There are brightness and contrast controls on the LED ColorDMD, just as on the LCD ColorDMD.
(Topic ID: 171786)
Linked Games
Star Trek (LE)
Stern, 2013-
Star Trek (Premium)
Stern, 2013
-
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Williams, 1993
-
The Simpsons Pinball Party
Stern, 2003
-
World Poker Tour
Stern, 2006
Topic Gallery
You're currently viewing posts by Pinsider PinballManiac40.
Click here to go back to viewing the entire thread.
Quoted from jar155:The smoothing modes look like garbage. You're all monsters with poor taste. It's dot art, keep it as dot art. Color looks fantastic, but those chunky looking smoothing modes or square dots are awful
If you cannot find any other modes for any of the games you own other than just dots to be pleasing to your liking, you are either too old to learn to appreciate it or got your head in the dirt. 
I mean, come on, look at the HiRes TSPP video that Razorbak86 linked to, how the hell can you not like that? It is like watching the Simpsons cartoon.
I look forward to putting a LED display in Rocky and Bullwinkle (light blue) using Sigma. Also looking forward to putting a LED one in Dr Who once the ROM file has been released.
Quoted from Rarehero:But it's not, and that's the problem. The smear mode can't turn pixel art into real high resolution art. Simpsons cartoons don't have jagged lines or blobby eyes. The eyes are circles. The side of Barts head is straight. In dots, your brain fills in the missing information and you feel like you're seeing straight lines and circles. Smear mode fills in the blanks, but is limited by the limited resolution of the master art...and it just becomes a smear & isn't what the artists were going for. Dots XL is the superior option.
Really? Are you looking at it 2 inches away? Enjoy it for what it is standing 3-4 foot away.
Quoted from Rarehero:I have eyes. I enjoy dots very much because that's the art as it was created. Smear mode destroys the art and makes it look shitty....from 10 feet away, even.
Looks great to me and I don't wear glasses. Of course, I'm not analyzing every dot and every frame.
Every piece of Electronics has it limits, even the newest 4k TV, which looks like a waste of money to me.
Quoted from BrianZ:And one in my DE SW....
Are you taking that game to the Houston show?
2 weeks later
Quoted from emkay:Uh, sorry? I had just hooked it up, hadn't installed the firmware yet. This was last week man, wasn't trying to piss anyone off. They're the same panels aren't they?
The other color display has its own threads that you can talk about it in there. Thank you for stopping by.
Quoted from libtech:Anyone have examples for tz using the upscaling? Or maybe just dots using the led/lcd Thinking of getting one for it but dont know wether to go lcd or led for it.
There is a video preview on this page using dots on the LCD.
http://shop.colordmd.com/colordmd-replacement-display-for-twilight-zone-pinball-machine/
Quoted from Radius118:How bright is the LED and can it be turned way down?
Just like the LCD ColorDMD, the LED ColorDMD has a range of 1 to 9 on the brightness and contrast for anyone to be able to make it to their liking.
Personally, I found over the weekend at the Houston Arcade Expo, while I installed 4 LED displays in games, I found 2 for contrast and 4 for brightness to be the sweet spot in a very dark lighted room. Again, this is my preference and likely would differ from someone else's preference.
Default setting for the LED display was set for 4 on contrast and 5 on brightness.
Quoted from libtech:yes Ive seen that one thanks, can anyone comment on thow tz is in high rez mode? Im thinking I like the dots and will probably go led
There are a couple of animations that look odd, but I like the HiRes setting anyway. I had my game at the show set for dots on the LCD and people liked the way it looked on it too.
I had 4 LED displays in games over the weekend and unless I pointed out which were LED and which were LCD, people didn't know. All the ones that had LCD installed (except TZ) were in HiRes, which got a lot of praise just as much as the games did with the LED display.
So again, buying one display over another is going to be one's own preference, just like which company LED's are best or which type of LED is better. There will be no wrong answer.
Quoted from AlexSMendes:I'm surely running the latest SS ROM, now I can't remember which version it is...
You will see it when you turn on the game.
Quoted from Rager170:Does anyone have a ColorDMD for Ghostbusters? I will be getting this table next month and have been debating the ColorDMD for it, but not sure if I want LED or LCD...
Curious if anyone has any insight to this.
There has been one or 2 people who put in a ColorDMD into their GB. Since the game has not been colorized, you can still take advantage of all the options that the single color Sigma has to offer, including your choice of any single color you want the display to be. Light green would look good.
Quoted from Alamo_Pin:Has ColorDMD ever run any Black Friday sales in the past?
No.
1 week later
2 weeks later
Quoted from dmacy:I've just added my 4th and have two of each now. LED: TOTAN & CV LCD: TAF & IJ
I'm preferring the look of LED's but will likely use the LCD's in my AC/DC and MET as I prefer the upscaling looks on them.
On a side note: what is needed to install my existing LCD's into my Sterns? Will be getting LED's to replace my TAF and IJ.
Not sure if TAF, IJ and TOTAN are important games or not, but you show the same picture 3 times. I would had thought you would had included pictures of your AC/DC and MET in one of those pictures.
You would need a Sam/Whitestar cable kit for both machines.
In addition to the power adapter, if your MET is the new slanted metal backbox, then you'll need the Pinbits Clear Shield and Mounting Standoffs for New Stern Cabinets, which will get rid of the red display shield in front of the DMD.
http://shop.colordmd.com/accessories/
If AC/DC has a red shield as well, you need a clear one for it too.
dmacy, how long ago did you purchase 2 LCD ColorDMDs? Do you see a Rev on the board? That can might show if the LCD mounting bracket is the latest one.
I have a LCD in my Stern IJ and I didn't need to modify that mounting bracket. I'll try and get a picture of it later today so we can see how many mounting holes are in this mounting bracket.
