Using Arcade Monitor with Home Consoles

ScumBum

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Anyone here use an Arcade Monitor with their home consoles , Nes , Super Nes , Turbo Garfx-16 .......

I was thinking about setting one up . Does it look better than a regular TV ? Is it even possible to do this ?
 
I would think it would be easier (and safer) to just use a tube tv. But I guess if you want the whole "arcade" feel, it would be cool. I'm curious to know how some guys have set up their home consoles in their arcades.
 
I did it for a short period of time using an adaptor I bought off of eBay. It didn't really look any different than displaying the game on a TV. The adaptor I bought accepted the RGA inputs and plugged directly into a Jamma harness. It had on-board color balancing and volume controls.
 
I did it for a short period of time using an adaptor I bought off of eBay. It didn't really look any different than displaying the game on a TV. The adaptor I bought accepted the RGA inputs and plugged directly into a Jamma harness. It had on-board color balancing and volume controls.

I was thinking it probably would look the same as using a regular TV because the Video Outputs on these home consoles don't have separate RGB , its Composite video .

What makes arcade games look good is the separate RGB and the way the Arcade PCB is design with a better video output .

So is what I'm thinking true ? Just use a TV ?
 
Just use a TV. I've done it with more than one custom machine. And 25"-27" ones can be purchased for $25.

As mentioned above, there is a jamma to console hookup sold on the 'net. But its usually three times as expensive as just throwing a TV in your cab.
 
Arcade monitors are just like TVs, the reason you get the somewhat distorted picture is because the game makers decided to make a cheaper PCB that uses less memory and CPU power to output the full screen resolution. Instead of using the full scan lines they use every other one. So game consoles will look exactly the same on an arcade monitor since its the game console putting out the signal. The only thing that makes an arcade monitor different than a TV is the Tuner components an added RF signal componants. (and speakers)

The only problem with connecting a home console to the arcade monitor is the adapters needed, which some are crappy and make the picture suck. Vice versa for the TV inside an arcade game, you need an adapter that coverts raw RGB S to S-VIdeo/Component or whatever it has and if the adapter is cheap then the picture will suck.
 
I bought one of these to run my modded XBOX running MAME in my Showcase 33 cab. Haven't received it yet but will post my results.
 
Some home consoles do output RGB such as the SNES, Genesis, Jaguar, etc..

Mitch

I can confirm that is the case with SNES. In a bulk buy ArcRevival and I did, we got a Mach 3 machine that had a SNES in it that was using the K4600 monitor. No extra adapters or anything. They just removed the insulation from the end of the SNES AV cable and wired the RGB and Sync right to the monitor board. The picture looked great.
 
Most consoles outputs RGB in fact.. Even Sega Master System.

As for arcade monitors vs TV's, a TV generally has a much higher quality chassis, and probably a better tube too.
 
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