The best of all LCD?

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Naveronasis
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The best of all LCD?

Post by Naveronasis » 07 Jun 2021, 16:54

Is this viewsonic still considered the best of all time? Or has something new come out that I should be aware of?

https://www.amazon.com/ViewSonic-XG270- ... lurbust-20

I should say I am aware of crt and oled monitors. I have plenty of CRT but I'm looking for the best available to take comparison pics with. But under 1000usd so I dont think any oleds make the cut. Let me know om looking to move on this in the next 24hrs unless you have one I can borrow lol

milojr21
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Re: The best of all LCD?

Post by milojr21 » 07 Jun 2021, 21:29

see the XG2431 thread. some reports saying june or september for it's release

Naveronasis
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Re: The best of all LCD?

Post by Naveronasis » 07 Jun 2021, 22:17

Yeah but is it supposed to be better? Or the same but smaller?

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Re: The best of all LCD?

Post by Chief Blur Buster » 09 Jun 2021, 01:39

For readers, there's no jack-of-all-trades LCD.

What's your priorities?

4K?
Local dimming?
Highest Hz?
Best strobing?
Best VRR?
Lowest input lag?
Retro-friendly strobing?
Etc.

Sometimes I recommend away from Blur Busters Approved monitors -- for example when specific nuances motion blur reduction isn't your priority. A person, for example, might have a resolutions-priority, or a good-blacks priority (expensive locally dimmed LCDs), or need retro-friendly strobing (60Hz etc).

Now that you said, you want to benchmark against CRT. If that's true, your priority is probably motion clarity, right? Not CRT blacks (which would required local dimming like a G-SYNC Ultimate panel). You want single-strobe 60 Hz support in an IPS panel, then you'll want to wait until the ViewSonic XG2431.

The ViewSonic XG270 is really good for strobing, especially if you respect the refresh-rate-headroom rule, and use low-Hz strobe presets such as 100Hz or 120Hz, or Custom Resolution Utility to create 75Hz and 119Hz.

You could also buy a Oculus Quest 2 VR LCD. It's currently the gold standard in a CRT-motion-clarity-beating LCD.

Bunch of nice CRT-versus picks I've personally seen recently or recentlyish.

1. Oculus Quest 2 VR LCD (winner winner winner by a large margin above the below)
2. ViewSonic XG2431 (not yet released), supports Strobe Utility calibration
3. ViewSonic XG270 (test 75Hz-120Hz strobe modes), 119Hz is sometimes better than 120Hz
4. BenQ XL2546 series (One of the best TN strobing available, but worse viewing angles due to TN, so not a good CRT-versus candidate)
5. LG CX 48" OLED (saw one about $1200 on sale, but probably sold out), running 120Hz+BFI or 60Hz+BFI(max, not med/low)
One of the few OLEDs to beat plasma motion handling

I've heard great things about other models that I haven't compared recently so can't say if they're among the tops of strobing (yet) -- such as the ASUS TUF VG259QM (pretty good as long as you don't use low framerates during ELMB-SYNC). No matter what, if you get a desktop LCD, definitely don't go for anything less than 240Hz-capable. The hertzroom helps the low Hz strobing, plus it's always nice to versus-test against "brute Hz as blur reduction method" instead of the "flicker as blur reduction method". But definitely cherrypick; some of them have terrible strobing though.

Don't forget to break in your LCD for 24-48h to let the LCD GtG settle, and keep an LCD powered for 30 minutes before doing any strobe tests (temperature affects LCD GtG a bit ... even 0.5ms increases creates visible strobe crosstalk increases). You also warm up CRTs too to make sure their focus/convergence is at its stable too, LCD have their own "specific quirks" too...
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Naveronasis
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Re: The best of all LCD?

