Upscaler for dual or triple screen games?

[alamone]

As some of you might have seen, I built a crazy contraption using a half mirror and three small 8 inch CRTs to get
a seamless image for 3-screen Darius, but the setup takes an obnoxious amount of room and is quite fragile because
of the easily broken half mirror glass. Adjusting the position of the screens just right is also very finicky.

Since there seems to be a lot of talented hardware hackers here I was wondering whether it's feasible to develop
an upscaler that is able to accept two or three 15KHz inputs and put them side-by-side to output to a single HDMI signal at 720P or 1080P.
Since the image flipping is done on the CRT yoke side, all of the images from the PCB are right-side up so there is no flipping that needs to be done.
Darius 1 is 3 15KHz screens and Darius 2 is 2 15KHz screens.

Of course, the easy way is just to MAME it but I like to use the original hardware when possible.
Plus, the sound for Darius 2 in MAME is terrible since it adds the rumble channel to the mix when it shouldn't...

[Fudoh]

Do you mean theoretically possible ? Or do you mean possible by using existing devices ?

Of course it would be possible. It can't be done lag-free though, since you need a certain buffer if you want to scale and re-arrage the screen layout. Certainly not worth it though for the limited audience interested in such a device.

There are multi-channel HDMI image processors out there (think of big screens in sports bars featuring different channels in different layouts), but these are quite expensive and you would have to combine them with three XRGB units (or other linedoublers) to get your signals in there.

Speaking of Darius: there are refurbished NEC X431 units available on ebay.com for just $310. These are 43" displays with a 1920x480 resolution (3x 640x480). Unfortunately they're WAY more expensive over here, but these should perfect for a Darius emu-setup. These displays can do side-by-side views for TWO sources, but unfortuntely not for three. I would pick one up in a heartbeat if I was stateside.

http://th.nec.com/en_TH/download/brochu ... ochure.pdf

[alamone]

Well, who knows what the input lag is on these commercial LCDs, last time I tried one it had about 80ms lag which is obviously unacceptable.

I have a solution sorted out for dual-screens, the LG 34UM95 has dual HDMI inputs and picture by picture mode so I use two DVDO VP50s and two
XRGB-1s to feed the output from Darius 2; using full screen stretch it looks almost perfect since 4:3 x2 (24:9) is pretty close to 21:9.

Triple screen is the problem I'm more interested in.

[BuckoA51]

I use two DVDO VP50s and two
XRGB-1s

Meanwhile on every other retrogaming forum, people are getting excited over s-video cables... You gotta love this place

[Ed Oscuro]

Warning! A regularly scheduled train, Thundar Transit is approaching fast!

Well, maybe not so fast. I'd love to see a lag review of those. Was that tested using the CRT comparison method?

[Xyga]

I have a solution sorted out for dual-screens, the LG 34UM95 has dual HDMI inputs and picture by picture mode so I use two DVDO VP50s and two
XRGB-1s to feed the output from Darius 2; using full screen stretch it looks almost perfect since 4:3 x2 (24:9) is pretty close to 21:9

Pics please !

I remember Philips made that 56" 21:9, 2560*1080p, it sells for about 1000€ used today (56PFL9954H).
But knowing Philips a bit I'd expect the lag to be unbearable on that thing.

[alamone]

I'm going to be constructing a LCD version of my half mirror contraption that's contained in an acrylic box,
I found a suitable LCD that accepts 15KHz and has built in image flipping.

[Xyga]

Excellent! the two images fit well and the junction is barely visible. *thumbsup*

[BuckoA51]

Can't stop the signal!