Quoted from dmacy:The one in TAF was early 2013 maybe? The IJ was September 2015. I only needed to to clear the jackpot board to space the display away. So you have that jackpot light board in yours?
No. I do not have a jackpot light board in my Williams IJ. Haven't given it any thought. My LCD ColorDMD is sitting low as possible in the speaker panel so that I can still open the lamp board without removing the speaker panel first.
dmacy, back on post #263, I am referring to my Stern IJ that I have the LCD ColorDMD in. I'll take a picture of the mounting bracket in it so you can tell if your 2 LCD's have the right bracket so can be used in your AC/DC and MET. Stern IJ should be the same fit as in AC/DC since both have the wood speaker panels.
3 weeks later
Quoted from toeskneez:Can someone please tell me? If I buy an LCD and an LED color DM display, can I swap and change them into different machines to see which one I like best? TIA
Yep. Easy to swap around. That is the beauty of the display. Displays come with one power cable adapter, which you pick between Bally/Williams or Stern/Sam/Whitestar. As long as you got the right power cable, then you just load up the new color ROM for the game the display is installed.
1 month later
4 weeks later
Quoted from PeterG:Do you need tobuy a specific cable set of is that included? I assume the wpc titles have the correct cable and the stern have also the correct cable included. Only when you swap between wpc and stern that will be a problem?
Correct. You can purchase another spare cable in the accessories tab when you order.
Quoted from FatPanda:Can someone post the different modes for the LCD display? Thinking about getting one for my ToM and trying to decided between LED and LCD.
No need. I'll decide for you. LCD looks great!
1 month later
Quoted from hool10:I just bought a ColorDMD for my BSD and the DMD is outgassing so I really had no choice. All my friends have an LCD screen and while I like the Hi-Res graphics on say an Iron Man, I think dots are the way to go for older titles.
So I know the red tint will interfere with the color screen. Can I just get a knife and cut out the tinted window rather than buying a replacement speaker panel with a clear screen?
I would advise against cutting it out. Some people talked about using a chemical to get the red film off the speaker panel insert. I need to find out what it is that was used. Hopefully, someone will beat me to it and post about it.
Quoted from NonStopSwagger:LED DMD looks great BTW. I have the Brightness and Contrast up high
What did you install it in?
Quoted from Rdoyle1978:Installing my LED today, can't wait!
What are you installing it in?
Quoted from bicyclenut:Do they make a color dmd for Austin Powers? I haven't been able to find anything about it.
Not yet. You can always check by looking at the website store. http://shop.colordmd.com/displays/
Although, Sigma display fits in in now so you can choice any single color you want to be while you wait.
Quoted from toibs:Any pointers on which shipping option takes which amount of time?? (Within the US)??
USPS has the quickest shipping time for me from California to Texas over the other shipping methods.
3 months later
11 months later
Quoted from jj44114:I have a TAF with L-5 cpu rom. Will the color dmd work with that rom. ColorDMD’s website says L-7 is required.
Yes, it wil. At worse case, you may see some animations white instead of being colored.
3 weeks later
Quoted from Goalie:LCD is better. I have LCDs on most of my games, I ordered LED for my ACDC just to try it out and I regret going that way.
I understand that the Stern ACDC LED display has 16 shades of red to the animations. Being the game was colored for the LCD, looks like the color ROM may need to be tweaked for the LED.
Quoted from Dmod: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.
Technical stuff...I like that. Thank you for the correction in number of shades and more details about the hardware. 
@dmod, when I was suggesting a tweak, I was thinking more on the lines of choosing a lighter shade of certain colors for the LED where there are darker animations. I believe brown is pretty dark on the LED display for games like AC/DC, but it looks fine on the LCD.
2 weeks later
Quoted from Scoot:I have to say after a month of ownership of a lcd on my Shadow, I have grown to love it. I still wish it was slightly brighter but the options like dotsxl and hi res has won me over to the darker side...
Brighter? Have you turned up the brightness level at all?
It is really hard to get pictures and even videos to show the exact real life colors of either display. It is something to experience in person. There are many ColorDMDs on display at most pinball shows these days. Even then, you still may not find the title you want to see.
1 year later
Quoted from jsyjay:Just picked up a second hand LCD locally, I prefer the LED but it was a good price. Question is which game do you think it would look best in out of WCS, IM or LOTR?
It is a personal preference. For me, LCD in all 3.
2 weeks later
Quoted from spblat:My new-to-me Getaway is prone to washed out ghosting problems, which I think means my DMD driver board is cooked. Is there a chance that the lower power draw of the ColorDMD solution, especially the LED version, will give a satisfactory result? Or should I head straight to RottenDog first?[quoted image]
Measure your voltages first. If they are bad, and likely the -112v and/or -100v measures higher, you can go straight to a ColorDMD and not worry about repairing those high voltages.
The ColorDMD will not be using the -112v, -100v, nor the 68v that comes from the DMD controller board.
7 months later
At least with the 128x16, there is no decision needed to be made since it will only be available in LED. https://mailchi.mp/53dc7b89cdb6/colordmd-announces-new-platform-for-128x16-dmd-games?e=c9c02c6747
1 year later
1 year later
Promoted items from Pinside Marketplace and Pinside Shops!
Lee's Summit, MO
You're currently viewing posts by Pinsider PinballManiac40.
Click here to go back to viewing the entire thread.
Reply
Wanna join the discussion? Please sign in to reply to this topic.
Hey there! Welcome to Pinside!
Donate to PinsideGreat to see you're enjoying Pinside! Did you know Pinside is able to run without any 3rd-party banners or ads, thanks to the support from our visitors? Please consider a donation to Pinside and get anext to your username to show for it! Or better yet, subscribe to Pinside+!
