Frontend use with Groovy Mame?

[dogman91]

So in preparation for my GroovyMame-related video stuff to arrive in the mail (VGA to component transcoder for my SD Sony WEGA CRT, ATI Radeon 9250 AGP, etc.), I've been scouring these forums and learned a lot. I'm pretty new to MAME in general though and I'm still wondering about certain things:

1. Can the frontend muck things up? I'm thinking about using Advmenu but I notice that it generates it's own settings and also apparently (if I'm getting this right) needs some installation of a driver to directly control the video card and such. How do I make sure anything the frontend does doesn't conflict with Groovy Mame? I simply just want to find a GUI to select a game and change it's in-game options easily and let Groovy Mame handle everything. Does it get first priority or does the frontend do? Anyone have a frontend they can recommend with Groovy Mame and what to do to install it properly?

2. I'm guessing I should follow these steps:
--uninstall all video card drivers
--insert AGP card in computer
--run CRT emu driver installation
--VMmaker and Powerstrip (for possible future update) afterwards
--Put groovymame exe in advmenu folder (?)
--...run?

I only have an idea that I need to set the display type to NTSC; I have no idea how to handle things like setting custom timings and such and don't really know what it entails. For example, earlier when I was making custom resolutions in the nVidia control panel I saw a lot of options and fields that looked like if I mess with it things will get mucked up. Is it only for geometry purposes or is there something else I'm not getting here? Would I need to manually adjust any of them? If so is it possible to save settings for certain resolutions so that it automatically switches to my manually-defined ones?

I just want to make sure I set everything up properly and in the right order to ensure zero conflicts and best performance and such. In regards to that is there anything about MAME that a complete MAME newb like me should know about (like adjusting certain INI settings or something I should do with the switchres) before attempting all this? Thanks... might sound a bit overly careful here but I have to admit I'm getting a bit confused the more I'm reading about stuff.

[Calamity]

Hi dogman91,

You can use AdvanceMenu as any other front-end, without custom video settings nor installing the Advance video driver.  This way it won't interfere with your video settings.

The process you describe is mostly right, but for the part where you install Powerstrip. It's not required at all with CRT Emudriver and will case you more problems than benefits. Also, GroovyMAME must go in its own folder.

As for the video settings, I recommend you to stay with generic_15 or even arcade_15 presets, rather than NTSC settings, which are quite restrictive.

[dogman91]

Thought I'd ask a quick question: since you measured the pixel clocks of the ATI 9250 and put them in a text file (and it's the card I have) could I assume that GroovyMAME is automatically configured to use it, or are there some settings I should adjust somewhere to make use of it?

Second quick question: I have my computer connected to a LCD and I plan to switch the VGA cable back and forth between that and my Trinitron. Can I assume once VMMaker has done it's thing that selecting 640x480 will be interlaced for the frontend? (safe to hook up to my SDTV?) Along with that, is there a quick way to disable and renable interlacing for LCD and high res CRT computer monitors in order for those resolutions to be in progressive for those monitors?

Thanks!

edit: it seems I'm getting random pitch shifts in the audio of Street Fighter II': Champion Edition (for example). Any ideas?