(Topic ID: 171786)

ColorDMD - LCD versus LED?

By goatdan

7 years ago


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Topic index (key posts)

5 key posts have been marked in this topic

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Post #3 Vendor update on available combinations Posted by Dmod (7 years ago)

Post #23 Vendor update on hardware revision for future display boards Posted by Dmod (7 years ago)

Post #30 Led displays take less power than lcd setups Posted by Dmod (7 years ago)

Post #64 Discussion on smoothing algorithm Posted by Dmod (7 years ago)

Post #90 Video of the led display in spiderman Posted by bobukcat (7 years ago)


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#143 7 years ago

I find most of the LED lighting on the newer games to be excessively bright and harsh. How bright is the LED and can it be turned way down?

For example, on my Met Prem I have the GI illumination turned down to 10. Factory is 50 and it goes up to 100. When I put LEDs in my older games I use the comet 2 LED soft white for the GI.

From what I am reading in this thread I probably won't like the new LED display. Am I correct in this assumption?

Thanks,
Michael

#149 7 years ago
Quoted from PinballManiac40:

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 KingBW:

You seem more sensitive to it than I am, so I would "guess" to say you are correct with your assumption. Maybe find a LED on a pin to confirm it in-person.

Thanks for the feedback. I wonder if I can order one and send it back if I don't like it? I will email them.

Thanks,
Michael

2 weeks later
#205 7 years ago
Quoted from Arcade:

They are both great.
However, and this may just be me. On the LED version I saw on an X-Men, the blues and to some extent the red appeared blurry to my eye. Almost as it were creating a halo effect around the object or score.
I do not see this on the LCD version.

This... Especially in attract mode the red and blue text make me think I need glasses.

After ordering a LCD for met I decided to try a LED in SM.

The problem for me is the LED dots are too small - piercing. Like super sharp pencil tips pointing at you. This highlights the gap between the LEDs. Plus as previously mentioned there is a rainbow halo from each dot. Some of the art on the LED isn't too bad with this, but other scenes are not so great. The brightness is just too much, even turned down. I have already ordered a LCD to replace it with and will be sending the LED back, unfortunately.

The Met Prem with the LCD is set to hires mode and is sitting next to a POTC with the original amber DMD which is next to a SMVE with the color LED and finally a ST with the original Stern red LED. My favorites are the LCD on hires following by the good old fashioned amber DMD, followed by the color LED and finally the stern red LED. Personally, I don't like the stern red LED at all. Since colordmd doesn't have a rom for ST yet (ever?) I wish I could put an amber DMD in ST just to see what it would look like. The temptation is there to keep the color LED and reset it to stock to use in ST, but I am not going to spend $400 for a display just to have single different color. If Randy ever manages to get a colorized rom for ST I will be all over it.

#209 7 years ago
Quoted from dmbjunky:

Does Stern make red DMDs? I thought they use amber with a red film. They did at some point but maybe I have the timeline switched.
I like others' suggestions earlier to put a grey film in front of the ColorDMD to cut down on piercing glow of the LEDs. I haven't seen the LED DMD in person but I have seen blue LED digital displays in a Bally and I had trouble reading the numbers because of the brightness. A grey gel would fix that problem I think.

I don't know about whether stern used amber dmds with a red filter. All I know is the Stern games I currently have that came with a red LED DMD are actually red LEDs. But they also use a red filter over the display to diffuse the output a bit and make it blend in better cause the red dmd without the red filter is horribly bad.

I read about other's experience with the filters to help cut down on the harshness from the LED and I thought about experimenting with that. I just don't want to buy 87 different gels to try to make something work that I just don't like that much to start with. I'd rather just send it back and install a LCD in hires mode which I DO like.

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