Using smoked plexiglas - Hey RandyT!

[RandyT]

Hmm, I might have to give this a shot myself...  Replace the glass in my Showcase with some smoked plexi, see how it works for an S-Video TV instead of an arcade monitor...  

One question is will it interfere with the IR signal of the remote?  Only time will tell...

Holy crap!  I hadn't thought of that.  I'm just about to start my cabinet and am planning on using a ~25" TV w/S-Video input.  I really hadn't thought about how I was going to turn that thing on.  Now've I've got some planning to do.  I don't want to have to keep track of a remote.  SHAZBOT!

IR can pass through materials that allow no visible light to pass.  I was using a remote with mine (before the RGB monitor) and had no problems.

So don't worry, it'll work

And if you are worried about losing the remote, velcro it just out of sight on the top of your machine, or tether  it inside the coin door.  Better yet, find a TV that remembers that it was on and set to S-video


RandyT

*edit*
spelling

[patrickl]

He,he, no, but are you that insecure that you need to claim "I have been in this business for x years" on just about every subject. If I add them all up you should probably be 100 years old now, but more importantly "precision optics" is quite a bit away from the "glass industry" or comparing smoked plexi vs glass.

But as usual, you've convoluted a thread full of good, simple advice by adding uncertainty and criticism about something you appear not to fully understand.

I only stated an obviously true fact that glass looks better than plexi. For some reason you seem to need to turn even that into a a pissing contest.

[tcleary]

i'm a little confused.  my cab has tempered monitor glass.  would it look better if i also used a sheet of smoked plexiglas also?  and if so, would I put that in front or in back of the tempered glass?  thanks for any help.

Tim

[RandyT]

I only stated an obviously true fact that glass looks better than plexi. For some reason you seem to need to turn even that into a a pissing contest.

From 6" away, you wouldn't be able to tell.  Most of the people where I work have to tap on it to know for sure, and even then some of them have trouble.  Yeah, real obvious.

As for why we are here, one just needs to look at your posts.  (now don't delete them like last time)

RandyT

[RandyT]

i'm a little confused.  my cab has tempered monitor glass.  would it look better if i also used a sheet of smoked plexiglas also?  and if so, would I put that in front or in back of the tempered glass?  thanks for any help.

I wouldn't try to use both.

You didn't state whether the monitor glass had a tint to it or not, so I'll assume that it doesn't.  

Placing the dark plexi in front would be the least offensive, but would have no advantage to using it alone.  Placing it behind the monitor glass would just add more stray (distracting) reflections, so it would also not be better than just the plexi or monitor glass alone.

If you are looking for the effect that OSCAR documented at the beginning of this thread, you may well like the dark smoke plexi better than what you are currently using.

RandyT

[whammoed]

The midway cocktails had clear tempered glass tops with smoked plexi under that covering the monitor.  Are you sure this wouldn't look ok?

[RandyT]

The midway cocktails had clear tempered glass tops with smoked plexi under that covering the monitor.  Are you sure this wouldn't look ok?

Without knowing the properties of all the materials and whether any of them were treated with an AR (Anti-Reflective) it's hard to make a comparison.

Regular clear glass reflects about 2% from each surface (4% total).  Plexi also comes very close to this, so you have the possibility of ghosted images unless the two plates are very close together.

As a side note, most of those units were in places like bars (thus the name "cocktail table") where there was very subdued lighting.  IIRC, some of those units looked pretty ugly in the daylight.  I suspect that it was done this way as a cost saving measure, as it was probably cheaper or easier to get than the dark smoked glass tops and you couldn't tell the difference in a dark bar room anyway.

RandyT

[patrickl]

Maybe putting the smoked layer under the clear layer is to make the bezel more visible. Only the monitor would then be covered by the smoked layer.

[RandyT]

Maybe putting the smoked layer under the clear layer is to make the bezel more visible. Only the monitor would then be covered by the smoked layer.

Maybe, but I have my doubts on that.  The bezels are engineered to mate pretty close to the face of the CRT.  I'm having a hard time envisioning how a bezel would mate with a piece of plexi between it and the CRT.

The bezels are used by necessity to cleanly interface the CRT to surrounding fixtures.  We tend to be  the weird ones that find beauty in them.  I can't imagine an arcade company making a design decision only to accentuate their visibility. ie. if you don't have to see them, all the better.

But that's just conjecture on my part.

RandyT

[darktemp]

Thanks RandyT, looks like i'm going to start looking around for plexi instead.  Just to recap, I will be asking for 1/4" grey smoked plexi with a light transmission rating of around 18%.  And if 1/4" is expensive I could go with 1/8" and it would look about the same.  Hope that sounds right.

