Notaz and his Pandora!!

[Tom`]

It looks small, Notaz...do you have large hands?

I was wondering the same thing. It seems like the videos craigx made it didn't look this small. Maybe notaz has normal hands and craigx has small hands?!?

It looks like it's still a good size even if my hands are the same size as notaz's though.

Or maybe it shrank in the mail.

In fact, I'm just a bit concerned about this - with respect to the buttons being hard to press accurately. I don't have large hands, but these look pretty close together. Of course, I don't actually own any handheld newer than the GBA, so I don't really have much of a basis for comparison. It'll probably be fine.

 

[Nintendo]

I think notaz might actually be a basketball playing giant.

 

[droneb]

XD i did end up guessing that too

calculating on the expected size, i would bet he does have larger than average hands

 

[Nintendo]

 

[Exophase]

- screen ghosting.. Yes there is some, and I'm very sensitive to it (as well as tearing on Wiz). I would even say it pretty bad in some situations, but much less intensive than PSP1000 (which I consider unusable for 2d games because of ghosting).

I honestly knew about this months ago, but I was afraid to say anything about it until I got a second opinion on it :/ Guess this qualifies as that. Sorry everyone. (he's right though, it's not nearly as bad as PSP1000)

 

[kingoddball]

Does it ghost with 3D gaming as bad as with 2D?

(I know we won't be getting this LCD screen)
It would be nice to know more of the devices CONS.
I don't want to start flame wars or anything stupid and childish. I just like to know ALL of the downsides of a device.

 

[Dead1nside]

- screen ghosting.. Yes there is some, and I'm very sensitive to it (as well as tearing on Wiz). I would even say it pretty bad in some situations, but much less intensive than PSP1000 (which I consider unusable for 2d games because of ghosting).

I honestly knew about this months ago, but I was afraid to say anything about it until I got a second opinion on it :/ Guess this qualifies as that. Sorry everyone. (he's right though, it's not nearly as bad as PSP1000)

I don't suppose you've got a B-Grade screen as well do you? *hopes*

I would have thought something like this would've been tested right from the start, just like the controls.

 

[Exophase]

I don't suppose you've got a B-Grade screen as well do you? *hopes*

I would have thought something like this would've been tested right from the start, just like the controls.

I doubt it. The screen was chosen, unless the manufacturer changed things then this is what you get - and I doubt they did, because the response time is part of the specification. It's really not that big of a deal, to the extent where some people outright just notice it less than others (also depends what you're running of course). Sonic is one of the easier games to notice ghosting in - I personally noticed it in Bonk's Revenge. This game is VERY prone to ghosting because it uses black outlines and backgrounds for everything. It was one of the earlier games I played on PSP and it was extremely awful, where other things weren't nearly as bad (especially GBA games because they were made to be extra bright). On the Pandora screen it really wasn't a big deal, but it was not ghost free like some have been claiming. I would like to say all LCDs ghost a little, but honestly I never noticed it playing the same game on GP2X.

It's a slight blemish, but I wouldn't let it bother you very much. I didn't want to mention it because I figured people would blow it out of proportion, but if you were hoping for a perfectly ghost free screen then I think you're going to be disappointed.

 

[Phawx]

@exophase

You have a prototype Pandora?

 

[quartercast]

Notaz's prototype has an old screen. Source.

 

[Adventus]

Damn I'm Jealous. Buttons and all.

I haven't noticed much ghosting, but i guess i've only really been watching 3d games for my n64 work. The first time i saw a PSP1000 i just thought it was an ingame effect...

Based on the Board, i can say that i wouldn't want the device to be any smaller. Most devices seem to be designed for teenagers/kids nowdays, they get really irritating after extended periods.

 

[Exophase]

@Exophase

You have a prototype Pandora?

Had. I parted with it several months ago.

This is the first I'm hearing of the LCDs being an inferior grade version - makes me wonder why craig wouldn't use a current one to go with all the other current parts. Nonetheless, best not to get your hopes up that the final one will be better. But like I said, it wasn't that big of a deal.

 

[Phawx]

Well, I was under the assumption that these screens were going to be TN panels and (honestly) the worst I thought they'd be was 6-8ms g2g. With the picture Notaz took, you can easily see that particular panel is crawling north of 16ms g2g.

So knowing that, I think it would be great to know *exactly* what type of LCD panel it is. I was assuming TN but TN should easily have a better response rate and we would sacrifice color and viewing angle. So maybe OP elected for VA or IPS panels? More than likely OP didn't elect for IPS, so my money is that this panel is VA variant. We have better color reproduction and a wider viewing angle, but sacrificed response time.

It's a tough choice, but VA is better for desktop use. Arguably, we maybe able to minimize the ghosting effect for games that are little more apparent through software like @Yannv said.

@OP Team, could you share with us what type of Panel is in production Pandora's?

 

[Exophase]

30ms black to black is what MWeston has cited before. So 16ms grey to grey isn't really off.

It would seem like the way to improve this in software would be to lower the contrast, not increase it. It's possible this can be done with gamma ramping in the Pandora display controller.

 

[fischju2000]

Well, I was under the assumption that these screens were going to be TN panels and (honestly) the worst I thought they'd be was 6-8ms g2g. With the picture Notaz took, you can easily see that particular panel is crawling north of 16ms g2g.

So knowing that, I think it would be great to know *exactly* what type of LCD panel it is. I was assuming TN but TN should easily have a better response rate and we would sacrifice color and viewing angle. So maybe OP elected for VA or IPS panels? More than likely OP didn't elect for IPS, so my money is that this panel is VA variant. We have better color reproduction and a wider viewing angle, but sacrificed response time.

It's a tough choice, but VA is better for desktop use. Arguably, we maybe able to minimize the ghosting effect for games that are little more apparent through software like @yannv said.

@OP Team, could you share with us what type of Panel is in production Pandora's?

http://pandorawiki.org/Hardware_documentation#Screen

The datasheet and exact model for the screen have been on the wiki for some time

 

[atomicthumbs]

I long for the days when you only had to choose between STN screens and TFT ones

 

[ThaDSman]

Question!Since he said that these were the screens used in earlier revisions, was ED using the b-grade screen when he showed us the mplayer video a few months ago? Because it looked quite nice IMO

 

[x68000]

When i had a quick playtest, I saw none at all on Mario 64, Castle of Illusion or Outrun. The other game i tried was Sonic and Knuckles, which should be much more prone to any issues, but in the short time i played it (30 secs or so) it was totally fine.

I knew what to look out for having bought a PSP1000 and a PC Engine GT in the past.

 

[MDave]

Notaz, can you do a screen ghosting screen shot comparison with any other handhelds you have? Using the same scene from Sonic?

 

[Nation.A.List]

Notaz, can you do a screen ghosting screen shot comparison with any other handhelds you have? Using the same scene from Sonic?

Can I ask why ??? If it is an old 'B' grade LCD unit (that's not going to be used in the final Pandora's) he might as well compare his calculator with his other handhelds.