Choosing a Display for Your MAME Cabinet

I received an email about my Aladdin's Castle MAME cabinet recently.  My reply was so thoughful and amazingly detailed that I figured I should use it as cheap content for Ooine.  So here we go:

The email:

I was just reading your blog on your cabinet and
really liked how it turned out. 

I've just started building/refurbishing one myself and
had a few questions. 

I'm at the point where i need a monitor for the PC
running MAME. I have an arcade cabinet w/ a 25" arcade
monitor  that I need to replace. But, I'm not sure
whats my best choice. 

I had one person on mameworld.net reply to  my post
saying a arcade monitor is the best choice, but this
is a very expensive one. And, I want a monitor that is
25" so PC crts are out.  

I noticed you are using a standard TV for yours. How
are you interfacing the PC w/the TV? The only way I
know of is  with the s-video out, but the quality is
horrible this way (from what i remember). 

I read on your blog that you said that there is a
almost no difference between a TV and a arcade monitor
but the price. I'm thinking I want to go the same
route you did but i'm  just  not  sure about the
interface... 

thx for any help you can provide!

Mike

And my reply:

I'm sure you already know, but just in case, this is THE RESOURCE for all
MAME cabinet questions:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php

To answer your question directly... this is always a tricky point in
building a cabinet.  It's hard to know exactly what to choose for your
display.  You have to juggle 3 distinct variables:

1) price
2) quality of video display
3) availability of the exact component you need in the right size

Undoubtedly, TVs are cheaper than both arcade monitors and PC monitors. 
If I could have gotten a large enough PC monitor at a cheap price I would
have gone with that due to ease of setup and picture quality.  And from
everything I've read, arcade monitors are barely any better than your
average TV.

I opted for a specific TV that happened to have many desirable features. 
Not all TVs are suitable for a cabinet.  The particular TV I was able to
find had everything desirable to be used in a cabinet.  The size was
perfect, the display was tweakable via a hidden service menu, and the TV
returns to the exact settings it was last using whenever you turn it on.

Now let's say you find a TV with these qualities.. how do you hook it up? 
You are correct, there are two acceptable methods:

1) S-Video - Very easy.  Not the best quality.
2) Component Video - Difficult.  Great quality.  Flickering

As with most things, it comes down to trade-offs.  S-Video is soooo easy. 
You just plug in the cable and you are done.  Component video requires
that your TV output Component Video, and that you obtain a DVI to
Component Video dongle that can interface with your video card.  It
converts the DVI output of your video card to Component Video input that
your TV can understand.  I found mine for $12 on eBay (search for "DVI
component video").

The trade-off with Component Video is that you get great picture quality,
but you also get interlaced video flickering, which can be annoying. 
However, the flickering does "go away" while you are actually playing
games.

I posted a comparison of S-Video and Component video with pictures here:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=43408.0

The difference in quality might not be enough to justify the hassle in
setting it up.  It's been a year since I built my cabinet and I've stuck
with the Component Video.

Hope this helps!

I love cheap content.