Blurry Arcade Monitor! UPDATED 6/9

[docmighty]

Hey guys, came across this site googling for some information on my problem and I can say I am happy to have found it....this site is great.

I am going to try and keep this as informative as possible! 

I obtained this Street Fighter 3: 3rd Strike from someone who purchased it at my arcade's going out of business auction. 
Marvel vs Capcom 2 was installed in there right away, so I never did turn it on with Street Fighter in it.
I have a friend who is an arcade tech, and he seems to think we can resolve this by rejuvenating the monitor, but I figured I'd like to get some more feedback first.
A lot of the results I found online said Cap Kit instead, but who knows, that's why I'm the one posting for help. 

My monitor appears to be a Sharp Image KTM-F33 model, but I have taken pics to make sure I am correct.
The cabinet brand is Dynamo.







At first I had some bleeding issues which were easily taken care of when I opened up the back and adjusted the RGB, Focus, & Brightness knobs.
My problem now seems to be that I can't quite get the monitor looking as sharp as I would like it to, mostly around the edges.
For example, you'll notice the text particularly is much much much crisper on the Dreamcast, and is basically unreadable on the Arcade Cabinet.
I used my Dreamcast with VGA Adapter to a generic CRT Monitor for comparison.
Please disregard the blur of Magneto in the 2nd picture as he was moving during those shots!
The arcade cabinet is on the left side of all of the pics!





Thanks in advance for any feedback you guys can give me!

[docmighty]

Damn, nothing? 

[Kevin Mullins]

Connect that Dreamcast up to a good ol' fashioned CRT television and then compare it to your arcade monitor.
You will NEVER get it as clear as that PC monitor.

Doesn't look too far off to me, but I'm not standing in front of it either to really scrutinize it.

[Malenko]

looks fine (read:NORMAL) to me.

dreamcast+VGA will always look crisper on a VGA monitor. snip the 15 pin and hook the dreamcast up to the arcade and take pix

[solid12345]

Also there is a good chance that monitor is a CGA monitor and I believe Marvel v.s Capcom 2 is VGA so it is only running at half the resolution? Just my guess.

[Kevin Mullins]

If that were the case then you wouldn't have a stable image on a CGA monitor whatsoever.

[Jack Burton]

Nah, I've played a hell of a lot of MVC2 and that doesn't look right, even counting that an arcade monitor will be blurrier.

Can't help ya much more than that though.  I have the same problem on one of my monitors. 

[docmighty]

Hey guys, I appreciate all the replies.

Looks like I did leave a little bit of information out, so I apologize.

I'm not looking for the screen to be as crisp as the VGA/DC Marvel, that's just the way I play the game outside of the cabinet since I only have access to LCD TVs which lag, so it's all I really could use for reference.
However, when I used to use the DC on a CRT TV though it did look fine, but I'll hijack my parents TV and try it out again.

I will give a try at hooking up the DC to the arcade cabinet and see how that works out.

The names on the top and the word level on the bottom for the meter are my main concerns as they are barely legible.
I'm going to stop by a local arcade sometime this weekend and compare how theirs looks to mine.
It's just driving me absolutely insane to see those areas blurry while the rest of the game looks fine.

Thanks again for the input and I will post up my findings ASAP!

[Ginsu Victim]

Also there is a good chance that monitor is a CGA monitor and I believe Marvel v.s Capcom 2 is VGA so it is only running at half the resolution? Just my guess.

It's a standard resolution game.

[Kevin Mullins]

Could possibly be a slight convergence issue...... but that may turn into an adventure all it's own.

[docmighty]

Could possibly be a slight convergence issue...... but that may turn into an adventure all it's own.

Oh boy, doesn't sound like a fun adventure...can you elaborate on that a little. 

[Kevin Mullins]

can you elaborate on that a little. 

No   

But wonder if there is a monitor test screen in the setup menu anywhere that would pull up a crosshatch pattern or something just to see how it looks. I've seen monitors look perfect towards the center, but a little off towards the outer edges.

Convergence is basically when the Red, Green and Blue guns are aligned on one specific spot correctly it should be a nice white dot or line.....but if it's off a little, you'll see bits of the colors sneaking out from behind the others which may also cause a "blur" effect.

