Just bought 27" monitor (1280x1024 res), need advice

[Izrun]

Hello all.  I just purchased a new monitor from eBay with the following specs

Mitsubishi XC-2930C.  29in (27in viewable) multiscan monitor 1280 x1024 max resolution (scans 15-82kHz horizontally, 40-120 Hz vertically) RGBHV, S-video, composite video.

I was looking for a big monitor that could handle high resolutions for some great PC gaming.  Anyway, I was wondering if in my case if there would be a big advantage going with an ArcadeVGA.  My option is to go with one of them or with a card that is better at 3D for PC gaming purposes.  The computer I'll be using will be pretty hefty (probably an AMD Athlon X2 4800+).  So my real question is: what is the real advantage?  Note: the monitor supports 15kHz horizontally, which I think means I should be able to run many games natively).

Anyway, I'm excited but don't know where to go one this.  Please give me some advice!

[Silver]

Hi,

Yes that monitor handles 15Khz, so you could go native res. Note that the high resolution of the monitor means the games will still look a bit "too good" compared to a arcade monitor, although with that size, the dot pitch is probably quite large...

Only thing to check is inputs - does it have a VGA and a RGBHV input, or just the RGBHV? ie, is the full input range (15-82Khz) achievable from a single input? (I believe it is with that monitor - but worth checking).

Only other thing of note - you mentioned high res PC gaming. I am not up to date with the current ArcadeVGA chipset, but they tend not to be cutting edge (last one I saw was based on a 9200 Radeon - no slouch, but does not cut it on newer PC games at high res). I think there are newer ArcadeVGA's out then.

Your other option would be using a normal gfx card and using powerstrip to create custom 15Khz resolutions - but this is a LOT more work/fiddly.

[Izrun]

It has the 5 seperate input RGBHV, and I have a VGA to RGBHV converter that I had from an old monitor.  That is a good question about the full range being achievable.  I assume so, since the other inputs are s-video and composite (which as far as I remember don't have a 15khz signal, though I could easily be wrong).  I suppose the best thing might be to go with the powerstrip option.  Thanks.

[wpcmame]

I suppose the best thing might be to go with the powerstrip option.  Thanks.

Don't mess with 15KHz resolutions in powerstrip. It is much easier to create double (or triple) sized resolutions and then let mame scale and add scanlines.

[mamerocks87]

how much did you give for it?

[Izrun]

It's about 217 shipped.  I'm quite pretty pleased, as this monitor new is/was about 5000!

(modified to fix price typo)

[mamerocks87]

holy crap. can i have the seller id you bought from? Also could you post some screenshots of the monitor in action?

[tetsu96]

Heh, I have 2 36" versions of the Mitsubishi monitors though the scan ranges are different.  1 is 24-64KHz (supports 1280x1024 but not the low game resollutions), and 1 that I still have for sale supports 15-36KHz (800x600 tops, but it's great for MAMEing and better for the Dreamcast because it supplorts INTERLACED video).

Pictures can be found in the other thread:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=56442.0

My advice would be to use Advancemame and scale in multiples of the native res with scan lines.  Maybe windows MAME or SDL MAME allow you to do this too, I haven't messed with other builds in a while.  Even the Betson Multisyncs look too damn sharp when displaying at the native resolution and most peeps here consider them to be arcade monitors.

And you can use more cards than just the AVGA.  Nvidia, Matrox, ATI, and even S3 all have cards that support low res output though their windows drivers start at 31KHz.  Might be tricky if you're PCIe and shooting for the latest and greatest, but I run Geforces on my rigs and they do well.

[Izrun]

Here is the link to the auction:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120021413747&fromMakeTrack=true

I was scared away from him at first because he only ships freight, but the shipping cost from Atlanta to Austin only ended up being 92 bucks, which for the price of the monitor is pretty damn good.  Comes with a road case too, which I'm giving to my musician friend for his amp  .  The pre-purchase service was good (they even measured it for me to make sure it fit).  They have a lot of good items, like this 27" NEC monitor capable of 1024x768 (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120021413747&fromMakeTrack=true.  They even have guarentees and you can buy warantees on the item.