A question for people who use CRT TVs as arcade monitors

[Turambar]

Is the most common method of hooking up to a CRT TV from a PC for mame the svideo jack?  How is the quality of this?

[fredster]

It's fair. The only way I ever did this was with a TV out using RCA jacks.  It worked.  But the fonts on the menu screens are raw.  The best way is to use a LCD monitor. It's no hassle then, and you can go hidef.  You can screw with the scan settings and get it to look more "arcade-like"

[Well Fed Games]

S-video is common, as is composite and component. I have composite on my current (vertical classics) cab and it works just fine. My next cab I will use component. Just happened to be the TVs I found had these inputs (other criteria, like shape/size and power/channel return were more important to me).

[AlienInferno]

Mine is/will be hooked up with S-video.  It's the only way I was easily able to get from my PC to the TV.  Have mine set on 640 x 480.  It looks great when playing games on it.  As far as being on the desktop it's OK.  That resolution makes thinks gigantic plus I set it up so that the shortcuts had large text to be easier to read.  The hard part is if you are trying to work on a program that does not work with a resolution that small.

[rjpe]

In Europe, the most common is SCART-RGB. If the TV has component RGB inputs, that would be the best option.

[BurgerKingDiamond]

I use S-video. It's totally acceptable. Only video snobs would really have a problem with the quality I think.

The desktop fonts can be hard to read, but the actual games look good.

[Mikezilla]

I use S-video. It's totally acceptable. Only video snobs would really have a problem with the quality I think.

The desktop fonts can be hard to read, but the actual games look good.

Same for me. It was the easiest, because I was just getting into the hobby, and I really like how the games look. The desktop is REALLY blurry on my TV/settings, but it boots straight to HS so I dont ever see the desktop anyway.

[Paradroid]

I use S-video. It's totally acceptable. Only video snobs would really have a problem with the quality I think.

I bet you'd change your mind pretty quickly if you ran S-Video side-by-side with an RGB via SCART connection for, say, 30 seconds.

Until I found out about the VGA to SCART method, I tried S-Video on several TVs and was always disappointed. With CRTs so cheap these days, I'd say hunt down a SCART TV (if at all possible in your part of your world). It's well worth it.

[Jack Burton]

S-video can be very nice, but generally the S-video output from a pc is poor quality. 

If you want to maximize the potential of your television then you will need to get an RGB>S-video converter.  By using one of these converters you can retain the native resolution of your game and send it the exact same resolution and refresh rate as the original game. 

Alternatively you could wire up your cab for a console like the ps2.  There are many good arcade ports for the psx/ps2, and they usually retain native res.  All you have to do is hook it up to your cab via an s-video cable and you're good to go. 

[boardjunkie]

I hacked a tv to take RGB and it was no contest against the S-vid. Composite and S vid are and always were kind of a halfass way to display video. Convenience over quality I suppose...

[BurgerKingDiamond]

I hacked a tv to take RGB and it was no contest against the S-vid. Composite and S vid are and always were kind of a halfass way to display video. Convenience over quality I suppose...

I didn't say that s-video was superior. I said that it is acceptable. RGB is obviously better.   

[karnov64]

i have found the key thing with svideo is if u use a really high quality svideo cable, its makes a big difference (and keep cable short if possible, eg. 1 meter or 1.5 max)

im using a really well shielded/quality svideo cable and did some comparisons between mame using my laptop->svideo cable->tv... and then, my ps2->rgb scart->tv

the only difference was the colours (and sorry but even that isnt a big difference). if anything call me crazy but the rgb for me looks almost 'too' good. i prefer a kind of beaten up slightly blurry arcade monitor look, and svideo gives me that much better than the 'perfect sharp' looking rgb setup

ps. using quality svideo cables eliminates all interference, and all dot crawl also (well, also the tv u are using needs to be able to handle/convert/display svideo well, but most modern tv's are good at that anyways).

so, in my opinion, dont let anyone tell u that u need rgb.  svideo is great if u use high quality cabling. using poor cables tho u end up with interference, dot crawl, maybe colour bleed, and perhaps washed out/dull colours.

EDIT: here's a pic below of my svideo image on my tv. note that the digital camera has added some 'wavy interference lines' and has made it appear more blurry than it actually is  (actually, i have to be honest and say this isnt even an svideo picture. this is a composite video image (ie. 2 of the svideo pins are tied together and sent to pin 20 of the scart connector. so its safe to say, svideo would actually look better than this))...

[Dragonman73]

I bypassed all of that, I tore apart a 25" TV and used the tube with an arcade chassis, and 25" monitor frame and made my own arcade monitor 

It's hit and miss, the first tube didn't look right with the chassis, really bad pinchushion I could fix. It was a TV that was made around the late 90's early 2000's.

My brother in law gave me another 25" TV that was quite a bit older, maybe late 80's?? It worked perfectly. Picture looks good with a arcadevga card. Windows is blurry but the games look awesome. Picture don't do it justice. I still have a little tweaking to do though.

[Turambar]

I hacked a tv to take RGB and it was no contest against the S-vid.

How difficult is that?

If you want to maximize the potential of your television then you will need to get an RGB>S-video converter. 

I am assuming you mean something like this:  http://www.arcadespareparts.com/arcade_parts/video_converter/vga_rgb_cga_video_converter/12215.html

Have any of you used one of these converters?

[Jack Burton]

No, not like that one.  That converter is for use in scaling a 31khz signal down to 15khz so that you can play a hi-res game on a standard res monitor. 

The converter that you need is one that doesn't change the video mode, it only changes the way the signal is sent and received.   You need something like this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Arcade-RGB-CGA-TV-and-Video-Composite-converter-126-/310362508697?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item48430c0d99

[Auti0]

The converter that you need is one that doesn't change the video mode, it only changes the way the signal is sent and received.   You need something like this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Arcade-RGB-CGA-TV-and-Video-Composite-converter-126-/310362508697?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item48430c0d99

I have a related concern with S-Video. Currently I am running s-video->composite and going into my RCA ColorTrak2000 from 1989. The image obviously looks terrible on the desktop and looks decent in games, but it still just looks really blurry and poor quality in general.

Would I stand to gain much by switching to RGB-> composite using the converter linked above?

I understand that a CRT will never look as good as an arcade monitor, but I'm just trying to make my image as crisp and arcade like as possible. Any help would be appreciated.

[Jack Burton]

You will gain quite a bit of lost detail and color.  

Hook a SNES or PSX up to that TV via composite video and try playing a game that uses some nice 2d graphics.  That's about the same quality you can expect from RGB>Composite.  

The same thing I pointed out earlier in the thread still stands with this conversion.  With RGB>Composite you will be able to preserve the native resolution.

I have an RCA Lyceum tv very similar to your own.  I connected my PSX to it and played Toaplan Shooting Battle on it and Dodonpachi in 240p.  It was very nice looking.  Much, much better than the same image coming from my pc's onboard s-video out.