Which PC->CRT solution is the best for me?

[Erik_Twice]

One of my setup goals is to be able to run MAME on my proffesional monitor. But even though there are several methods I'm still unsure of which one is the best for me. It seems there are many possibilities but each one carries different drawbacks:

Option 1) Use an Extron Emotia to connect my everyday PC to the CRT. (I'm told it's not great for non 320x240 resolutions because they play in a window.)
Option 2) Build a dedicated Soft15Khz PC
Option 3) Find a CRT that supports 31Khz (Eg. A BVM) and connect my everyday PC to it.

Thinking about it, chances are I'll probably only use MAME because I can play everything else either through real hardware (PS2) or Wii Emulation (SNES, Mega Drive)

[Shoryukev]

I've been meaning to dive into this further with my mame setup. I'm currently using soft 15khz with my modern graphics card and using a VGA-s-video adapter, but the adapter outputs everything at 480i so it's kind of sh***y and soft looking.

My idea was to buy an arcadeVGA video card and their breakout cable (https://www.ultimarc.com/avgainf.html), and connect it to a jrok encoder so I can connect it to my CRT via either component or s-video.

I e-mailed the people at ultimarc a while back, and they told me they have a few customers that used jrok encoders with their graphics card with good results, though he recommended an Extron RGB interface to convert the H+V sync to a composite sync that the jrok can recognise. I'd imagine the Extron RGB interface would be a good idea with your professional monitor too since most Extron units have BNC outputs.

I'm not the most technical person when it comes to this stuff, but hopefully my post helps a little bit. I'm sure someone else here has more experience and can chime in if I'm missing something.

[kamiboy]

Option 2, the rest net rubbish.

[Overkill]

Forget about Soft15Khz and ArcadeVGA. Grab an ATI/AMD video graphic card, you can use from an 15€ old cheap 9200 to an HD 5000,6000,7000 (not all) series. Install "CRT_Emudriver" and "GroovyMame" and you are ready to play in any CRT Scart RGB TV you have around in home with the resolution/speed the games were originaly made for.

[xga]

Forget about Soft15Khz and ArcadeVGA. Grab an ATI/AMD video graphic card, you can use from an 15€ old cheap 9200 to an HD 5000,6000,7000 (not all) series. Install "CRT_Emudriver" and "GroovyMame" and you are ready to play in any CRT Scart RGB TV you have around in home with the resolution/speed the games were originaly made for.

^ This!

[PAPER/ARTILLERY]

+1 in agreement with Overkill. I finally got around to building a setup using that method, took a day or so of fiddling but was completely worth it.

[Erik_Twice]

I'm not sure of the differences between Soft15Khz and CRT_Emudriver but both seem fine to me. The drawback is having to build a dedicated computer.

Is there any drawback I'm missing to connecting my current PC to a CRT that can handle 720P? Seems like it's killing two birds with one stone!

[Overkill]

What's your graphic card model on your PC? If it's just for Mame you can use an old computer, an Pentium 4 with win XP would do the job. You don't want to use 720p, you want the original arcade game's resolution, like 320x240p. Search on youtube for the diferences

[DoomsDave]

Is there any drawback I'm missing to connecting my current PC to a CRT that can handle 720P? Seems like it's killing two birds with one stone!

You won't get scanlines and kind of defeats the point of using a CRT for MAME unless all you care about is lag.

[Erik_Twice]

What's your graphic card model on your PC? If it's just for Mame you can use an old computer, an Pentium 4 with win XP would do the job. You don't want to use 720p, you want the original arcade game's resolution, like 320x240p. Search on youtube for the diferences

Ah, I thought that a monitor capable of 31Khz resolutions like 720P would accept the original resolution at 31Khz, but I guessed wrong! Makes sense now that I think about it. you can't have both 31Khz and low resolution at the same time. I don't know what I thought that

Guess building a secondary computer is the way to go then. The Emotias seem more expensive than refurbishing my old PC and provide worse results, and I can't put two different GPUs on my main computer. So I guess I'll have to look for a small box to mount my old computer in.

