Build Your Own Arcade Controls Forum
Main => Monitor/Video Forum => Topic started by: showmekid on July 26, 2007, 12:48:43 am
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Ok I have read of numerous people using TV sets as arcade monitors, but my question is how? I know it is a tube, I understand how to decase it (if needed), but how do you get the video signal from the game the monitor???(I have a jamma cocktail cabinet that needs a monitor) and dont want to spend 180 bucks shipped for a WG..... Any help would be greatly appreciated as I am on a budget too......
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I think your only option is to get a chassis for the TV here (not for the faint of heart):
http://www.8liners.com/datatech/monitor.html
Most of the talk of using TVs as 'arcade monitors' around here is in an emulation/PC capacity, and even then, unless you live in Europe and have a SCART port on your TV, it's not a true arcade monitor.
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I have actually tried using a TV monitor with a JAMMA board, and it is possible, although achieving good results is VERY difficult. I got the original idea from this guy: http://www.porkrind.org/arcade/tv-hack.html
What I did, which is a little different from him, is make an RCA connector from the JAMMA board that had only the sync and ground wire attached. I then plugged this into the composite jack on the back of my TV (thus providing the tv a composite sync signal). I then opened up the TV and soldered the R,G,B wires from the JAMMA board onto the R,G,B connections of the neckboard of th TV. Then, I turned on the TV, set it to composite in (so that it would get the sync information) and turned on the Arcade board.
I did get a picture:
(http://www.billfriedrich.com/test/r_with_6k.jpg), but as you can see, the RGB guns are way off. The problem lies in somehow ensuring that the RGB signal from your JAMMA board is exactly the same as what your TV is expecting at the neckboard. The guy who's article I followed only needed to use resistors to lower the RGB coming off his board, but I found that even without any resistors, the RGB comming from my JAMMA board was too week to give a good picture (I probably needed some sort of amp to increase the signal).
In the end, it just wasn't worth the time/effort to tweek the RGB signal.
But, if you want to give it a try, you could probably whip something together in a half hour and test it out.
Also, here is a screenshot of what the actual game was supposed to look like:
(http://www.klov.com/images/11/118124210348.png)
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Thanks for the input, sounds like I just need to go get me another monitor. It isnt worth fighting all that..... :dizzy:
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You say another monitor, do you have one already that's broken?
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VGA to Component adapter is one possibility provided you have a component input on your TV. If you have a SCART connector, you can turn it into an arcade monitor. Otherwise you are stuck with the NTSC encoding via composite or S-Video
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The only other monitor I have is for a nintendo, and it is to my Donkey Kong and it too is messed up. I put a cap kit in it not long back because the video display was messed up and once everything was hooked back up and put together the monitor never came on and some how back fed through to my video pcb and blew it up as well..... I have NO idea what is wrong with it, nor do I understand why it would have back fed voltage to the video board and blown it??? I dont know if it damaged anything else on the pcb as I dont have a way to test it now (no monitor). Anyways, I was just hoping to find a cheaper solution to being monitorless....... :dunno