Questions that do not deserve a thread

[Fudoh]

ic, thanks!

Surprised you haven't bought a 144hz monitor to play with already Fudoh, not a PC gamer?

no 3D games, so nothing that could produce such a refresh rate for me. 120Hz with lightboost would be interesting though, but I don't deal with TN panels. If they bring a IPS 120Hz panel, I'll give it a try.

Using 144Hz for native 144fps is silly anyway - at least compared to 120Hz. They introduced 144Hz to increase the flicker rate for backlight scanning from 60 to 72Hz and not because there's a visible difference between 120 and 144fps.

[blackoak]

recently picked up an rgb modded pc engine from doujindance, and in his email he mentioned needing a 110v to 100v stepdown converter since I'm in the US. is this really necessary, and how badly will it hurt the longevity to just plug it in directly?

[kamiboy]

PC engine duos have a pair of voltage regulators inside them that kicks any input voltage down to exactly 5V which what the system works with. With that no voltage converter is necessary.

[Fudoh]

no problem at all. But the original PSU runs rather hot no matter what. In the long run you're probably better off using a switching PSU as a replacement. 9V2A and you're on the safe side.

[7711]

No your eyes shouldn't hurt, perhaps you need to get an eye test? You might have mild astigmatism and it just so happens to be irritated by the particular viewing distance or some other factor.

Lightboost is disabled and I've set the brightness to 0, still hurt pretty bad, I feel like I'm going blind when I'm playing. If I'm playing fast paced FPS games for hours it doesn't bother me, so it's pretty weird I think, only STGs seems to do that, and I've never had any problems with my previous screens.

Maybe I'll have an eye test.... I'm kinda pissed though

[brentsg]

I started having issues like that when LCDs were gaining in popularity. It gave me severe eyestrain to the point that I made my employer keep giving me CRTs.

Typical eye exams turned up nothing but 20/20 vision, but a more detailed bit of testing with a good doctor in town revealed latent hyperopia. Basically I was farsighted, but the eye muscles were able to compensate to give me "perfect" vision all the time. The downside was that there was increased opportunity for eyestrain, particularly with edge cases.

At the time I could tolerate an LCD at home, but I couldn't tolerate an LCD with overhead fluorescent lighting. The combination was just too much. The other downside is that the latent part goes away with age. I tried to wear glasses at the time, but my muscles continued to do their thing and this made everything blurry with the proper lenses on. Over time I'm wearing them more as I age, particularly when I'm tired.

Of course the chance you have this is minute, but posting more of an example. There's all kind of shit out there that can affect your vision, so good to see a doc as you mentioned.

[japtor]

No your eyes shouldn't hurt, perhaps you need to get an eye test? You might have mild astigmatism and it just so happens to be irritated by the particular viewing distance or some other factor.

Lightboost is disabled and I've set the brightness to 0, still hurt pretty bad, I feel like I'm going blind when I'm playing. If I'm playing fast paced FPS games for hours it doesn't bother me, so it's pretty weird I think, only STGs seems to do that, and I've never had any problems with my previous screens.

Maybe I'll have an eye test.... I'm kinda pissed though

Does anything seem wrong on screen visibly when playing or does it just look normal but with pain? And what games are you playing?

I just mention that because I remember playing some games in emulators way back and certain scrolling backgrounds/objects were murder on the eyes on an LCD due to the slower pixel refresh speeds.

[ZellSF]

No your eyes shouldn't hurt, perhaps you need to get an eye test? You might have mild astigmatism and it just so happens to be irritated by the particular viewing distance or some other factor.

Lightboost is disabled and I've set the brightness to 0, still hurt pretty bad, I feel like I'm going blind when I'm playing. If I'm playing fast paced FPS games for hours it doesn't bother me, so it's pretty weird I think, only STGs seems to do that, and I've never had any problems with my previous screens.

Maybe I'll have an eye test.... I'm kinda pissed though

Does anything seem wrong on screen visibly when playing or does it just look normal but with pain? And what games are you playing?

I just mention that because I remember playing some games in emulators way back and certain scrolling backgrounds/objects were murder on the eyes on an LCD due to the slower pixel refresh speeds.

If he's coming from another LCD, that's unlikely as the 120/144hz monitors have very good pixel response times.

But, 7711, if you're half-decent with computers you can google "LightBoost HOWTO" and try that, entirely eliminating that possibility.

[jdubs]

Hey guys, how does one get to 240p (Double Strike mode) output with a jailbroken Wii and its emulators? I'm looking at a (flickery) 480i signal right now....

Thanks,
Jim

[7711]

Does anything seem wrong on screen visibly when playing or does it just look normal but with pain? And what games are you playing?

