Vision Pro 19" VGA - What video card should I use?

[lildivaaa]

Hopefully a quick monitor question,

I have recently aquired a Happ Controls Vision Pro 19" VGA monitor for use with my MAME cabinet. My current video card for my cabinet is an early ATI Radeon 64mb DDR.

My question is: Will this video card do a good job for display, or do I need to look into the ArcadeVGA card for any specific reason(s)?

My understanding of this particular monitor is it's basically a PC SVGA monitor, that only handles 640x480. All the specs I've read about seem to reflect that.

Any thoughts or comments are welcome,
Craig - Atlanta, Ga. USA

[lildivaaa]

Well...well...well...!!!

Just to let everyone know, I just hooked up the monitor last night. After a few minutes of tweaking the video settings in Windows XP and then my current MAME settings...it blazed forth with all of it's Classic Arcade glory! I was surprise to be able to get the monitor to run at 800x600, none of the documentation stated anything above 640x480. Also, from previous comments about this particular monitor...I found that it did not look at all like the resolution a normal PC monitor would give. Instead, it looked pretty authentic to arcade quality (not 100%, but very close!).

Anycase, I couldn't be happier with the monitor! If you have any questions regarding it's performance or settings needed for MAME or Windows XP, please feel free to ask.

Later,
Craig

[BigRan]

Sounds really good I have been looking into getting a monitor like this as well,  I have been fooling with a old and I mean old arcade monitor and having so much grief that just getting something to work about now sounds like the thing to do,  so this monitor now I am not shure if I read correctly you were able to use it in windows okay then? sounds pretty good to me then what luck I was just looking at this identical monitor this morning so it has me convinced will work well for me then, so did you just wire it up like I have seen everywhere about doing using the red, green , blue, ground and hsync and v sync to your video card?

[lildivaaa]

Sounds really good I have been looking into getting a monitor like this as well,  I have been fooling with a old and I mean old arcade monitor and having so much grief that just getting something to work about now sounds like the thing to do,  so this monitor now I am not shure if I read correctly you were able to use it in windows okay then? sounds pretty good to me then what luck I was just looking at this identical monitor this morning so it has me convinced will work well for me then, so did you just wire it up like I have seen everywhere about doing using the red, green , blue, ground and hsync and v sync to your video card?

No, this monitor connects like any regular PC monitor. It already has a VGA cable wired from the monitor to connect directly to your computer. Nothing else is required. It's a beautiful thing!!

And yes, I can view Windows just fine. The documentation for the monitor states it will only go up to 640x480, but I was able to run it at 800x600 with no problems. I don't think I would try anything higher because the text gets unreadable at that point. Otherwise, it's a beautiful picture. I could be happier. I would recommend this to anyone.

Later,
Craig

[bdsjake]

Craig, I am interested to know if this monitor works vertically (like if you installed it in a Centipede or pacman cab) w/o the colors going wierd?

Thanks,

[lildivaaa]

Craig, I am interested to know if this monitor works vertically (like if you installed it in a Centipede or pacman cab) w/o the colors going wierd?

Thanks,

I imagine it would work vertically, with no problems. If you want to rotate your entire Windows enviroment, I'd suggest you visit the following site:

http://www.portrait.com/

They make a program called "Pivot Pro", which will rotate your entire Windows session.

Later,
Craig

[Nailz]

FYI, the latest Nvidia and ATI drivers also do this for you....

[bdsjake]

Hey folks, appreciate the replies, I've experimented with both pivot pro and the newest ATI drivers.  I'm not talking about getting windows rotated, but physically rotating the monitor to a vertical position.  I did this with a WG monitor I have (rotate it 90 degree to left or right so that one of the "sides" is now the bottom), and the colors all went weird.  WG support says I need to set "vertical purity" to correct this.  I was just wondering if this monitor would work with or without the same problem.

Thanks,

[Lance]

You should be able to just degauss the monitor the and funny colors should disappear.  I've done that with a VGA monitor before and it worked fine.

[steve_pss]

Quick questions:
1. Just to be certain, because it seems to good to be true, does this moniter connect via standard PC VGA cord and is it included?
2. Is it powered via standard 110AC power cord and is it included?

Thanks much for your reply!

[paigeoliver]

Quick questions:
1. Just to be certain, because it seems to good to be true, does this moniter connect via standard PC VGA cord and is it included?
2. Is it powered via standard 110AC power cord and is it included?

Thanks much for your reply!

I have dealt with several different models of VGA arcade monitors. (I have owned 4 different models).

Yes you can rotate them to vertical no problem. As long as your deguass circuit works the color problems will vanish quickly (or instantly).

It doesn't matter what video card you use.

I DO NOT reccomend running them at 800x600 even if they will do it. It is out of spec for most of those displays and is a good way to kill them quickly (just like so many of you have done with your D9200s).

Most VGA arcade monitors that I have seen use standard AC power and do not require a transformer. They may or may not be equipped with a standard power cord, but usually are, if not you can make your own with an old extension cord.

[BigRan]

Hi I seen the first post and I went and got me a Happs 19' vision pro, the model I have though is the standard arcade one I did not realize they made one to hook up to the pc but this one I just wired it right in. the wires were color coded mostly and I tell you got a perfect pic the first time I powered it up, so either way these monitors are excellent I used a ATI rage card is all and it seemed to work fine. I was glad that Craig had mentioned this monitor as I had no idea of what to get although I got mine from Ebay it was brand new in the box so was a good deal a excellent monitor either way.  

[Wade]

I DO NOT reccomend running them at 800x600 even if they will do it. It is out of spec for most of those displays and is a good way to kill them quickly (just like so many of you have done with your D9200s).

Jumping to conclusions?  There has been no real evidence of using 800x600 causing the D9200 failures, to my knowledge.

My D9200 failed before I tried 800x600.  Later, I used 800x600 for awhile with no problems.

Wade