Post by Naveronasis » 09 Jun 2021, 09:19

My only goal is low blur/motion clarity. I'm not worried about zones or resolution or anything like that. But not VR and because of space limitation probably nothing over 32" but I might consider a tv... Maybe... I used to love projectors. I saw you can get older 1080p 3 chip dlp refurbished pro models on eBay around 1200 but the bulbs for those can be 300 bucks+ so im not sure your really saving money.... Supposedly dlp chips can break 1000hz not that any input boards are specced that high but DLP 3chip supposedly have no blur and no rainbow.

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Re: The best of all LCD?

Post by Chief Blur Buster » 09 Jun 2021, 17:57

Naveronasis wrote:
09 Jun 2021, 09:19
My only goal is low blur/motion clarity. I'm not worried about zones or resolution or anything like that.
Narrowing down the question, because different displays have different sweet spots:
1. Do you want narrow gamut or wide gamut color?
2. Do you want clearest max-Hz strobing, or clearest any-Hz-sweet-spot strobing?

For the ViewSonic XG270 (a 240Hz monitor), the sweet spot was 119 Hz according to the ApertureGrille review. It actually exceeded CRT motion clarity at the Ultra setting, but only at that Hz, and only if you tolerated the dimness.

Wide Gamut Color Strobing Option: Eve Spectrum 4K 144Hz
I just newly announced my involvement in strobe tuning that monitor, check out EVE Spectrum 4K 144Hz. However, it will have more ghosting than non-KSF panels, but it's one of the few wide-gamut strobing options with extreme flexibility. It also supports a future version of Strobe Utility!

Possible DIY Projector Persistence Improvement Via Mechanical Strobing
If you don't mind a little DIY sugar, there's also projector options with mechanical strobing:
Mechanically Strobed LCD and LCoS Projector Idea
I suspect some fast-GtG LCoS projectors (like Sony SXRD) will show some shockingly good strobe quality with a spinning-disc mechanical shutter.

Monitors with Strobe Utilities can Help
Such monitors include BenQ, the ViewSonic XG2431 (future), and the upcoming Eve 4K 144Hz Monitor (future). Just like advanced color calibrators only sometimes use a colorimeter, some advanced users will only sometimes use a Strobe Utility. Since this can compensate for panel-lottery factors and temperature factors by allowing you to retune more perfectly for your specific panel.

Image

To learn how manual strobe tuning can help, check out ANIMATIONS: Adjusting Strobe Phase & Crosstalk. It's a lot easier than calibrating a CRT projector, but it's an art almost unknown to most monitor manufacturers. Blur Busters have come up with a formula for "better than NVIDIA ULMB" strobing that involves multiple concurrent strobe-improving adjustments (Phase + Length + Overdrive + Vertical Totals + etc), while also being flexible Hz (work at any Hz, not just 85Hz, 100Hz, 120Hz)

Right now, strobe improvement is a highly moving target, since there is a surge of monitors coming that supports Strobe Utiity optimization. I will be writing easier strobe tuning FAQs since this is a boom of Strobe Utility supported monitors (BenQ, ViewSonic, Eve, etc).

Buying now also risks being unable to tune the strobe a little better, because you got a little unlucky with panel lottery (panel that ghosts more than the average panel on the same factory line) or got the wrong room temperature (ghosting more because of cooler/warmer temperature than it was strobe-calibrated at), since LCD GtG speeds up/slows down with temperature, even noticeable in 1C or 2C increments, lesser on IPS and worse on VA panels.

Generally, I think your panel choice will be quickly narrowed to the "Fast IPS" panel chemical formulations (2020-or-newer panel), since all the best general-purpose strobing I've seen recently is rapidly coming from Fast IPS panels. Better package deal of less-degraded-colors combined with non-objectionable strobe crosstalk double images.

Choices for you
1. If you HAD to buy today, can settle for plain old LCD color gamut (99% sRGB), then XG270 at 119Hz
2. If you CAN wait until summer, so you can have a Strobe Utility supported 240Hz IPS with wider sweet spots.... XG2431 at any Hz between 60Hz-144Hz with Strobe Utility customization.