I just mention that because I remember playing some games in emulators way back and certain scrolling backgrounds/objects were murder on the eyes on an LCD due to the slower pixel refresh speeds.

I tried playing some Dodonpachi and Esprade, then some most recent games like Espgaluda II and Pink Sweets on MAME.
The thing is as far as I can tell its only when I'm playing TATE mode that I'm experiencing this. I've never had such a setup to play with so I think it might be just that since I've never had any problems with LCD screens before and the screen configuration seems ok.

It honestly looks great, no apparent flickering, and for the first ten minutes its perfect. Then it just starts hurting out of nowhere.
If someone has experienced something like that due to a TATE setup I think it would be pretty weird but for now thats the explanation I'm considering.

I'll ask the doc at the place where I'm studying when I'll get a chance, thanks for your answers.

[nasty_wolverine]

only when I'm playing TATE mode

Your LCD vertical viewing angle is small i guess, that way both your eyes dont see the same thing. The darker the backgrounds the more pronounced the effect, murder if there is strobing effect.

Had the same problem with my LCD, switched to a permanent tate CRT next to it.

[Fudoh]

absolutely. Playing TATE with a TN panel can be painful. Not everyone is sensitive to it, but if you're and you want to use the display in TATE mode, IPS is your only choice.

[7711]

Any way I can make it feel a bit better ? Also I don't get it, how does it have something to do with both eyes (so in an horizontal axis) AND the screen beeing vertical ?
I don't really feel like changing screen already, I really hope I can get used to it...

[brentsg]

This is true about the viewing angle. TN type LCD panels have a very narrow viewing angle when you shift your head vertically in normal orientation. This is acceptable because people are constant height, so the narrow angle is fine.

When you rotate these, the restriction won't permit you to shift left/right without significant problems. Of course this is something we do without even thinking about it. Also, your 2 eyes are likely seeing a different image and your brain is trying to sort it out.

You probably just need a good IPS display.

[nasty_wolverine]

Any way I can make it feel a bit better ? Also I don't get it, how does it have something to do with both eyes (so in an horizontal axis) AND the screen beeing vertical ?
I don't really feel like changing screen already, I really hope I can get used to it...

LCD monitors are designed to be seen either level or from a bit above, but no body is going to look at it from below (atleast those with small viewing angles). so when you turn it tate and view it dead center, one eye sees a brighter picture than the other, hence straining your eyes to adjust. even if the viewing angle is symmetric, you have to be dead center not cause strain.

Bottom line, get a LCD with better viewing angle, or be cool and get a CRT monitor.

[7711]

LCD monitors are designed to be seen either level or from a bit above, but no body is going to look at it from below (atleast those with small viewing angles). so when you turn it tate and view it dead center, one eye sees a brighter picture than the other, hence straining your eyes to adjust. even if the viewing angle is symmetric, you have to be dead center not cause strain.

Can I play around with the screen orientation (the stand allows some pretty funky stuff) until it gets acceptable ? I wish I'd heard something about it earlier, now it feels like a waste of money...

[nasty_wolverine]

Can I play around with the screen orientation (the stand allows some pretty funky stuff) until it gets acceptable ? I wish I'd heard something about it earlier, now it feels like a waste of money...

Just adjust it till both eyes see the same image at the same brightness.

[7711]

So its possible right ? As long as it's not ridiculously hard to adjust I can see myself doing it everytime, sure beats buying a new screen (at least for a few good month) or going insane because of headaches...
Thank you for your answers, I was originally planning to purchase another one of these, now I know I'll get something else for STGs only, and spend a bit more time looking for a good one.

[Fudoh]

If you're tating to the right, try sitting a ft more to the right, so both your eyes see the display "from above" (or from the right in this case).

[brentsg]

You can also increase the distance between your eyes and the display, to reduce the shift if you move a bit.

[nasty_wolverine]

So its possible right ? As long as it's not ridiculously hard to adjust I can see myself doing it everytime, sure beats buying a new screen (at least for a few good month) or going insane because of headaches...
Thank you for your answers, I was originally planning to purchase another one of these, now I know I'll get something else for STGs only, and spend a bit more time looking for a good one.

What fudoh and brent said. It can be done, but its a bit of a hassle. Sit at a distance of atleast 2-3 feet away (eye to screen distance), it will blend the effect a bit.

Also, next time when you pick up a LCD, always check to very important things, response times and viewing angles, for a tate setup vertical angles are more important and vice versa. CRT's are better in this regard, amazing viewing angles, submillisecond respond times and good color reproduction.

