Hi all, I was about to buy a CMVS from a chap in Germany when he mentioned I might have problems getting a good picture on a modern TV. Due to it outputting a picture at 15KHz. Any idea if this is a real problem? (My TV is a Panasonic 50inch plasma TXP50GT30B). If that's the case is there something else I would need to buy? My SNES, Megadrive, NGCD and other 'retro' consoles work fine on RGB on this TV (including my Japanese RGB modded N64). Thank you for your time. Regards Jim
15 kHz signals are a problem for some modern TVs (this is a problem with fixed-hardware analog->digital conversion chips and then the presentation/"scaling" chips), but all the other consoles you mentioned are also 15 kHz. There are more issues of compatibility when it comes to CMVS which will depend on your TV and how the MVS was "consolized": Signal logical/timing compatibility--The Neo Geo outputs a pretty non-compliant TV signal in terms of line timing and field length, but since your NGCD works, the MVS signal will work too because they're identical. Signal physical/electrical compatibility--The proper way to turn the MVS' RGBS signals into TV-compatible signals is to install a circuit which high-impedance attenuates then low-impendance amplifies the MVS' RGBS signals so that the TV receives a more or less electrically-compliant signal (the same circuit can be found inside an AES). It's very very unlikely the "consolizer" did this. Most of the time people just wire a SCART lead to the JAMMA RGB signals, making the incorrect assumption that the signals are compatible. Whether or not it will be an issue with your TV is hard to say. Some TVs can compensate for the large, high-impedance signals meant to drive a non-compliant arcade monitor, some cannot. On some TVs you can change your brightness and contrast enough to compensate manually, on most you cannot. Some TVs (especially professional/industrial models) can turn off their termination resistors, the vast majority cannot. (The XRGB series can.) Most that can probably aren't smart enough to do it automatically so it could be an inconvenience. Turning off the termination resistors or installing some series resistance as a second-choice is key if the consolizer isn't going to build a proper RGB driver circuit. Without either the colors will not only have brightness/contrast issues, but there will be color non-linearity/distortion as the MVS' DACs are over-loaded by the TV's termination resistors' low-impedance and cannot raise the signal to its precise brightness level.
