Alienware's Curved Monitor 269
ViperArrow writes "Alienware has showcased a curved display prototype supporting a resolution of 2880x900, aimed mainly toward gamers, with a refresh rate of .02ms. This 3-foot-wide DLP with LED illumination will be available by the second half of 2008. The monitor is still showing some flaws, but Alienware assures us that these will be gone by release. No price has been revealed as of yet."
hmm (Score:4, Interesting)
anyways image how pRon would look on that!
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I do hope those kinds of issues are sorted out before shipping.
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It may be an effect of the video camera, though, that makes it look so noticible. You know how LCD panels look offcolor and dim when viewed from an angle... so if you are sitting the proper distance from the unit, all the panels would be facing directly at you and it might look very nice.
What gets me is the "0.02ms refresh" thing. 0.00002 second refresh rate? 50,00
Re:hmm (Score:4, Informative)
=Smidge=
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Re:hmm (Score:5, Funny)
Maybe the person who said that used to work for Verizon?
Re:hmm (Score:5, Informative)
you have a grid of little onchip mirrors.. that tilt back and forth.. you have a color wheel that spins at high rpm and a blub shining throuhg it.. for a specific color to be shown the mirrors in sync with the wheel tilt to allow a certin amount of the light from the wheel through. if you have a color wheel going at say 10k rpm 3 colors in the wheel (more modern ones are using 6 and 12 color wheels to help prevent rainbow effect) each mirror has a color option 500 times a second wich means 2ms to switch from solid to solid with only a 3 color wheel.. but if you had say a green then it would be blue and yellow both and no for red. which means 2ms/3 mirror movements so
while i will agree that
but DLP is by far better than LCD at responce time..
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Re:hmm (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:hmm (Score:5, Informative)
That's a very minor issue, though; the bigger issue is how movies are transferred to PAL -- standard transfer is to speed them up 6% to translate 24fps to 25fps. Up until very recently, that altered the pitch of the sound! Thankfully newer transfer methods are able to speed up the audio without altering the pitch.
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Limited analog bandwidth is like pixels (Score:2)
There are 625 lines, which are not subdivided into pixels
They can be if you are using composite video. In both PAL and NTSC systems, the video signal is divided up so that low frequencies encode luma and high frequencies encode chroma. For example, in PAL, chroma occupies a 1.25 MHz band centered around 4.433618 MHz [danalee.ca]. TVs separate them with a brick wall filter just below 4.433618 - (1.25 / 2) = roughly 3.81 MHz. Per the Nyquist theorem, a signal sampled at over twice the highest frequency can be perfectly reconstructed from the samples. Therefore, it is not unrea
PAL vs. NTSC (Score:2)
What? Ordinary low-definition TV is 640x480i.
ajs318 is from the UK. There, SDTV has 576 interlaced picture lines and 49 vertical blanking lines, for a total of 625. There are 25 frames per second, divided into two fields at 50 Hz. You're probably from the United States (NTSC), Japan (NTSC), or Brazil (PAL/M), where SDTV has 480 interlaced picture lines and 45 vertical blanking lines, for a total of 525. There are 30 or 24 frames per second, divided into two fields at 60 Hz or an alternating sequence of two and three fields at 60 Hz respectively.
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http://www.bornrich.org/entry/zenview-announces-elite-six-screen-monitor/ [bornrich.org]
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x900???? (Score:2)
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Because they hope that people will buy it, and that they will make money.
initital thoughts (Score:4, Interesting)
Moreover, I'm wondering if this will result in a fish-eye lens (or reverse fish-eye lens) effect even in games.
As for price...you can bet it will be steep, but Apple thinks they can charge $3k for a 32" monitor, so I'd expect a similar cost for a 36" monitor.
Re:initital thoughts (Score:5, Funny)
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And yes, I am absolutely sure that my crappy integrated graphics can drive 2880x900 just fine. Absolutely fine.
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That would be a non-factor for 3D games. It's trivial to code your viewport for rectilinear vs. fisheye [wikipedia.org] output. The game's authors just need to add a switch to let you choose which output you want.
