Please Post Pics Of Your MAME Cab Television In Action

[Mattiekrome]

I have plans of building my first cab this summer, and am currently in the process of planning everything out and getting all the components that I will need before the project begins.  I feel fairly comfortable with everything that I have planned so far, except for how I will display MAME.

Now I have read that you can use a TV, standard computer monitor, or an actual arcade monitor.  The arcade monitor isnt going to happen, too much $, sounds like they are high maintenance, and too much goes into the configuration... To put it simply, just too much work and trouble!  I'm thinking that a standard PC monitor isn't going to cut it either, as the cheap ones are generally 17" and smaller.  I have seen a couple 19" one for a fair price, but I still think that 19" might be too small for a full size cab.  So, by default, the winning choice is a television set, bigger size, smaller price, but of course the picture clarity is going to be rough.

So what I was hoping was to get some members here to post any pictures (along with what kind of input)  that they may have of the TV's in their MAME cabs.  I have never seen one in person (or a good picture of one for that matter), so I dont really know what to expect (Hell, I dont even know if you can get a good picture of a TV screen in action without getting those dark areas ).  If the quality is worse than what I was expecting, I may just opt for a 19" PC monitor.  I would just like to know before I drop some $ on either a s-video PCI card + TV, or a bigger PC monitor.  Thanks! 

[Jeff AMN]

I picked up a 27" Samsung set yesterday that was an open box item at Best Buy. It came to under $200 and I got a $25 gift card to go along with it.

I'll post pics when I can, but it might be a week or two before I'm to that point.

[ahofle]

I think I've posted these pics about 4 times today. 
This is on a 24" flat screen CRT TV via S-Video.

http://hofle.com/mame/robotron_ddraw.JPG

http://hofle.com/mame/pacman_ddraw.JPG

If you end up using a TV use the follow MAME settings or the picture will look horrible:

#
# VIDEO OPTIONS
#
video ddraw
numscreens 1
window 0
maximize 1
keepaspect 1
prescale 1
effect none
waitvsync 0
syncrefresh 0

#
# DIRECTDRAW-SPECIFIC OPTIONS
#
hwstretch 0

#
# FULL SCREEN OPTIONS
#
triplebuffer 0
switchres 1
resolution0             640x480@0



For vertical games, change the 'switchres 1' to 'switchres 0'.

[Mattiekrome]

I think I've posted these pics about 4 times today. 

Wow, the Robotron doesnt look too bad.  I also didn't know you had to set all those settings up in MAME.  Nice to know that kind of stuff.  Thanks 

[StephenH]

If you go with a TV, the input to the TV matters a lot in terms of picture quality. 

RGB SCART (European Standard) - Best.   This actually turns your TV into an arcade monitor!

Component - Very Good.  Note quite as good as SCART, but usually gives a very good image

S-Video - Good.   Usually looks good for low res games, such as MAME raster games

Composite - Poor - usually composite video gives poor results

RF - Very Poor.  Usually takes composite and turns it into even poorer channel by "emulating a TV station".

[Loki]

I posted these somewhere else too, but here ya go











A bit too hard to photograph the last one but it looks good on tv.
It's not one in a cab, but it's a tv

With S-video btw.

[ducattiman]

Question here.As living in europe and RGB scart is the best for T.V.Do i need a specail cable for the pc card with is s-video to Scart?

[Loki]

I use a normal S-video cable plugged into a Scart adapter.
There are also S-video to Scart cables but this was easier to get and I needed the adapter so I can also plug in sound cables.

Your tv must accept s-video though, I had to set in my tv options so that the scart channel accepts s-video or else I have a black and white screen ^^;

[tetsu96]

Actually, if you're TV accepts RGB scart, then you should be able to hack a breakout cable from the AVGA to the TV to get true RGB (and maybe they sell those cables since they're in the UK).  Going from a vid card's S-Video to RGB still gives you video that should only really be as good as S-Video.  But go RGB all the way, and that's about as close to perfect as you can get.

But bounce the question off of Andy @ ultimarc before committing to something like that.  And if you do use S-Video, you probably won't be dissapointed unless you're directly comparing the 2 technologies side by side.

[Loki]

I think I've seen some messages that that could damage the TV or video card.... can anyone confirm that?
If it's not the case I would try VGA to Scart for sure.

But does it even work? Video cards don't send the same signal right? *confused* 

[tetsu96]

I think I've seen some messages that that could damage the TV or video card.... can anyone confirm that?
If it's not the case I would try VGA to Scart for sure.

But does it even work? Video cards don't send the same signal right? *confused* 

But that's the draw of the AVGA - outputting a 15KHz signal.  To do this with other video cards could be bad if the TV didn't protect against out of sync inputs (your typical 640x480 is 31KHz and it goes up from there for higher resolutions / refresh rates), but 15KHz is compatible with standard TVs.

But again, Andy or someone using the solution should confirm instead of taking my word for it.  I know it's done, but there may be settings that need to be selected before hooking it up to a TV.

[Mattiekrome]

WOW Loki, I never knew s-vid output would look that good   

Thanks for the pics, that puts a whole different spin on things!

[unclet]

I used old JVC 27" TVs connected via S-Video in both of my cabinets and they look great. 

Keep in mind .... you might not want to get bigger than a 27" TV if you ever plan on rolling the finished cabinet through a standard-sized doorway.   Anything wider might not fit.

