Nieman 24.8" Question!

[iamnaeth]

Hey guys, I've had an ongoing discussion with Rick in an email and we've hit a snag that hopefully some of the people on the forum could shed some light on.  Will I have to change my monitor settings each time I switch games in Mame?

Here is the important part of our emails.

RICK

Just in case you are expecting a seamless switch between games (in Mame) I want you to understand that adjustements are likely.
 
Not meant to scare you off by any means, but it is extermely important to me to look after our customers.
 
Once again, please let me know
 
Thanks again
 
Rick
 
In the case of a "digital" there are various ranges as far as to how far this goes..
 
In some cases it is just the fact that there are pushbuttons. These will alter values stored normally in an epprom for various settings such as position, pincushion...
 
In the simplest from there would be one setting for each of the picture parameters such as position, size etc.
 
In this case if you change resolutions some adjustments would be required.
 
For example in a computer type monitor changing from VGA, to SVGA, XGA... the monitor would autosync.
 
The picture size etc would be based on the standards dictated by VESA, so the manufacturer may have some flexibility top adjust some value of fixed resistors to minimize the require adjsutments- mainly because the signals timing is dicatated by standards.
 
Now as we become more sophisticated, technicaly yes the monitor already knows when you switched signal resolutions so yes it is possible to have more memory and more locations to store a different value for eacg resolution.
 
ie standard res 15.75khz horiz, 60 hertz vertical then mid res 24.3khz horizontal 60 hertz vertical
 
The monitor can only be smart enough to grab these frequencies and know the value you set to memory for these frequencies.
 
Now getting on with the game, anything below VGA has no standards, some games run at 15.75khz, other more/less, likewise with the vertical frequencies.
 
Other more important timiming that dicatate size and position like front and back porch, sync pulse, active video vary even more.
 
In a nut shell, I would expect that when you change on the fly from one game to another, one resolution to another.... There will always be some difference- but yes a digital with enough memory should have less adjsutments needed.
 
I actualy said that this might be the case with our analogue multi scan somewhere in an earlier post.
 
I plan to get some time to work on this in the next few ways to try to find a way if possible to minimize it and will keep you advised.

ME

What sort of adjustments do you mean? Do you mean everytime you switch games you would have to tweak the settings on the monitor?

RICK

Hi Nathan, I honestly do not know all the details, but here is what I understand..
 
If switching CGA to mid res (15.75 khz to 24 khz) then size and position must be tweaked same if to VGA.
If from one CGA game to another ... adjustments are minor.
 
Hope this helps

[shorthair]

This was answered in another thread.  No.

[Aurich]

I have a Nieman 24.8" and a little clearer understanding of MAME and the ArcadeVGA than Rick, so if I can help clear things up feel free to ask. Rick is super responsive and helpful though, don't get me wrong. Here's what Rick is saying in a nutshell:

If you're switching from one low res game to another (i.e. from Street Fighter to Mario Bros to Metal Slug to Robotoron etc) you're fine. There will be some slight variations in size etc, but nothing drastic, you can have one setting that accommodates them all.

If you're planning on using the monitor in both high res (640x480) and the low res arcade settings then yes, you will have to tweak every time you change between them. This isn't a digital monitor that saves different settings for the different modes. CGA and VGA need pretty different settings, you can't really find a middle ground that will do both acceptably.

Let me know if you have more questions.

[iamnaeth]

So as I understand it, this monitor would not work well for use in a MAME machine if you want to have a VGA front end but then want to launch CGA arcade games, correct?

[Aurich]

So as I understand it, this monitor would not work well for use in a MAME machine if you want to have a VGA front end but then want to launch CGA arcade games, correct?

Ya, not so much. That was my plan for it, but that didn't really pan out.

[shorthair]

Ope!  Ya, sorry, I glossed over THE MAIN PART OF THE THREAD.  Sheesh.

[iamnaeth]

Okay, so I guess for a multisync monitor for MAME I'm back to choosing the 27" Betson or Billabs (No WG!).  Are there any other 25" multisync monitors worth looking at?