Thanks for the help!


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Posted by Dustin Haug on 5, 2001 at 1:56 PM:

In Reply to: Ok, I can't help you decide, but.... posted by GadgetMan on 5, 2001 at 12:55 PM:

Thanks for all your advice. I think you've convinced me to go with a TV. I'll definately keep an eye on pricewatce for deals on GeForce cards. By the way I think all the info you've been putting up lately is great, it's nice to have a source for this stuff.

: First off, the GeForce 2 GTS card IS a decent video card. One of the best in production today. BTW, GeForce 3 cards have been clocked at slower rates than the 2's, so it's still the better choice for the moment.

: TV's will generally cost less than PC monitors real estate wise, the "medium" sized TV's being 27-32" for under $350 as compared to the same cost for barely a 21" or 25" PC monitor, if you went that route. Most TV's have S-Video input, which is the Golden Chalice of TV-out cards today, and most go up to 800x600 res.

: I know that most of you hardcore PC 3D gaming fanatics want res's of 1600x1200 or higher, but, the the TV solution is a good one because 800x600 does look good, and if this is going in a cabinet, the likelihood of lots and lots of high res PC games going in there won't be high.

: Only spend the money on the large high-res PC monitor of you plan on playing MOSTLY those types of games. The downside of those screens is that arcade games, look pretty skanky on them as the resolution, will be very sharp and you won't loike the blocky edges of the sprites. Scanlines helps, but not much, not on a screen THAT large.

: Also, a quick search around finds that the only readily available PC High res Super VGA/XGA monitor is a Sony model FW900, and is a 24" with 22.5" res, and costs close to $2000.

: All monitors larger have maximum resolutions of 1024x768 or 800x600 indicating that they are probably doing some sort of scan conversion. Also, the larger monitors tend to have really lousy dot pitches, .77 to .82 or worse. The TV's sound pretty good at that resolution.

: Anyway, the least expensive and most encompassing solution so far (and I have gone many routes) is the TV-out solution.

: Hope this helps a little.

:
: : GadgetMan your setup looks pretty good. My thought now is that it's going to cost $200+ for the GeForce and $200+ for the TV, that's over $400 that I could use on a decent video card and nice big monitor. But then from what I understand mame games look better on the TV, so I'm thoroughly confused as to what I should do.

: : : I'm debating going with a standard 17-19 monitor or a larger 27" s-video TV and perhaps a Geforce2 (64MB). My main concern is how PC games will look on the TV. I like games like Thief, Quake, etc and want them to look good on the cab as well. What do you all think?





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