The strobe sweet spot of the XG2431 is unusually giant compared to the XG270 because you can custom strobe-tune any custom-Hz (approx ~59.000Hz through approx ~241.000Hz in analoglike 0.001Hz increments), so there's essentially an analog continuum of strobe improvement of ever lower Hz. With a good recalibrate with Strobe Utility, you can choose a near perfect crosstalk-free 60Hz, or a very slightly ghosty 100Hz, or a very comfortable unnoticeable-crosstalk 120Hz, or a quite usable (more crosstalk but less than XG270) 240Hz strobe.

Morever, the ViewSonic XG2431 is capable of large VBIs that you can drive a truck through -- e.g. Vertical Total 4500 scanlines for 1080p 60Hz. That's 13 milliseconds of LCD GtG hiding between refresh cycles!

Image

Strobe Utility Supported Monitors
- Almost all 144Hz+ BenQ ZOWIE monitors since XL2411Z
(Caveat: they're all TN, they don't have Overdrive Gain in Utility, and some have feature downgrades like XL2411K no longer supporting 60Hz single strobe)
- Upcoming ViewSonic XG2431
- Upcoming EVE Spectrum 4K 144Hz

Strobe Utility supported monitors is the pleasant strobe metaphor surprise equivalent of "Wow, this CRT monitor has a service menu unlocking 100-zone convergence calibration!". As Blur Busters is the holder of the Strobe Utility source code, we recently began offering optional free unlimited-downloads license of Strobe Utility to all monitor manufacturers who utilizes our strobe tuning services. Manufacturers who optionally opt-in, gets a Strobe Utility that can be downloaded by end users for advanced strobe tuning of their gaming monitors. This is purely optional, but you're an advanced CRT user, so you probably relate!

Therefore, a CRT enthusiast like you, I highly recommend waiting for XG2431 unless you plan to spend your $1000 budget on two models (one now, one later). Being the world's first 240Hz IPS panel that can single-strobe 60Hz like a CRT, while ALSO letting you open the hood for DIY strobe tuning as a rudimentary strobe metaphor equivalent of CRT zone convergence....

Many pretuned strobe modes are preinstalled, so you still get good strobing. But a panel lottery factor or a temperature factor may turn 1-3% strobe crosstalk into 10% strobe crosstalk, just like this:

Image

With good DIY strobe tuning via Utility + use of Large Vertical Totals + use of giant Hertz headroom (3:1 to 4:1 such as doing 60-80Hz on XG2431), you can get far below 1% for screen center on the XG2431. Yup. Gone. Crosstalk below human visibility noisefloor, thanks to ginormous blanking intervals an order of magnitude bigger than manufacturer rated LCD GtG pixel response. Creating less ghosting than the green phosphor of a CRT with bright objects on dark backgrounds. You usually cannot achieve this automatically without a Strobe Utility (unless you have the budget that Oculus spent on their Quest 2 VR LCD engineering). The LCD run in a cold room in winter, versus a hot non-airconditioned room in summer, you can have quite significant divergences in strobe tuning.

Just like CRT tuning (convergence can vary due to temperature), LCDs have their special temperature quirks (ever forgotten a phone in a frozen car in the middle of winter? The LCD GtG becomes measured in seconds sometimes...), and a Strobe Utility is a great compensator/equallizer for such quirks.

Personalized Recommendation for CRT Calibration Enthusiasts: Wait for the XG2431

While it won't have better blacks or color gamut than the average 60Hz LCD -- its motion resolution is truly superlative after a good DIY strobe tune that compensates for your specific panel lottery/temperature effect.

How's that temptation of waiting for a Strobe-Utility-Supported 240Hz IPS monitor, now, Naveronasis? Sure, you can go with the easy strobing ON/OFF, and settle for 10% strobe crosstalk double images. But wouldn't you love to tweak, tweak, tweak, and get the crosstalk down to 5%, to 3%, and even to 1% or less for your specific panel and specific room temperature? Tempting, eh?

