Posted by Dennis on 30, 2000 at 4:07 AM:
In Reply to: 3 questions about tv as monitor posted by Lars on 29, 2000 at 10:57 AM:
Lars,
I am currently running my "beta" setup on a 25" TV. For me, that is too big for a cabinet...I find myself wanting to sit back about 6 feet from it so my eyes can take in the whole screen at once. I think 19-20" is about right for a cabinet. Just my personal preference, however.
I use ATI Xpert@Play 98. It's max TV output resolution is 800x600. Realize that your TV's resolution is actually much lower than that. Running Windows on a TV just plain sucks. To make things legible, you have to have large, clear fonts. It's GREAT for games, but I wouldn't want to do much else on it.
The ATI card uses whatever resolution Mame is using and scales it as close as possible to full-screen on the TV. From what I've read, not all cards will do this and you'll end up with a small game in the center of the screen on low-res games. I can't verify this since I've only used the ATI.
Using S-video may produce better results for Windows that what I described, however, my TV doesn't have S-video in, so I am using the composite input. Probably best to talk to LuSiD and see what kind of differences there is (if he even bothered to see what composite looked like) between the two.
Dennis
: For me the idea of using a tv as monitor seems to be a great way to go. I have the following questions.
: 1. Is a 25" tv not going to be to big when you are mounting it in a cabinet and thereby looking at it from a distance of approx. 2-3 feet?
: 2. What is the resolution on the tv when running games?
: 3. What happens if I set the resolution (in a game or Windows) to 1024x768. Will the graphics card then automatically scale it down to the proper resolution in order not to damage my tv?
: Thanks for any answers.