27" flat glass svga crt - does it exist?

[tony.silveira]

hi all,

i currently have the betson imperial multi synch (800x600) monitor in my cab and have been happy with it (once it was repaired that is).

i also have the video mirrored to my projector which i run at 1024x768.  the annoyance i'm having is that if i want to play on the cab, i have to switch video resolutions.  i have a hot key set up so it isn't that big of deal but i'd much rather run at a constant 1024x768.

which brings me to my question, anyone know of a 27" flat crt that supports 1024x768?  i want to ru a crt so my act-lab light guns will still work and i'd very much prefer a flat screen as i have a plexi touch screen overlay so having a flat screen would be that much more accurate.

thanks for reading, tony

[ahofle]

Believe it or not, you can actually run 1024x768 interlaced on that monitor using Soft15khz and a custom modeline.  It flickers a bit in windows, but looks fine in games:

modeline "1024x768@59,959i" 29,49 1024 1040 1136 1200 768 776 782 820 interlace -hsync -vsync


EDIT: this probably won't help you now that I think about it as your projector most likely won't support 1024x768i.

[tony.silveira]

i don't mind giving it a try.  could you offer up a bit more detail as i've never used soft15

thanks for the input

[tony.silveira]

i went ahead and installed, it seems to be working with my cab and my projector just fine.

the only thing is, on my arcade monitor, windows is to big vertically, meaning, i have to use the mouse to scroll up/down to see the edges of the screen.  this is also the case within an emu i tried (nestopia).

i'd like to get it full screen, no up/down scrolling.  if i can do that, i can go about resetting all my emu's from 800x600 to 1024x768 and all will be right in the world

i'm hoping that that's the modeline you wrote out for me but where do i put that?

modeline "1024x768@59,959i" 29,49 1024 1040 1136 1200 768 776 782 820 interlace -hsync -vsync

[ahofle]

Hmm interesting, I didn't know it came prepackaged with a 1024x768 running at 50hz.  That might work even better.
Did you install the 15khz, 25khz AND 31khz resolutions?

[tony.silveira]

i just did the 15. to be honest, i'm a bit lost with this app.

[ahofle]

Try adding the others too and then reboot.

[tony.silveira]

ok, just added the other two and rebooted.  much less flicker on the arcade monitor which is good but i still have the extended vertical display.

i sincerely appreciate your help with this, anything else i can try?

[ahofle]

Hmm that sounds like something your video drivers might be doing?  Is there an option to disable that somewhere?  When you bring up the on screen display for your monitor, what does it say the frequency is?

Just out of curiosity, why are you trying to run games at 1024x768 when you have a monitor that can run them natively?

[tony.silveira]

all sorted on my end, i had to use the ati control panel to force 84hz, all is well now

Just out of curiosity, why are you trying to run games at 1024x768 when you have a monitor that can run them natively?

well, i mirror my arcade screen to my projector (which i use more frequently than the arcade machine).  since i also use the machine as a living room pc, i much rather run at 1024x768 than 800x600.  the projector tho, when switching resolutions, goes to a black screen for a few seconds.  so my goal was to get both screens, my FE and all emu's running at the same refresh and resolution in order to avoid my projectors short comings

[tony.silveira]

hi all,

i've been really happy with soft 15, here is the modeline i am using:

modeline "1024x768-35,0kHz-84,034Hz" 44,24 1024 1048 1208 1264 768 784 800 833 -hsync -vsync interlace

that might as well be in a foreign language to me.  i'm wondering because ever since installing soft15, my arcade monitor display is a bit squished on the sides.  i've used the monitors controls to try and adjust the picture but to no evail.

so, i'm wondering if an interlaced display by nature will have the sides a bit squished?  in my above mode line, is there anything that i could switch to sort this out?

i sincerely appreciate the help!