[docmighty]

can you elaborate on that a little. 

No   

But wonder if there is a monitor test screen in the setup menu anywhere that would pull up a crosshatch pattern or something just to see how it looks. I've seen monitors look perfect towards the center, but a little off towards the outer edges.

Convergence is basically when the Red, Green and Blue guns are aligned on one specific spot correctly it should be a nice white dot or line.....but if it's off a little, you'll see bits of the colors sneaking out from behind the others which may also cause a "blur" effect.

 LOL I read that first line and then had to look away at something at work and was thinking like...

You know what there is a crosshatch pattern I can run, and I think some other tests patterns also.  I'll give them a try and post up some pics!

[docmighty]

Hooked up the Dreamcast to the arcade cabinet and it was displaying, just really distorted.
I couldn't find my camera at the time of testing it but basically it was like 8 or 9 horizontal lines of distortion!
If need be I can retest and take a picture.

I ran the RGB and check pattern tests, both looked good, nothing out of the ordinary there.

So heres some added issues to go with my problem.

Last night I went to play, turned it on and bam, the red and green was bleeding like crazy, had to readjust the RGB knobs.
Should this need to be done more than once a week?!
Then later on, maybe 35 minutes into playing, the screen kinda flickered and lost some brightness.
It stayed at its dimmer state for the rest of the evening.

 

[Malenko]

cap kit wouldnt hurt.  you have to snip a pin to make the VGA cable display at 15Hz

[docmighty]

cap kit wouldnt hurt.  you have to snip a pin to make the VGA cable display at 15Hz

Ah thanks for the info.

I noticed also that while playing after a while it sometimes will start to bleed again.

Where would I be able to locate a cap kit for my specific monitor?

[Chunce DeLeone]

Google  the Real Bob Roberts Arcade and look for your specific model under cap kits

[docmighty]

Thanks, I'll see if they have my monitor's kit and report back with some more results. 

[Domolover]

docmighty, i have the same Monitor, do you need AC isolation transformer for the monitor . because when i got the cabinet they strip everthing in it. and i am trying to find out before i apply power to it~
thanks

Hey guys, came across this site googling for some information on my problem and I can say I am happy to have found it....this site is great.

I am going to try and keep this as informative as possible! 

I obtained this Street Fighter 3: 3rd Strike from someone who purchased it at my arcade's going out of business auction.  :'(
Marvel vs Capcom 2 was installed in there right away, so I never did turn it on with Street Fighter in it.
I have a friend who is an arcade tech, and he seems to think we can resolve this by rejuvenating the monitor, but I figured I'd like to get some more feedback first.
A lot of the results I found online said Cap Kit instead, but who knows, that's why I'm the one posting for help. 

My monitor appears to be a Sharp Image KTM-F33 model, but I have taken pics to make sure I am correct.
The cabinet brand is Dynamo.







At first I had some bleeding issues which were easily taken care of when I opened up the back and adjusted the RGB, Focus, & Brightness knobs.
My problem now seems to be that I can't quite get the monitor looking as sharp as I would like it to, mostly around the edges.
For example, you'll notice the text particularly is much much much crisper on the Dreamcast, and is basically unreadable on the Arcade Cabinet.
I used my Dreamcast with VGA Adapter to a generic CRT Monitor for comparison.
Please disregard the blur of Magneto in the 2nd picture as he was moving during those shots!
The arcade cabinet is on the left side of all of the pics!





Thanks in advance for any feedback you guys can give me!

[grantspain]

does the focus make any difference to the sides,for example if you get the sides to focus does the centre of the screen goes out of focus?

[boardjunkie]

I was gonna say.....just adj the focus for optimum clarity....

[corycet]

Kevin Mullins was correct with saying it is a convergence issue. If you have never performed convergence it can be a bit tricky to do and it is possible you will make it worse if you don't know what your doing. I have had a lot of experience doing convergence and I still find that it can be a pain in the butt sometimes depending on the CRT. However, it can be done and there are a lot of docs out there that are very detailed and well written on the subject. So I advise reading a good doc before attempting it. Also, your issue of having to readjust the controls can most likely be cleared up with a cap kit. Good luck!