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Main => Monitor/Video Forum => Topic started by: Vectorfire on February 11, 2020, 06:35:36 am

Title: Flat, washed out colors on new Makvision M3129DS-LG Tri-mode
Post by: Vectorfire on February 11, 2020, 06:35:36 am

Hello all,
  I have a brand spanking new Makvision M3129DS-LG Tri-mode monitor and have just gotten CRT_Emu driver with GrovyMame up and running.

The first thing I've noticed is that the color intensity is flat and everything appears sort of washed out. Having previously owned an Egret 29 with a Nanao monitor I have an idea of what these a few of my favorite games should look like. Garou Mark of the Wolves and Dangun Feveron are usually pretty good candidates for colorful graphics. Both look flat and dull.

There are no color adjustments on the primary breakout panel, but there are a set of mini potentiometers for each gun on the neck board in the chassis.

DRIVE and OFF

one for each R,G & B gun respectively.

The description provided in the spartan manual it uses describes each pot identically.
 "turning this to the right will result in color becoming darker"

Before I go fiddling with these is there anything I should know? Will turning these up result in rapid burn in? Are there dangers to doing this?
What more specifically is DRIVE and OFF?

I finally got things up and running and don't want to go screwing anything up.
Any insight you could provide would be greatly appreciated!

https://imgur.com/xFvljvC

Title: Re: Flat, washed out colors on new Makvision M3129DS-LG Tri-mode
Post by: grantspain on February 11, 2020, 12:22:35 pm

have you put the switch to 0.7/1v on the remote board?

Title: Re: Flat, washed out colors on new Makvision M3129DS-LG Tri-mode
Post by: Vectorfire on February 12, 2020, 08:06:21 am

 I looked last night it was indeed set to .75 ohm @ 1 volt impedance. I would try the other setting, but I am unsure if that's safe to do.

I'm so terribly disappointed with this monitor. The absolutely drab color saturation has utterly has taken the wind out of my sails for what was going to be a big project that I have been saving up for quite some time. My reds look maroon.

I genuinely feel like I've flushed my money down the toiled on this purchase. :-\

Even with the contrast cranked up to ten, it bland at best.

I don't know what to do now. I dropped 750$ total with shipping for whats going to end up being a 100lb paperweight.


look at the red in this screenshot of my screen
https://imgur.com/nuGiH97


this is what it should look like
https://imgur.com/WecUzjo

Title: Re: Flat, washed out colors on new Makvision M3129DS-LG Tri-mode
Post by: ArcadeWilly on February 22, 2020, 11:02:42 pm

I was almost going to go for one of these but read a post, I think on here or an Aus forum saying that they don't have fantastic colours and are really made for arcade operators that just need anything to get old machines working again.

That being said, I was sure these could take a higher sync voltage (did a fair bit of reading a while back) and Suzohapp's page confirms (see link below). On my D9200 there's a second video connector but from reading it looks like there's only a HD15

I'm not an expert but Nanao displays have always looked particularly vibrant to me, I don't think it will ever quite be as good but hopefully you can get it to good enough with some tweaking! Don't give up.

https://na.suzohapp.com/products/monitors/49-2715-00
Video Input Analog 0.7VPP (75�)/TTL 2.5-5.0VPP (2K�)

Title: Re: Flat, washed out colors on new Makvision M3129DS-LG Tri-mode
Post by: grantspain on February 23, 2020, 04:52:34 pm

can you get a graduation colour pattern onto the monitor, it looks like you may have a degauss issue
there is plenty of contrast but your colour looks wrong, as in purity

Title: Re: Flat, washed out colors on new Makvision M3129DS-LG Tri-mode
Post by: Josh128 on August 23, 2020, 10:05:57 pm

Did you ever figure this out?  Dont be afraid to adjust the RGB drives/cutoffs.  Just mark them before you move them so you can revert if needed.  Also, you can switch the input impedance on the fly, no problem.  It looks as if your Red drive/cutoff need adjustment. These monitors produce brilliant colors when working properly.  See pictures of the one Im currently shipping back to seller because the shadow mask has apparently become detached and is experiencing "doming" in brights/whites.  When not showing brights/whites the set is pretty damned beautiful.

15KHz Mode (All these taken with cellophane still on screen!):
(https://i.imgur.com/0GWoxpT.jpg)
(https://imgur.com/vvhIn3w)
(https://i.imgur.com/9CP276P.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/V2oPmjF.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/vvhIn3w.jpg)

25KHz Mode (Partially removed cellophane):
(https://i.imgur.com/zyny4qy.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/ltB4qid.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/DfyaxMV.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/HDqLvIs.jpg)

Title: Re: Flat, washed out colors on new Makvision M3129DS-LG Tri-mode
Post by: Vectorfire on August 29, 2020, 12:37:33 pm

I did, it needed a video amplifier.
the output of a pc video card as it turns out is significantly less than that which an arcade monitor expects, giving this washed out look.

setup now is:
FroovyMamePC-->Sapphire Dua-X R 280 Radeon: DVI-I-->VGA adapter-->Ultimarc Video Amplifier--> 27" Makvision Tri-Mode Monitor

Once I got a video amplifier from ultimarc everything came out looking rich and crisp as anticipated.

I made another post about it that I requested get stickied as I'm sure a lot of makvision owners are living with less than stellar color depth and purity because of this mismatch.

Before
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1fGiyIdzzuitXFXGMDMXVN29pn2WsS7Bv
After
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1dGYitx2wErSwjowB7k5aRzVapMOrX2cg


http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,162002.msg1708417.html#msg1708417

 https://www.ultimarc.com/arcade-vga-and-video/arcadevga-accessories/arcade-monitor-video-amplifier/

Quote from: Josh128 on August 23, 2020, 10:05:57 pm

Did you ever figure this out?  Dont be afraid to adjust the RGB drives/cutoffs.  Just mark them before you move them so you can revert if needed.  Also, you can switch the input impedance on the fly, no problem.  It looks as if your Red drive/cutoff need adjustment. These monitors produce brilliant colors when working properly.  See pictures of the one Im currently shipping back to seller because the shadow mask has apparently become detached and is experiencing "doming" in brights/whites.  When not showing brights/whites the set is pretty damned beautiful.

Title: Re: Flat, washed out colors on new Makvision M3129DS-LG Tri-mode
Post by: Josh128 on September 13, 2020, 03:43:13 pm

Awesome, glad to hear it!  Odd thing though, Im feeding VGA directly from a HD5450 in my GroovyMAME PC to it, and although I have to turn up the pots some more on my remove board vs a standard arcade board, thats all I had to do to fix it.  Perhaps the VGA out of the 5450 is hotter than a Radeon 280?  What kind of amp did you end up using?

Title: Re: Flat, washed out colors on new Makvision M3129DS-LG Tri-mode
Post by: Josh128 on September 14, 2020, 01:51:43 pm

I know you have resolved the issue, but I just remembered that CRTEmuDriver allows for you to configure your card to output either TTL or 75 ohm levels, the TTL being 3-4V and the 75 being ~.7V.  Dont know if anyone else has mentioned that but that might be the reason I had no trouble directly connecting my PC to both my arcade monitors.

Title: Re: Flat, washed out colors on new Makvision M3129DS-LG Tri-mode
Post by: fuchi_jeg on September 19, 2020, 07:36:10 am

I don't see that option. Is it located in the Vmmaker program?