TV Screens for Visual

[Ed]

Hello Fellow Builders,

I still can't decide whether or not to go projectors or TV. I had thought I was going to go with multiple TVs, but then out came PDV4. I had planned to use WideVeiw with a TV setup. From what I understand, currently WV may not work with V4 and there is no sign of the author.

In light of this  I have decided to go with one large 60 inch screen until I garner more info. I have a reasonably priced Samsung picked out, but I'm wondering if a motion rate of 60 Hz is enough for the sim. It's a LED 1080p. My worry is lag or response time.

Is anyone using TV screens for  visuals with 60 MR (Hz) with good success. Would be good to know before I buy. I believe current TVs are either 60, 120 or 240.

[XOrionFE]

Mine are running at 60hz.  That is fine for our sims.    The only time you might want faster is for fast sports like watching football, hockey, or auto racing where things are moving really fast.   Even then, most TVs are running at 60 and you would not notice much I dont think.   For flight sim 60 is more than adequate.

[Trevor Hale]

Ed.. Hang on for now.. Its only been out for 6 days LOL..

Frank has been in touch with WV developer...  Jump if you want but you really should give it a couple months..  Many developers will be working on updating things for V4.

Trev

[navymustang]

I haven't seen a home developer do it yet, but one could use the Multi-Channel feature of P3D and avoid WideView all together.  I'll start on implementing it on my sim and report back over the next week or so.

[Garys]

Is the multi-channel only a feature in the professional plus license? I admit my knowledge of P3d is extremely limited.

[navymustang]

Yes - but you don't need to buy it, you can "rent" a copy for $19 a month or $234 for a year.

To but it is something like $2,300. Then you own it versus renting it.

[bernard S]

no wide  iew for me ?

[Ed]

Ed.. Hang on for now.. Its only been out for 6 days LOL..

Frank has been in touch with WV developer...  Jump if you want but you really should give it a couple months..  Many developers will be working on updating things for V4.

Trev

Good news concerning Frank and the WV developer. Hanging on

[Ed]

I haven't seen a home developer do it yet, but one could use the Multi-Channel feature of P3D and avoid WideView all together.  I'll start on implementing it on my sim and report back over the next week or so.

Looking forward to seeing and hearing about your results.

[Ed]

Mine are running at 60hz.  That is fine for our sims.    The only time you might want faster is for fast sports like watching football, hockey, or auto racing where things are moving really fast.   Even then, most TVs are running at 60 and you would not notice much I dont think.   For flight sim 60 is more than adequate.

Thanks a lot Scott. Exactly what I wanted to know.

[FredK]

I haven't seen a home developer do it yet, but one could use the Multi-Channel feature of P3D and avoid WideView all together.  I'll start on implementing it on my sim and report back over the next week or so.

Jim -

I would be very interested in knowing your results for the P3D multi-channel system.  It has been reported to run very poorly with P3Dv3.  It is not clear if it works any better for V4....no comments in the LM forum....and the list of improvements for P3DV4 does not mention it.

Fred K

[tennyson]

Jeez Louise,
I never thought about the other option of monthly payment for the professional plus.

2300 bucks is a little steep, even for the best of us. I wrote an email to Elaine Dixon about this very issue (us being able to use the multi-channel set-up in pro plus) and am still waiting for a reply.

On the other hand, as Trev said, I got a reply back from Luciano Napolitano about Wideview.
Without being 100% committal, he said he was working on a 64 bit version of wideview, but didn't say when it would be ready.

Interesting times ahead, gents....



Frank

[Ed]

Mine are running at 60hz.  That is fine for our sims.    The only time you might want faster is for fast sports like watching football, hockey, or auto racing where things are moving really fast.   Even then, most TVs are running at 60 and you would not notice much I dont think.   For flight sim 60 is more than adequate.

Hi Scott,

One more question  concerning the 60 inch. I brought home a 60 inch Samsung and mounted it on a makeshift table behind the MIP yesterday.

How high off the floor do you have yours, measured from floor to TV bottom bezel.  as I have to make a proper stand for it to sit on and I want to get the stand  height close . My table top TV stand allows for 4 inches of play up/down.

Thanks

[XOrionFE]

Base of my screens is about 43 inches off floor but keep in mind that the floor of my shell is also 14 inches off the floor high.

[Ed]

Base of my screens is about 43 inches off floor but keep in mind that the floor of my shell is also 14 inches off the floor high.

Hi Scott,

Ok, so if I understand correctly, as I have no base yet, for me the measurement would be 43 - 14.  This gives me 29 inches for my current situation. My makeshift stand right now places my screen base 25 inches off the floor, which I felt was a little on the low side.

Later on I will have to raise it to the level of my base when I get that done. 

Thanks for taking the time to check the measurement. Very very helpful.

[XOrionFE]

Correct 29 inch should be good for you.   Make them so you can raise later if need.  I used a board mounted to 3 inch gas pipe with U bolts.   Use a flange plate screwed on end of gas pipe to mount to a base for stability.   Then you mount the TVs with normal adjustable tv wall mounts to the boards.   This way you can move the board higher or lower on the pipe with the U bolts and then fine tune positions with the wall mount. make sure you get a good wall mount bracket that allows for adjustment in side to side tilt as well as for and aft.  Mine actually can be slide back and forth as well.

[Ed]

Thanks Scott for that info. I understand the concept and it sounds like a great idea.

[Ed]

Have the 60 inch set up now and the immersion factor is much better. What a difference to have a big screen out front of the MIP. !