Thanks

[Guspaz]

720p is not 31 KHz, it's 45 KHz. 31KHz is 480p.

240p is 15KHz.

[Exidna]

Am I missing something here? If you're only planning on using it for emulation, why not use a VGA monitor?
They're designed for displaying high-res content so they are far closer in quality to a BVM than most 15kHz displays.
Send it a 480 line image and add black scanlines if you want the look of a high-end 15kHz display.

[kamiboy]

Not ideal, won't look nearly as good as a real 15khz monitor. But ignorance is bliss I suppose.

[Exidna]

Not ideal, won't look nearly as good as a real 15khz monitor. But ignorance is bliss I suppose.

480 lines with half of them blacked out is exactly the same thing as 240p.

[Guspaz]

Not ideal, won't look nearly as good as a real 15khz monitor. But ignorance is bliss I suppose.

480 lines with half of them blacked out is exactly the same thing as 240p.

In practice, a monitor designed to display higher resolutions is going to be sharp enough that doing that will look rather unpleasant. It's why many people consider the very high end BVMs to be unsuitable for retro gaming.

[Erik_Twice]

720p is not 31 KHz, it's 45 KHz. 31KHz is 480p.

240p is 15KHz.

My ignorance knows no bounds!

[dak1]

I highly recommend a 15khz capable PC with CRT_Emudriver. I posted mine a while back. Link

[Immryr]

I'm thinking about buying a cheap old computer specifically for running mame on, can anyone more savvy than me tell me if something like this would be powerful enough??

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/112000209217? ... EBIDX%3AIT

I'm guessing I'd just need to put a video card which is compatible with crt emudriver in it?

[PAPER/ARTILLERY]

Seems fine to me, it might struggle with the more recent CAVE stuff but the emulation for that is still somewhat lacking anyway.

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[atheistgod1999]

Option 3 makes the most sense. Just get a regular PC CRT on Craigslist.

[Overkill]

I'm thinking about buying a cheap old computer specifically for running mame on, can anyone more savvy than me tell me if something like this would be powerful enough??

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/112000209217? ... EBIDX%3AIT

I'm guessing I'd just need to put a video card which is compatible with crt emudriver in it?

The PC is ok for MAME, but the HDD is small if you plan to put a lot of games on it. Beware that using that computer the case only allows for low profile video card.

[atheistgod1999]

Also, even the latest graphics cards support analog video. Just get a DVI-to-VGA cable. I did that with my Windows 7 PC with an NVIDIA GT 630 and it worked perfectly without any issues.

[Exidna]

Not ideal, won't look nearly as good as a real 15khz monitor. But ignorance is bliss I suppose.

480 lines with half of them blacked out is exactly the same thing as 240p.

In practice, a monitor designed to display higher resolutions is going to be sharp enough that doing that will look rather unpleasant. It's why many people consider the very high end BVMs to be unsuitable for retro gaming.

Sure, if you want a low-res image, you need a low-res CRT. (though there are actually shaders you can use to make a CRT appear more like a low-res model)
But Erik_Twice said he would be looking to hook up his PVM or purchase a high-res BVM.
A VGA monitor fed 480 lines with half of them blacked out gives you the same look as 240p on a BVM/PVM.
240p is just a 480i signal where the lines don't alternate. (i.e. half are blacked out)

Also, even the latest graphics cards support analog video. Just get a DVI-to-VGA cable. I did that with my Windows 7 PC with an NVIDIA GT 630 and it worked perfectly without any issues.

Actually, the latest graphics cards just dropped support for analog video.
Intel/AMD dropped support last year, and NVIDIA just dropped support with the new 1000-series cards.
However there are many GPUs still available with VGA outputs. Any 900-series GPU from NVIDIA should support it.