To LCD or not LCD...that is the question

[Firebat138]

So...  Let's get the first thing out of the way...  I can appreciate that an Genuine Arcade monitor would be cool and I am 35 years old...I remember the old games and my mom dropping me off at the arcade with 20 bucks...  That being said, I really dont care if my cab is authentic...LOL  That's why I am going with the Metal Gear/Splinter Cell theme...SO...The question remains...  What are the disadvantages with going with an LCD.  I would love to get the Sansui 2760, but I either need to take the case off, or cut something out of my cab...  I can get a rouglhy the same size LCD for about the same price...  Am I gonna be dissapointed...etc..  I mean I am TESTING everything out on my 19" Dell 1901...and it looks fine to me...  Thanx for any help you can offer...

Thanx

Fire

[Malenko]

There are no real disadvantages other then not running the native resolution, and the fact you said that you dont care if the cab is authentic then you can use pretty much whatever you want.

There might be some graphical issues like "blockiness" and a lack of scan lines. The thing is, if you play the games and like the way they look, what you use to display them doesn't matter. I've ran MAME cabs on TVs, LCDs, PC CRTs and arcade CRTs and while I can tell the difference my nephews couldn't

[solid12345]

Just curious because i've seen little postings on the topic, what is the quality of the newer LCD arcade CGA monitors
that are quietly popping up on manufacturer websites?

[drventure]

I don't want to start any religious wars or anything

But, I'm kind of in the same boat as Firebat. Not terribly concerned about "authenticity" (heck, my cabs got a  steampunk thing going, so it's about as far from authentic arcade as you can get  )

Anyway, the one thing I have noticed in mame is that if you run on an lcd, you want to run with a pretty powerful graphics card and at the highest resolution possible.

I say this because, to my eyes at least, when you turn on the rendering effects in mame, it does a very nice job of making a CGA image LOOK like it's showing on an old CGA monitor.

I've run Mame on an older laptop with a crap video card, and when mame scales back it's video processing, the results are, oh, shall I say, sub optimal....

But with an ATI radeon x1900, on a Core2 Duo with a dell 24" widescreen, even the vector games look very impressive to me. A purist might balk, but I'll happily tip my hat to the mame team for their results 

[Malenko]

if you want effects to make the LCD look like a VGA you need more PC power, but if you dont mind pacman being a little blockier then in the arcade and run it without effects then so be it.  with vector games, I personally think higher res LCDs look better then raster CRTs, but again its all going to boil down to what YOU want.

[Nemss316]

I had a WG monitor in my cab for about 6 months, then it blew. I popped an LCD in there for the "short term", and I've ended up keeping it in. I really thought the LCD was the "wrong" way to go, but now I have people over, and they would never know the difference. I can, of course!

IMO, there is nothing wrong w/ running an LCD in your cab. Its really up to you if you want the more authentic look. Have you thought about just putting a CRT in there?

[srarcade]

I had this same question so I took one of my cabs and an extra LCD and ran a RGB->VGA conversion board just to see how it would work. After all, the days of CRT parts and chassis are sadly limmited, I heard wei-ya has stopped production on chassis now. The result was kinda "ehh.. not bad but not great" for PCBs. Mame on the other hand can do the whole scanline emulation and it looks pretty nice, really reminded me of an old sony rgb monitor. Just as Nemss316 mentioned, my friends can't even tell the difference, its flush as any other flat tube with a bezel.

[Firebat138]

Cool...The problem is I want to fill up the area I have for the screen as much as possible.  The Sansui is just to big...  I play these on my computer now with an LCD, but I REALLY want a gun....So does LCD = NO GUN...  If so...Damn...I will have to build another cabinet...lol

[jscott3093]

I just trade a very nice Sunsung 25" LCD that I had in my arcade for a WG D9800 and the MAME games look so much better. I agree to the average person the LCD wont be noticed but for me a new arcade monitor blows the LCD away for the 80's, 90's arcade games.

I will say that my LCD did look really good on games and I am sure most people will be happy with one if they dont want to deal with an arcade monitor.

[Ummon]

I just trade a very nice Sunsung 25" LCD that I had in my arcade for a WG D9800...

Hm. How'd you come by that?

[retrometro]

So...  Let's get the first thing out of the way...  I can appreciate that an Genuine Arcade monitor would be cool and I am 35 years old...I remember the old games and my mom dropping me off at the arcade with 20 bucks...  That being said, I really dont care if my cab is authentic...LOL  That's why I am going with the Metal
...

I think you had the answer well before you posted this question.  If it doesn't matter to you, then the advantages for an LCD is pretty clear. 

• Lighter so its easier to mount
• Less power so there's less heat and less juice being used
• Higher resolution so you can run other emulators beter
• Cheaper new and used (in general)

There are probably several other advantages of using LCDs over CRTs.  It's why people that care if it looks a certain way go out of their way to throw these "advantages" out the door in exchange for that look that only CRT can provide.

Note that when a solution is the obvious best choice, people don't talk about it and post in forums like these.  When was the last time you read a post about the merits of digital audio versus audio tapes from the 70's?

[Ginsu Victim]

I think you had the answer well before you posted this question.  If it doesn't matter to you, then the advantages for an LCD is pretty clear. 

• Lighter so its easier to mount
• Less power so there's less heat and less juice being used
• Higher resolution so you can run other emulators beter
• Cheaper new and used (in general)

Another is the amount of room it frees up inside your cab, and allows for smaller builds.

[Moriya]

I thought about this on and off too...
If I decide myself to go the LCD route, what monitors are you guys using?
Preferably, I would like to have a 4:3 aspect and something 25+" would be nice too. 

Its hard to find anything that isn't wide screen, esp in those sizes these days...
I could really care less if its hd or not...

[Blanka]

21.3 inch is the largest ever made in 4:3. Models are the Eizo S2100, the Samsung 213T and the Samsung 214T, the NEC 2190UXp and 2190 UXi.

[Nemss316]

Yep, just as Blanka mentioned, if you want to go larger for an LCD, you'll probably have to go widescreen ratio.

I have a 19" in my cab at home, and its 4:3.

[Moriya]

Thanks for that info.
I have a question about the 214T and was wondering if you guys knew.

Does it have only d-sub and DVI only or does it have RCA, S-vid, component too?

I searched around and I am getting conflicting info.

[cyork2]

Jumping in here with a follow up... mostly in examples I see people mount the LCDs right in front of the player.  Can you mount them flat and use a mirror to get a little distance from the user?  I have an older cab with a mirror already and one of the things I think makes LCDs look not authentic is having it right in your face.

Thx,
Craig

[Ummon]

You could put it farther back in the cab, I suppose.

[Ginsu Victim]

If I switch to LCD, I'd already planned on moving it back.

[Blanka]

I have a 19" in my cab at home, and its 4:3.

19 inch is never 4:3. They are 5:4 or 16:9

[Blanka]

If you put the LCD in the back and under an angle, make sure it is a SPVA or SIPS panel so the viewing angles are enough.