[MonMotha]

What monitor are you using?  That's a fairly high vertical refresh rate for most arcade monitors combined with what is probably the edge (if even within the valid range) of the horizontal scanrates the monitor can do.  If you drop the refresh rate to get a horizontal scanrate of ~30kHz, which would be about 72Hz, you may get better results.  Might even try to hit the EGA range at 25kHz which would be almost exactly 60Hz refresh (interlaced).

Interlace should not inherently give you side compression or other geometry issues, but getting right up at the edge of several of the monitor's capabilities simultaneously can do strange things.

[tony.silveira]

thanks for the response.  i have the betson 27' kortek, 800x600.  from the manual:

Scanning Frequency     Horizontal  15-40KHz
(Auto Scanning)          Vertical     50-120Hz

i'm really at a complete loss with this stuff.  if i wanted to try the EGA range, any chance you could do a modeline for me?  again, so very lost...

thanks for reading

[MonMotha]

The first number after the string is the pixel clock in MHz (using a European style comma as the decimal separator, rather than the North American dot).  You only need to change that number to alter the timings if you want to keep the image size and porches the same.

38.52MHz will give ~30.5kHz horizontal scanrate and a resulting vertical refresh of 73.29Hz
31.6MHz will give ~25kHz horizontal scanrate and a resulting vertical refresh of almost exactly 60Hz

It will still be 1024x768 interlaced with the same blanking.

[tony.silveira]

thanks monmothma.  i went with your second suggestion and it's so much better!  there is a VERY slight squishing on the right hand side but it really is barely noticeable, i couldn't be happier.

now if i could only get my act-lab guns to work accurately on the interlaced display, i'd be all set.

again, thank you very much my friend.

[Blanka]

It does exist. Try this TV:
http://tech2.in.com/india/reviews/crt-tvs/philips-29pt883694-crt-hdtv/5304/0
It's 28 inch visible. Maybe a bit too large, but awesome multisync capabilities for a flat CRT.
Its the 29pt8422 in Europe

[MonMotha]

thanks monmothma.  i went with your second suggestion and it's so much better!  there is a VERY slight squishing on the right hand side but it really is barely noticeable, i couldn't be happier.

The KT-2914DF is known for this, especially on CGA timings.  The KT-2914F (with the "almost flat", as opposed to the "totally flat" tube on the DF) does it a little, but it's hardly noticeable if you set everything correctly.  I suspect they just slapped a dynaflat tube on there without altering anything else to compensate for the non-uniform deflection signal required.  I spent a good 3 hours tweaking my KT-2914F up and got it pretty good on CGA and basically perfect on EGA and VGA (haven't really used it with SVGA).

IIRC, this monitor is discontinued by Kortek now, so if you like it, you might want to buy it from Betson while you still can (or rather, if you still can).

[MonMotha]

It does exist. Try this TV:
http://tech2.in.com/india/reviews/crt-tvs/philips-29pt883694-crt-hdtv/5304/0
It's 28 inch visible. Maybe a bit too large, but awesome multisync capabilities for a flat CRT.
Its the 29pt8422 in Europe

You sure that's actually a multisync?  A lot of CRT televisions are single or maybe double scan rate (e.g. 480p/1080i) with digital scalers to mash everything into something it supports.  That's what it sounds like this TV does from that review, but it wasn't a very technical review.  At minimum, it sounds like it's upscaling 480i to at least 480p.

[Blanka]

The one my friend has does 1080i, 720p, 576p, 480p at least. We connected some consoles over component and these resolutions were displayed unscaled.

[dmarcum99]

Just bought a Zenith C27V36 flat CRT TV.  They make a C27V37 also that has pc input.  Granted, the PC thru DVI isn't spectacular, but it is better than most tv's over component.  Running MAME, the games look sensational.  If I get time, I'll post pics...

Got it off craigslist for $50!  It has DVI input...if I can't get my SME-27FDL5(TB) repaired, I secured a backup just in case. There's a guy in plainfield NJ selling the same Zenith TV for $50...if you're close enough.