Edit: So I bit the bullet (Wells Gardner D9500)

[infiniteomega]

EDIT: 

I guess 19" monitors are totally out of style (or no one likes me..lol) and I didn't get any replies so I went with the model with the most features at the lowest price.  Shipping from wells to me was quoted to me for 13 dollars.  So I'll have the monitor for a total of 300.  Hopefully it's worth the price.  They apparently don't add in shipping costs when you order direct so I'm guessing I'll have to wait for someone to contact me to make sure I sign off on the shipping charge.  It better not change from what Jeff Gardner (wonder if there's any relation there) told me the shipping cost would be.

When I get the monitor I'll give my impressions.




So I have decided that I'm going to actually use an actual arcade monitor for my cabinet.  My initial cabinet design called for a 27" model, but after mocking things up in cardboard I realized I didn't have nearly enough space to put the cabinet in.  My new cabinet design calls for a 19" monitor.  Now, I've found that both of these monitors should do the trick as far as giving me the ability to play old games in standard res, as well as hook up current/future consoles and play pc games in vga.  The Wells model is slightly cheaper and has support for higher resolutions than the Billabs model so I'm leaning towards it. 
     What I can't find, however, is anyone who's actually purchased either of these monitors.  Or even anyone who's had any kind of exposure to them at all.  I realize that large multisyncs are all the rage, but I'm surprised no one has bought one yet.
     I'm not really a trailblazer when it comes to shelling out hundreds of dollars so the thought of going with something proven has crossed my mind. 
     As for my plans for the setup;  I'm looking to put a pc in the cab along with some consoles.  As for the console support, I'm more than likely going to have a ps2 in there from the getgo.  Later down the road I'm probably going to want to add one of the next-gen consoles in there and run it in vga. 

Please Advise...

Thanks

[infiniteomega]

bump for edit

[miles2912]

Honesly for a 19" I would have decased a PC monitor.   The Happ monitor is nice if you are replacing a monitor but for a mame machine I would use a PC monitor or a 27".

What design are you using that you can not accomodate a 27?

Don

[infiniteomega]

Here's the link to my project thread:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=52713.0

Basically, I don't have enough room to stick one BIG cabinet.  So instead of making one tiny cabinet and crowd 2 people on it I'll have 2 single player ones.

I really didn't have any spare monitors of any type.  I was initially thinking about using my 27" tv and "upgrading" to an hd set, but that didn't really pan out due to the space limitations.  At this point I figure, if I'm going to have to spend money anyway, I might as well have spent money on a display with the most flexibility.  I guess I'll find out if it's worth it in a week or two.

[Frosty]

EDIT: 

I guess 19" monitors are totally out of style (or no one likes me..lol) and I didn't get any replies so I went with the model with the most features at the lowest price.  Shipping from wells to me was quoted to me for 13 dollars.  So I'll have the monitor for a total of 300.  Hopefully it's worth the price.  They apparently don't add in shipping costs when you order direct so I'm guessing I'll have to wait for someone to contact me to make sure I sign off on the shipping charge.  It better not change from what Jeff Gardner (wonder if there's any relation there) told me the shipping cost would be.

Sure, 27" multisyncs are great, but they're also a little big.  I think 19" arcade monitors work great...and, there's one distinct advatange to them: the ability to rotate the 19" for true vertial gaming goodness...

PC monitors are good, cheap and do the job easily---but they're not arcade monitors.  CGA games were made to for standard resolution.  So, once you put an arcade monitor in your cab and play at the resolutions the games were created in, you'll never use a TV or PC one again.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the D9500 is a relatively new monitor, I believe.  There are few of us out here that have been looking for one for a while, and there were not many options until the Billlabs and then this one came out.  So, I'd be very curious to hear your impressions about it when you get it.

[infiniteomega]

I believe they were introduced sometime back in october 2005.  So, they are going on nearly a year now.  The model billabs has should be available early next month but it only does up to 640x480.

I will be sure to post my impressions once I get it.

[miles2912]

I see.   27" monitors would be a tough fit.  You might want to make sure the Arcadevga card can handle 2 monitors at one.  I don't see a problem splitting the signal but you might want to make sure.  Interesting project idea.

Don

[thebrownshow]

Why did I not know this monitor existed.  My cab will only fit a 19" and I've been wanting a multisync for a while now.  Sweetness.  Definitely post your impressions when you get it.

[infiniteomega]

So I've been playing with the monitor all day today and all I can say is that I'm impressed.  Image quality at all frequencies is actually really good.  I can read small text at 800x600 pretty well in windows (haven't tried for 1024x768).  For all intents and purposes, this monitor is probably just a mini d9200.  Colors are great, and it doesn't seem to have any purity, or geometry issues.  My cabinet still hasn't seen its first cut so I haven't had a chance to see how well this thing takes to rotation, but I'm sure it will be fine.

