Gauging interest in a 4k input lag test kit

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Would you be interested in a $40 kit to test lag?

yes
14
74%
no - i can't afford it (or prefer the free piLagTester instead)
0
No votes
no - don't have a pi
0
No votes
no - already own a lag tester
2
11%
no - just not interested
3
16%
 
Total votes: 19

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xeos
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Location: San Diego, California

Gauging interest in a 4k input lag test kit

Post by xeos »

Fresh off from finishing my piLagTester, I'm starting work on a more "high end" lag testing solution that would complete with the timesleuth and leo bodnar devices. This would be a kit that you would purchase and plug into your already existing raspberry pi, and would include its own sensor for attaching to the TV/monitor/whatever. It would be able to measure input lag over a range of refresh and resolutions limited only by the pi itself. Most notably, the raspberry pi 4 supports 4k resolution, so you could test lag for that. In theory the pi 4 can also run at higher refresh rates than 60hz (at least 85hz) but maybe even 120hz and beyond, though there are driver issues I haven't looked into yet that might prevent my kit from working above 60hz.

I'm really unsure what the cost to put the kits together would be, but I'd be willing to commit to $40 for the first run if there's decent interest. You'd have to provide your own pi (zero, 3 or 4); those are often sold at cost or as a loss leader and I can't compete with that.

To be clear, this is a different approach from my previous piLagTester - no high speed camera or manual inspection of the data required. But, since it's running with a raspberry pi, the raw data would be available if, for instance, you wanted to make pretty graphs to post to a review site.

What do you think? is this of interest?
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xeos
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Location: San Diego, California

Re: Gauging interest in a 4k input lag test kit

Post by xeos »

FYI here's a write-up of the project in it's current state and the nice real-time (and even nicer after-time) plots it generates.

https://alantechreview.blogspot.com/202 ... plete.html
djpweb
Posts: 6
Joined: Sun Apr 05, 2020 4:22 pm

Re: Gauging interest in a 4k input lag test kit

Post by djpweb »

For sure I'd get one.
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xeos
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Location: San Diego, California

Re: Gauging interest in a 4k input lag test kit

Post by xeos »

Follow up question: I'm getting close to having these ready to go. Are people comfortable just sending $40 USD to some random guy on the internet? This is not large enough scale to have an official store front (and the back-end would just be paypal anyway, so no real difference in practice). The other option would be to post them to ebay as "buy it now", but as you probably know ebay takes 10% of everything, so the price would have to be higher.
RGB0b
Posts: 543
Joined: Wed Dec 05, 2012 1:52 pm

Re: Gauging interest in a 4k input lag test kit

Post by RGB0b »

My opinion: As long as you use a reputable payment collector, no one will care. So, PayPal, Google Pay, etc = Totally fine. Alternatively, "Please wire $40 from your bank account to x" = no thank you :)

Also, you can set up a PayPal "buy it now button" and embed it right in a blog post on your site, which might be easiest for everyone.
djpweb
Posts: 6
Joined: Sun Apr 05, 2020 4:22 pm

Re: Gauging interest in a 4k input lag test kit

Post by djpweb »

I'm fine with both ebay (+%) or directly Paypal.
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xeos
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Location: San Diego, California

Re: Gauging interest in a 4k input lag test kit

Post by xeos »

status update: this is ready to go, but unfortunately not yet for the PI4. that means the headliner feature of 4k support is not ready. But for those with PI3s or PI Zeros, everything is peachy, and Pi4 support will come along as a software update once the pi foundation can get their drivers in order.

https://alantechreview.blogspot.com/202 ... i4-or.html
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xeos
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Location: San Diego, California

Re: Gauging interest in a 4k input lag test kit

Post by xeos »

here's some "glamour" shots of the device.

https://alantechreview.blogspot.com/202 ... ample.html

Can functionality be glamorous?
RGB0b
Posts: 543
Joined: Wed Dec 05, 2012 1:52 pm

Re: Gauging interest in a 4k input lag test kit

Post by RGB0b »

Awesome work! I'd definitely like to purchase one as soon as they're available.

...also, the RPi4 driver support has been a big issue since its release. It's really frustrating that the team released the hardware with unfinished software.
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xeos
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Location: San Diego, California

Re: Gauging interest in a 4k input lag test kit

Post by xeos »

good news: it's available for order.

https://alantechreview.blogspot.com/202 ... -page.html

bad news: absolutely no support for 4k yet. pi4 support still waiting on the raspberry pi foundation to make the (closed source) video firmware work right.

ps: for the first run the price is $40 in the us, $55 outside. after the first run this is very subject to change depending on how tired i get of assembling them by hand.
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xeos
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Re: Gauging interest in a 4k input lag test kit

Post by xeos »

Just curious, how many people think they might buy one once pi4 support is official? Just trying to determine how big an order to place for parts, obviously non-binding.
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xeos
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Re: Gauging interest in a 4k input lag test kit

Post by xeos »

pi4 support is in open alpha testing now & downloadable for anybody who has the pilagtesterpro hardware to try it out on. sorry it took so long, I didn't anticipate how bad the pi4 gpu firmware would be, or how little effort the pi folks would make to fix it. it's still not perfect which is why this is "alpha" instead of beta, but it works right on the screens I tested on.

https://alantechreview.blogspot.com/202 ... alpha.html
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xeos
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Re: Gauging interest in a 4k input lag test kit

Post by xeos »

I added some nifty features BTW:
graph now has tick-marks every 10 ms. (see https://alantechreview.blogspot.com/202 ... tures.html)
press P to save a screenshot
press 1 or 2 to change the scale of the graph
press Q or W to + / - the input lag threshold (default=5%)
press A or S to + / - the full response threshold (default=80%)
Press D to toggle dynamic contrast compensation / diagnostic test (default=off).
command line options:
-a <frames>: automatically record then quit
-x don't save/make .datx file
-r don't save/make .datr file
-l <fname>: save averages here (default=log.txt)
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xeos
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Location: San Diego, California

Re: Gauging interest in a 4k input lag test kit

Post by xeos »

pi4 support seems to be working pretty well - i had a chance to do some quick tests on a 120hz screen and the pi4 kept up just fine. while I'm still tweaking the software to reach complete feature parity with the pi0-3 version, what's available now is mature enough to use with the pi4.
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xeos
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Re: Gauging interest in a 4k input lag test kit

Post by xeos »

It's been an awfully long time coming, but the pi4 4k support is fully tested and verified and available now. Results are comparable to the version for Pi0-3, and also to RTING's published results.

Here's a Sony 4k review I did with it.

https://alantechreview.blogspot.com/202 ... t-lag.html

Those of you who almost a full year ago indicated interest, should really check it out if you are still thinking a 4k lag tester might be useful to you.
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