[Kaytrim]

I used old JVC 27" TVs connected via S-Video in both of my cabinets and they look great. 

Keep in mind .... you might not want to get bigger than a 27" TV if you ever plan on rolling the finished cabinet through a standard-sized doorway.   Anything wider might not fit.

How wide is your upright cab?

[unclet]

Not including the control panel of my upright (of course), the width is 28" exactly.   

My standard doorways in my house are 29" wide ..... 

[Kaytrim]

Thanks unclet,

I am still planing out my cab and would like to get a larger monitor and/or a rotation system.  I may just go with the 21 computer monitor at Canadian monitors and do the rotation system.  TVs are great but I want to be able to still use Windows.

TTFN 
Kaytrim

[unclet]

Huh?   I am using Windows .....  TV has nothing to do with it, although I guess you might need get a TV card which has S-Video out.  I got mine on Ebay for $20 delivered.....

Also, I wanted to use a TV so in case it breaks one day I know I can easily find another cheap 27" TV to replace it with (or that I can have the TV fixed easiet than having a computer monitor fixed).

[TOK]

27" Toshiba flat screen CRT/Radeon 9550 mounted vertically using component.

[Mattiekrome]

Very nice unclet + TOK.  Looks like I have totally missed the mark with what I was expecting MAME to look like on a TV.  TOK, you say you used component cables to hook up your TV.  Is it just a component on one end that goes to the TV, and then a DVI that goes into the vid card?

Anyone got any pics of windows being ran on these TV's?  Looking at the clarity and resolution of some of thse pics, I would say that someone could use windows at least somewhat efficiently on these.

[TOK]

Very nice unclet + TOK.  Looks like I have totally missed the mark with what I was expecting MAME to look like on a TV.  TOK, you say you used component cables to hook up your TV.  Is it just a component on one end that goes to the TV, and then a DVI that goes into the vid card?

Anyone got any pics of windows being ran on these TV's?  Looking at the clarity and resolution of some of thse pics, I would say that someone could use windows at least somewhat efficiently on these.

Yes, its the DVI->component adapter. Will work on any ATI Radeon 9500 series and up card. I can show you a pic of Windows on my machine, but being a vert machine, its sideways. Text is readable and I can make changes/config easily, but I wouldn't want to use it to surf the net or anything (even if it was horizontal).


I have a tinted plexi bezel, which takes away some of the harshness of the image. Normal Windows text just looks very pixelated (640x432), but the large fonts of the front end are fine.

[shorthair]

Kaytrim: from what I understand, any CRT is more expensive to service than buying a new one...unless it's new, I guess, but warranties are generally only a year.

TOK: is your TV standard resolution?  Later games obviously benefit cos they have large images and text; I couldn't live with that quality of image with games like Robotron in Loki's case.

By the way, I think some answers to this are on this page (and even get to see Andy, himself) : http://www.ultimarc.com/monfaq.html

[Loki]

Robotron looks just as good on my TV, but it's hard to photograph because of the bright colors and light

[ahofle]

IMO, some of these pictures aren't very helpful in determining the quality of MAME on a TV.  Taking a picture of the entire cabinet doesn't really give any information on the quality of the video because from a distance it usually 'looks good'.  You should zoom in to the screen.
Here are some tips I've found for photographing your monitor while running MAME:

- TURN THE FLASH OFF!

- Get a tripod if possible and position the camera and zoom so it takes up the entire frame (for vertical monitors turn the camera 90 degrees as well).  If you don't have a tripod try to get something tall like a barstool to rest the camera on while snapping the pics so you don't move it.

- Try to make sure there aren't any lights behind the camera that would reflect on the screen.

- In mame.ini, set the pause brightness to 1 so it looks identical to when the game is running (the default is .65):
pause_brightness          1.0
If you don't pause the game when taking the picture and there is motion or color shifting, the image will appear blurred due to the slower shutter speed required.

- Run the game to a point where you want to take a picture and then pause

- If possible, manual focus

- Hopefully your camera will auto-set the shutter/aperture for you when you turned off the flash.  If not, go to the camera's 'shutter mode' (usually an 'S' on the dial) and manually set it to around 1/30 sec or so (you will have to experiment with this to get the best picture though).  If the image appears too bright or washed out try making the shutter faster.  If it's too dark or you get really bad CRT 'scanning' lines, slow down the shutter.

- Snap away!

[shorthair]

Well, so who's using standard resolution? Who's using an HD CRT?

[Organic Jerk]

I think I've posted these pics about 4 times today. 
This is on a 24" flat screen CRT TV via S-Video.

http://hofle.com/mame/robotron_ddraw.JPG

http://hofle.com/mame/pacman_ddraw.JPG

If I may ask... what's the brand name and model number of your TV?  Is the width of the TV under or at 23.5??  Is the S-video mode label annoyingly big???

Sorry..  I'm in a very big and un-fruitful search for a 24" TV

[ahofle]

Sorry I just noticed this.
It was an Apex TV, I think this one:
http://www.dealtime.com/xPF-Apex-GT2415

It was pretty hard to find a TV around that size with S-video about 4 years ago when I was building this thing.  27" is just too big IMO.  The S-video label is only temporary and goes away in a few seconds.  I can't remember the horizontal size, but I know it was small because the speakers were on the bottom (that's another reason I chose it).