Request: Translucent DMD's and score displays

[Wigoutboy]

I was thinking it would be really nice if Farsight added the option of translucent DMDs and score displays, like the ones Zen Pinball 2 has.

It doesn't seem to be a hard thing to implement, and it would make the game look better in my opinion.

Also, I don't think it's good for any kind of TV to have a completely static image on the screen for a long time because it risks damage to the screen in the form of image retention.

Maybe I'm paranoid, but when I'm having a longish game (30 minutes or so) I feel the need to turn of the DMD or score display for a little while because I fear It might be bad for the TV to have that static image on for so long.

This problem would be totally removed with completely translucent (edge and screen) DMDs and score displays.

Please let me know what you guys think.

Cheers.

 

[RP1980]

I may be wrong here, but burn-in isn't an issue on LCD and LED TV's, which are pretty much all people buy these days. I actually still have a plasma in the house, so the static image could be an issue on there.

 

[Wigoutboy]

Actually burn in can occur on LCDs and LEDs. For example I have a LED tv and it says on the manual that the viewing of static images (like the black bars on the top and bottom of the screen that appear when watching a DVD or a Bluray, or when watching 4:3 content) should be limited to 5% of the total view time of the display. It also suggests using the zoom features to fill the whole screen to avoid imagen retention or burn-in.

 

[Lord Boron]

Even newer plasmas have pretty much done away with burn in.

 

[McGuirk]

I just bought a plasma a few months ago, and I'm a little worried about burn-in, but I also read that they're better with that than a few years ago. My wife's old LCD TV was a POS though, it had some weird burn in pattern.

 

[Lord Boron]

If anything, the station logos In the corners when watching TV are more of a danger. I've had my plasma for a few years now and never had a problem. They imperceptibly move the image every so often by one or two pixels to prevent it. And even if you get an image burned in, run some static over it for a min and it goes away.

 

[MontanaFrank]

My LCD TV will be three years old in November. My favorite TV channels are Turner Classic Movies and ME TV which has a lot of 60's sitcoms and other non HD programming. There is about a ten percent difference in brightness on both the right and left side of my screen.

 

[Wigoutboy]

My LCD TV will be three years old in November. My favorite TV channels are Turner Classic Movies and ME TV which has a lot of 60's sitcoms and other non HD programming. There is about a ten percent difference in brightness on both the right and left side of my screen.

That must be a combination of burn-in and uneven aging of the screen caused by playing too much 4:3 content with black bars.

Maybe you should try stretching or zooming the image a little bit so it fills the whole screen. Some people hate but I don't think it looks that bad. Obviously it's better to watch everything in its correct aspect ratio, but it's a trade off I guess.

 

[Wigoutboy]

If anything, the station logos In the corners when watching TV are more of a danger. I've had my plasma for a few years now and never had a problem. They imperceptibly move the image every so often by one or two pixels to prevent it. And even if you get an image burned in, run some static over it for a min and it goes away.

It's not only burn-in that is a problem. Displaying static images for a long time causes uneven aging of the screen and that makes the brightness levels of the display inconsistent, thus degrading the quality of the picture.

That's what I would like to avoid, basically.

 

[spoonman]

I agree.

Doing this would also protect OLED displays which are similar to plasma when it comes to burn-in.

The Vita display, for example, is starting to show some burn in for people who play PS1 games or use the browser since they use solid high contrast black crop bars...

 

[Jeff Strong]

On a related note, I would like to move the DMD around to different spots on the screen (Zen allows this too). I'm legally blind in my left eye, so having the DMD on the right side would be much, much better for me.

 

[Mark W**a]

I think the transparent DMD on Zen/PiNFX looks like crap. But that's just me.

Not sure why you'd want that since its not like a real DMD is see through on a real machine. I think it looks perfect the way it is.

 

[Mark W**a]

My LCD TV will be three years old in November. My favorite TV channels are Turner Classic Movies and ME TV which has a lot of 60's sitcoms and other non HD programming. There is about a ten percent difference in brightness on both the right and left side of my screen.

TCM is one of my favorite channels too its a shame your cable or satellite company doesn't have the HD version of the channel.

We have Atlantic Broadband which is a small provider and we get TCM in HD.

 

[Worf]

LCDs have no burn in.

And it takes longer to have burn in on a plasma - days, if not more. Given how much stuff is shown on a DMD, the worst you'll see if you play for years would be the border of the DMD.

If your LCD screen has unevenness, it's either caused by backlight "local dimming" (turn that crap off) or you need to just ease the burn in by displaying 16:9 content for a few hours and it'll reset itself. It's because the pixels get stuck. But get them active and the effect disappears.

 

[brakel]

Image retention and burn-in are two different things. No new tvs sold today have burn-in. Even if their lawyers tell them to warn people about it in their manuals. Some tvs can get image retention. Plasma tvs are more likely to get image retention. Image retention is reversible however by playing video noise over the screen. Unless you leave the game on 24 hours a day you're probably not going to see any image retention.

 

[Carl Spiby]

My LCD TV started to suffer quite badly with image retention when gaming (faint OSD would remain when you went back to dash), so I think age has a part to play too.

 

[canuck]

Good plasmas have settings to avoid burn-in. My Panasonic Plasma has great color reproduction and framerate over most LCDs.

 

[Wigoutboy]

Good plasmas have settings to avoid burn-in. My Panasonic Plasma has great color reproduction and framerate over most LCDs.

I'm aware that new plasmas have pixel shift technology or something similar to avoid burn-in. But what about those tvs that don't? Like mine. I also realize that most games have HUDs or something similar (health bars in fighting games for example), but they don't stay displayed on screen for hours on end, like they do when you have a long game on TPA. Making them translucent would make them look better in my opinion and it would also eliminate this problem.

I hope Farsight takes notice of this and give us options regarding DMD and score displays (size, color, brightness, making them translucent or not, etc).

It's something that bothers me and it takes me away from the game when I realize that an hour has passed and the exact same spot on the screen hasn't moved because it's displaying the DMD or the scores.

I have a lot of PS3 games and this is the only game that bothers me in that aspect.

 

[MontanaFrank]

TCM is one of my favorite channels too its a shame your cable or satellite company doesn't have the HD version of the channel.

We have Atlantic Broadband which is a small provider and we get TCM in HD.

I do have TCM HD, but most of the 30's and 40's movies still have the black bar, side bars. I don't like to stretch my screen resolution because it looks strange to me.

It's great when TCM does make the old movies into full screen HD quality. Favorites include Dr. Strangelove - Forbidden Planet - Earth vs The Flying Saucers.

 

[pin pin]

"I don't think it's good for any kind of TV to have a completely static image on the screen for a long time because it risks damage to the screen in the form of image retention."

I bought a Samsung dlp years ago specifically to avoid all this. It's seemingly ancient now but still works well enough that I can't justify replacing it.
It's the mirrors man!