The endless monitor decision dilemma

[TheManuel]

Wow!  I search for my last post and it was in May, 2004. 
I can't believe it has been that long since I neglected my arcade hobby.
I guess building the control panel was more fun than actually playing the games
I still see a couple of names in the posts that I recognize, especially OSCAR whom I met in person although I see his arcade hardware sale site is no more.  Hi OSCAR!

Anyway.  More hobbies have come (some have gone) and now I'm back to arcade because I want to get the full shebang and integrate my super-duper control panel into an upright cabinet.

My question regards montiors as the subject implies.  I read through the FAQ and the excellent easymamecab.mameworld.net but still have a few questions.

If I go the arcade monitor route with a standard resolution, relatively modern unit and set up the monitor for 240 visible plus 22 blanking lines (whatever setting it up means):
1. Will I be able to see most of Ms Pacman with the monitor oriented horizontally if I feed the monitor a 50Hz signal from my graphics card (using Soft-15KHz)?  My calculation is 15720 / 50 = 314 total - ~22 balnking = ~290 visible.  Of course, Ms Pacman's horizontal resolution is 288.  I know it looks like I answered my own question but I want to run it by the arcade cab community to see if I'm missing anything on this point.
2. Will most standard resolution monitors be happy with switching between game of 50 and 60Hz refresh rate?
3. Would I have to make monitor adjustments when switching between these modes or will the image be unaffected (other than the size of the black bars, of course)?
4. Do vertical games on horizontal monitors look just as good as in a vertically oriented monitor other than the reduction in size?

Thanks in advance.

[FrizzleFried]

Arcade monitors have a set maximum number of lines.  You will not fit the entire screen of a vertical game on a horizontal standard res monitor regardless of what you feed it.  The score will be cut off the top and the number of Ms. Pacs will be cut off the bottom.

[TheManuel]

Interesting and dissapointing 

The author of the following website:
http://easymamecab.mameworld.net/html/monitor9.php
Was explaining how you could lower the refresh rate to get more lines.

Does that mean his statement is not correct or did I maybe interpret it incorrectly?

[TheManuel]

Well, in all these years of cab building, what is the most common compromise for arcade monitor users to be able to play both horizontal and vertical games on an horizontal monitor?

[ahofle]

Fizzle is correct.  However you can do what you are suggesting, you just have to adjust the vertical size pot to fit the 290 lines (standard CGA monitors can do a max lines of around 300).  The downside of that is the 240 line horizontal games will then have a lot of empty black space.  If you are looking to play horizontal and vertical games on the same arcade monitor (without rotating) the best solution is a multisync monitor which can handle both the low res CGA resolutions as well as medium and VGA resolutions.  Most of the multisyncs are digital and have memory settings for various resolutions, so you can adjust the vertical size on one resolution without it affecting the other resolutions.  Therefore you can adjust the 256 and 288 lines games to perfect fit, without affecting the 240 line games.

[TheManuel]

Thanks for your helpful reply.
What about wiring the vertical size pot to a spot accesible from outside the cabinet so that you can do the quick adjustment when going from one game to another, does this sound feasible?
Have you heard of other trying this?

I am considering more and more just using a TV.
MAME through TV out actually doesn't look too bad at all but I have never compared it side by side with an arcade monitor.

[ahofle]

That's an interesting idea about the remote pot control and I don't know that I've heard of anyone trying it.  I don't see any reason it wouldn't work, although it may become tedious.

In regards to using a TV, I had that setup for a few years and was quite happy with it after some tweaking.  But once I saw MAME on an arcade monitor, nothing else was good enough.  Here's a thread with some comparison pictures.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=65263.0

[Nipedley]

Plenty of monitors come with remote adjustment boards anyway, if yours doesnt I can't see why custom making one would be an issue

[TheManuel]

I am starting to get excited about this idea.
It can actually be made even better.  You can measure the resistance of the screen size potentiometer needed to adjust the size correctly for each resolution setting that you want to use (usually works out to a few for most games).  Then you can connect generic potentiometers (variable resistors) in parallel with a switch in line for each.   You then set each potentiometer so that the combined resistance of it and the monitor's pot produces the desired resistance for a particular video mode.  Then simply apply swiches as necessary to obtain the necessary resistance when you want to use each video mode.  In fact, you could use a switch system that when you press on one, it pops off the one that was previously pressed so you don't have to do anything but a simple button press for each game.  Follow?

I think this could work great but I will not have a monitor soon to test it out so it is just an idea for now.

If anyone wants to know more or does not agree my plan could work let me know.

[ahofle]

That sounds like a very cool idea.  Please post pics when you do it!  You'd probably only need 3 buttons.  One for 240 lines, one for 256, and another for 288. 

[TheManuel]

I will keep the forum in the loop when I get to it although I think I won't be able to do this until next year unless I get lucky and find a great deal on an arcade machine with a working monitor.

[brandon]

you could always get a used TV tube from a TV repair shop and get one of those 8liner chassis for about $65.  http://www.8liners.com/datatech/monitor.html  That would at least get you started with an arcade monitor to experiment with...  OR if you can find an old RGB monitor like a Commodore 1902 or 1084.. just make sure its an RGB monitor and NOT just a video monitor(like the 1702).  I played Jamma games like this for years before I had my first real arcade cab.  Good to have for a test bench too.

[TheManuel]

That's an idea.  I now recall having looked into those 8-liner chassis many years ago before deciding to just do the control panel.  I will take a second look.

As for the Commodore monitors, are those old CGA computer monitors?  I be they did not make them very big.  But yuo are right, it would make a decent test bed.

By the way, when you guys were mucking around with Soft-15kHz or Powerstrip, if you went that route, how do you know you are getting the video mode to work before connecting it to the actual monitor without risking getting a high frequency mode and frying the monitor?