Tunable to become over 2 orders of magnitude superior to the motion blur of a 60Hz LCD. If you don't mind turning off all lights and accepting a dim picture of 1% pulse width (flash backlight for 1/100th of a refresh cycle) there is a real world measured ~1/100th (at 60Hz) to 1/400th (at 240Hz) the motion blur of the fastest non-strobed 60Hz OLED and 60Hz LCD, although much more acceptable brightness occurs with 5% to 20% pulse width. Be noted theoretical lowest strobe crosstalk percentage (for a specific given panel) gradually increases the higher the Hz you go, even if the UFOs stay extremely clear.

Normally I don't ask people to wait.

You probably love opening the hoods of a CRT (convergence/astig/keystone/etc), wouldn't you love to open the hood of strobing?

Unless, of course, you want to spread your $1000 budget over two monitors -- i.e. the XG270 and then the XG2431, as a possible example.
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Re: The best of all LCD?

Post by Chief Blur Buster » 09 Jun 2021, 21:51

Naveronasis wrote:
09 Jun 2021, 09:19
I saw you can get older 1080p 3 chip dlp refurbished pro models on eBay around 1200 but the bulbs for those can be 300 bucks+ so im not sure your really saving money.
Currently, DLP makes poor CRT emulators at this time due to temporal dithering

DLP is nice for movies (I own a few DLPs myself) and they are Right Tool for Right Job. But not as CRT replacements currently.

DLP is temporally dithered so they don't become low-persistence as easily as LCD because as soon as you time-division the frames of a DLP, going 25% persistence on a DLP often creates a situation of 25% of the color depth because you have 25% of the dither time.

Now, trying to do 10% persistence on a DLP produces only 10% of the color depth. For example, a single DLP chip needs 1440Hz 1-bit (mirror toggling 1920 times per second) to produce 60Hz at 24bit color (24x60 = 1440). Three chipping this improves this quite a bit but it's still only 24bit per color channel per refresh cycle. Chopping to 10% persistence will only do 2.4 bits per color channel per refresh cycle -- only two and a half toggles of a mirror per refresh cycle. Ouch. Holy color depth loss!

There are faster DLP chips (1920Hz and 2880Hz I believe) but still not nearly enough to preserve full color depth during CRT-motion-clarity strobing of a DLP.

DLP will not easily match CRT motion clarity without artifacts without using 24 DLP chips simultaneously generating non-serialized color 24-bit depth. 3 chip DLP is nowhere near enough to get CRT motion clarity without color-depth-reduction artifacts of some kind since you're still temporally dithering.

Since the sample-and-hold effect requires much briefer persistence than the human flicker fusion threshold, a possible optimization is eye-tracking-compensated temporal dithering algorithms, and/or potentially pixels too tiny to see temporal dithering in (e.g. sitting far away from a true-4K non-pixel-shifted DLP chip). Major color depth improvements (And elimination of plasma-style contouring) occur if there's fancy eye-tracking-compensated temporal dithering algorithms, which would require an electronic eyeball-motion-sensing device and some really fancy algorithms. But that's quite some Rube Goldberg overkill just to eliminate visible temporal dithering in all possible eye-pursuit situations (including stationary-gaze-on-stationary-display, stationary-gaze-on-moving-display, moving-gaze-on-stationary-display), for situations where you want to do things like spread color depth artifactlessly over multiple refresh cycles.

Anyway, surprisingly, LCD performs better because of temporally-complete instantaneous color depth that can be more easily time-divided (aka strobing). So briefer strobes don't trunctate color depth like they do on DLP.

A cherrypicked fast-GtG LCD/LCoS projector + custom overdrive tweak (could be GPU-shader based if the projector electronics have no LCD overdrive) + external mechanical strobing, actually can outperform DLP in persistence.

