plasma screen fantasy

[RobotronNut]

after reading today's retroblast article on Happ's new LCDs for arcade cabinets, i got to thinking...

i love how MAME games look on my 42" plasma, driven thru its DVI interface (a digital interface that directly addresses individual pixels, instead of sending the signal on a round-trip thru the analog domain). they look better than any CRT, IMHO.

unfortunately, a wide-screen plasma is too big and expensive to be put into an arcade cabinet.

my 42" plasma displays a 640x480 image in a 4:3 aspect ratio box, which measures 33" diagonally. it would be really cool if someone made a "normal" (4:3, instead of "widescreen", 16:9) plasma display with 640x480 resolution, that measured 33" or even 25", for arcade cabinets.

i don't suppose such a thing exists, or ever will...

[johnperkins21]

Wouldn't a plasma screen get too hot for this? I would hate to have to stand less than 3 feet from a plasma for more than 30 minutes. I know that the heat issues have been somewhat worked out, but I believe they still get very hot. LCD should give you something close to what you're looking for. Of course, it might be worth waiting to see what happens with OLED.

Of course, it's been a while since I've done much research on TVs, so my memory could be tricking me into sounding like an idiot. 

[RobotronNut]

Wouldn't a plasma screen get too hot for this? ...

i wasn't aware plasmas had that reputation. i've never noticed mine getting hot.

[leapinlew]

Personally, I think a plasma for a mame machine would be overkill. Like an Atari 2600 on a plasma.

[NoOne=NBA=]

It doesn't really need a cabinet.
I'd just build a showcase pedestal for it, and call it good.
Assuming you have an existing audio system for it, you should be set.

[johnperkins21]

Wouldn't a plasma screen get too hot for this? ...

i wasn't aware plasmas had that reputation. i've never noticed mine getting hot.

You're probably never that close to it. You should be about 10 feet away from it now. After it's on for a couple hours, get up close to it and see if you can feels some warmth. Now imagine how much hotter it will be locked in an arcade cabinet. Again, I believe newer sets are better at handling heat than the first models released which would burn your hand if you touched the screen.

[RobotronNut]

It doesn't really need a cabinet.
I'd just build a showcase pedestal for it, and call it good.
Assuming you have an existing audio system for it, you should be set.

eventually, i want to move the mame system to a different room from the widescreen plasma. i don't think i'll be willing to devote the space or the money for another widescreen plasma just for the mame system. since i'm not planning to do that immediately, i'll defer the display and cabinet decision.

if i could find a small, inexpensive, 4:3 plasma, i think your pedestal idea would work nicely.

[JustMichael]

Could you do the pedestal idea and use a projector instead of the plasma screen?

[Xiaou2]

 Projectors have a flaw... in that the bulbs they use are very expensive,
and do not last very long.  They will cost over $300 a bulb i believe.

 Woudlnt be bad if you just watched a few movies here and there.. 
but to have a ton of dedicated time to playing games and or pc
stuff being done... will eat bulbs fairly fast andcostly rate.

 I actually bit the bullet..  as my monitors been acting up... 
(one of those damn $100 used kiosk monitors)   and decided it was time
for somehting bigger and badder  : )

 I searched the net and found this page:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=f56a91484c2ddd2f4aa621c701923880&t=573173&page=109&pp=30
(review page)

The Sceptre 37"  LCD  - bought from Costco.com

http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11042448&whse=&topnav=&browse=&s=1

 At first, frickin UPS lost the package       Costco shipped another,  and finally it arrived unharmed     

 I plugged it in using my crappy win98 machine running an ancient  raidion 7000ve.   I got it to
display 1280*1024.. but not the full  1920 x 1080.

 Bought a newer gforce card.. generic name i believe.   Currupt gfx at highest res.   

 Tried tv on friends system:  winXP  w/  Raidion 8000.   Worked Great!   

 At lower resolutions, color and clarity didnt seem to be as good as my  CRT.. but,
after upgrading my OS and card,  the picture surpassed my expectations!   The picture
is so good I almost cry  every time I turn  the thing on   

 I poped a slightly older version of mame32 on..  and tried some games on it.   Flippin sweet!
 
 At this size, vertical games are a bit larger than a typical 19" arcade monitor.  You can even
fit a bezel on there, and have a good sized display to boot.

 The horizontal games are nice and Big!  Its about about  27"  or bigger depending on the scale
of the game.   

 A little overkill if the monitors too close to you..  but would be perfect on a pedestal cabinet..  esp
if you make a rotating mount for it!    (you can always scale the images down if things are too big)

 I tried rotating the display in mame to see a vertical game that size..  it was Godly!  heh    But,
I currently dont have the room nor mount to be able to play it that way.  Also, this pcs too slow
to do it.. as most games drop to 50% when I enable either mames rotate.. or use ATI's rotate
display features. (lowly 1.6  ghz)

 Windows is perfect with the HDMI to DVI cable they supply.  (svga didnt quite match the clarity,  color, and overall picture quality as the DVI out) .  Clear as a bell.. text very sharp.  colors are brilliant.  contrast very good. 
Not seeing any digitization artifacts, pausing, jumping, ect.. on playback, or the few games Ive
played.    Tho my pc cant keep up with true hdtv material.   Typical dvds play just fine tho...  but under pc, looks a bit
low res.   I should try to change the desktop res to see if it will help.

 Just finished loading most programs... so testings have been a bit light yet.   

 From the forum, it seems the tvs got some quirks on certain model versions.  Tho costco's return policy
is very good.   I have had no problems with the tv so far.  Great pic..  no dead pixels that I can visibly see.

 For $1400 (1700 total with shipping and taxes)  Its a great buy compared to others in the stores Ive seen.
The features like 1080P, tuners installed, great pic, no compression artifacts, no jumpy pic,  and more
add up to a great monitor/tv. 

 The LCDs are supposed to last a long time.  Thier bulb rated for something like 60,000 hrs.  Probably replacements available.    Where as Ive heard that plasma have a tendency to leak the gasses over time.. and become icky
and useless in a few years time.   New "SED"?  technology will be even better (end of the year i believe),  but too
expensive and too far away for me for now.    Much better than the small dual monitor setup I was using before.

 A hard hit to the credit card.. but the added glory to the soul helps ease the pains   

 Ill try to post some pics soon...



 

   

[Freeplay]

I currently have two cabs running plasmas.

The first is a mame showcase cab (pedestal).
I bought the empty cab without a monitor ( was a 33")
So I placed a cheap second hand plasma.

The second is a twin 50" Sega Rally, when I bought it one of the 50" screens was dead, so I did a quickk fix with a plasma.

I will put some pics up later.

[Level42]

Forget plasma, LCD (where's the black ?) and stuff.....the only real alternative to a CRT is...........a whole bunch of CRT's

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=44191.0


Still.....a vintage arcade game should be played on a vintage tube