[whammoed]

Maybe putting the smoked layer under the clear layer is to make the bezel more visible. Only the monitor would then be covered by the smoked layer.

Maybe, but I have my doubts on that.  The bezels are engineered to mate pretty close to the face of the CRT.  I'm having a hard time envisioning how a bezel would mate with a piece of plexi between it and the CRT.

Hmmm, I thought he was most likely talking about the artwork underlay and referred to it as "bezel".  I could be wrong...patrickl???

[patrickl]

Maybe putting the smoked layer under the clear layer is to make the bezel more visible. Only the monitor would then be covered by the smoked layer.

Maybe, but I have my doubts on that.  The bezels are engineered to mate pretty close to the face of the CRT.  I'm having a hard time envisioning how a bezel would mate with a piece of plexi between it and the CRT.

Hmmm, I thought he was most likely talking about the artwork underlay and referred to it as "bezel".  I could be wrong...patrickl???

Ehm yeah. I meant the graphic bezel of course (forgot it was called underlay on cocktails).

[RandyT]

Ehm yeah. I meant the graphic bezel of course (forgot it was called underlay on cocktails).

Ahh, that's probably a good possibility.  Anyone have any pictures of the construction of one of these units?  I'd have to believe that they would put the two layers pretty much in direct contact with each other to avoid reflection problems.   Of course, as I said earlier, low ambient lighting probably hid a good portion of these kinds of potential problems..

I don't think I would personally bother to do something like that on a stand-up unit though, as I don't feel there is compelling enough a reason to do so.  For the sake of image clarity, usually fewer layers of material is better, unless they are optically bonded together.

But if you really want to, go for it

RandyT

[aficionado2]

Anyone out there have the smoked plexi and use an Act Labs TV gun?  I was wondering if it would have a negative effect on it.

Thanks

[Rocky]

I use smoked glass over my PC monitor and have no problem with the Act Labs PC light gun.

Incidently, the Q*bert machine I use as my MAME machine originally had smoked glass over the monitor and clear glass over the smoked glass  (It's an upright).

[RandyT]

I use smoked glass over my PC monitor and have no problem with the Act Labs PC light gun.

Interesting.  Any idea what the transmission of your glass is?  Light? Dark?  I somewhat expect that the dark plexi discussed in this thread would have a negative impact, but possibly only on range.

Incidently, the Q*bert machine I use as my MAME machine originally had smoked glass over the monitor and clear glass over the smoked glass  (It's an upright).

It would be the only choice for a machine where contrast enhancment was desired as well as a graphic bezel.  If this were the case on a home machine, you'd need to do it this way too, unless you stuck the graphics to the exterior (bleah ) .
 
In my case, the machine was barely large enough to accomodate the 27" monitor, so no room for a graphic bezel anyway (it would block parts of the screen.)  Therefore, no reason to use both types of glass.  But in vertical mode, I have a perfect 19" vertical screen with no screen outline, and in horizontal mode the screen is massive.  So it's worth it (to me anyway) to forego the extra decorative touch for something that "feels" right in either mode.

RandyT

[Rocky]

I use smoked glass over my PC monitor and have no problem with the Act Labs PC light gun.

Interesting.  Any idea what the transmission of your glass is?  Light? Dark?  I somewhat expect that the dark plexi discussed in this thread would have a negative impact, but possibly only on range.

Actually I have no idea. It is dark enough that I can barely see the PC monitor through it. The monitor is painted black on the visible areas.

The tint of the glass in the Q*bert machine is similar in tint to the glass on my Moon Patrol cab (if that helps anyone?) The cabinet was converted and most of the art work was removed from the glass. Although I can still make out that it is orignal to Moon Patrol

[ras2a]

I'm just about to purchase some Gray tinted, tempered glass.  The guy at the Glass merchants told me they only have one tint of gray.  From the other posts in this thread (particularly from Randy), I've gathered that I need to go for glass with a transmission of no more than 25% MAX?  Maybe I need to shop around first!

Finally, I'd like to see how other people fix/retain their glass/plexi in place.  My cab has been built from the ultimate arcade II plans.  Anyone else used these plans and if so how do you retain your's?  I was thinking of simply using a couple of strips of beading (quadrant moulding etc) to hold the glass against the two wooden slats I have on the inside of the cab?  Does this sound ok, as I want the solution to be as invisible as possible?

many thanks in advance

- ras2a -

[synonym9]

Guys, I could see the A/B-comparism image once, but now not anylonger. No matter what link I open, I get the messege "404 error"

Please, if there is no other possibility send me the A/B-pic to hannes.slanec@gmail.com

Thanks

[Dervacumen]

You're a little late to this party.  Maybe try starting a new thread?