The only image quality related issue I've had is that every once in a while the screen with shudder.  I'm not exactly sure how to explain it.  It only happens in windows so I'm going to assume it has something to do with either the a) cheap vga cable I'm using, or b) the crappy geforce fx5200 nonamer that I got for free.  So, I guess that's not a negative on the monitor, just something I noticed.

The only other thing I have issues with is the mounting bracket/style.  I really wish they offered this thing with a universal setup.  The unit ships with the brackets mounted at the bottom (to screw down onto a monitor shelf), and while it does have holes to mount the brackets on the side, they didn't tap the holes so you can't use them.  I don't feel like tapping any screw holes so I'm probably going to get some angle iron from a hardware store and mount them to these 1/2" holes that are on the frame.

For 300 shipp from wells gardner, I'm going to have to say it's worth it.  And for the cabinet design I'm going for, I can get 2 of these bad boys for less than 1 27" multisync.


Here's a picture (stupid flash):

[Frosty]

Wow...looks good to me!  I'd love to see a few more shots of higher resolutions when you get the chance.  I think I'm going to have to seriously consider this and see how she works with my AVGA.  It would be great to play Dreamcast games in non-interlaced VGA...

[Toonces]

I am looking at one of these monitors for a Daphne project and was happy to see your post. Sounds like it will be perfect as it eliminates the need for an AVGA since the monitor itself will sync to the arcade resolutions along with the higher windows res. I still don't understand why people buy an AVGA for use with a d9200 as the reason for the AVGA is to sync to the lower res on bootup. Even modern cards will still go down to 15khz, they just won't boot up in 15khz so you end up sending your arcade monitor a signal it can't sync to. the d9200/d9500 don't have that problem since they go all the way up to 38khz. Adding an AVGA is a waste with those monitors. You don't gain any new resolutions just the ability to boot in a lower res so you can see your boot screens with a standard monitor.

As far as the mounting brackets, the holes most likely do not need to be tapped because the screws are self tapping. I've had monitors with that kind of setup before and you just unscrew them from the bottom mount position and screw them in to the side mounting holes and the screw taps the hole as it goes in.

Thanks for the review and pics. Hopefully shipping to me will be reasonable as it was to you.

Toonces

So I've been playing with the monitor all day today and all I can say is that I'm impressed.  Image quality at all frequencies is actually really good.  I can read small text at 800x600 pretty well in windows (haven't tried for 1024x768).  For all intents and purposes, this monitor is probably just a mini d9200.  Colors are great, and it doesn't seem to have any purity, or geometry issues.  My cabinet still hasn't seen its first cut so I haven't had a chance to see how well this thing takes to rotation, but I'm sure it will be fine.

The only image quality related issue I've had is that every once in a while the screen with shudder.  I'm not exactly sure how to explain it.  It only happens in windows so I'm going to assume it has something to do with either the a) cheap vga cable I'm using, or b) the crappy geforce fx5200 nonamer that I got for free.  So, I guess that's not a negative on the monitor, just something I noticed.

The only other thing I have issues with is the mounting bracket/style.  I really wish they offered this thing with a universal setup.  The unit ships with the brackets mounted at the bottom (to screw down onto a monitor shelf), and while it does have holes to mount the brackets on the side, they didn't tap the holes so you can't use them.  I don't feel like tapping any screw holes so I'm probably going to get some angle iron from a hardware store and mount them to these 1/2" holes that are on the frame.

For 300 shipp from wells gardner, I'm going to have to say it's worth it.  And for the cabinet design I'm going for, I can get 2 of these bad boys for less than 1 27" multisync.


Here's a picture (stupid flash):

[rbarr110]

I would really, really appreciate some pics of the monitor playing games like pac-man, etc on the monitor.

I want a 15 khz capable VGA monitor really bad, but cant stomach the 27" price tag.  WOuld love to see a bit more of the 19".

Thanks

[dabone]

The problem with most video cards going to 15k is that it is a royal pain in the 
to get the 15k modes correct without the card, advmame sucks under windows xp, (Great under dos), so that leaves hours of tweaking under powerstrip.

I've tried to do the advmame and powerstip solutions under xp with a d9200 monitor and wasn't happy with the display results.


Mame doesn't (Or didn't at the time) support stretching in 1 direction only.

see thread.


http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=43728.msg420802#msg420802

So the image of the game had scaling issues.


Later,
dabone

[Hiub1]

Man, I just set up my 3rd computer with an ATI card for 15 kHz under Windows using powerstrip! It can be done, it's very easy, and it works wonders. Damn, I need to do a write up, let me see what I can do.

[telengard]

I would really, really appreciate some pics of the monitor playing games like pac-man, etc on the monitor.

I want a 15 khz capable VGA monitor really bad, but cant stomach the 27" price tag.  WOuld love to see a bit more of the 19".

Thanks

I'm curious to see how vector games (with and without backdrops) look.  That's the only thing keeping me from getting one of these.

~telengard