Sacrafice a 50 inch plasma to make a 40 inch retro gaming monitor ?

[WCP]

I've got this device called a Kramer FC-14. It's a RGB to Component transcoder. I can use RGB cables with my retro consoles on my plasma, and the picture quality is really nice. Only thing is, with a modern display, you're talking about a widescreen display, and with widescreen, you have a compromise to make, because either option you choose, you're going to deal with an unfortunate side effect.


For example: Pillarboxing




When my plasma is in 4:3 mode, it has grey / white bars on the sides of the 4:3 area. obviously, this is pretty distracting, and not exactly ideal. Also, if you did this for extended periods of time, you'd really have an image retention problem. with the sides constantly in that white / grey mode.


Another Option is to use a Zoom mode:




The zoom mode will fill your widescreen display, but it's going to distort the image in one way or another. When I play in this zoomed out mode, sometimes health bars and other information is zoomed off the screen, and I'm kinda walking blind. Still, I think it's a bit better than the normal 16:9 stretch mode that just makes everything short and fat. Of course, neither option is ideal. Wouldn't it be awesome if they made a 40 inch 4:3 plamsa ? It sure would, but unfortunately, none are currently being made. So... back to my widescreen:






I still really like the RGB picture going through the Kramer FC-14, but damn, those white / grey bars are super annoying...




I took some black fabric, and draped it over the sides, just to hide the white / grey pillarboxing. It's a bit of a quick and dirty method of blocking out those sides, but it's better than nothing. I can play like this on the living room plasma, if my room is dark, and enjoy it like it's a 40 inch 4:3 gaming monitor. Only thing is, I'm not sure that I want to be screwing around like this with the living room plasma. But it did give me an idea... Sometimes I see big plasmas on Craigslist going for cheap prices. It might seem weird, but somebody could buy a widescreen plasma, with the idea of using it exclusively as a 4:3 display. A 50 inch plasma is basically a 40 inch 4:3 TV. Most people using fancy Sony PVM Monitors are gaming on a 20 inch monitor. This is 40, so you're talking double the viewable real estate. I'd still prefer a high-end, late model Sony PVM, but using a big plasma as a dedicated retro gaming monitor could actually work. Especially if you could build a really nice contraption around the thing that completely hides the non-viewable area of the plasma.

Basically, you just don't worry about the fact that the sides are going to burn in the wrong way, completely uneven. You're dedicating the plasma to this specific use as 4:3 gaming monitor, and when it no longer has use in this regard, you're just going to have to consider it a total loss. Give the thing away to somebody on Craigslist, or just take it to an ewaste place. So, you don't want to spend a ton of money on this. You just want to find a good plasma, that you can get for dirt cheap.

[Leo_A]

Can't you change the tv's settings to make the pillarboxing be black? Or would that not wear evenly doing that?

Rather than going to all this expense to dedicate a plasma for 4:3, why not buy a XRGB Mini? Not only would your games themselves look significantly better, but the pillarboxing applied by the external scaler is black by default I believe. So even if you're stuck with white pillarboxing by the HDTV itself, you'd be bypassing that since the HDTV would be receiving a 16:9 signal from this scaler that is already appropriately pillarboxed.

As I opened it, I thought this topic was going to be about 1:1 pixel mapping on a modern HDTV to completely avoid doing any scaling for a classic console. I suspect on a 50" 1080p plasma , you'd still end up with a picture comparable in size to what most of us had back in the day full screen on a CRT even though the game would be heavily windowed.

For me, I view so much 4:3 material that plasma even today is a non-starter. Sounds like you'd of been better off with a LCD as well.

[Berserker]

Sure, if you want to and have the space to spare, why not? Maybe make some custom bezels for the sides or something. That could be a pretty freaking sweet setup.

[Rogue]

It's a very nice idea.

But I would go for the 43 inch Plasma. It's 852x480 (and also cheaper, brand new with warranty etc).

So you will be playing with a perfect matching display. Be 640x480 or 320x240.


The 1024x768 displays seems good too, of course. But not for anything different than 1024x768. I really don't like up or down scale of any kind. For me would be cool only to play PC games on it at that resolution. It needs some testing, though, as the 1024x768 display is "wide" but "not being wide". But if it matches, to me is ok.

[WCP]

Can't you change the tv's settings to make the pillarboxing be black? Or would that not wear evenly doing that?

No, I'm pretty sure it does the grey / white thing, so that the image retention isn't as bad as it would be, if the area was just black the whole time.

Rather than going to all this expense to dedicate a plasma for 4:3, why not buy a XRGB Mini? Not only would your games themselves look significantly better, but the pillarboxing applied by the external scaler is black by default I believe. So even if you're stuck with white pillarboxing by the HDTV itself, you'd be bypassing that since the HDTV would be receiving a 16:9 signal from this scaler that is already appropriately pillarboxed.

Yeah, I'm not sure how it works with the mini, but either way, it doesn't matter. Either way, even if the bars are black, if this is your primary display, and you use it for TV and Blu Ray's and everything, then you're going to ruin your display pretty quickly. The 4:3 area of the screen will be fine, but everything else will end up all messed up after a few months of burning those pillarboxes in, regardless of whether they are black or grey.

Also, despite the pictures coming out really crappy, in person, the FC Kramer does a very good job. It might not be as good as the framemeisters, but it costs about 1/4 as much.

[DeputyMoniker]

Actually, the white/grey mode is intended to prevent uneven wear. That wouldn't really matter, though, because it doesn't sound like you'll ever use that portion of the screen, so you should be able to turn it off (set it to black) in the 'environmental', 'energy', 'eco solution', or 'screen burn protection' area of your settings. It isn't really a problem now but plasma used to be prone to burn-in, so keep that in mind if you decide to get a used model.