The monitor is a Sony Trinitron 27" TV.
I'm using the S-video port. I'm very pleased with the image
quality, but it has one 'feature' that might annoy you if you
graft one into your cabinet. It has an on screen menu that you
must go through every time it gets unplugged. You can skip the
programming sequence, but it will always pop up. No big deal for
my design (how often am I going to unplug it? never.), but
something to be aware of and perhaps avoid if you use a TV for
your cabinet. Actually, I have 2 power lines running to the
cabinet. One for the monitor that is not switched, and one for
everything else switched at a power strip nearby.
For a bezel, I cut one to fit from 1/4" foam core from an
office supply store and covered it with the same black contact
paper used on the rest of the cabinet. Not the best solution, but
it achieves the desired effect. Note the IR detector for the
keyboard on the right, and the access to the controls on the
front.
A few people have written me asking why I chose to use a TV
instead of an arcade or PC monitor. It's mostly a question of
Size vs. Cost. The vertical games wouldn't look right on a 19"
computer (or arcade) monitor unless the monitor was able to
rotate. I know several people have made rotating monitors, but I
wasn't up for it. Also, I knew I would want to play some PC games
(like Golden Tee) and console emulators (SNES) on the cabinet. That pretty much eliminates
using an arcade monitor. I could get a very good
27" tv for way less then a very bad 19" computer monitor anyway
and 27" computer monitors are not really an option.
