Is 21" monitor enough? ADDED QUESTION TO BOTTOM!

[unska]

Hey,

I'm building an arcade cabinet and I have a 26" and 21" CRT tvs but the look my on my GF's face when she saw the 26" was self explaining.

The problem is, is 21" enough for an enjoyable system with 2 players? Can you guys give me videos (or pictures) of 21" systems?

Thanks!

[quadrider1]

stand up or cocktail?

[nitz]

IMHO, big monitors in arcade cabs are overrated. To me, a 19 inch looks big enough. I mean, you're standing right in front of it, so how big does it really have to be? Should be fine for 2 players.

However, there are some things to consider:

1) If you were a big fan of a certain game that had a big monitor, it may seem wrong to you on a smaller monitor.

2) If you have a big cab that's made for a large monitor, a smaller one might look wrong, like if there's a ton of bezel space around it.

3) If you're crazy about vertical games (assuming you're not planning a rotating monitor), you should probably go with the 26 inch. Using a bit of trig, you can figure out how big vertical games will be on a 21 inch monitor. Off the top of my head, I would guess they're about the equivalent of a 15 or 16 inch monitor mounted vertically. That's pretty small for a full size cab, and I wouldn't be happy with it because I love the vertical classics. The 26 inch monitor should give you something like 19-20 inches for vertical which is just right for those games.

I think if you have to ask the question, and none of the points above apply to you, you'd probably be happy with the 21 inch.

[unska]

stand up or cocktail?

Stand up most likely.

I think I could manage with the 21" but the 26 is so damn tempting! I would be happy if someone posted videos or pictures so I could see how the games look on it.

[Jack Burton]

If they are both tv's then I would go with the 26" one. 

However, if you could find a 20" PC monitor I would go with that. 

Find something with either a VGA or component ports on it at least. 

[Marsupial]

I am very happy with a 21" VGA monitor. Wouldn't really want to get bigger.

In fact, the 21" monitor was already a bit of a nightmare to put in the cabinet, I don't think anything bigger would even work.

Sometimes, other limitations then pure "like it better" are present.

that said, 21" is great when you're standing right next to it, really.

[jimmy2x2x]

I have a 19" 4:3 in a 3/4 size cab and for me its great, although I wouldn't be happy with anything smaller.

I can rotate for vertical games, I think with anything less than a 25" you need to be able to rotate for a decent sized image.

[Edwards80]

I have a 21" PC monitor in mine and it feels plenty big enough (4 player cab) and doubt a 19" screen would feel too small.

As long as it doesnt have 5" of blank space around it in the cab i'm sure you will be 100% happy with it

[unska]

Thanks for the replies! Do you think you could upload pictures from your systems while a game is being played?

[milkit]

i use 21.3" lcds (4:3) in all my arcades (or smaller)

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/9AhuO_xV9OU2ceHYLOvPrg?feat=directlink

[Razzer]

Thanks for the replies! Do you think you could upload pictures from your systems while a game is being played?

Any specific game? I've got a cab with a 25" decased tv in it

Razzer

[gryhnd]

21" in my upright, 22" in my cocktail.

[unska]

I've found a few CRT's that I could use, could you tell me what of these is the best and why;

http://www.bjorn3d.com/read.php?cID=667
http://www.accurateit.com/details.asp?iid=68
http://www.acsparts.com/+6552-23N-desktop.html
http://huuto.net/kohteet/monitori--nokia-multigraph-445xi-21-tuumanen--monitori/147184736

Oh, those are computer monitor's as I have two CRT TVs (like I mentioned on the first post) but I had some baaaaad experience trying to get them to work. The older and bigger one didn't show anything when using TV-OUT to S-Video to Scart and the other smaller tv's quality with the cable was super bad.

I wonder if I should buy this electrical converter that converts VGA to SCART, would it fix the problem? Oh and how do I know if just a VGA -> SCART cable is enough and when do I need a device that converts it?

[Jack Burton]

All of those monitors are very similar.  Overall I would get the one that was in the best operating shape if you have access to all of them at the same price.

The NEC and Nokia ones will probably have the nicest picture of the bunch. 

If you use one of these monitors you send double refresh rates to them via soft 15khz or advance mame and still use native arcade resolutions. 

[unska]

Halleluja! I got the big TV working, I spent 8 hours beating my head against the wall but it was worth it! 

I bought the Fuj:tech DM1937 VGA to Video signal converter and voilá.

As we speak I've set it as 640 × 480. The screen is a bit fuzzy, but I guess this is something I can't fix? The games look pretty good on it even though it's not that sharp, maybe the fuzzyness adds to the feeling? Though if you have a solution let me know.

How would soft 15khz improve the image?