To line up the runway center line on the right side of my right leg, I had to physically move the TV to the port side. This results in a crab free Captains view, however it leaves my TV protruding out the port side by 14 inches. This will be a problem when adding multple TVs.

I read that people are adjusting the rotation to move the view left or right in the 'Flt' file. I'm using SE at the moment and can't seem to locate a FLT file. Is this native to P3D? I took a look at the Camera definitions and CFG but there doesn't seem to be a place to rotate the screens there either.

[XOrionFE]

You have to save a flight first.  Make it always your default startup flight from your favorite hime base airport at your favorite gate.   The file will be in your My Documents\Prepar3d v3 or V4 Files folder (dependant on version).    It will be a .fxml file named as you save the flight.   This is where you can edit the rotation value just like the old .flt files in FSX.   Alternatively you can use viewgroups.  There are good tutorials out there and using them is much better than old way of modifying the .flt or .fxml files.

Note - with 3 or 5 screens it is better to center on the shell...not the right knee of capt.  Then apply about 8 degrees of rotation to the right and see how an approach feels for capt seat.   fO view will be awefull but who cares.    Adjust up or down a degree at a time until it feels like no crab

Hope this helps,
Scott

[Ed]

Thanks for the info on where to find the 'rotation' file  . I do have some saved flights, case of not seeing the forest for the trees.

It appears I have my  screen centered on captains seat which actually gives me a crab free approach for now with the one screen so will leave it there for the time being .

I hope to be adding more screens soon, so will follow your advice on multiple screens when I get to that point. Has to be soon, as the store I'm dealing with only has 10 of these left.

Thanks again Scott.

[Ed]

Correct 29 inch should be good for you.   Make them so you can raise later if need.  I used a board mounted to 3 inch gas pipe with U bolts.   Use a flange plate screwed on end of gas pipe to mount to a base for stability.   Then you mount the TVs with normal adjustable tv wall mounts to the boards.   This way you can move the board higher or lower on the pipe with the U bolts and then fine tune positions with the wall mount. make sure you get a good wall mount bracket that allows for adjustment in side to side tilt as well as for and aft.  Mine actually can be slide back and forth as well.

Hi again Scott,

I'm wondering what you used for a base for the pipe monitor support. I watched a video of your -200 build and the support stand was a bit different than I had envisioned.

It appears you have bolted the flange into a base structure. It looks like the ones in the video would take up less space than what I had in mind.

[XOrionFE]

The bases are just 2x6s on either side with a piece of 3/4" plywood glued and screwed on top.  Flang is bolted on the plywood.  You can see one in the photo attached.  Make sure to offset the flange to the back because weight will be leaning to front and you want more surface area to front for stability.  You could use smaller than 2x6 also.  Just need to clear bolts on bottom.   Keep in mind you will want it eventually to be able to fit under your platform because the two in the front corners end up being really close to the shell so the base needs to be able to go under the shelll floor.  Mine just barely make it.

Best regards
Scott

[Ed]

Hi Scott,

Fantastic information. I was wondering about using a wooden base as wood material is readily available. Good to know about shell floor. I wouldn't have thought of it.
The one 60 " I have up now makes a big difference in immersion factor.
Thanks again for the pic and the info.

[mdavenport]

I see from reading this thread that a 60" tv is a good size for the visuals before maybe adding others to it.

At the moment I'm still running my 3x23" in led monitors from when I was flying on the desk and recently just got my MIP setup and the visuals need to be changed.

I also had the crabbing and had to move all of the screens to the left so the centre line went through my right leg. Do you still need to physically move the screens if you change the rotation value in the saved flight file?

Would you guys say that a 60" screen is the minimum for visuals or would I get by with a 50 or 55"?

Also if I am doing just the out of the window view is one big screen better (55" / 60" etc) or maybe 2 x 42" centred?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Ed]

I see from reading this thread that a 60" tv is a good size for the visuals before maybe adding others to it.

At the moment I'm still running my 3x23" in led monitors from when I was flying on the desk and recently just got my MIP setup and the visuals need to be changed.

I also had the crabbing and had to move all of the screens to the left so the centre line went through my right leg. Do you still need to physically move the screens if you change the rotation value in the saved flight file?



Would you guys say that a 60" screen is the minimum for visuals or would I get by with a 50 or 55"?

Also if I am doing just the out of the window view is one big screen better (55" / 60" etc) or maybe 2 x 42" centred?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hi Mark,

I've just set up one 60 inch screen and I had to move it port side until the runway lined up with my right leg. For now this works great. No crab on captains side. However Scott has said that when more screens are introduced, it is best to center the front screen on the MIP and you rotate the view 5 to 8 degrees on each screen to port (left side).

You could probably get away with smaller screens, I dont really know. The idea is to be able to lean out and look up or down without seeing the bottom of the screen. Scott has had success with a 5 x 60 setup so..I'm going with 60 inch screens as well, although I may only go with three 60 inch as I haven't decided if I need to see out the back window. Could be too big a FrameRate hit to run 5 different views.

I was used to looking at one 32 inch screen 2 feet from my face. Now that I have the big  screen, I realize how terrible that was. The immersion factor is so much better having even one big screen out front. It seems to give you a feeling of depth. I highly recommend one big screen out front , be it TV or projector. You actually get the feeling that you are moving, but of course in reality it is the view on the screen that is moving.

Hope this helps you with your decision making. I struggled with TV/Projector for over a year now. Decided finally to go with TV. 

EDIT: Reading back over Scott's earlier post, he applies rotation to the right. I dont know if this is how the rotation should work or a typo. I had in mind moving rotation to the left in order to move runway centerline left.