Build Your Own Arcade Controls Forum
Main => Monitor/Video Forum => Topic started by: Funkoid on September 02, 2018, 05:03:43 am
-
The quest for a happy medium monitor!
I'm rebuilding a mame cabinet that's been out of use for a number of years.
CRT and original monitors are out of the question sadly due to weight and me not being clued up on the internals, so it's TFT, LCD or LED.... maybe with a scan line generator.
Ratio other than 4:3 being ideal I'm at a loss, happy to go second hand if need be too.
Ideally I'm going to make the monitor manually rotate, I haven't the room for two cabinets and I love pacman, Tapper, the Simpsons etc. so can't compromise here it has to do horizontal and vertical games well.
The question is, given what is available on the UK market now monitor wise (under £200) what am I best going for as far as:
* Size
* Resolution
* Ratio
* Response Time
...ultimately, I know it's never going to be arcade perfect, I just want to do the best I can.
Therefore, what is the happy medium!! :dunno
-
FOr a 4:3 panel about the largest you can find is 20 - 21" If that size works for you the best buy that I have come across lately is this refurbished/off lease HP LP2065 from Ebay for $25 shipped - was $20 when I bought mine a few months ago) ( https://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-LP2065-20-1-LCD-Monitor-NO-BASE/183384715493?hash=item2ab294b0e5%3Am%3AmpxhgM0ksIZvILnF5hKDPjQ&LH_BIN=1 (https://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-LP2065-20-1-LCD-Monitor-NO-BASE/183384715493?hash=item2ab294b0e5%3Am%3AmpxhgM0ksIZvILnF5hKDPjQ&LH_BIN=1) )
-- Not sure if they ship to UK but they are a pretty large refurbishing Company so wouldn't hurt to ask ! ) EDIT : FOund their listing on amazon.uk and the listing shows ( Free delivery est. in 3 days
) on my page but that might be with my account showing a shipping address in the US so you'd need to check with them for a total cost ! -- ( https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HP-LP2065-20-1-LCD-Monitor-NO-BASE/183384715493?_trkparms=aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20131017132637%26meid%3De067d9058613445e836ce8c718ef2133%26pid%3D100033%26rk%3D5%26rkt%3D8%26sd%3D183384715493%26itm%3D183384715493&_trksid=p2045573.c100033.m2042 (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HP-LP2065-20-1-LCD-Monitor-NO-BASE/183384715493?_trkparms=aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20131017132637%26meid%3De067d9058613445e836ce8c718ef2133%26pid%3D100033%26rk%3D5%26rkt%3D8%26sd%3D183384715493%26itm%3D183384715493&_trksid=p2045573.c100033.m2042) )
also on Ebay.uk there is a listing for one @
£15.00 but it does not list the shipping cost ! ( https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hp-LP2065-TFT-Screen-Monitor-silver-black/253813497552?hash=item3b18769ed0:g:OjoAAOSwB1Fbceje (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hp-LP2065-TFT-Screen-Monitor-silver-black/253813497552?hash=item3b18769ed0:g:OjoAAOSwB1Fbceje)
IT is an IPS panel so has great viewing angle and really good color and works well in either horizontal or vertical mounting - This one does not include a base ( which is why it is cheaper) but for an arcade build you would not be using it anyway and it does have Vesa mounting holes so is easily mounted in a cab using a cheap wall mount bracket or piece of cross bracing. Only possible drawback is that it only has DVI input connectors so will need an adapter if using VGA depending on your MAME build but for the price it is a hard deal to beat if wanting to use 4:3 format.
-
I'd suggest a Dell 1908FP 19" . I bought mine on ebay for £35 I think. They're easy to find if you need to replace it since I believe they made so many. It's 5:4 aspect so 4:3 looks fine vertical or horizontal whilst keeping the aspect ratio there are almost no black bars. Resolution is 1680x1050 and response time is 5ms. I'm using mine powered by a Pi using Retroarch, and almost all games run very smoothly. CRT emulated scan line filters look great on it too. I recently tried a BenQ no-lag gaming monitor in comparison and it was choppy as hell, this old Dell beat it hands down.
-
I'd suggest a Dell 1908FP 19" . I bought mine on ebay for £35 I think. They're easy to find if you need to replace it since I believe they made so many. It's 5:4 aspect so 4:3 looks fine vertical or horizontal whilst keeping the aspect ratio there are almost no black bars. Resolution is 1680x1050 and response time is 5ms. I'm using mine powered by a Pi using Retroarch, and almost all games run very smoothly. CRT emulated scan line filters look great on it too. I recently tried a BenQ no-lag gaming monitor in comparison and it was choppy as hell, this old Dell beat it hands down.
That looks pretty square to be fair, I presume you'd still suggest rotating it for vertical games?
-
That looks pretty square to be fair, I presume you'd still suggest rotating it for vertical games?
I'm not for my build, to be honest.. I'm building a bartop for my kids and quite happy with the small-ish black bars for vertical games, and the kids won't really care either. I'll upload a screenshot later if I get time.
-
Cheers would be appreciated, I'm shocked at the gaming 1ms monitor being choppy.
Have you considered getting hardware created scanlines instead of using the shaders?
-
Here's Rastan, very slight black bars at top and bottom, hardly noticeable.
Also Flying Shark to show vertical... black bars obviously bigger but not a concern for me. I may end up with the mame bezel artwork for vertical games to hide the borders.
Not thought of hardware scanlines as these software retroarch ones are pretty good tbh.
Yes the BenQ monitor was a 60Hz one which I thought would be excellent given that it's near zero lag and response time etc. My inexpert theory is that the Dell operates its 60Hz refresh at a wider tolerance than the BenQ (which was really meant for PS4/console gaming I think).
I took 2 slo-mo videos a while ago comparing the two. (You might need to use VLC to slow the playback speed down. Best to download them, not run them in your browser's player)...
Dell:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1akZcMyd0zN5tEoLjpbWq1FJ8ZK1l0q-K
BenQ:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1yo-5EALOAxSFM31ZTty83Al5hlUU3cl4
The Dell isn't perfect but it's the best (least stuttering/tearing) I've seen on an LCD for as long as I can remember.
I think if I had the budget though, and a CRT isn't an option, I'd go for a Freesync/G-sync monitor along with the respective graphics card, so you can still run the games at their native refresh rates with no tearing etc.
-
Doesn't look too bad like you say, thanks so much for being helpful and sorting those out!
How much measurable space cm/inch wise do you think you lose by running flying shark like that? Would be interesting to see what size the picture ran at if you let it run 'vertically' across the horizontal screen left to right if that makes sense, as in run it vertical but don't flip the monitor around.
-
I'm at work now so can't take a pic... but the monitor is 5:4, so it'd look slightly better having it display the other way. Probably only a cm or so less black bars. For me the difference wouldn't be worth making a rotating display, unless you really want to :)