From an angle-of-view standpoint, a curved screen is more efficient at filling your field of vision. A flat screen can never fill more than 180 degrees of your vision. As the viewing angle approach
That's a lot of pixels! (Score:5, Insightful)
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2560 * 1600 = 4,096,000
This Alienware monitor:
2880 * 900 = 2,592,000
So this new monitor is nothing special total pixel wise..
Looks cool though.
--Q
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Are there any games designed to run at 2880x900?
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The three screens work great for my programming projects though.
[John]
Wallhacker eh? (Score:4, Informative)
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Time to restart Duke Nukem for native 2880x900
Re:That's a lot of pixels! (Score:4, Informative)
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My Dell 30" LCD screens are 2560x1600 pixels (each), which is almost 1.5 million more pixels than this screen. Even my MacBook Pro can drive simple games in that resolution and using any new graphic card in two or three way SLI will let you run state of the art graphics in those resolutions.
Extreme example (3-way SLI): http://www.slizone.com/object/slizone_3waysli.html [slizone.com]
on behalf of all of slashdot, i would like to say (Score:2)
Re:on behalf of all of slashdot, i would like to s (Score:2)
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Gah, DLP (Score:2)
If I sit perfectly still it's OK. But even little movements cause my eyes hurt. Turning my head to talk to the person next to me is likely to cause me to puke into their lap.
I don't suffer from motion sickness or anything like that. It is just these displays, front or rear projection don't seem to form a stable picture to my eyes.
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Maybe you have what I jokingly call "Sniper Eyes," which my kids have, when they focus rapidly on my moving head during TF2 sniper war sessions on 2Fort (insert booming UT voice here: HEADSHOT!)
I did some googling, and it might not be the fact that it's a DLP screen. See here [pcworld.com], where the wr
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Of all the display technologies I've seen I prefer the "look" of plasma or good ol' CRT. They seem the most natural.
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Flight Simmers (Score:4, Insightful)
Oh great! Four of these... (Score:2)
Oh, wait, how much is the video card?
So it's like a CRT... (Score:4, Funny)
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Useful Only For Gaming? (Score:2)
Will this monitor serve any productive purpose outside of enhancing gaming experience? I can personally see myself having a curved monitor as a hinderance for writing applications or anything that closely resembles writing on a flat surface (i.e. code, documents, spreadsheets, etc.).
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Hookers are cheaper.
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Wiiiidddeeee Windows. (Score:2, Interesting)
I get sick of having to scroll vertically stacked content into view when I'm on a wide-screen display.
Maybe someone could memo the BBC and Ars about this too.
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I don't see how this is offtopic to be honest.
Dumb mods. For their education, this thread is about usability issues caused by increasingly wide screens and the inability of old-media to break out of a narrow-columns mindset. TFA links to a website designed to be taller than it is wider, and that website is showing a monitor that is very much wider than it is tall. This is irony of a very mild sort.
The problem is that huge lines of text aren't practical to read - after some experimentally verifiable length, it's too far for your eye to follow down back to the start of the next line.
Somewhere about 15 words per line is optimum. It cuts both ways, as making lines too short increases eyeball 'flyback', which reduces reading speeds and
Differing specs (Score:2, Informative)
Okay, this one still resides in the land of dreams, but tell me the mere sight doesn't set your salivary glands into overdrive. Alienware's working on a curved monitor that actually helps simulate peripheral vision in gaming. The resolution on this truly remarkable feat of engineering is an astounding 2880x900 and it's run off a Dual Link DVI set up (with some serious graphics horsepower). As if that's not enough, it uses DLP technology, is backlit by LEDs, and has a 2ms response time.
http://www.macworld.com/article/131451/2008/01/gboxces1.html [macworld.com]
not very curvy (Score:2)
Re:not very curvy (Score:5, Funny)
Gaming on RPTV (Score:2, Insightful)
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The article says
why do screen resolutions keep going down? (Score:2, Insightful)
A common arguement I hear is 'well, you loose some there but you make up for it on the sides'. HELLO? If I am browsing a web page, looking at a document, or basically doing just abou
Re:why do screen resolutions keep going down? (Score:5, Insightful)
No seriously. We have monitors like that at work that have a stand that allow them to be turned on their sides to view or use "sheet like" programs like web browsers, word processors etc.
