Review of Columbus Circle's Portable Monitor LCD for PCE...

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Columbus Circle's Portable Monitor LCD for PC Engine is a nifty add-on for either the original PCE, the Core Grafx or the Core Grafx II consoles. The bundled set comes with a 5v 2000 mAh A/C adapter, an 1/8" jack adapter w/ RCA composite video + mono RCA phono jacks, an HDMI cable & a mini USB cable. One doesn't need an original PCE A/C adapter but can use the supplied 5v A/C adapter to power both the PM-LCD & PCE console (or use an optional power bank rated @ 5v 1000 mAh to power 'em both for true portability) -- how cool is that?

There's an HDMI jack on the lower backside of the PM-LCD unit to hook up to a bigger HDTV setup if so desired. Just don't expect a dedicated RGB endowed PM-LCD setup but rather a composite video input PM-LCD setup at best (the PSone's official lcd screen is RGB endowed from the get-go indeed). There are five brightness settings to choose from for the lcd screen + a switch to select either 16:9 or 4:3 screen aspect ratio. I think with an appropiate RGB mod for this Columbus Circle produced PM-LCD unit, it'd truly shine in that department. The lcd screen when closed fits flush with a Core Grafx II console & matches the gray colored console shell quite easily (reminds me of a NEC PCE- LT setup). On the right side panel of the PM-LCD unit is a red "power" led + 1/8" stereo headphone jack & mini usb "power" port. There are two speakers on the front side panel with two arrow buttons to increase/decrease the volume to your desired taste.

HDMI output is at 720p -- the backside switch does enable you to choose either 16:9 or 4:3 screen aspect ratio when using hdmi output (when using composite video or S-Video with a Retrotink 2X Pro scaler setup will get better results with a PCE console at 720p -- of course, your mileage may vary depending on the scaler used).

If you do decide to use a portable power bank to power up the PM-LCD unit, it'll deplete faster as it's powering both the lcd screen + the PCE console as well -- a 10000 mAh or greater usb power bank will come in quite handy for those few hours of slick portable PCE console gaming.

My initial hookup of the PM-LCD unit wasn't fully inserted into the CG-II console (which resulted in having only R & B but not G with a overall blue-ish tint appearance on every PCE game booted via a Turbo Everdrive flashcart setup). Upon removing & reinstalling the PM-LCD unit slowly until it fit flush with the bus expansion port of the CG-II console, the RGB input is 100% working as it should be. Ran the PCE 240p Suite app to confirm that RGB signals are present -- they are (which is a good sign). I'm throughly impressed with the PM-LCD unit & would recommend buying one.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Edited on 3-15-2021 with more new relevant info on CC's PM-LCD unit.

Note: The PM-LCD's power button overrides the PCE's power switch, so just slide it "on" anyways so said inserted Turbo Everdrive flashcart or Hu-Card doesn't accidentally slide out when booted up (just to be on the safe side).

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[CZroe]

Thanks for sharing. It’s good to hear from someone who actually has one. I saw enough to concern me that I didn’t get one so perhaps I should counter-balance this with my observations and nit-picks. Hopefully fewer surprises for anyone taking the plunge.

For example, there is no good reason for the power cable to awkwardly protrude out the side of the screen half. That makes it awkward and harms portability. The top is probably the worst place to have the power and video connections since they will weigh down and protrude from the part that moves.

I was surprised to hear that it’s 720p because I was previously led to believe it was 480p and properly scaled 240p, unlike all of those console-specific 720p adapters that don’t properly handle the native resolution of the console they were supposedly made for. I expect an accessory for a 240p console to properly support 240p. I checked some other videos to confirm and it’s definitely 720p meaning it’s almost certainly not processing 240p correctly, just like #Pound, Hyperkin, X-Treme, LevelHike, etc.

Like those cables and any >$20 generic converter, it uses an off-the-shelf chip intended to handle analog inputs on a modern display which would be entirely unsuited to a retro console since they universally deinterlace non-interlaced 240p. That means latency, blurry scrolling, and ruined transparency effects with other 60hz artifacts. I’d love to try the drop shadow test on 240p Test Suite.

Another concern is that it does not block the existing power jack even though it powers the system through the EXT port. I’ve already seen users mistakenly plug power into the console and the LCD simultaneously. That can’t be good. All official NEC hardware that powers through the EXT port also blocks the original power jack.

Japanese game hardware show & tell channel, HijiQuish, looked at one and seemed to have trouble fitting a CoreGrafx II despite that being the closest color match. He resorts to using it with an original PC Engine instead for most of the video but eventually shows it on his CGII. He also shows where merely attempting to install it before scratched up his console.

