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Colour DMD shoot out ! - options

mission65 said:
Neil, have you tried both the led, and lcd ?
What are the pros and cons of each ?

I want to emulate the original dots does the led do this ?
Click to expand...

you mean in one colour or in multicolour?

I have put LED in all my games since it came out, its more pinball like and feels more like a DMD albeit in colour. You can run the DMD in one mono colour if you want. It doesn't do the dotsxl and other modes that the LCD does but even on the pin I have LCD in (Star Trek: TNG: Monster Bash and Spiderman) I don't user any of the modes anyway! The LED does suffer from the same unlit pixel display issue highlighted above.

Cheers
Neil.
 
OK I think the original post is accurate and up to date now. I’ve made a lot of changes already but let me know if further tweaks are needed.
 
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So I'm confused as hell - which ones of these can you just plug in to upgrade your machine from monochrome to full colour - I can see that colorDMD does just that - you download the code for your specific game and you're away, but not too sure about the others?
 
Neil McRae said:
HIGH DEFINITION DISPLAY

All ColorDMD displays use high definition LCD displays to provide the best possible viewing experience.
Click to expand...

I'm a fan of ColorDMD, been a fantastic addition to the hobby/madness .......BUT I have to say the LCD display does lack vibrancy ....... colours are rather muted.
 
Sgt GrizZ said:
I'm a fan of ColorDMD, been a fantastic addition to the hobby/madness .......BUT I have to say the LCD display does lack vibrancy ....... colours are rather muted.
Click to expand...
Agreed. Personally I'd stay clear of the lcd. I'd want it to be more of a realistic size dmd, without all that overhang and I couldn't live with the dullness of the lcd. Give me dots any day
 
AlanJ said:
So I'm confused as hell - which ones of these can you just plug in to upgrade your machine from monochrome to full colour - I can see that colorDMD does just that - you download the code for your specific game and you're away, but not too sure about the others?
Click to expand...

As I understand it:

1. Not plug and play - you will need to build a kit of third party components and then configure it for your machine. Others may know more specifics on how you program it.

2. Needs to be configured for each machine by installing a configuration file for the machine you want to use it on.

3. As above - you copy a configuration (.txt) file to an sd card, put the sd card in the panel, then turn on the machine. The panel reads the brightness and colour config off the card.

If you change the file, it’ll read the new one off the card next time you turn the machine on, so if you’re inclined, you can mess around with the default settings and fine tune colours/shades etc or set it up for a different game’s colour pallet

4. Comes pre-configured for the chosen machine but can then be unlocked to allow other files to be installed.

5. We don’t know yet but may not even need a file


If this is useful info and providers give me further details I’ll update the original post.
 
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If you buy your colordmd fro
Pinballdisplays.co.uk they install the code for you and all you do is swap the DMD over.’


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
Wow, the amount of utter tosh about colourDMD LCD screens is unbelievable... :eek: :tut: :cuckoo:

Yes, they're expensive but you get what you pay for. Anyone who has been to special when lit can testify the quality of their colour displays. As others have said, they're plug and play. Normally come preprogrammed but you can update the software with a penstick, downloading code from their website.
 
Moonraker said:
Wow, the amount of utter tosh about colourDMD LCD screens is unbelievable... [emoji33] :tut: :cuckoo:

Yes, they're expensive but you get what you pay for. Anyone who has been to special when lit can testify the quality of their colour displays. As others have said, they're plug and play. Normally come preprogrammed but you can update the software with a penstick, downloading code from their website.
Click to expand...

What’s utter tosh? If you can be specific the aim is to make this a useful resource and discussion based on facts rather than politics/opinion.

I think the guys above are comparing to the LCD version of CDMD to the LED version (and other LED screens).

But if there’s an issue/inaccuracy with the OP let me know and I’ll amend.
 
I'm a bit slow! only just realised that you've been updating the first post so that a comparison is easily achievable.
Good job! Will come down to preference and budget in the end.
 
Good thread @edsr I hope it persuades you to go colour on your Baywatch, shame you didn't get time with the old plasma to compare.

