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Unico phoenix monitors - Opinions?

purbeast said:
Is this something that can like be preset? Or is this something that I would have to manually do every time I wanted to go back/forth between games of different aspect ratios? And if I have to manually change this, this is going to be inside a cabinet, so is there anyway to have access to this without having to touch the monitor itself? Like does it have a remote board of sorts?
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There is no preset, only manual every time you change aspect ratio.
There is a wired remote but short cables. I rewired mine.
 
Neo.raizo said:
There is no preset, only manual every time you change aspect ratio.
There is a wired remote but short cables. I rewired mine.
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Okay gotcha, yeah if it's just extending some wires to make it longer I could handle that as well.

And from that remote board you are able to adjust those settings?
 
IMG_0144.jpeg
 
I set full screen by adjusting H size and V size for different PCBs.
For information, I use Retro Scaler A1 to generate scanlines.
 
Okay cool thanks for that.

I do see the resolution on your screen says 640x480 - do you know what the max resolution is when using HDMI as the input?

I'm just trying to figure out what a modern HD racing game like Cruisin Blast or Mario Kart would look like if I was using one of those monitors, and adjusted the vertical height to get the 16:9 aspect ratio.

The older 4:3 games like Rush, Virtua Racing, Daytona, etc, would all look great at full screen though.
 
purbeast said:
Does anyone have any idea if the Unico 26" monitor is able to display 16:9 content in the correct aspect ratio of 16:9, with black bars on top?

I am in the market for an LCD because I'm turning my Rush 2049 cabs into emulation cabs, and if I can get a 4:3 monitor in there to play 4:3 racing games in full screen, but also get 16:9 games to be basically the exact same size they would be if I had a wide screen monitor in there. However the 4:3 games won't be "smaller" like they would be on a 16:9 monitor with bars on the side.
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I have one of these monitors on my work desk with a PC running Batocera hooked up for some break-time gaming. I run Batocera at 1024x768 (the panel's native resolution) over HDMI. If I switch to 1920x1080, I do not get black bars on top and bottom; it just squishes the wide image into a 4:3ish aspect ratio (i.e., everything is skinny and tall). Maybe the video board handles VGA/RGB signals differently, but over HDMI, no, it will not display 16:9 material with black bars.
 
mattsoft said:
I have one of these monitors on my work desk with a PC running Batocera hooked up for some break-time gaming. I run Batocera at 1024x768 (the panel's native resolution) over HDMI. If I switch to 1920x1080, I do not get black bars on top and bottom; it just squishes the wide image into a 4:3ish aspect ratio (i.e., everything is skinny and tall). Maybe the video board handles VGA/RGB signals differently, but over HDMI, no, it will not display 16:9 material with black bars.
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Thank you for this specific example that helps understand what it does in that instance.

Are you able to adjust the vertical size to get the right aspect ratio with the settings in the monitor as mentioned up above using that remote board, adding some empty space above/below it?
 
purbeast said:
Thank you for this specific example that helps understand what it does in that instance.

Are you able to adjust the vertical size to get the right aspect ratio with the settings in the monitor as mentioned up above using that remote board, adding some empty space above/below it?
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With HDMI, the screen adjust controls are greyed out and not functional. :(

I'm guessing they are for VGA/RGB video only.
 

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mattsoft said:
With HDMI, the screen adjust controls are greyed out and not functional. :(

I'm guessing they are for VGA/RGB video only.
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Ah okay gotcha, that sucks! I don't HAVE to use HDMI for this but I was planning on doing that just since it's just a common cable I have. I could use VGA as the sound is going to be handled elsewhere and I don't need the sound via HDMI.

I am just trying to figure out how this would work (if at all) before I buy one because they are not cheap, however they would definitely look/fit the best in my Rush 2049 cabinets. But the fact they aren't even 1080p makes me wonder.

I may look to see if I can find a 16:10 monitor that would fit in there that is capable of HD. That may end up being the best of all the tradeoffs I will have to make. It's still in the early planning stages right now though.
 
Lemme know if you want me to try anything and take some photos. Easy to do since it's sitting next to me.

Unfortunately I don't have an easy RGB source to connect.
 
I think the ULM26 "Pro" monitors that come in those Nova Blast cabinets do 1080p natively and that Unico plans to sell them eventually. Unico quality is pretty hit and miss, so buyer beware.
 
mattsoft said:
Lemme know if you want me to try anything and take some photos. Easy to do since it's sitting next to me.

Unfortunately I don't have an easy RGB source to connect.
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Thanks that was basically it. I was just curious what it would look like (if even possible) to have a 4:3 racing game like Rush 2049 on there (which would be fine and full screen I'm guessing) but then trying a modern game that runs in 16:9 HD, like Cruisn Blast.
 
mattsoft said:
I think the ULM26 "Pro" monitors that come in those Nova Blast cabinets do 1080p natively and that Unico plans to sell them eventually. Unico quality is pretty hit and miss, so buyer beware.
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I wasn't even aware of those. Looking at the site, it appears those are 1440×1080 so not quote 1080p for wide screen resolution.
 
Ya, so here is OutRun 2 SP via the Lindbergh core on Batocera running at 1920x1080. OutRun 2 SP is a 16:9 game. Notice it is tall and skinny.
 

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mattsoft said:
Ya, so here is OutRun 2 SP via the Lindbergh core on Batocera running at 1920x1080. OutRun 2 SP is a 16:9 game. Notice it is tall and skinny.
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Yeah damn, if there was a way to squish that 16:9 that would be absolutely perfect for me, as long as it still looked decent (since it wouldn't actually be 1920x1080 resolution).

Quality wise, aside from being stretched out like that, it looks good though.
 
ya, there's a lot of hate for these monitors and I can see why; they are lo-res and have a janky video board, but 4:3 Model 3/Lindbergh/Naomi/PS2 stuff actually looks really great on them.
 
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