Widescreen PC Monitors? Beginner looking to start a new hobby.

[Marukai]

Truthfully I am just getting started and I cant justify spending money on a Makvision and am not skilled enough to go the TV route, so I have decided to go with a PC monitor with a scan line adapter. 

From other hobbyist who have been through this decision what is the best or very good choices for PC monitors, I want something new so that rules out non-widescreen choices sadly...

Any help is appreciated..

Looking at 21-26 inches approximately... It will be primarily for MAME, with a couple of the old consoles as well.

[P.H.U.]

If it is just MAME, think about just using HLSL instead of getting a scanline converter. Re-divert the money that would have went into the scanline converter and put it into getting a better monitor. As far as monitors go, get the one with the least input lag that you budget can allow for the size that you need.

[Marukai]

Thanks, I was just thinking of getting a new dell 21 inch or 22 inch would this work? I dont need it to be absolutely authentic.... I just need it to work well and I don't want to spend 500$ on a Makvision for a simple hobby, maybe later down the line this will be an option....

Or I was looking at some PC monitors with 2ms delay is that ideal, (it wasnt dell, I think it was a samsung)

Ill look into HLSL converter

[P.H.U.]

Actually, if it is strictly for MAME, you would be doing yourself a disservice if you don't get an older LCD monitor. A 20" 4x3 monitor playing old arcade games will use up the screen real estate of a 4x3 monitor a whole lot better than a 20" 16x9 monitor. I would look into getting an old Samsung SyncMaster 204b which are selling on eBay for less than $50. Response time on those is 8ms which is as good as it gets for 4x3 LCD monitors which are no longer made.

HLSL are settings that are built into MAME which can be enabled to emulate the CRT scanlines. Below is a good discussion that I found on HLSL. And also some nice settings that I used which I found also from that same thread. Costs you nothing for HLSL, just a little setup and you can see what it looks at on whatever screen you have now before you decide on making an actual purchase.

HLSL Discussion:  http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=45026
Settings:  http://wiki.arcadeotaku.com/w/File:Mame_hlsl_jezze_cools.zip

[Yenome]

what kind of budget are you looking at for the monitor. you could always get a cheap 32" lcd tv with a vga hookup. but it depends on the cabinet it self

[Marukai]

No more than 150$ total to my door on the monitor, found a couple samsung syncmasters for 50-60$ which is great! Thanks for the help!

Still open to other options if anyone has them. Getting really great help from everyone, learning alot found some wikis through this site that were quite helpful too!