LCD overdrive is simply a lookup table A(B)=C lookup table formula explained at How LCD Overdrive Works (about 3rd post). Where A is the previous color (pixel on previous refresh cycle), B is the next color (pixel on current refresh cycle), and C is the resulting overdriven color (for one refresh cycle) to speed up transition from greyscale A to greyscale B. Pixel greyscale intensities are mapped to voltages, so it is easily done at the software level / firmware level / GPU level. ATI used to do this with "ATI Radeon Overdrive".

While it may be months or years, we're eventually awaiting a rumored (if true) upcoming open source virtual display driver enhancement to an existing frame processor engine (it's one of those SweetFX / ReShade engines). Adding refresh cycle granularity processing to one of those engines in addition to frame granularity processing, now makes it possible to add reliably superior software-based overdrive to LCD displays (including cheap 1080p LCD projectors) without overdrive, or has inferior overdrive, albiet it will rob a % of GPU processing time. Not a bad tradeoff if you already have a powerful GPU. I expect a bigger acceleration of Blur Busters maker projects and open source projects that helps speed up the refresh rate race to retina refresh rates.

Overdrive is something that needs to be done at the refresh cycle granularity rather than the frame granularity. Meaning overdrive only occur only on the changed pixels on the first refresh cycle immediately after the previous refresh cycle.

TL;DR: Well tuned LCD outperforms DLP when doing CRT simulation

Also:
Naveronasis wrote:
09 Jun 2021, 09:19
But not VR
Mythbusting Modern VR

Just so you know, modern VR is more eye-comfortable and not roller coaster anymore. The "Comfort" rated Oculus apps (like the Alcove virtual beach) are 100x better and less dizzying than Google Cardboard roller coaster demos.
And now much less dizzying than 3D glasses at the movie theater -- VR has now become the world's most comfortable stereoscopic 3D, thanks to the breakthroughs of the last 5 years.

VR headsets can also simply be used to put a simulated CRT motion-clarity monitor on a virtual desk. In the case of Quest 2, you simply run the "Virtual Desktop" app, make sure your PC refresh rate and Quest refresh rate is identical. Then the PC will stream the Windows desktop picture (over WiFi) from your PC to the VR headset, so you can play any 60fps content or videos or emulators, Even running MAME HLSL looks even more accurate because CRT's lack of motionblur is much more accurately simulated than on a physical desktop LCD (due to the superior calibration of the Oculus LCD). And movements are now perfectly flawlessly sync'd now with no stutter or lag. Look down and you see a virtual computer chair. Look around, and you see a virtual computer room. Lean down and you see the bottom of a virtual computer desk. Look in front of you and you see a 0.3ms persistence simulated desktop computer monitor that can do CRT motion clarity when playing YouTube videos. Proper modern VR (like Rift, Vive, Quest) is much closer to a Holodeck nowadays than a toy VR. There's perfect 1:1 positional sync, which is why you can look at the bottom surface of your virtual computer desk simply by crouching down and looking underneath, just like a real computer desk.

So with the apps that maintain 1:1 perfect real:VR sync, there is zero dizziness at all, and is 100x more comfortable than Real3D Cinema Glasses. It's currently the most comfortable true stereoscopic computer generated 3D known to humans; and is practically 100x closer to a Star Trek Holodeck now. The Quest 2 is also easier to set up than an iPad, not requiring external sensors anymore -- being a self contained unit -- to the point where one was mailed to a nursing home (almost jails last year during COVID, essentially) -- and a 70 year old was able to set it up by himself and enjoy playing virtual chess on a virtual table with faraway family members, speaking to each other as if they were simply sitting across the table. Quest 2 has a built-in GPU almost as powerful as a GTX 1070 and has a in-VR app store that runs on its Snapdragon, so it's a one-piece VR headset with powerful graphics that does not require a computer.

