Scan is my favourite

I am in the same boat. The nostalgia factor is nothing to me. I grew up playing pinball before DMD. During the DMD era I was not playing pinball much. When I got my first game, LOTR, it was a purchase on a whim after playing Pinball Arcade Williams Collection. When I received the game it blew me away with the exception of the Dot Matrix display which seemed so antiquated compared with the rest of the package.
I want the best images possible on the display and SCAN mode usually is that to me.
For new/future games I expect LCD video content, not dots.

I own 14 ColorDMDs in my games. DotsXL wins hands down for the majority. But those are also mostly the WPC games. Tile looks good in MM and even LOTR. But DotsXL just wins. I have Scan in TZ and Hi Rez in AC/DC.

I have all mine set on dotsxl.
Scan looks pretty darn good on TSPP

Ha, if you think all are running you are crazy. First 22 are setup and running in the house. Everywhere. 3 bedroom ranch means basement, bedroom, living room. And every time I go to play a few there is always an issue from switch to bulb popping up.

Then I put 3 in the local pinball club The Sanctum and already I need to do some work on a trough issues. 2 are projects that need the top ends put back on and 2 are duplicate /basket cases whose fate should be to put back together, but as duplicates may be done after my time on Earth.

Pinball people who stop by my house are impressed than I have a large playable collection of the classics. But Out-Of-Order signs are a part of life. I also have a large Video game collection.

I like HiRes the best but some games look better with dots or scan.

And I have to keep the other 33 running at The Sanctum that don't belong to You

I'll have to try it, but what is the scan setting?

It is my setting on every game except creech...which I love xl dots on. Oh, and pirates, which i am STILL WAITING FOR!

I have dotsxl running on my Road Show which is amazing, but the hi res on my TSPP is another level. I like watching other people play, just to watch the DMD. Such a huge upgrade on any machine, I'm sure my next purchase will be followed by an order for a Color DMD , so I need to figure it in my budget.

Have my Met & Lotr on Hires, looks great, dots are old sckol

Hires on all games here! I feel like you can see the animations better. With orange little dots I missed a lot of the graphics. Awesome on the 90's titles but check out Metallica on hires if you're not convinced.

HiresRootBeerLogo_(resized).jpg

Vote #2 for small dots here I guess. I am outnumbered.

Hires for the ones I have. I think the best one in Hires is Flintstones.

I thought The Sanctum had a clan of underpants gnomes that came out every night and fixed them for you.

Judge Dredd looks great in scan or hi-res because it's based on a comic book. Same goes for my Shadow.

Although both are in XL mode right now because I wanted to give it a fair shot. But I'll be switching the settings back.

DotsXL on CREECH and NGG
High res on AC/DC, TSPP, and MB

DotsXL forever. It has nothing to do with nostalgia, it's the presentation of the art. The smooth modes don't make TSPP look like the show - it fills in details that shouldn't be there - and everything has stair-step edges. Since dots are uniformily round, they trick your brain into thinking things are smoother than they actually are, and also add the illusion of more texture and detail because the artist was using specific tricks to make things look good at that resolution. So many instances of characters looking really cool with dots but derpy when smoothed. IMO smooth modes make the graphics look more outdated because it's bringing out flaws that you wouldn't notice otherwise.

Scan/Hi-res look terrible on the video clips in Iron Man. DotsXL looks much better. Way less muddy and blurry.

We just got a color DMD for Metallica for Christmas.
So far we keep going back and forth on Large Dots and Scan modes.
High res is not even an option because it does not have the color shading that scan offers.

Was using Scan mode for our Metallica for the past week, just switched to HiRes. I think I like HiRes better than Scan, even without the shading capabilities. DotsXL just doesn't look right when its in color. It's 2015, almost 2016... why do Dots even exist on modern pinball machines still?

Like it or not, the artwork was done as dots in "dots resolution". HiRes doesn't make it look like 2016 animated material...it makes it look more dated and degrades the intention of the art. DotsXL keeps it "retro cool" & accurate to the artist's intentions.

Retro cool? Dots were the technology 30 years ago. Pinball is always behind on adoption by at least 10 years. I don't find that cool at all. It causes non-pinheads to turn their noses up to the games which means less new people in the hobby than there could have been.

Agreed 100%.

Showed the DotsXL mode to my wife and 3 friends the other day and they asked why they even have that mode because it looks horrible. Only one of those friends owns another pin. Scan or HiRes to us. But it really comes down to preference- I can't force anyone to like Pepsi if they think Coca-Cola is better.

HIRES and SCAN are similar and have 40 votes together, the dots and tiles have 34 votes together. Clearly there is a split in what people like. We should all be appreciative of the choices Randy has given with this tool. There is no wrong or right, just opinions.

DotsXL for all here. The animations were made with dots and I feel they look best in dots. It doesn't look right to me trying to make something it's not. BUT if Super Mario Bros. ever gets made I would love to see it in the tiles setting.

Ha...I forget which setting I have on Metallica...but they are pretty big and no space betwixed them.

Who is Rick? Don't you mean Randy at ColorDMD?

whoops , yes Randy. Sorry.

Doesn't matter to me how anyone else has their $420 mod configured. Just matters what we prefer here.

Anyone care to see WOZ in dots?

I prefer color !!! Lots of color !!!

I prefer not to see it at all.

Ever.

Coke is way better than Pepsi, fyi

I always chose water when Coke isn't an option

Me too.

Exactly why I prefer coke..."jack and Pepsi" has a horrible ring to it.

I agree that Scan/Hi-res looks good on the animations and menus. It just doesn't translate very well to video clips. If I had a game that didn't have video clips; I might use scan.