TZ Color DMD LCD vs LED

The LCD has more options, the LED is just dots.
This question has been asked so many times that there are a lot of threads of the aged old question LCD or LED!
Check Colordmd com they have snippets of the TZ in both versions.
Good luck , great product.

I prefer the LCD over the LED. But is is very subjective.

Lcd looks far better than the led version

I have a LCD in my twilight zone and have opted not to colorize it. It looks absolutely perfect considering Twilight Zone was black and white television show. Never have been a fan of the LED dot matrix displays you can see the discrete sub pixel colors and the whole pixel doesnt fill up all the way.

This is what I did. LED adds a lot on certain games - TZ really isn’t one of them. LCD all the way - you have multiple options as far as Colors and dot sizing. I have mine in B&w too. Also did Monster Bash that way.

Oh I hadn't thought of doing B&W, that would suit the theme - I like the original classic look but tempted with the B&W. Any chance you could post some pics or a video??

Agreed, LCD definitely goes farther in this game. I do have the LED panel installed and it looks great, but the B&W options are definitely something to consider. Great product, and I'd love to have one in each of my games!

Of TZ? My MB is packed up right now. But it's just a quick update with the ColorDMD file.

LCD always if it fits.

Here we go again. LED has better brightness, better colors, better saturation, true black (not backlit), perfect fit, cheaper. None of those are debatable. Looks way better to me on most pins, especially WPC pins.

Doesn't look way better to me, and that is debatable.

LCD all day long to my eyes anyway, led just doesn’t look as good to me but I like the way it fits better.

Here’s a quick video of the black & White ColorDMD in my Tz. You can’t see much of the graphics on the DMD but they do look good. Sorry about the defensive line standing in the way

I have the LCD variants in my world cup soccer, black rose, twilight zone and Lord of the rings. A friend of mine has an LED in his pirates of the Caribbean. In my eyes the LCDs look better as a replacement to the plasmas, hands down. The LCDs look better because they actually fill out the entire pixel unlike the LED which you can see the discrete colors inside each pixel. They don't fill out well and to me the display looks too eye piercing. I'm glad somebody posted a video with the LCD. On the less, the three colors mixing to produce white looks "off". Funny thing is when colorDMD shows videos and screenshots of their displays they are LCD. The look of lcd justifies the price as well as the installation effort.
(I just added some pictures so you could see what the LCD looks like with standard dots)

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Dupe.

I just can't wrap my head around using LCD with those smeary overfilled blobs when they are stretched. I like the distinctness of the dots in LED - the original art was created with dots in mind - and the LEDs highlight that.

Best thing about the LCD Is you've got 4 choices!

You know, this wouldn't even be a debate if ColorDMD was using OLED screens. Of course, the price might change...

Agreed. I just like dots better for all b/w. Looks more period correct. I love my led dmds in creech and tz but am much happier with the lcd in gb. Just draw a line in the sand at 1998 and put a lcd in anything later. That's an old pot smoker trick

If you are smoking herb those leds are going to be waaaayyyy to bright

Modify it.... It's easy!

It really is; I personally prefer the vibrant colored dots you get from the LED display on these older titles and feel the washed out colors (by comparison) of the LCD display as well as most of the modes really don't approve the displays appearance.

If you really want to decide for yourself get both an LED and LCD display, build a custom wire harness and ribbon cable so you can install them both in the same machine to get real time graphics on both displays while you play.

In the video below, the top display is a ColorLED and the lower display is a ColorLCD set to Large Dots.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TxcL19w5B5pTPhWWjX3OIj1VY0GFL82E/view?usp=sharing

EDIT: The only thing I miss about the LCD display is that it provided a 4 pin passthrough header for making other connections that need +5 or +12V. I'm actually disappointed in ColorDMD that they didn't provide this passthrough on the LED versions as for all practical purposes, its a $0.00 cost option to add.

I prefer LED... but if you’re not sure, LCD can be run in dots mode as well as smoothing, so you get options. LED is dots only naturally.

My TZ actually has an LCD in it cause it was all you could get at the time!

Mine came with an LCD as well, I found someone on Pinside that was on the fence with the LED vs LCD so I told him if he buys an LED display and decides he prefers the LCD I would swap him straight up for my LCD, it was a win-win for both of us.

One thing to keep in mind and I don't know if it matter on TZ but the spotlights can really glare of the LCD. I have an LCD in my AC/DC and I used spacers so the top of the screen is leaning back slightly. That glass really reflects the spot lights and playfield lights. I don't think it would matter on metal back box Sterns as they are already leaned back a little. The LED doesn't have this issue at all.

That’s a really good idea with the spacers. You don’t get glare with the LED? I have one in my Dr Who and it’s glare city!

Hmmm I put glare guards on the LED panels, I just took a closer look and it might just be angle and position on the different pins. My AC/DC is the wood back box with LCD and it was really bad, tilting it back solved. My Star Trek is metal back box LED and it has no glare. I have a BSD with LED and it gets glare on the speaker panel but its not too bad. I have a Sega JP with LED and it was getting glare on that curved lexan in the funky back box so I just took it out.

Very interesting .... thx!

LCD, if it fits. LED boards look like they were made in high school electronics class.

You must be talking about the Stern LED boards with LED blocks that don't line up properly; this thread is about the ColorDMD boards and these boards have a one piece LED panel.