[japtor]

Yeah the main thing is to sit back further, eventually you'll reach a point where both eyes are roughly in the same sweet spot. Of course depending on how far back that is it might defeat the purpose of rotating the screen to begin with, you might be better off not rotating and just being closer.

This reminds me of an old LG side flip phone I had way back. Both the outer and inner screens were vertical screens being used horizontally. Damn thing screwed with my eyes and I didn't figure it out until I took a picture holding it sideways and the screen seemed fine (and of course the picture framing didn't match the screen framing/orientation, but that's a different issue).

[7711]

Its far better from a distance (also standing a bit on the side helps), so once I find the best parameters it should be okay.
I was planning to buy a second screen to go along with it anyway, so I guess its not that bad.

edit

for a tate setup vertical angles are more important and vice versa.

So does that mean that I don't need to look for really low response time ? Because so far every IPS display I could find was 5ms or above. And considering most of them are fixed horizontal displays there doesn't seems to be a lot of choice.

[nasty_wolverine]

So does that mean that I don't need to look for really low response time ? Because so far every IPS display I could find was 5ms or above. And considering most of them are fixed horizontal displays there doesn't seems to be a lot of choice.

Horizontal Viewing Angle - 170° (2D)
Vertical Viewing Angle - 160° (2D)
Response Time - 5 ms

something along those lines are very good... response times under 10ms is pretty acceptable, lower the better...
isnt there some database with response times and viewing angles somewhere? I know someone linked to it before...

[brentsg]

It is difficult to find an IPS with suitable response time and input lag, but I think several of the cheaper e-IPS displays will work.

You'll have to do the research and probably need to remove the stock stand and replace with a rotate mechanism. Fudoh may have some examples on hand..

[Ed Oscuro]

Other issues with some LCDs not mentioned in this thread so far:

An out-of-phase VGA - analog - connection (see here for a possible test, though you can fix it here but still get some obvious strobing / flicker on solid shades, in my experience, like dark grays)

Backlight flicker due to PWM techniques (affecting BOTH CCFL and LED backlit screens)

[ZellSF]

Other issues with some LCDs not mentioned in this thread so far:

An out-of-phase VGA - analog - connection (see here for a possible test, though you can fix it here but still get some obvious strobing / flicker on solid shades, in my experience, like dark grays)

Backlight flicker due to PWM techniques (affecting BOTH CCFL and LED backlit screens)

Okay well nevermind I guess
Other question though, I've noticed my eyes hurt a lot when I play with it (I'm using 120 hz mode). Is it normal ? Does it happens to other people or am I just too sensitive ?

Four possibilities I see:

1: You're sensitive to PWM flicker, this will reduce your monitor options by a lot.

Not mentioned, eh? I was actually going to repeat myself since it seems people are ignoring it when it's imo much more likely than the shitty viewing angles of TN angles causing eye strain. Yes TN panels look terrible off-angle (and in general, so worth it for 120hz though), but I've never heard of anyone getting eye strain problems from that.

It could also be this kind of LCD flickering, but I think that only occurs in specific scenarios.

It's really hard to tell why one LCD panel in specific bothers your eyes when others don't.

[7711]

Not mentioned, eh? I was actually going to repeat myself since it seems people are ignoring it when it's imo much more likely than the shitty viewing angles of TN angles causing eye strain. Yes TN panels look terrible off-angle (and in general, so worth it for 120hz though), but I've never heard of anyone getting eye strain problems from that.

It could also be this kind of LCD flickering, but I think that only occurs in specific scenarios.

It's really hard to tell why one LCD panel in specific bothers your eyes when others don't.

But I'm using this screen (like I was using my previous ones) more than 6 hours every day, and its fine. Only when its in a TATE setup does it hurt me, so I think they are right.
And its not that hard to see why only this one would hurt me, since I've never used any other screen as a vertical display before.

[ZellSF]

Are there lagless component 480p to HDMI 480p converters? Alternatively, component to VGA converter?

Or will I be just as well off running stuff through the XRGB-mini as trying to eliminate lag by using non-upscaler converters?

[Fudoh]

Are there lagless component 480p to HDMI 480p converters? Alternatively, component to VGA converter?

yes and yes. Analogue 480p to HDMI is just a A/D conversion - very easy and most of the $30 converters perform extremely nice. Component to VGA is called transcoding and is lagless as well.

Or will I be just as well off running stuff through the XRGB-mini as trying to eliminate lag by using non-upscaler converters?

The Mini adds about 1.5 frames of lag, so if you can feel the difference, a component to HDMI converter is always a nice addition. I'm using this one http://www.ebay.com/itm/350862087483