Newbie Polo Star Questions...

[GameBase]

I just received my Hantarex Polo Star 21" arcade monitor and have some questions.  If anyone can help me out here that would be great!

1) A signal lead came with the monitor... one end ready to attach to the monitor board with all inputs connected (R,G,B,Gnd,Vert,Horiz) and the other end with just bare wires, but I can also see a standard 15 pin female VGA connector on the back of the monitor.  Can I use this VGA socket to connect my VGA card to the monitor directly (e.g. same as my PC monitor), or will I have to hack a VGA cable together with the signal lead that came with the monitor?

2)  Not entirely sure how to connect up the power (please excuse my crapness here).  Would I just get a plug (I'm in the UK btw) and connect the Live/Neutral/Earth wires to the power input socket on the monitor, or would I need another special cable/transformer/voltage-amplifier etc?  If the plug solution would work, what ampage fuse would I need in the plug, and is it mandatory to connect the earth?

3)  My GFX card is an NVIDIA Geforce4 Ti (from ABIT).  Anyone know if this card can output at 15/25KHz (I'll be using AdvanceMame/Menu or ArcadeOS for running MAME).  If so, since the Polo Star is 15/25/31Khz autoswitching, would I be able to turn on the monitor before the frontend has loaded without the PC sending the monitor a signal it can't cope with?

4)  I'm under the impression that because the monitor can run at 31Khz, this should mean I can run Windows in 640x480 no problem.  Please confirm if I'm right or correct me if I'm wrong!  What would be the maximum resolution I could run the monitor (windows/pc/console games) at?

This is the first time I've done this so I figured a little help/confirmations from people more in the know would not be a bad idea (before I connect up and switch on).

Thanks for your help!

[b3atmania]

I just received my Hantarex Polo Star 21" arcade monitor and have some questions.  If anyone can help me out here that would be great!

1) A signal lead came with the monitor... one end ready to attach to the monitor board with all inputs connected (R,G,B,Gnd,Vert,Horiz) and the other end with just bare wires, but I can also see a standard 15 pin female VGA connector on the back of the monitor.  Can I use this VGA socket to connect my VGA card to the monitor directly (e.g. same as my PC monitor), or will I have to hack a VGA cable together with the signal lead that came with the monitor?

Yes, youcan connect your VGA lead directly. The lead you got with your monitor is for wiring a JAMMA-harness for arcade boards and accepts different signal levels than the VGA terminal.

2)  Not entirely sure how to connect up the power (please excuse my crapness here).  Would I just get a plug (I'm in the UK btw) and connect the Live/Neutral/Earth wires to the power input socket on the monitor, or would I need another special cable/transformer/voltage-amplifier etc?  If the plug solution would work, what ampage fuse would I need in the plug, and is it mandatory to connect the earth?

Can't comment on the amps. I'd ask Hantarex. Grounding the monitor is not necessary for operation. Recommended for safety however. Mine isn't grounded because the outlets near my cabs aren't and it works fine.

3)  My GFX card is an NVIDIA Geforce4 Ti (from ABIT).  Anyone know if this card can output at 15/25KHz (I'll be using AdvanceMame/Menu or ArcadeOS for running MAME).  If so, since the Polo Star is 15/25/31Khz autoswitching, would I be able to turn on the monitor before the frontend has loaded without the PC sending the monitor a signal it can't cope with?

Yes, provided your PC initializes itself with a standard 31kHz 640x400 VGA mode. You should see the BIOS boot/memory test/disk scan sequence even.

4)  I'm under the impression that because the monitor can run at 31Khz, this should mean I can run Windows in 640x480 no problem.  Please confirm if I'm right or correct me if I'm wrong!  What would be the maximum resolution I could run the monitor (windows/pc/console games) at?

You can certainly run it at 31kHz which will give you 640x480 @ 60Hz. The monitor controls allow you to select three presets: 31, 35 and 38kHz for modes from 30kHz.

31kHz = 640x480 @ 60Hz
35kHz = 800x600 @ 56Hz
38kHz = 800x600 @ 60Hz

[GameBase]

Thanks for your help.  Tested the monitor fine in 640x480.  Just fitted a 5 amp fuse on my plug and I was away