I know you probably don't want to do VR, but I just wanted to allay any old-fashioned fears of not wanting to try VR, because you became sick visiting a 3D movie at a movie theater. Modern VR is no longer like that and comfort has gone beyond that factor. The last 5 years have been nothing short of incredible for VR innovations. Some headsets are no longer complex and no longer needs computer -- and the Quest 2 includes what is tantamount to a very powerful smartphone GPU built into it, so it's completely self contained plug-and-play with no wires and no external sensors, compatible with seated, standing, or roomscale play. Even if it is only used about a few hours a week, it's a pretty neat experience feeling like you're inside a Holodeck.

About 50% of people I know who buy an Oculus Quest 2 are non-gamers, and most of them are older than 50 years old. They just run a few non-traditional-game apps such as "Alcove" where you can play checkers or chess on a virtual table in a beachfront house -- very simple VR experiences that feels like you're actually somewhere else other than your current home.

You don't have to try VR, but I reply only because you said "But not VR". I just wanted to give you a heads up to erase some old VR assumptions from older "toy" VR technology.

Obviously, if you dislike Facebook Login, that is a problem (legitimate, I don't like that feature).

But, this $299 headset is practically a $3000 (five years ago) worth of technology at one-tenth the price -- it's amazing how much tech is crammed into it. In fact, just the screen alone of a Quest 2 is probably theoretically worth $300 to a CRT enthusaist (throwing away the Quest 2's GPU). Or even the Quest 2 GPU alone in this inflated market (worth $300 at its horsepower), throwing away the screen and the rest of the VR headset guts. But there's also the additional tech/sensors/controllers too that completes the self contained VR experience. It's a bona-fide self contained computer with powerful GPU and AI that is doing perfect zero-stutter framerate=Hz sync in almost all the apps in the Oculus App Store. You've seen what 60fps looks like on a CRT. Now imagine all games running guaranteed framerate=Hz because it's an app store requirement!

Also, it (the "Guardian" safety system) uses near-photogrammetry AI to alert you before you bump into your furniture! Which means if you step a little too close to your furniture, the room becomes transparent to you (there's cameras on the VR headset), allowing you to see your furniture before you walk into them. It generates better graphics (without a computer) than most iPhones and Androids for examples, and it can do perfect framerate=Hz permanently in all games (The in-VR Oculus App Store made that a mandatory app store approval requirement to reduce motion sickness). You just put on headset, surf the in-VR app store, download the apps, and run the apps, all self contained nowadays. The Guardian system is actually cutely inspired by a Star Trek holodeck -- it displays a 3D blue grid of your room shape (overlaid on the VR app or VR game or whatever you're running) if you're within about 2 feet of the edges (adjustable alert distance), well before the headset "goes transparent" (displays stereoscopic video of the room via the VR headset's cameras) if you continue approaching the grid.

The guts of an equivalent of a high end Samsung Galaxy S10 smartphone is completely embedded into the Quest 2 -- but with a much superior CRT-matching display. And also goodbye to a computer as a requirement to run the headset (but computer can still optionally be used, like Remote Desktop, or for optional PC-generated VR streamed to the headset). 60fps YouTube videos can be directly streamed to an IMAX-sized CRT-motion-clarity display that you need to lean upwards to see the top edge of (Quest2's YouTube app supports a 60Hz strobe mode on Quest 2 with motion clarity better than an average CRT tube). The simulated display size is adjustable in settings, from small desktop size-ish, to gigantic IMAX size. Or just install your favourite .mp4 or .mkv file and play. The GPU is powerful enough to generate 90 frames per second of 3D for each eye in real time, as you move 6 degrees of freedom, in perfect 1:1 movement sync, with its built in array of built-in movement sensors. It now even has hand-tracking AI so you actually see your hands while in certain VR apps, if you don't want to pick up the controllers.

