Playfield screen?

[tthurman]

What's the sweet spot screen size for a pinball play field?

Viewing angles have to play into this, don't they? What is a good bang for the buck display for pinball?

[gtxjoe]

Real pinball cabinets come in 2 sizes: Standard and Widebody.

39" is about as big as you can to fit in standard size cabinet

46" for the wide body.

Yes you can always build a custom size and use any size playfield you want.

[sliderpoint]

I didn't want to spend a lot of money so I got a referb'd tv from tigerdirect.com. They usually have good prices for those. It ended up being a Hisense brand, which I have to say I am actually very impressed with. The reviews I found online about that brand were pretty good. If you go widebody, the 46" hisense is quite narrow decased, need less than a 1/4inch routed out of each of the sides of the cabinet. Unfortunately you don't really know how big tv's are until you get them and measure them.

-Mike

[Censored]

....

39" is about as big as you can to fit in standard size cabinet

46" for the wide body.

....

Its possible to use a 42" in a standard size cab too, but it is more complicated and more work than using a 39"...

[tthurman]

Thanks for the input, makes sense that you really won't know what you're dealing with until you've got it. Would seemingly make it difficult to plan a cab that wouldn't take some modification if you had to change screens in the event your original failed, or least it would seem

Would a plasma set work here, or should you stick strictly to LCD. From a layman, it would appear the 600 mhz refresh rate on a plasma would make for some silky smooth game play.

[nullPointer]

I would recommend against using a plasma screen for your play field. Maybe for your back glass, but even then I'd be pretty hesitant. The main reason for this comes down to the differences in construction between LCD and plasma screens. Plasma screens consist of a thin layer of inert gas sandwiched between two layers of glass. For the most part they are designed to be placed vertically and left that way. Placing them horizontally for long periods of time may eventually cause the layers of glass to delaminate under their own weight which means the screen would be irreversibly damaged.

Plasmas are also more susceptible to burn in which is another concern particularly if you're leaving a single table running for long periods of time.

Of course newer plasmas have better construction than older plasma screens, but even then it's going to come down to your own varying mileage. Really after all the hard work you put into a PinCab would you want to risk it? (even if it did save you a few bucks?)

[tthurman]

Good point!

I completely brain farted the construction aspect. A fine example of how it pays to ask questions!

[Itchigo]

I have a 25 inch playfield.

[tthurman]

Well as time has passed, I pick up more and more info from you pinball guru's even though I don't have a pincab. It's in the cards to add this at some point, and as such I've been continuing my search for information and ideas.

Just recently I ran across some info on the playfield display, and since I had asked this before, I thought I'd amend my post to reflect so interesting posts I found.

This post came up in a search few days ago, pointing to this post in another thread. Apparently the idea is to flash this 39" model with the 50" firmware, and this combined with non-interpolated 120hz @ 1080p is a difference maker, as far as smooth flowing video goes anyway.

As an added bonus, this display is quite reasonably priced. (never found a model number, just going on the name and vendor, TigerDirect)

Seiki 39" Class 4K LED UHD TV - 3840 x 2160, 120Hz, 3x HDMI - SE39UY04

@ WallyWorld

Seems like this is quite possibly a diamond in the rough.

I'm interested in your thoughts, and or comments.

[Draco1962]

One thing to consider when using an LCD, LED, or plasma display is that the refresh rates are going to be limited by the GPU connected to it. Another thing which is probably more important from a lag perspective is the display's response time (lower being better)

[tthurman]

I agree with you, but it would seem there would have to be some trade off between response time, and viewing angles. I would think this would especially be true in a playfield environment where a TN panel wouldn't seemingly be ideal, but will perform best from a GTG standpoint.

That panel I've linked is from 2013, and while still readily available, new models are already in the pipe. It would appear from this PCGamer review that at least the Pro line are pimping some good glass. It will be interesting to see where SMVA lands between TN and IPS.