Black Friday Sales: Who is going to try the Vertical LCD Based Arcade?

[ChadTower]

money isnt really an option in my industry, i would say for definite theyre not chosen for their cheapness.

Not for initial purchase, but if you drop tens of thousands on displays and then have to do it again a couple years later, the budget reviewers are going to have your ass.

[polaris]

that was kinda my point that plasmas continue to be used regardless of cost , but because they last and perform

[bfauska]

money isnt really an option in my industry, i would say for definite theyre not chosen for their cheapness.

Not for initial purchase, but if you drop tens of thousands on displays and then have to do it again a couple years later, the budget reviewers are going to have your ass.

Also working in the entertainment industry, I can vouch for polaris on this one.  Trade shows and rock and roll pretty much don't care about up front cost.  On the other hand they don't tend to worry too much about longevity either, usually the technology gets better before the device gets too old and they simply move on to the latest thing.

Many things cost more in the entertainment industry simply because they know you're using it in the entertainment industry.  Even with that being the case, the people in charge of the money tend to live with it and move on.  There simply isn't time to sit and weigh your financial choices when you have to design, build, and coordinate an event in the time you're given.  The people who bear the cost in our industry are also too far removed from the numbers to know what they are paying for.  When you pay for an event or trade show, you don't see itemized costs down to the level of what each video component costs. You see a much larger number that has already been inflated to accommodate the expensive technology and usually has a markup.

[headkaze]

I think I could probably give you a quick rundown on what you would need to do for this.

GameEx has an attract mode where Mame is launched randomly. On our forums Bkenobi came up with the idea of generating a bezel on the fly with game information at the bottom of the screen. I really liked the idea so I made some designs and eventually wrote the code to generate the bezel.

There are two artwork formats in Mame, V1 (.art files pre Mame 0.107) and V2 (.lay files Mame 0.107+).

It's quite simple to get the bezel located where you want it. You really only need to adjust the values in the .art or .lay files to suit the screen size. Also you will need a different bezel for vertical games, but since you are talking about having a vertical screen that will mean you will have to have the graphics located either at the top, bottom or both. These are all done using the values inside the .art or .lay files. It will no doubt be more difficult to calculate these values for a non-standard screen size and getting pixel perfect sizing is likely impossible.

Attached is an archive of what my program generates in the two formats, and a screenshot. So using those as a guide it should make it easier to design a bezel to suit your needs.

[twitami]

Btw - Id stay away from Plasmas.   Ive heard that they are prone to leak
their gasses.. and eventually get nasty picture, and then die completely.

 LCDs will outlast them.  The only thing that seems to fail on LCDs are the
backlights.   However,  Ive seen people replace them.    Plasmas can not
be fixed as far as I know... and if they could,  Im sure it would be an
obscene cost.

Lol , Plasma TVs do not "leak", I always loved those stories. A plasma will slowly degrade in picture quality over time, just like EVERY OTHER tv type, including all the CRTs we all grew up with. However, Plasma tvs DO have a potential for burn-in (just like CRTs did). Granted there is a lot of tech in them to help prevent it, when used with normal viewing. LCD is a better way to go, because Burn-in is really not an issue. Oh, and replacing the bulb in and LCD is pretty obscene too, most would buy a new tv, as is the American way now anyway.

[TheDriver]

I am adding an LCD to my jamma project, it's a proper arcade one though that sync's down to 15hz, have you thought about just getting an arcade mon instead of an actual PC/TV monitor??? they are not that much more price wise.

Regards.

EDIT: Pay no attention to me, if I had read it properly I would have noticed you are trying to get artwork etc... displayed also which means it does'nt need to sync to the proper resolution for arcade rgb signal, my bad, sorry! 

[DrWho]

I picked up 2 42in 1080 polaroids LCDs from walmart at $798 each.

Awesome.  Thinking about using 1 to integrate into a Mameroom showcase cab.

Sweet!

[genesim]

What is the response time on those Poloroids?   I have a plasma at 42 inch, but I hate reflections of any kind.    Still, I hate to drop down in quality either because it is a Samsung and the picture is so good...when you can see it.   The 1080p thing bugs me as well.   I just want to be up on tech but at the same time, I don't know how pressing this all is...wish I could go back in time.

[RandyT]

I picked up 2 42in 1080 polaroids LCDs from walmart at $798 each.

Awesome.  Thinking about using 1 to integrate into a Mameroom showcase cab.

Glad to hear it!  I got in line 5 minutes before the doors opened and, as I expected, of the 300+ people in front of me only one person grabbed a 42" 1080p before I did.  There were still a couple sitting there when I checked out 15 minutes later.

That being said, I went back to Walmart about an hour and a half later to see if any scraps of the deals were left (they still had a lot of $12.88 2GB SD cards that I missed the first time through) and the rest of the 1080p's were all gone.  There were still some of the smaller screens available though.

It does look like public misconception played a role.  While pushing around the 1080p, an odd woman who obviously thought she had scoped out the best deals everywhere commented to me that "it was a good price, but that she got one for $399 elsewhere."  Of course when I told her that the units weren't the same and that 1080p had about 1.2 million more pixels than the 720p unit she bought, I was met with about as much understanding as if I had said it to the cart she was pushing.  Oh well...all the better for those who knew what they were looking for.

Congrats to the others who picked one up.  Half of the creative process is actually having the stuff to be creative with.  Now the search for decent, reasonably priced video cards with 1920x1080 resolution begins.  Any suggestions?

What is the response time on those Poloroids?

The response time is 8ms.  I fired up the Transformers movie DVD in an upscaling DVD player to check it  out.  Lots of fast motion and I can't say that I saw any blur.  If it passed that test, it's a good sign that others will fare well.

RandyT

[Cakemeister]

Now the search for decent, reasonably priced video cards with 1920x1080 resolution begins.  Any suggestions?

The current price/performance leaders are the NVidia 8800GT and the ATI Radeon HD 3870, roughly $200 (MSRP, they are not that cheap now)

It all depends on what your definition of "decent" and "reasonably priced" are.

[MPTech]

Can I ask?
If you were to mount this vertically and play a PC game (Crysis, BioShock, etc) how would it appear on the screen? Will it get streched or will it center with black bars above & below it?

I saw the pics earlier of the guy that installed his 42" and had PacMan running. That looks great to me!

Has anybody else mounted theirs like that?  Any pics to share?  What are the cons of doing this?

[headkaze]

Hey check out this cool utility..

Simple Bezel Layout Generator v2.2

Should be able to use this to generate a bezel for a widescreen LCD in the vertical position.

EDIT: Looks like Mr Do is looking at making a collection of bezels for this exact reason. Read about it here

[RandyT]

Thanks for the links.  Good info there.  Looks like Mr.Do has been listening 


Update on the Polaroid 42.  I jumped ship on that unit and went with a unit that could better do 1:1 pixel output.  The Polaroid looked fine for the games, and the built in up-scaling worked great, but it wasn't the best for small text.  I needed to do work on it as well, so it just didn't fit my needs.  If I was going to use it for games or a cabinet, I would have kept it in a heartbeat, but I couldn't afford 2.

I plan to start working on the design of the Play/Work station soon.  Maybe by time I get done, Mr. Do will have some goodies ready to just plug in

RandyT