LCD HDTV as Arcade Monitor?

[mark6437]

Ok I am building a new arcade for a friend. The last one I built I used a WG D9800 but I see you cant get those anymore. I am thinking I will use an LCD HDTV maybe 24" or 32" and turn it on its side. I am sure someone in here has done this and can warn me of the pitfalls.

Also, any suggerstions of which LCD TV is the best to use?

THX!!!!!!

Mark
Hou TX

[Donkbaca]

So you are going to mount it vertically?  The only issue I can think of is that the horizontal games are gonna be awfully small, and the viewing angles on the TV might not be that great from the sides

[mark6437]

I was thinking about mounting it vertically yes. But now that you point that out I may be rethinking it.

If I mount it regular wouldnt the vertical games suffer?

Ugh, I dont know what to do.

[Donkbaca]

yes the verticle games will suffer.  A 24 inch widescreen is probably only as tall as like a 17 inch 4:3

[mark6437]

So what is the solution? What is everyone using as a monitor now?

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

There's never going to be a single answer for this..
The biggest 4:3 or 5:4 LCD you're going to find is in the 20" range, and the price on those are drifting upwards as supply diminishes.

To get sufficiently large vertical resolution on a widescreen LCD it ends up being wider than you probably want in a cab (as well as more expensive).

I've got a 25" arcade monitor in my cabinet, to get the same size image for regular horizontal arcade games, I'd need around a 32" widescreen monitor:
http://tvcalculator.com/index.html?b0e96839ea629018dbd4f5a8ff7322b1

Even a cheap 32" is going to run $330:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003GDBFWK?linkCode=xm2&tag=invihand-20

My arcade monitor fits in a 24" wide opening but that LCD is over 31" wide.

[Donkbaca]

The biggest 4:3 LCD you can get is a 21.3 inch.  It's plenty big, the screen area is about 17 inches wide by 13 inches tall.  Here is a good site that explains it
Www.displaywars.com

Remember that LCD screens, unlike CRTs have the entire screen as usable space, so a 4:3 21 inch looks a lot bugger than you think.  Also remember thy most classic games used 19 inch monitors.  A 21.3 inch 4:3 would be ideal; biggest LCD 4:3 you can get, and superior ips or Pva technology vs the tn technology found in most widescreens. This means better colors and viewing angles. The viewing angles on my monitor are 176 degrees in each direction. It's sweet

[mark6437]

Ive been reading the last 5 pages of posts in this forum. Ugh, is all I can say. You are right cotmm, there is no one right answer anymore. What is the deal with WG? Why are they not make arcade monitors anymore??

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

no one is making CRTs anymore.

My gripe is the lack of high resolution 4:3 LCDs. Or really any larger LCD higher than 1080p.

[DNA Dan]

If native 15khz is not a priority, then I would just go the LCD route. I contemplated jumping on some of the last remaining CRTs, but later realized the depth is just too much for my needs. If you go LCD you can make the cab with a very short depth, say 12-20" monitor depth. It wouldn't have the same aspects as a real arcade, but a lot of people are building these to go in homes. Once you build a deeper cab with arcade machine aspects, you need to account for a deep control panel (This is where the depth REALLY matters for comfort), then the space for people to sit or stand at the machine. If you go with regular arcade depths, you're easily looking at ~6 feet from the wall for all this space. I just don't have this amount of room!

So in the LCD arena you have 19-21" PC monitors, which I would recommend: 20" HP LP2065 or  20" Dell 2007FP. Just actually picked up an HP model refurbed on ebay for $140 shipped. Not the best deal, but a decent price for a good monitor. A lot of folks have given the +1 for these two monitors. There are a lot on ebay depending upon whether you want new, used, returnability, etc.  

The other route is LCD TV, which I think virtually ALL of them are widescreen. I personally don't care for this route due to the black bar issues, no matter how you mount it.

I plan on making a rotating LCD with the LP2065, completely covered mask. But alas, that is sometime down the road yet. Still doing a lot of research!

[Donkbaca]

What do you mean high resolution 4:3 lcds, you realize that the 1080 is a function of the widescreen aspect ratio right?

Most large 4:3 screens were designed for high end graphics design applications and such. They have vastly superior screens compared to most widescreen monitors in terms of viewing angle, colors and such

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

What do you mean high resolution 4:3 lcds, you realize that the 1080 is a function of the widescreen aspect ratio right?

Most large 4:3 screens were designed for high end graphics design applications and such. They have vastly superior screens compared to most widescreen monitors in terms of viewing angle, colors and such

Eh, I wasn't being clear with what I meant and I didn't proofread what I actually ended up posting after editing. What I was suggesting was that I wish there were some LCDs, regardless of aspect ratio, that did resolutions like this behemoth:
http://www.astro-systems.com/DM-3400/dm_3400_page1.html
in a 20-30" range. a 4:3/5:4 aspect ratio would be great too, but that's wishful thinking at this point.