HDTV

[bb040]

Now that the prices are dropping on HDTV's has anyone used one for their arcade ? I've been thinking about swapping mine out for one.Are there any major problems using an HDTV?

[Frosty]

There shouldn't be any problems with it, but it seems like overkill to me.

The vast majority of arcade games used CGA (or standard) resolution.

[elvis]

HD TVs use resolutions similar to modern PC monitors.  Some people find that these are too clear, and make older games look overly blocky when they are scaled up.  Each to their own, I guess.

When using MAME you can apply filters to fake effects like scanlines and edge filtering, or in AdvanceMAME you can use the Scale2X style effects, but these all eat up processing power.

[Barkuti]

If arcade CRT like image is what we are after, no digital rendering device display will do the trick IMHO. Its pixels are rectangular and disposed in a perfectly regular pattern, theoretically producing an image that is a perfect 1:1 copy of the display framebuffer (device color rendering limitations aside).

In the end, even a CRT is a digital display, because there's only a limited amount of pixels it is capable of rendering (the number of dot trios on the screen surface, so it's not continuous). The difference resides in the fact it uses an analog rastering device, I mean, it uses the levels of analog signals to refresh the contents of its pixels; and this also means there can't be a direct correlationship between digital image pixels and on screen pixels, as the signal is analog and the rastering device can start sweeping over any physical screen area. But even the analog video signal must be interpreted as being digital, because we are limited by the total video bandwidth (so we are not only limited in vertical but also horizontal resolution). Only color information can be "infinite".

So, fluctuation of the video signal while our raster guns shoot over each one of their given corresponding dots results in a constant change of the beam strenght, and thereby the dot's brightness throughput, which has the effect of averaging the video signal over the limited dot width/time. The beam-time that collides with the shadow/slot mask or grille is just lost video bandwidth.

Voil

[elvis]

If arcade CRT like image is what we are after, no digital rendering device display will do the trick IMHO. Its pixels are rectangular and disposed in a perfectly regular pattern

Depends on the display.  There are plasma and LCD HD displays coming out now with true square pixels.  Inputting a 4:3 resolution and turning the device to "pillarbox" mode will give you black borders down the left and right hand sides, giving you a proper 4:3 image without squashing it, with the only sacrifice being some screen space being wasted.

Although I don't see anyone putting a Plasma TV in their cab just yet.

[wpcmame]

Depends on the display.

[Goz]

HDTV would look nice if you were using it with a JVS compatible system like Atomiswave or NAOMi in hi-res mode possibly even System246 (sould Calibur 2/Tekkan 4). Console arcade such as Xbox or Dreamcast (VGA) should good as well.

-Goz