money.
On the OS, I use Win2k on my MAME cab, and it works. However, Win98SE is clearly the better choice for MAME (much better performance, and the ability to run DOS programs gives you a lot more options). The only reason that I use Win2k is that it has better compatibility with Daphne. I am in the process of building a dedicated Daphne cab, and when it is done, I am considering reverting my other cab back to Win98SE.
-Jeff "etumor" Allen