Question about widescreen monitors and TVs

[JoeyJoeJo]

I have an extra 19" 720p TV that I was thinking about putting in my cabinet. However, if I mount it horizontally, I'll almost always have black space on the sides with the picture in the middle. So here are my questions:

Can I put artwork in this black area?
If I mount the TV vertically, will it use more screen space for the game?
Is it even advisable to use a widescreen monitor? I'm not too concerned about running games in their native resolutions. As long as they look pretty good and I can play them, that's all I care about.

[nitz]

1) Can I put artwork in this black area?
Yes, you can do this on a widescreen with a bit of work. Check this out: http://mrdo.mameworld.info/generic.html
Though if I were you, I would just cover the black space with a bezel to make it look like a 4:3 - unless of course you're actually planning on playing widescreen pc games or something.

2) If I mount the TV vertically, will it use more screen space for the game?
I'm not sure exactly what you mean. You'll likely still want to display games in their correct aspect ratio, which means vertical games will be bigger than if you mounted horizontally, but horizontal games will of course be smaller.

3) Is it even advisable to use a widescreen monitor?
10 years ago I would have said no. But the sad truth is, new 4:3 displays are very scarce and are on the verge of disappearing completely. I wanted an lcd for my cab because I want to do monitor rotation, and I was pretty much forced to get a widescreen. I could have got a 19 inch non-widescreen, but those are actually 5:4, meaning I'd get the equivalent of about an 18.5 inch 4:3 screen. So I went for a 22 inch 16:10 at about the same price, but that gives me about a 19.4 inch 4:3 screen. And it does look good with the right settings, so if you're not worried about authenticity as long as it looks nice, you'll be happy with it.

Hope this helped.

[drventure]

Great tip about the custom LAY file! I'd been wanting to do something to the black borders on some games, and there it is! Never knew that capability was there

Thanks for the heads up!

[nitz]

No prob!