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When
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It's not that resolutions are going down. It's that the standard aspect ratio has changed. I can't remember the exact name of it, but there's a general rule out there which describes how a widescreen aspect ratio is more aesthetically pleasing than the old standard 4:3. Has something to do with how the eyes themselv
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CRT are just blurry by comparison. The higher the refresh rate, the fuzzier they are. And the lower the refresh rate, the sorer my eyes are. You can't compare resolution of any CRT to native resolution of any LCD. CRT pixels are fuzzy be design. LCD pixels are sharp by design. Enough said.
Also, you can turn most business class LCD sideways. Generally these are the 4:3 ratio ones, so you
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Why is it being touted for gamers/video? (Score:2)
It would also be great for different industries (I'm thinking the financial markets) where more than two screens are the norm. The curved structure might allow for a smaller workstation.
In any case, it's a kewl concept and it will be interesting to see where it goes.
myke
900? (Score:2)
Wait a Minute (Score:5, Funny)
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Rubbish (Score:3, Insightful)
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Oznium? (Score:2)
Wrong approach? (Score:2)
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Because then the pixels have to be tiny. It's almost certainly much easier to make a 100DPI screen than it would be to make a 1,000 DPI screen!
Incidentally, most HMDs (especially reasonably-priced ones) tend to be VGA resolution. Making one with this many pixels would be super-expensive.
Curved? (Score:2)
Nice field of vision, poor 3D. (Score:2)
Yes, a curved monitor does present great field-of-vision opportunities, but it's breaking one of the unwritten rules of 3D graphics: software perspective curving isn't necessary because the gamer's physical world does the job for you.
What do I mean? Modern 3D engines generally make a flat projection of a plane, with the drawn size of an object being related to the z difference between the player and the object. However, basic geometry says we should take the true distance, equated with the x, y and z diff
Do They Work Better than Stereo? (Score:2)
And are these curved monitors going to trap us in "sweet spots" that are more "hifi" than flat screens, but require a single viewer to occupy a very specific viewing position at their focus, like stereo speakers do? If you're not in the sweet spot, does it look any bet
Comparison (Score:2)
4x 19" 2-5ms LCD monitors for equivalent screen space @ $220 each = $880
I already have the cards and two monitors, so I'd only need to spend $440 to reach an equivalent. Those starting from scratch would need to spend $1400+ to do this.
Not sure a seamless (as they promise) display that wide is really worth however much more than $880 it will cost. Knowing Alienware's high prices, I'm sure it will likely be 3-5x that
Crap for gaming. (Score:2)
Will games even support this monitor? (Score:2)
Might take getting used to... (Score:2)
If you had two of these with dual monitor support, could you
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1440x900 is a common LCD display resolution. I'd say it's 2 monitors in one.
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"Alienware has showcased a curved display prototype"
prototype
(pr't-tp') pronunciation
n.
1. An original type, form, or instance serving as a basis or standard for later stages.
2. An original, full-scale, and usually working model of a new product or new version of an existing product.
3. An early, typical example.
4. Biology. A form or species that serves as an original type or example.
[French, from Greek prtotupon, f
Re:Here's a picture... (Score:5, Informative)
No, they didn't have one. They had nine. And a video.
Re:Here's a picture... (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Here's a picture... (Score:5, Funny)
Can't find the images for the scripts (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Can't find the images for the scripts (Score:4, Funny)
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IMO this is exactly why noscripts is as silly as Norton or almost any other addon security tool. Its like breaking your toy so the bully doesn't play with it. Its your browser's job to make your browsing safe. And yours of course.
No, it is the site's responsibility to use the NOSCRIPT tag to provide alternative content when the script does not run for whatever reason.
So many sites so in love with Web 2.0 forgetting basic HTML principles like graceful degradation. Or at very least, <noscript><p>You need to enable scripts from gawker.com to view the images accompanying this story.</p></noscript> for the totally lazy but not quite totally inept.
Seems only DoubleClick even bothers to use the NOSCRIPT tag, just
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Advantages: the internet is less annoying. And faster. And you are safer from Javascript exploits (which are quite common in Firefox)
Disadvantages: some poorly written pages don't work, or work poorly.
I feel that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages, so I use NoScript. Sites that require Javascript and don't say so are probably lame and annoying anyway.
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