Re: Matrox G400 Dual Head - any good for mame ????


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Posted by LuSiD on 10, 2000 at 8:01 PM:

In Reply to: Matrox G400 Dual Head - any good for mame ???? posted by Julian on 9, 2000 at 9:08 PM:

Which AIW Pro do you have? Is it the Rage Pro? or 128 Pro?

TV's have a much more limited resolution then a computer monitor, so you'll want to run your desktop at 640x480. Even then text won't be as sharp as you would expect from a monitor. You may have to switch font styles or enlargen them to improve readability.

You also need to tweak the ATI driver:
In the ATI driver, go to the displays tab & turn off the monitor output. That should enable the Advanced button so you can access the antiflicker, sharpness & color correction controls. When you get it right save it as a profile.

Now, the G400......
DOS output is not enabled by default, so you have to flash the bios with a matrox utility to enable it. You also have to boot to a monitor when you set it up so you can configure it for DH clone & TV out. Otherwise DOS mode games & full screen dos box apps (like MAME) will not appear on the TV. Although it should work, Genom & I tried one on his cabinet and were never able to get it to look good. He had it running for a while but the picture quality couldn't compare to the ATI board, then the DOS TV out just stopped working.

If you are looking to buy a new card for your MAME cabinet I'd recommend the ATI Rage Fury. It's TV out does look better then the older ATI boards I have, but you shouldn't expect it to look as sharp as a computer monitor.

If you are in the US or Canada you can get a deal on the newer ATI boards through their trade up program. check their website for more info on that.

Another issue is the TV.
Is it fairy new? Are the color & convergence pretty accurate?

Have I rambled enough?
-LuSiD


: Hi Folks.

: I'm just finishing an upright mame cab. I want to use my 21" Sony TV as a
: monitor. At the moment I have the ATI all in wonder pro, but when I output
: Mame to the TV the picture is rubbish. I've tried both composite video and
: S-VHS outputs but the picture is still very poor (you can hardly read the
: text on front-ends e.t.c....). (DVD's look fine though ???).

: I have just seen a video card Matrox Millennium G400 Dual Head (they do 16 and 32MB models) The dual head allows output to a standard monitor and has a separate
: output to a Pal/NTSC TV. It uses different refresh rates for the TV and the monitor. It(supports 1024x768 on the TV). It is supposed to give flicker free
: display to the monitor and the TV and is recommended for use under Win 95/98.
: Does this mean I will not be able to use the Dos port of mame ????
: Has anyone used one of these cards and are they any good ????
: They are £120 so I don't want to buy a white elephant...
: Any help would be much appreciated
: Thanks folks
: Best Wishes zounds




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