PC to Arcade monitor, best way?

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pharoah007

PC to Arcade monitor, best way?

Post by pharoah007 »

I have not built a MAME before using a arcade monitor and I am wondering how most people translate the PC video to Arcade monitor video?

Thanks.

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HPR Pinball
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Re: PC to Arcade monitor, best way?

Post by HPR Pinball »

I'm a purist and the best way to do it is arcade vga:
https://www.ultimarc.com/avgainf.html
The video game i want to play is always the one i don't have :FP:
Les arcades, j'suis tombé d'dans quand j'tait pti !! :-)

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Re: PC to Arcade monitor, best way?

Post by Mrhide »

LF: GrooveCoaster Machine, shmups or any PCB, specifically Namco System 1 (Pacmania), let me know what you have!

pharoah007

Re: PC to Arcade monitor, best way?

Post by pharoah007 »

Thanks guys.

I think I will go with them both :)

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Re: PC to Arcade monitor, best way?

Post by brad808 »

ArcadeVGA is not the way you want to go. That's been well surpassed now. It's outdated, it's expensive, and it doesn't have as much functionality as other cards. The best option is to use a crtemudriver compatible card and run groovymame. It's currently the best way to get accurate resolution, refresh rate, timing, etc on a per game basis.

The jpac is a good method of physically connecting to your arcade monitor if your system is already jamma. Keep in mind there is no conversion done on the j-pac. Simply a video pass through with a bad sync protection circuit which I recommend you bypass.

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Re: PC to Arcade monitor, best way?

Post by Dave W. »

brad808 wrote:ArcadeVGA is not the way you want to go. That's been well surpassed now. It's outdated, it's expensive, and it doesn't have as much functionality as other cards. The best option is to use a crtemudriver compatible card and run groovymame. It's currently the best way to get accurate resolution, refresh rate, timing, etc on a per game basis.

The jpac is a good method of physically connecting to your arcade monitor if your system is already jamma. Keep in mind there is no conversion done on the j-pac. Simply a video pass through with a bad sync protection circuit which I recommend you bypass.
I know I'm reviving an old thread, but I'm in a similar situation as Pharaoh... My current mame setup is arcadevga and jpac, but I'm looking for a newer, more reliable solution.
Brad, does your solution require an ATI AGP video card to work? I would imagine you convert the s-video output to component with this type of card.
Most people these days seem to want to output to lcd or led. Not as many of us looking to output to CRT arcade monitors.
Thanks!

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Re: PC to Arcade monitor, best way?

Post by HPR Pinball »

Dave W. wrote:
brad808 wrote:ArcadeVGA is not the way you want to go. That's been well surpassed now. It's outdated, it's expensive, and it doesn't have as much functionality as other cards. The best option is to use a crtemudriver compatible card and run groovymame. It's currently the best way to get accurate resolution, refresh rate, timing, etc on a per game basis.

The jpac is a good method of physically connecting to your arcade monitor if your system is already jamma. Keep in mind there is no conversion done on the j-pac. Simply a video pass through with a bad sync protection circuit which I recommend you bypass.
I know I'm reviving an old thread, but I'm in a similar situation as Pharaoh... My current mame setup is arcadevga and jpac, but I'm looking for a newer, more reliable solution.
Brad, does your solution require an ATI AGP video card to work? I would imagine you convert the s-video output to component with this type of card.
Most people these days seem to want to output to lcd or led. Not as many of us looking to output to CRT arcade monitors.
Thanks!

What is your problem with arcadevga ?
If you use an lcd monitor you will add a lot of lag time with all the computer calculation to convert the video to the lcd resolution and the lag time related to the display technology. Personnaly i can easily feel this lag time when i play a mame machine equiped with an lcd and for me it's really undesirable and also the visual is very far from the nice contrats look and smooth fast moving picture of a crt. I'm using an arcadevga with a crt monitor + ipac + widows xp32 bits and it work perfect. I feel the real arcade feedback from an original 80's machine.
The video game i want to play is always the one i don't have :FP:
Les arcades, j'suis tombé d'dans quand j'tait pti !! :-)

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Re: PC to Arcade monitor, best way?

Post by Dave W. »

I absolutely want to keep using the CRT. The computer I used for my MAME was around 12 years old and finally died. So I have a JPAC and ArcadeVGA (agp) that has to be 7-8 years old.
So looking at building a new mame setup for the cabinet and heard of better options than what I currently use.
HPR, I'm happy to hear that you're happy with your setup... I might end up doing the same thing in the end. What version of the ArcadeVGA card do you use?
Thanks!

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Re: PC to Arcade monitor, best way?

Post by HPR Pinball »

It's one of the most recent arcadevga card with a pcie port.
You can buy a 100$ computer with an intel dual core and be in business for 99% of the games.
Only most demanding recent games need a more powerfull cpu.
I might change my computer later for a more recent generation i7 intel for improvement at this level.
The video game i want to play is always the one i don't have :FP:
Les arcades, j'suis tombé d'dans quand j'tait pti !! :-)

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Re: PC to Arcade monitor, best way?

Post by Dave W. »

HPR Pinball wrote:It's one of the most recent arcadevga card with a pcie port.
You can buy a 100$ computer with an intel dual core and be in business for 99% of the games.
Only most demanding recent games need a more powerfull cpu.
I might change my computer later for a more recent generation i7 intel for improvement at this level.
Thanks! I really appreciate your input!
I had some issues with the refresh rates on my old ArcadeVGA, but was otherwise happy.
I just checked the Ultimarc site and they're sold out of video cards for now anyways... so I'll have time to think about it... ;)

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