LEDs are available now though titles won't be listed in the shop until firmware has been ported. LCDs should be back in stock within the next week or two.

^What he said.

I don't think the algorithm they have in the paper is designed to run in real-time hardware. It requires a lot of processing power. There were some videos but I think they were captured, rendered off-line, and then played back in real time.

I'm not sure if there are simplifications or more recent algorithms that can produce similar results more efficiently.

Thanks for the post! Starting with this production cycle, new LCDs are now shipping with the same Chroma controller board used in the LED display. Both displays now only require a single 12V supply, and the same power solution can be used with both displays.

For more information: http://www.colordmd.com/chromainfo.html

These are indoor panels. The glossiness is due to reflections from the clear windows themselves as opposed to the black package or pcb. They are individually packaged RGB LEDs which requires three small LEDs to fit within the same area normally used by a single monochrome LED. The package size is 2mmx2mm and the board spacing is 2.5mm. The packages are virtually butted up against one another.

The extra black space is due to the smaller LEDs and the individual packaging (versus the 8x8 co-packaged monochrome LED modules). The issue is not as obvious on larger RGB LED displays where the ratio of LED to package size is larger.

The vendors of these panels however have seem to solved the problem with misalignment between the 8x8 packages which plagued earlier monochrome LED screens.

You use the original lamp board for both LCD and LED. LCD sticks up above the speaker panel so you'll need to lower the speaker panel before opening/closing the backbox door.

It is normal for WPC95 speaker panels and SAM metal speaker panels, due to the LCD sitting back from the speaker panel. It's usually only visible when viewed from an angle. From the player position, it shouldn't be visible.

You can use weatherstripping foam from the hardware store to help conceal it.

Sorry you had so much trouble. I'm not aware of any specific drives that are incompatible with the ColorDMD.

We have some troubleshooting information on the SUPPORT page. The issue with USB drives is generally due to formatting, or due to an error reading the file allocation table. Quick format may not correct the issue and a full reformat may be required. Often the easiest solution is just using a new USB drive.

If using a Mac to do the formatting, please be aware there are different variants of FAT32. The drive must be formatted using Microsoft FAT32 (MS-FAT).

There is a new revision of the LED board. The new ones that we have been purchasing do not exhibit the ghosting that the earlier modules showed. However other than rotating the LEDs 90 degrees on the new boards, appearance is basically the same.

The size of the "dots" relative to the spacing is a function of display brightness. Bright LEDs appear larger than dim LEDs. The dots on Williams and Whitestar games (that have only three moderately bright levels), can appear brighter/larger than SAM and SPIKE games which make greater use of the lower brightness levels.

The CONTRAST control on the ColorDMD can be used to boost the lower brightness levels, at the expense of reducing contrast between the levels.

That's an earlier version of the LED mounting bracket. The elongated holes were added later to support Safecracker.

It's been done, but SIGMA support for Gottlieb isn't 100% yet.

That's correct.

Yes, you can do that too. The installation cables are the same for LCD and LED displays.

The menus should be orange when set correctly (instead of magenta).

Brightness doesn't affect the rendering or picture quality.

Contrast applies a different nonlinear mapping to the brightness levels. Lower contrast settings give better darks (closer to black). Higher contrast gives more contrast relative to black (OFF) but compresses the levels toward maximum brightness.

For best results, I recommend keeping contrast between 3-5. The default setting of 5 is good for most games and approximates the graylevels of the original factory DMD. For games that have video content, a lower contrast setting can help to improve the results as it drops the lower graylevels toward black and results in more spacing between gray levels.

Brightness only affects the backlight setting and can be set wherever you like.

The SAM display driver outputs 13 shades. The ColorDMD board maps this to 18-bit color and drives either LED and LCD.

With contrast setting of 5 the ColorDMD LED running in SIGMA (single-color) mode, and the original factory LED should appear similar. The main difference is the dot size. The original factory display has larger dots with less black space between them. It's the tradeoff for trying to fit 3 LED emitters (red, green, blue) in the same space as a single red emitter.

By tweaking the contrast setting, you can boost the 13 levels above black (which also compresses the spacing between then), or lower the darker levels toward black and increase the spacing.

Got it. Thanks for the clarification.

With the SPIKE install kit, you can install into any of your other Stern games. For newer Stern games with metal speaker panels, you'll need a clear display shield to replace the red one that shipped with the game.

TZ and ToM will need a WPC installation kit (available on the ACCESSORIES page of our store site).

Most people probably wouldn't notice a difference in LED characteristics between older and newer games unless it was pointed out. Even then, it's unlikely the number of brightness levels output by the game would be a deciding factor in choosing LED or LCD. Customers who start with one display type tend to stick with it across all their supported games.

That wasn’t a ColorDMD. There are no 8x8 blocks on any of our displays.

There were a number of early single color LED displays from other manufacturers that did use 8x8 blocks. What you saw was likely one of those.

The LEDs on the RGB modules used by ColorDMD are individually pick-and-placed so there isn't any clustering between groups of LEDs within a module. When fabricated, the surface tension on each of the solder pads helps to pull all the LEDs into position so they appear extremely uniform.

To get 128x32, two 64x32 modules are combined. At worst you would see a vertical seam midway between the two modules but this should be almost invisible. It's possible the modules shift during shipping and they can be adjusted by loosening the screws on the rear of the display and realigning them back into position.

The red, green, and blue emitters in each LED are actually in a row (or column) rather than a Y pattern. (A Y pattern would be better in my opinion). The separation for some colors (usually magenta or purple) may be visible when only the two outer LEDs are lit. Color convergence for LCD is better where the position of the red, green, blue pixels is much closer than the LED emitters.

That's light shining down from the backbox and hitting the top of the LED modules. Foam weatherstripping (from the hardware store) placed between the top of the metal bracket and speaker panel works great for blocking the light.