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In this case, Quest 2 is a "Standalone" (built-in GPU), and only the world's 2nd standalone headset capable of doing all 3 modes (sitdown, standing, plus now the very Holodeck-style RoomScale). RoomScale is now made safe with that new AI photogrammetry-like safety protection in preventing you from bumping into furniture -- never before done until Oculus pulled it off in a standalone WITHOUT needing an external computer/GPU nor clumsy external sensors; turning it to the world's easiest/cheapest Holodeck as of 2021).

Heck, Quest 2 even works with RoomScale up to 25x25 so you actually run and throw bowling balls in the VR bowling game, with perfect non-dizzying 1:1 vertigo sync. If you have enough room to do a running-area, "Premium Bowling" app on Quest 2 is far, far superior than Nintendo Wii bowling. Essentially, you're truly immersed into a Holodeck of a bowling alley, with perfect 1:1 roamaround movement sync, for chrissakes -- you can randomly walk around your bowling area. (Assuming your physical room is big enough to cover the necessary running throw area without activating the Guardian safety). I don't even have that space, but I was able to temporarily use my backyard at night as a bowling alley (Quest 2 fully bult-in self-contained headset sensors doesn't like direct sun but works fine in a 16-watt-LED-lit backyard -- the cameras doesn't need more than a single bright LED bulb to light up your yard). Or just visit your apartment's unused conference room for a couple rounds of bowling. Or whatever -- the Quest 2 travels well.

Anyway...

This now-mostly-automatic RoomScale safety is possible because Quest 2 has four externally-pointing cameras to allow the room to become visible to user until you start your VR app, aids in semi-automatically mapping the clear room floor you can safely roam on, and the cameras also helps alert you when you're too close to the walls/furniture in your room -- the VR app automatically fades to transparent view of the room as you approach the edges of safety.

This shockingly simplifies the Holodecking workflow to simply putting on the headset and following its one-time in-headset VR setup wizard (about 10 minutes). Thereafter, the VR experience is instantaneous (1-second wake-from sleep, or 5-second Oculus-custom Android AOSP Linux bootup on the Quest 2 CPU-GPU) as putting on the headset -- it even AI-recognizes the room you're standing in and automatically loads its memorized layout to prevent you from bumping into the furniture. Also it travel well to visiting family or a different room you've never used the headset in -- if Quest 2 it does not recognize the room, it takes only 10-15 seconds to set up the specific room's "anti-bump-into-furniture" safety protection system (called the "Guardian"), and your VR experience resumes.

None of the "lots of wires, complex setup" shit of a 2016 VR headset, because of "no computer, no wires, no fuss" experience enabled by the incredible tech crammed into one self-contained unit.

VR aren't dizzying roller coasters if you don't want that. You can just run those apps that lets you sit on a beachfront chair to get away from your covid locked-down house. Or an app that puts a virtualized CRT-motion-clarity display on in virtual computer room. All with 1:1 perfect VR-to-realworld movement sync (tilt head sideways, tilt head upsidedown, lean underneath a desk, walk around the computer desk, lean forward to stare closer at virtual computer display). You can even avoid the 360-degree video gimmicks, or the fast-action videogame apps, and stick to only a few apps (like exploring ISS space station or spacewalking just outside ISS floating above planet Earth).

P.S. I helped tip some dominoes on VR innovations, see How Blur Busters Convinced Oculus Rift To Go Low Persistence. Achieving framerate-refreshrate locked low-persistence (CRT motion clarity) turned VR from a toy into a Holodeck.

But I just wanted to mythbust some common reasons for not liking VR ("VR is dizzier than 3D movies" -- no longer true) ("I tried a smartphone inserted into a cardboard headset and it looked bad") ("I got super-dizzy when I tried a demo VR headset at Best Buy with that flying spaceship game"). One can stick to those "Comfort-rated" (Oculus App store has comfort ratings) 1:1 movement-sync apps that pretty much has no headaches at all for majority of population (as long as you're not flicker sensitive at 72Hz, 90Hz or 120Hz, since headsets need to flicker like a CRT to eliminate motion blur). It's fine to handwaved VR off as a gimmick due to prior experiences, but I wanted to give you a heads up of some rapid tech advancements that occured in the last 5 years, and it's why Quest 2 is apparently selling fast like Nintendo Wii's.

