LCD Monitors / TV: Help Needed (SOLVED)

[Chris John Hunter]

I am pretty good with coding and setting up software etc.
But when it comes to monitors my mind just swims at the possibilities.
 
I grew up as many of you in the 80s when in the UK if you had a dodgy tubed tiny TV with massive casing you were lucky; so forgive me for my lack of knowledge on the subject of Monitors.

I have a 32in HD Widescreen TV in my living room. Can I use that in a Full sized cab? What problems would I encounter? I was thinking that as its a TV and not a monitor the native resolution will be much lower anyway.

I figure that High Def for TV is well below normal res. for a monitor.

I am from England so we (UK + Europe) have 16:9 aspect ratio for normal TV broadcasting, I think you guys have 4:3 ?

I think this might account for the lack of 4:3 monitors in the UK. Now the TV allows me a host of different aspect ratios I can select from using the TV Remote.
These are : 16.9 , Just Scan (dynamic depends on broadcast resolution of the original program) , Full Wide ? , 4:3 ! , 14:9 ZOOM and Cinema Zoom which is the one I use to stretch any program to fill the full screen.

Now seeing as it can do 4:3 can I use this TV and somehow set it for 4:3 ? I know there will be a bit of a black border at the top and bottom but I was thinking I could create a bezel that would eliminate that black space and still have a nice big picture.

I know that original resolution for Arcade games (according the Wiki) A monitor, on which the game is displayed. They may display either raster or vector graphics, raster being most common. Standard resolution is between 262.5 and 315 vertical lines, depending on the refresh rate (usually between 50 and 60 Hz). Slower refresh rates allow for better vertical resolution. Monitors may be oriented horizontally or vertically, depending on the game. Some games use more than one monitor. Some newer cabinets have monitors that can display high-definition video.

If it is in 4:3 and standard def, how much different is that from my monitor at 800x600 ? I just think it would be a (fairly) low cost solution.

What do you think ?

[Rigby]

We're 16:9 as well.  We had widescreen tubes for a couple years but they fell out of favor very quickly once LCDs became less expensive.

You haven't said if you have an existing monitor or not, or if you plan on playing with a computer or actual arcade hardware.  Giving us that info will help us, I think.

You have a couple of options.  Your TV has SCART, most likely.  You can wire it directly (more or less) up to the RGB output of an arcade board and then it becomes an arcade monitor with the proper sync rates and all of that.  I do not know, however, what the widescreen nature of the tube will do to that picture.  Will it display a 4:3 picture or will it be an edge-to-edge picture?  I don't know.  Maybe your TV menus can correct anything that isn't good.  Again, I don't know.

If you think you can find a lot of TVs of the proper size to match your (perhaps) existing arcade monitor, you can look up your existing arcade tube here and find compatible tubes that are often found in TVs that way.

Clean arcade CRTs are becoming hard to find, no matter where you are.  Fortunately in the US we have a lot of folks still using CRT TVs and they can regularly be found in yard sales for a pittance.  I bought 4 this weekend for $6 total, and all the tubes are perfect.   That tool I linked to above can help you work out compatibility between tubes, but I don't know if it has widescreen tubes, or not.

[Chris John Hunter]

Thanks for your reply. Its a HD tv. LCD. LED infact. From LG a decent company for tvs.

Ah right, I might be able to use the HD output to put it to my pc. I intend to use it for MAME but I am quite confident that because it can change to 4:3 in the menu system at the moment that it will have no issue with
changing to that running mame. In a upright full size cabinet.

I will just create a bezel that masks off the black top and bottom but it will still be a nice size screen.

 

[Chris John Hunter]

Old Arcade monitors are pretty hard to find here in the UK at a good price at any rate.
They are incredibly heavy and I have a 32 inch tv which I use but I am thinking of upgrading to a 42 or bigger so it would make good use of a decent set.

[Rigby]

ha, it's an LCD.    it says that in the TOPIC and I missed it.

Yeah, HDMI or VGA, you'll be good.