The composite AV output has stereo plugs but can’t be stereo with only three poles (Minimum 4: Left Channel Audio, Right Channel Audio, Composite Video, and Ground). I guess you can grab true stereo from the headphone jack, but then why even pretend that the other jack is stereo? Also, the composite output started flickering like crazy when HijiQuish merely touched the screen around 16:40:
https://youtu.be/7uhuZxt_7xU

I don’t like the exposed flat cable in the hinge or the lack of spring-loaded detents, but that’s probably down to cost so it is what it is. Still, it wouldn’t have cost them any more to make the speaker holes nested for higher density, better throughput, and a more pleasing appearance. Literally cutting slots would have been better. This looks like some kid was playing with a CAD program and didn't know how to make a speaker grill.

Keep in mind, I haven’t actually seen/touched one, but I thought I should share my reasons why in case you or others hadn’t considered them.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

You can use CC's PM-LCD with a Super Grafx console as well (it's awesome to be able to play Supergrafx games on it -- the only issue is since the SGX console is power-hungry "voltage-wise", a higher capacity usb power bank is absolutely necessary if it's being used as a portable console setup). If you use a 10000 mAh or higher usb power bank with a PCE, Core Grafx or Core Grafx II, you'll get longer playing sessions indeed -- several hours worth easily.

I tried to hook it up with a USA region TurboGrafx-16 console but with the way how the expansion bus port is situated, the PM-LCD's interface won't reach it due to the outer metal fixture surrounding the TG's port -- so it's not feasible with a TG-16 setup. It would've been ace with a TG-16 console setup though but no cigar this time around, folks.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[schnuth]

That’s really cool you tried it on a variety of systems. I have mine hooked up to my white PCE and it’s pretty cool. A poor man’s LT if you will.

[Fudoh]

We need somebody to design a 3D printed replacement for the inner part of the top case, so the included screen can be swapped out for a propoer 4:3 IPS screen. There are so many great IPS screen out there today (even in 4:3) that it really hurts to see them use this particular screen model. In terms of PQ and overall tech, it's not bad.

[CZroe]

You can use CC's PM-LCD with a Super Grafx console as well (it's awesome to be able to play Supergrafx games on it -- the only issue is since the SGX console is power-hungry "voltage-wise", a higher capacity usb power bank is absolutely necessary if it's being used as a portable console setup). If you use a 10000 mAh or higher usb power bank with a PCE, Core Grafx or Core Grafx II, you'll get longer playing sessions indeed -- several hours worth easily.

I tried to hook it up with a USA region TurboGrafx-16 console but with the way how the expansion bus port is situated, the PM-LCD's interface won't reach it due to the outer metal fixture surrounding the TG's port -- so it's not feasible with a TG-16 setup. It would've been ace with a TG-16 console setup though but no cigar this time around, folks.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

HijiQuish also connected it to an SGX:
https://youtu.be/W9ufC9JE69g

I wonder if you could make it work on TG16 with Hyperkin's crappy PC Engine Adapter thing ($10 extender piece meant to adapt their crappy TG16 video accessories to PC Engine).

We need somebody to design a 3D printed replacement for the inner part of the top case, so the included screen can be swapped out for a propoer 4:3 IPS screen. There are so many great IPS screen out there today (even in 4:3) that it really hurts to see them use this particular screen model. In terms of PQ and overall tech, it's not bad.

Until someone confirms otherwise with the 240p Test Suite drop shadow test, I'm still under the impression that they took a $15-20 [analog]2HDMI converter and shoved it into an LCD screen, neither of which were appropriate. Those scaler chips were always intended to handle analog inputs for digital TVs which is why they universally treat 240p as 480i.

Not supporting the native resolution would be the big deal breaker for me but I still haven't seen anyone properly check. Having the wrong native aspect ratio even though 4:3 panels are available tells me who they are after and sets my expectations for the Test Suite results.

De-interlacing non-interlaced 240p means latency, blurred scrolling, and artifacts with 60hz effects. Simulated transparency effects may appear striped, solid, invisible, or all three (cycles through).

[Fudoh]

they actually got that right. 30Hz flicker works and pixels aren't blurred once a sprite starts moving.

I think they use the the same upscaling chip that the Hyperkin machines (or newer china clones) like the Mega Retron HD use. Not the sharpest output, hardwired 4:3/16:9 switch, BUT they don't mangle the low-res input by applying any kind of deinterlacing.