Medium res monitor w/ MAME?

[Spyridon]

I have a cab with a 25" medium resolution monitor in it.  I'd like to conver this to a mame cab.  Can I utilize the medium res monitor and if so, what do I need to make it work with a computer?

[gatordad]

What kind of monitor do you have?
If you don't know post a picture of the chassis, and someone will prob recognize it.

[Jack Burton]

It will work. 

You will need an arcadevga or a graphics card that supports 25khz along with Soft15khz.

[Paladin]

I didn't think the ArcadeVGA would do medium res.  I see on the website that it Now supports 25Khz modes as well, on multi-frequency monitors such as the WG D9200.  I don't quite get exactly what that means.

I've bought a Universal Video Converter to hook my PC up to my medium res monitor, but I haven't had a chance to do it yet.  Happ sells the converter (I bought mine used).  It accepts a PC VGA cable as input and lets you set a jumper for standard res or medium res output.  My monitor is a 38" showcase cab, and it isn't multi-frequency so I thought that was the only way I could use the monitor.

It would be nice if Andy would jump in and further explain the medium res capabilities of the ArcadeVGA.

[AndyWarne]

Coincidentally another thread came up about this today. But..

The ArcadeVGA supports two 25Khz resolutions which are 448 X 384 and 512 X 384.
To enable these, the VGA port needs to be used and the tri-sync utility run after installation.
There are no visible boot screens and of course no native resolutions possible for standard-res games (ie the majority). Windows will need to be run at 512 X 384 and in effect everything will need to be run at this resolution with stretch enabled. Its not an ideal situation. Medium res monitors are not really ideal for Mame unless you particularly only want to play medium-res games.
Andy

[Spyridon]

I've bought a Universal Video Converter to hook my PC up to my medium res monitor, but I haven't had a chance to do it yet.  Happ sells the converter (I bought mine used).  It accepts a PC VGA cable as input and lets you set a jumper for standard res or medium res output.  My monitor is a 38" showcase cab, and it isn't multi-frequency so I thought that was the only way I could use the monitor.

Paladin,
Let me know how you make out with this. 

Andy,
Would I have the same issues you mentioned using the Happ converter?

[Paladin]

It may be a while before I get to it, but in the meantime here's the website that I got the idea from:
http://www.dragonslairfans.com/smfor/index.php?topic=6.0

[shardian]

Considering your 25" med res. monitor is worth way more than a 25" std. monitor, you should sell it instead.

[Spyridon]

Considering your 25" med res. monitor is worth way more than a 25" std. monitor, you should sell it instead.

I thought of that.  I started looking for new 25" monitors and the best prices I found seem to be in the $450 plus shipping range.  Do you think the used med res would get that much?

[crzywolf]

I've bought a Universal Video Converter to hook my PC up to my medium res monitor, but I haven't had a chance to do it yet.  Happ sells the converter (I bought mine used).  It accepts a PC VGA cable as input and lets you set a jumper for standard res or medium res output.  My monitor is a 38" showcase cab, and it isn't multi-frequency so I thought that was the only way I could use the monitor.

Paladin,
Let me know how you make out with this. 



Andy,
Would I have the same issues you mentioned using the Happ converter?

Here is a link to a review done by Retroblast.  Happ:Universal Video Converter

[AndyWarne]

I suspect the reviewer of the converter has not seen an ArcadeVGA card running at native resolutions to an arcade monitor as there is no comparison quality-wise when using a standard-res monitor.
But in the case of the medium-res monitor, the converter might offer more flexibility. It would be doing the conversion in the converter as opposed to in Mame. Mame might do the job better though of rescaling the image from the game resolution to 512 X 384 then the converter is able to do when scaling from VGA to 512 X 384 (or whatever resolution it outputs for 25Khz). Mame is able to use all the features which the video card and drivers offer. The converter might be more limited.
It would be interesting to do a side-by-side comparison.
Andy

[Ummon]

I suggest selling the monitor. You won't likely get enough to cover a multisync, but if you're that bad off, I'd suggest looking on Cl, etc, for a TV. In which case, you'll probly have money left over.