About running Remote Desktop on VR: Also, if you use a cable instead of WiFi, it is actually capable of E-Cinema quality video decompression at approximately 500 megabit/sec H.264 or H.EVC compression, so the Remote Desktop is perceptually loss less (artifactless computer desktop). However, I hate the cord, so I am able to do approximately ~100 Mbps (far better than BluRay compression) of 1080p90fps streaming over WiFi 6 between my PC and Quest 2 via Virtual Desktop, when doing my "IMAX-sized CRT monitor emulation" task via Remote Desktop. You do want to make sure your PC has an NVIDIA GPU if you want to blast E-Cinema light compression between PC and Quest 2 for as perceptually-lossless-compression of a Remote Desktop to the point where it feels as if it's a local monitor.

Anyway, it's an awfully lot of tech being mainstreamed into an all-in-one VR headset.

Now, there are other legitimate reasons to not liking VR obviously. That Facebook login (arrrrgh). The default strap comfort (though it's removable and there are 3rd party foam-padded straps that are better). Headset weight, though Quest 2 is surprisingly light (lighter than an iPad Mini despite outperforming the GPU of an iPad Mini). Incompatibility with your eyeglasses prescription (though there's partial solutions; like the custom spacer). Flicker discomfort (but that probably doesn't apply to a CRT enthusiast). Etc.

Honestly, Metaphorically, Google Cardboard is the Atari 2600 video game crash in crapware experience. Quest 2 is the Nintendo Quality Seal of Approval, in quite the quality upgrade over yesteryear VR.

Now, Quest 2 is not all unicorns and rainbows. That goddamned Facebook login. Ya. And obviously it has annoying limitations (e.g. Netflix stuck at 480p due to lack of the necessary HDCP-style copy protection), but that is apparently solved by side loading the Android Netflix app (via SideQuest) -- sideloaded Android apps show up as floating rectangles approximately virtual 100 inches in diameter placed about 8 virtual feet in front of you. They stay stationary in 3D space, so they are above you if you look down, and below you if you look up. Quest 2 is a custom Android AOSP implementation, but as long as your .apk file is not using too many Google-authenticated services, sideloaded Android apps work fine as floating-windows-in-3D-space when run on them. And whatever motion in those Android apps are also nicely CRT motion clarity -- so you can run your favourite Android-based emulators too if you want a computerless method of running retro games on the Quest 2... (installing emulator ROMs directly on the Quest 2 headset). RetroArch Android works well on Quest 2. One problem is the default 72/90Hz refresh rate, so you have to force 60Hz via the SideQuest settings (SideQuest is an application sideloader for Quest 2 -- found at www.sidequestvr.com but it has neat features like forcing a refresh rate), to fix the emulator stutters (framerate=Hz), then it looks beautiful.

There are developments to turn VR into simpler Oakley-style sunshades over the next ten years. But at least now you know why Quest 2 is the current gold standard in an "iPad-easy" VR headset that actually has great non-dizzying graphics as well some of the best CRT motion capability I've ever seen in an LCD (running Virtual Desktop inside VR to view an IMAX-sized CRT tube).

Hopefully this gives you a perspective of a specific VR use-case for you (putting a IMAX-sized CRT tube 10 meters in front of you, even if you live in a tiny apartment), which is precisely why I mentioned VR as a potential suggestion.

This gives you context of why I suggested Quest 2 to you as a CRT enthusaist -- it can just simply merely be the medium/glasses that puts a virtual CRT (that isn't actually there) in front of you that you can run an emulator on more realistically than most desktop LCDs, and/or watch 60fps sports material with better motion handling than any plasma/LCD you've ever seen. Etc.
Head of Blur Busters - BlurBusters.com | TestUFO.com | Follow @BlurBusters on Twitter

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