TV, VGA Monitor, or Arcade Monitor?

[sofakng]

I'm trying to decided whether I should build or buy a cabinet...

What it really comes down to is the monitor that I will use (everything else could easily be swapped out).

What are some advantages/disadvantages of the three different monitors? (television, computer monitor, and arcade monitor)

Right now my "spare" television is a Toshiba CF19G32 (a pretty old 19" television with RCA jacks and no s-video).  Would this be OK to use?  From what I hear the Radeon 7500 is a good card for TV-out and it just-so-happens that I have one (built by ATI, not powered by ATI).

Cost is the most important concern for me but I want to do this right so that it doesn't look too bad.

EDIT:  Also, what would I need to purchase additional if I went with the various monitors?

[jakejake28]

if u use a tv, you need s-vid out. i used rca out once, looked like trash. if u use an arcade moniter, most people recommed the arcadevga card. if u use a computer moniter, you need money. a moniter is proportionally a lot more than a tv, ex. a 27 inch pc moniter is over 1000 bucks, a tv with s-vid is 200. not that you need 27, just an example. For cost effiecency, go with an s-vid tv. gives very nice results and can be bought larger for cheaper.

[sofakng]

Hmmm... S-Video will be that much higher quality?

If I use a TV (and my Radeon 7500 card), will I be able to play all the games with the different refresh rates?

Also, I would like to use ArcadeOS (and probably hack apart a keyboard [only to test my setup, then I'll buy an I-PAC]).

[jakejake28]

amazing difference in quality. you cannot use many refresh rates on a tv, hardware limitation. and your interface or fe really won't matter about your moniter, but arcadeos should work on a tv.

[giantgonzolez]

if u use a tv, you need s-vid out. i used rca out once, looked like trash. if u use an arcade moniter, most people recommed the arcadevga card. if u use a computer moniter, you need money. a moniter is proportionally a lot more than a tv, ex. a 27 inch pc moniter is over 1000 bucks, a tv with s-vid is 200. not that you need 27, just an example. For cost effiecency, go with an s-vid tv. gives very nice results and can be bought larger for cheaper.

There's 1 OTHER option many of you guys haven't considered, digital tvs with VGA inputs.
This is the cheapest digital tv I've ever seen, it's a 27" 4x3 Zenith Digital TV with a VGA input.
It has a streetprice of about $650.
Its model number is ZEN C27V22 and here's the link to the website.
http://www.zenith.com/sub_prod/product_Display.asp?cat=46&id=116

[sofakng]

$650 is way too much for me, but thanks for the suggestion.

What I'm going to do is save up for a 24" TV with S-Video since that is the cheapest and easiest way to do it.

The refresh rates won't be a problem on the TV will it?  I'm a little confused on how refresh rates work with games, but I assume that MAME + TV Out Card (Radeon 7500) + TV (w/S-Video) will be able to adjust and play all the games fine...  right?

[jakejake28]

i use a 24" s-vid tv now, and what i use is a program called advanceMAME to keep the tv and mame in sync. you get some really nice effects like fullscreen without hardware stretch and all kinds of blit effects. heres a link

http://advancemame.sourceforge.net/

with it, ya don't really need to worry about refresh rates and all that junk. it may seem hard to config, but read all the documentation and faqs and it is not really hard