Close to the finish line...just need to get that picture to fit in my monitor!

[DesignDawg]

Hello all,

I've been on a journey, taking my time rebuilding/customizing/getting everything just right on an Arcade Legends 2 Groovymame/Hyperspin build.  I finally have everything working, but I just can't seem to get my desktop to fit on my monitor horizontally.

I've been lurking and reading (hours a day sometimes), and I've tried most everything I understand how to do.  So I figured it was time to finally ask and hopefully someone can easily push me right across that CRT mame finish line!

Here's my setup:

• Arcade Legends 2 cabinet with a:
  Neotech NT-S501 monitor
  (Tube manufactured by Hua Fei)
  Video card:  Radeon 4850
  JPAC
  I HAVE done the 75 ohm resistors thing--this solved many an issue.  I don't know why I was fighting it.
  

Where I'm at with it all:

I started out with vmmaker.ini set to "CUSTOM" and my monitor was not happy about it.  I could get an "OK" interlace VGA picture, but I couldn't get it vertically stable to save my life.  It would look like a dream if I let it roll slowly down, but if I got it to creep up an "stick" in place, it had a vertical jitter that was unacceptable.  --And even with the H-size pot maxed out, the picture was about 20% too wide to fit on the screen.

I changed that to "GENERIC" and had glorious stable v-hold like a champ.  --Could turn the pot pretty far in either direction before I could even get it to jump.  So I knew I was onto something better. --But my picture was still about 20% too wide to fit on screen.

I've tried out generic (good), CGA (good), EGA (good) and VGA (not so good) in hopes of finding something that would just make it all work, but to no avail.  In the process, I've discovered a couple of other things:

• 640x480 interlaced looks fine in all but CUSTOM (where it rolls) and VGA (where I can't choose interlaced), EXCEPT at the top of the screen, there's a small amount of distortion/jitter, like the two fiels are being blown apart, leaning off to the right. 
  
  704x528 looks better--no field issues or distortion anywhere, and frontend looks fantastic...except the aforementioned picture being too wide for the screen.  ODDLY, THOUGH:  This resolution is listed as 27/54 Hz?  Huh?  I didn't even realize that was a thing...  I'm currently in "CGA" (per the line in vmmaker.ini, I mean), and vmmaker created a pretty small list of modes (14 I think), but I assumed that's because I'm set up for super resolution? 

I've tried adjusting dot clocks, front porches, back porches, etc. in ArcadeOSD, and I can't get anything to change AT ALL concerning the width of the picture on screen.  I'm thinking defining monitor specs is in my future, but I sure don't know what to do...I was hoping I could find some settings to apply by poking around in ArcadeOSD, but as I said, nothing I change in there does anything at all.

So...hopefully that's enough information and hopefully I can get a little help.

Thanks in advance!

Ricky

[machyavel]

Hello,

I've tried adjusting dot clocks, front porches, back porches, etc. in ArcadeOSD, and I can't get anything to change AT ALL...

You can't change the current desktop resolution, that is normal. You should try to change your desktop resolution to anything else than your usual one, then go into arcadeosd and adjust the modeline.

[DesignDawg]

I left out this detail, but yes, I discovered that somewhere along the way, and it still makes no difference.  I will set my desktop to 640x480 and try adjusting the 704x528 one, or vice-versa.  Same results.  I can push any setting to any extreme, and it does nothing.  I'm following the instructions from http://geedorah.com/eiusdemmodi/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=327#p327
namely, :
- Go to Edit Modeline and disable Lock Vfreq.
- Go to DotClock and try new values with the cursor keys.
- Press <Enter> and then <5> to check the actual vertical frequency for every value.
- Save changes when a better DotClock value has been found.

And unless I'm misunderstanding what Im supposed to be seeing, I can't get anything to change.  The screen goes black for a short second and comes back exactly as it was...

[Calamity]

I wonder if you're actually using the most recent version of CRT Emudriver. Notice this update note:

[10/10/2014][CRT Emudriver 1.2b][VMMaker + Arcade OSD 1.4]

- [Emudriver]  Removed timing cache from versions 6.5 & 9.3 for XP. Now you no longer need to create a minimum number of custom modes in order to get dynamic modelines.

With previous versions you needed to create at least 17 modelines otherwise dynamic modes didn't work (i.e. no real time changes through Arcade OSD). This restriction no longer applies.

[DesignDawg]

Hmmm...

I don't think I have 17 modes.  But I just freshly installed this all last week, so I should have the latest version.  It's nice to have something to look for, though.  Thanks, Calamity.  I'll get over to my office in a little bit and double check...anything in particular I should look for/post here?

Thanks.

P.S.  By the way, I forgot to mention, though it was probably obvious from the 75 ohm resistors thing, I'm using Windows 7 Pro (64)

[DesignDawg]

I wonder if you're actually using the most recent version of CRT Emudriver. Notice this update note:

[10/10/2014][CRT Emudriver 1.2b][VMMaker + Arcade OSD 1.4]

- [Emudriver]  Removed timing cache from versions 6.5 & 9.3 for XP. Now you no longer need to create a minimum number of custom modes in order to get dynamic modelines.

With previous versions you needed to create at least 17 modelines otherwise dynamic modes didn't work (i.e. no real time changes through Arcade OSD). This restriction no longer applies.

So, I'm at the office now.  I installed from crt_emudriver_13.1_1.2b_w7_64.  Downloaded last Sunday.

EDIT to add more info without constantly posting new replies:

I seem to have 13 modelines available in ArcadeOSD.  I had more when I set up vmmaker.ini as something else (EGA, maybe?), but since I'm on Win7 with the latest drivers, my # of modelines shouldn't be the issue, right?  I've been messing with it more, and I'm still just stumped.   

[DesignDawg]

OOH!  OOH!  I'm getting somewhere. 

Finally getting some results in ArcadeOSD.  I'll keep messing around and see what I can fix, and report back with new questions.  If anyone has any guidance in the meantime, I appreciate the help.  This place is great.