Some questions about mounting and using my new Makvision SVGA monitor

[Stackson]

Hi all,

This is my first comment here, but I've been learning a ton from lurking here, searching the forums, and reading Saint's book. Currently I have a Lusid cabinet I bought that had already been built and that has a sloping monitor shelf. I purchased a new Makvision 27"/29" SVGA monitor and have a few questions about how best to make it work in my cab.

Mounting: Currently I'm considering securing a piece of wood to the monitor shelf and attaching the lower mounting bracket on the monitor to that piece of wood, just by drilling holes and securing bolts, but I'm not particularly good with woodworking and that seems like a blunt-force approach. Plus, I have no idea how I'm going to secure the top bracket on the monitor. Any hints or tips on a good way to mount an arcade monitor on a monitor shelf?

Screen/Contrast/Brightness: I've read here that the Makvision monitors come from the factory cranked and over time this can deform the shadow mask, creating green/purples splotches and probably decreasing the life of the monitor. Obviously I'd like to avoid that! So it sounds like I need to turn down the screen pot and then adjust brightness/contrast. Any best practices on that?

Smoked Glass: So I love the smoked glass look on arcade machines and was planning on putting smoked glass over my monitor. But two questions:
- Putting on smoked glass apparently requires the brightness/contrast to be cranked on the monitor - and since the Makvision apparently needs to be turned down, I'm unsure as to whether this is possible. Is anybody running a Makvision with smoked glass?
- Mounting the glass - I was considering hinging the glass at the bottom, and putting a magnetic release at the top (like an old hi-fi cabinet from the 1980s). But I'm a bit stumped trying to figure out how to secure the hinges at the bottom. Has anybody else done this, and if so, could you share some pics or hints?

Any help would be appreciated! I'm a newbie at all this but am really enjoying watching everything come together.

[AGarv]

I have no idea what your cabinet looks like, but I had a similar open-frame monitor in a generic JAMMA cab.  You can design the jamma cab such that the monitor is "dropped" in from the front, and held in place by two horizontally mounted pieces of wood that catch the top and bottom of the monitor frame before it falls through entirely. You can then have screws to secure the top/bottom of the monitor to each piece of wood. Search around for CRT monitor mounting you should be able to find some examples of this.

[Stackson]

Thanks - that makes perfect sense.

How about using smoked glass, and the need to have brightness/contrast up on the Makvision? Is anybody successfully running a Makvision SVGA behind smoked glass, without frying the shadow mask?

[Rigby]

I think you're talking about phosphor burn-in.  I've never heard of an electron gun actually impacting or deforming the metal shadow mask, but everyone knows about burn-in. 

Yes, turning up brightness & contrast will shorten the life of the tube, but not a lot.  Newer tubes weren't made as well as old ones, as far as tube longevity goes, but it'll still last you awhile as long as you don't leave it turned on for a year straight.

[Stackson]

Thanks, Rigby - I'm actually talking about the shadow mask. I've seen a few threads on here in which MonMothma in particular calls out this issue with Makvision monitors. Here's one:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=130599.0

As you say, I'm not all that worried about burn-in because the monitor will only be turned on when I'm using it. But I'm curious as to whether I can safely get the Makvision bright/contrasty enough to pop nicely behind smoked glass.

Cheers!

Edit: Here's another good thread on the subject. It sounds as if the monitor needs to be "turned down" a bit from its stock settings - just not sure if that makes it unusable behind smoked glass.
https://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=121614.0

[Rigby]

Who the hell makes a tube with a shadow mask that warps when it's hot?  Geez...

[Dawgz Rule]

Stackson, I have a Makvision, smoked glass,and had the issue with the green/purple splotches.   I used a graylite 31 for the glass and simply adjusted down on contrast and brightness as far as I could but still have a "reasonable" picture.  Pretty subjective but haven't had a repeat issue since then.  The picture looks great and haven't had anybody complain. 

The smoked glass really does make the colors pop.

[Stackson]

Great - thanks, Dawgz! That's exactly the info I needed. I've been considering the Graylite 31 as well instead of the 14, so I'm glad to hear you can combine enough brightness for smoked glass without the splotches.