Progress is being made on 128x16 Colour options for the old DEs (Checkpoint, TMNT, Batman, ST 25th, Hook) - Lucky1 has published his spec for the controller board for PIN2DMD DIY option. Pinballsp will hopefully release his plug and play product over the coming months.

The o/s point for me is whether these need an external PSU or not.
 
Kenny Taylor said:
We'll I've just bought my first two colourDMD lcd screen's for my SS and CFTBL. I'll have it setup to run on high res like this.

Click to expand...

I do love the way with ColorDMD you can see little details it was hard to make out with just single color.

I personally like DotsXL setting the most. It's nice that you can change it though :)
 
CDE0603E-29F6-4436-BA0B-CA27E7D4A00F.jpeg Well that’s me just fitted a colorDMD to my SS. Took it really slow as didn’t want to feck it up. However next time I’ll fit one in under 15mins. Really easy, good instructions. Best mod money can buy.
 
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Neil McRae said:

Star Trek really nails how good ColorDMD really is.
Click to expand...

Shame they don’t do a large format for sega machines (what the thread started out as comparing) or I would be really tempted.

I’m struggling to work out the difference between the @pinballsp and @Rappelbox products, in terms of the colour capability.

The pinballsp product is limited to showing four colours at any one time on a sega. You can add four lots of four colours and it will cycle through the four colour palettes every 20-30 sec to keep it interesting, but I’m not keen on that, so I’d probably just end up setting it to a static set of four colours, or more likely just 4 shades of orange and going retro, which seems a bit pointless as it’s a colour screen, and dr pimball’s new product will do that for a lot less. [emoji848]

For Stern SAM / strike it can do 16 colours, everything else is 4 (or 4 rotating palettes of 4 colours).

@Rappelbox, please could you list what colours your panel can show at the same time, on different pinball models?
 
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PIN2DMD-XL features the following modes:

1. Monochromatic with single color palettes, 8 predefined or custom

2. 4 color mode which is in fact a variation of 1. but replacing each shade with its own color. customisable

3. 16 color mode, replacing original frames with own animations or overlaying custom colors on dynamic content

4. 15bit colors (32.768 different colors) by replacing original frames
This mode is implemented from the very beginning but has not been used very extensively so far. I did the first tests with Baywatch and it looks very promising. I replaced the opening scenes with the girls with the original video footage from the series and it worked :D

a video on a standard sized DMD:
 
Rappelbox said:
PIN2DMD-XL features the following modes:

1. Monochromatic with single color palettes, 8 predefined or custom

2. 4 color mode which is in fact a variation of 1. but replacing each shade with its own color. customisable

3. 16 color mode, replacing original frames with own animations or overlaying custom colors on dynamic content

4. 15bit colors (32.768 different colors) by replacing original frames
This mode is implemented from the very beginning but has not been used very extensively so far. I did the first tests with Baywatch and it looks very promising. I replaced the opening scenes with the girls with the original video footage from the series and it worked :D

a video on a standard sized DMD:
Click to expand...

That sounds very cool (3 and 4) and 4 seems like one step ahead of (dare I say it!?) Colour DMD.

With 3 (and 4) do you have existing libraries for games that have already been written so it will ‘...just work’? I’m pretty sure most of us here would rather just plug it in and look good, than try to program their own colour palettes.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I’ve updated the OP again with the current knowledge collected on this, but please keep suggestions/observations coming.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I just heard on the Brokentoken podcast ( episode 62, 45 mins in ) that ColorDMD intend to wind down manufacturing of their LCD model in about a year, to eventually only sell the LED version. I haven't heard that mentioned anywhere before, but they quote Randy of colordmd stating that. May be worth thinking about if you want all your machines to look the same.
 
kevlar said:
I just heard on the Brokentoken podcast ( episode 62, 45 mins in ) that ColorDMD intend to wind down manufacturing of their LCD model in about a year, to eventually only sell the LED version. I haven't heard that mentioned anywhere before, but they quote Randy of colordmd stating that. May be worth thinking about if you want all your machines to look the same.
Click to expand...
That’s a shame if true, really don’t like the look of the LED version vs. LCD.

DotsXL is my personal preference.
 
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