27" 4:3 TV is Equal to ??? LCD?

[moparmaniac]

Ok guys....I'm tired of dealing with blurry screens in Windows when I'm working on my cabinet. My eyes aren't getting any younger!

I'm wanting to find a comparable LCD TV Monitor to replace my 27" 4:3 TV that I have in there now. Right now I have the Happs 27" Black Trim Cover that goes around the TV Tube and looks perfect...However since I don't see any 4:3 LCD's, I'm trying to find a good alternative way to put in an LCD and still make it look somewhat like it belongs naturally in the cabinet.

Has anyone done or use LCD's yet? or is it too taboo to mention!

Not to mention it'll make my cabinet about 75 lbs. lighter, I think it'll resolve a lot of my Viewing issues..though it will kill my light gun capabilties, bummer.

Thanks.

Mike

[bkenobi]

Have you considered a higher resolution CRT? It may be hard to find, but you could get a larger VGA monitor to put in your cabinet. I put a nice 19" Trinitron in place of a 19" arcade monitor in my Championship Sprint cabinet and it looks pretty nice! I would have liked to have gone larger, but there would have been a problem with mounting it (using the stock hardware anyway). The one I used was a flat screen, so I didn't need a bezel.

If you don't want to go with a CRT at all, you may find it tough locating a 27" LCD. Most screens that big will be wide screen (16:9). I think the biggest LCD I've seen that's not wide screen is a 24" model, but I think that was lower resolution and probably not sold in a while.

[moparmaniac]

No I really have not thought about another CRT basically due to the Size/Weight issue. I may have to do that though at it's far more reasonable to do $$ wise...Only downside to that is the TV is connected to my satellite so I could watch TV on the arcade when not playing games and working on my Pins in the game room.

I did see a 26" Lcd tonight that looked fairly equivalent lengthwise....I was thinking maybe rotating it 90 degrees and making it more like a vertical display..I know graphics cards can rotate..but dunno how strange that would look in Windows.

I thought I remembered seeing a few years ago someone creating a mechanized rotation device in a cabinet to rotate the display from horizontal to vertical?

[Nologic]

Well at NewEgg the biggest 4x3 monitors they have available are 21"

However they do have a HD CRT thats 27" and maybe worth looking into....its a Samsung TXT2793 27" SlimFit HDTV

[Tempest]

If you stay with a CRT, and your lightguns work from scanlines, they won't work properly with your monitor rotated. (I just thought I'd warn you)

I had mine rotated originally, and it seemed to create issues....but (seriously) it could just be me.

Ideally, maybe two cabinets, one for vertical, one for horizontal...Hmm....Anybody have an extra computer laying around I could have?

[moparmaniac]

Yeah..I think I'm just stuck using what I've got seems like...I guess I'll just have to Super Size all my fonts in windows and see If it's legible.

My TV will work with a 1024 X 768 res. which looks great for things like Future Pinball but just kills me trying to move around and update files and such.

Has anyone used the VGA adapter for ATI to change output to component? I do have a component input on the TV. I wonder if that would help with clarity at all??

[bkenobi]

Your TV can display 1024x768? That's pretty impressive since non-HD sets only do ~640x480 and HD CRT sets only go up to 10??x720 typically. If you already have an HD CRT TV, I would definitely stick with that as you aren't going to do any better unless you go with a PC monitor (thus losing your satellite input and TV tuner capability).

[moparmaniac]

Yes..I actually researched it online before I bought it and someone said they had it connected to a pc and it ran at that resolution...so I thought I'd try it.

I can set my PC to 800X600 or 1024X768 via S-Video input and it will resize and function with Refresh at 60hz.

It's not a HD TV though..that's why I'm wondering if the Component would even improve Screen Clarity at all. I'll try and look online and get the specs on that Model. It's been discontinued for a few years.

[Nologic]

If the main issue really is just when your working with the OS and such...why not just use Remote Desktop and access the system from a networked computer at your proffered resolution...

[moparmaniac]

This is what I found online in the manual. Looks like Component is only 480i. So definately not HD. I'm just wondering if it would even be worth buying the component adapter for my Video card to try it and see if it makes a difference.

PICTURE TUBE SIZE, (Measured Diagonally)

DS27425, True Flat Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27-inches

PICTURE RESOLUTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260 Lines

Video Input . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 500 Lines

ANTENNA INPUT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . UHF/VHF/CATV 75Ω

POWER REQUIREMENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120VAC 60Hz

POWER DS27425 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 watts

HORIZONTAL DIM. (Width) DS27425 . . . . . . 26.1 in. (664mm)

VERTICAL DIM. (Height) DS27425 . . . . . . 24.7 in. (629mm)

DEPTH DIM. (Thickness) DS27425 . . . . . . 19.3 in. (489mm)

WEIGHT (Approx.) DS27425 . . . . 91.3 lbs. (41.4 Kg.)

SOUND (2 Speakers) DS27425 . . . . . . . . . . . Size: 8 cm

AMPLIFIER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Built-in with 1W/ch

AUDIO/VIDEO INPUT JACKS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Video Input

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Audio Input (2 sets, R/L â?? Front/Rear)

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .S-Video Input

480i COMPONENT VIDEO

INPUT JACKS . . . . . . Component Video Inputs (Y, Pb, Pr â?? R/L)

AUDIO OUTPUT JACKS . . . . . . . . . . . . . Fixed, Audio Out (R/L)

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .(RCA Connectors)

[moparmaniac]

"If the main issue really is just when your working with the OS and such...why not just use Remote Desktop and access the system from a networked computer at your proffered resolution... "

I do sometimes, but I like to work on the fly and test it and it seems easier to be in there on the cabinet instead of RDP'ing from another room.

I guess I'm just being picky now! LOL

[Nologic]

heh yes you are.

Well if your video card has dual outs...maybe hook up a LCD to that with a long cord and just plop it in front of the Cab's monitor and work off that...and once done...just disconnect...course thats not exactly working on the fly.

[bkenobi]

You aren't running at 1024x768 or 800x600. Your screen can only support 500 lines (see the manual), so what's happening is the video card is down scaling your video to fit on the TV. You are using 1024 in windows and it's shrinking it to 640x480 (or so). That's what my video card does too. There's no way for the screen to display higher resolution than what it's built for, so although it appears by all the menus that you are running in one resolution, you are actually running much lower.

This can actually be a BIG problem with light guns. I just redid my lightgun setup and had a problem with WinGun because of this scaling issue. While Windows thinks the scan lines are doing one thing, the TV is doing something different. As a result, things got AFU! I ended up switching the resolution down and adjusting the font/icon size so the gun would work.