O-Box Arcade Cab

[Odonadon]

I believe I'm using a rather unique way of building my cab.  What do y'all think?

http://kickme.to/the_o-box

Odonadon

[eightbit]

You got to do what works. Composite connections seem to generate a lot trash talk around here. Me I don't get it because I don't remember the arcades I grew up in having perfect pictures. For real arcade emulation I think you need some fuzziness and flickering.  

Mame on! Keep us updated of your progress. We like pictures.

I'm hoping to get a real site up this weekend with pictures instead of the lame page I have now.

[canardo]

the links not working for me

[rampy]

I believe I'm using a rather unique way of building my cab.  What do y'all think?

http://kickme.to/the_o-box

Odonadon

congrats... looks like you have all the pieces.. let me ask a dumb question.. what is the unique part?  the averkey or the vcr or the jailbreak???

I'm not being sarcastic -> I'm asking for clarification... I like looking at everyones cab to get ideas for my cabinet...

good luck!

rampy

[Howard_Casto]

Ditto I don't mean to be rude but other than some odd video connection methods (with in this case is not a good thing i hope you know)  I don't see anything unique about it.

Maybe more pictures or descriptions are needed for us to understand.  Or maybe we are just blind.

[Odonadon]

what is the unique part?  the averkey or the vcr or the jailbreak???

Well, all 3, I guess.  I can't recall seeing anyone's cab with an averkey or VCR inside.

Ditto I don't mean to be rude but other than some odd video connection methods (with in this case is not a good thing i hope you know)  I don't see anything unique about it.

And why, may I ask, is it not a good thing?  I've done extensive testing (and playing) and it works great.

Thanks,
Odonadon

[Brax]

Because it's not like Howard's and he's an expert.

Stay tuned: You'll hear why.

[android]

And why, may I ask, is it not a good thing?  I've done extensive testing (and playing) and it works great.

No doubt it works. But you are converting the signal twice: from rgb to composite to rf. RF(coaxial) by itself is noisy and crappy. On top of that, you are converting the signal twice and every time you convert a signal you add noise to it. That's why it's not a good thing.

[Odonadon]

No doubt it works. But you are converting the signal twice: from rgb to composite to rf. RF(coaxial) by itself is noisy and crappy. On top of that, you are converting the signal twice and every time you convert a signal you add noise to it. That's why it's not a good thing.

The main reason I went with TV (versus a monitor) was because the Arcade games look awesome on a PC monitor - which is to say they look like crap.  Galaga, Pacman, Defender, etc. just look wrong.  They look great on the TV.  I'm actually pretty happy with the setup.  It's VERY cost effective, and it turned out better than I thought it was going to.

Odonadon

[android]

The main reason I went with TV (versus a monitor) was because the Arcade games look awesome on a PC monitor - which is to say they look like crap.  Galaga, Pacman, Defender, etc. just look wrong.  They look great on the TV.  I'm actually pretty happy with the setup.  It's VERY cost effective, and it turned out better than I thought it was going to.

Odonadon

You're missing the point here. PC monitor quality is not what we're after, but your method (rgb->composite->rf) introduces image degradation in the form of color blending, bleeding, pixel crawl, saturation loss and so on that make a game look far from what it was intended to. If you have an S-Video TV do yourself a favor and do a side-by-side comparison or check out oscar's video comparisons. If you're happy with your current setup then you will love S-Video.

[rampy]

Hey O-man...

here are some of the comparison links oscar controls vid shootout and xiaou2's comparison

Note: we (or at least I am ) not trying to rag on your setup.  Android, and HC are trying to explain why a different approach may lead to a clearer picture (which might help with eyestrain down the pike)

with that said, there's something to be said to using what you have available/handy

I would think you'd be able to use just the averkey to achieve your goals and be in good shape (other people have used scan converters for cabinets - not sure if they used that particular one... )

Whatever works for you of course, nothing says you have to follow convention (otherwise all cabs would look the same and be boring, eh) but sometimes people suggest approaches one might not have considered before and you go, "duh... that's a good point" and start reconfiguring your cab (at least that happens to me occasionaly).

So yeah, there are a lot of helpful/knoweledgable people here (even if you disclude me as either unhelpful or unknowledgeable) and you may want to post a message in the monitors forum here about your setup and maybe they can give you specific tips to getting the most straightforward pc->TV setup (unless of course you desire to watch vhs movies in your cab or are perfectly content with the picture quality - in which case I say Enjoy! and post more pics/info on your site)

*phew* know what i mean?

rampy

[Odonadon]

Oh no, I wasn't offended, don't worry about it.  Everyone has their own opinion, right?  I respect that.  My setup is good enough for me (for now).  When I come into some extra money, I do plan on upgrading to an S-video TV.  But the setup works better than I thought it was going to, so I'm pretty happy.  Actually, the Jailbreak game that was originally in the cab looks very similar to how it looks now .  Not 100%, of course.

I do appreciate the suggestions and I didn't take offense.  It's all good.  What works for me won't work for everyone - and vice versa.  A lot of cabs have the PC monitor setup, and I don't like the way that looks.  

Having said that, I've repainted the cab.  The pictures are now up on the site.

Thanks,
Odonadon

[Odonadon]

Well, I had to do some digging to find my original post

I've made quite a few changes to my plans for the O-box.  They are as follows:

1.  I sold the Electrohome 19" monitor that was in the Jailbreak cab (when I got it) for $70.
2.  I took the VCR back to where I bought it and got my $75 back.  So long VCR!
3.  Futureshop had a 20" Prima TV with AV inputs for $160.  I bought it.  So long coax TV!
4.  I also had a Futureshop gift certificate, so I used that to buy an 64Mb ATI Radeon 7500 w/TV out for $80, and 128Mb PC133 RAM for $29 (after $20 rebate, which I still have to send off  So long old 1Mb SVGA out only vid card!
5.  Bought a K6-3 450MHz mobo/CPU combo from a coworker for $40.  So long P133!
6.  Wired in some wires to power-on the TV with an external arcade push button.
7.  Re-measured locations for TV supporting 2x4s.

All I need now is an ATX power supply and I'm all set for some even better arcade gaming!  I put the TV in and hooked up my laptop to it on Saturday for some testing, and played it for a few hours.  Only problem was the laptop couldn't handle most of the resolutions and doesn't have TV-out, so I had to do some creative zooming/picture moving with the AverKey iMicro.  I can't wait to try out the Radeo 7500's video out.  I'm sure it'll be WAY better than the Averkey.

Odonadon