Which screen size is PERFECT for a Visual Pinball cabinet?  

Great Job on the video Gregg! Nice analysis and good advice. I like the way you did the comparison images, well done. I had so many thoughts while watching this! A few I would like to share: 1) Strict adherence to 1:1 is useful - to a point. So much of this is our perception of the image, and our brains are able to adjust and compensate a great deal to "bring" what we are seeing into reality. Therefore, I wouldn't personally stress too much about the difference between 50" vs. 47" for example. The difference is only a few percent and rather minute. This is especially true I believe for those whose ONLY pinball cab is a virtual cab. If you don't have the real thing to become accustomed to, you don't really perceive the difference. I think the bigger factor is what kind of cab you are using for virtual pinball, what are the physical constraints, and what level of effort are you willing to put in to make the screen fit (woodwork vs. drop-in for example). 2) Screen options change over time and this is a factor to be aware of! When I made the jump to 4K, I bought a 40" monitor which fit my cab very well with a little routing on the sides. There were many options at the time when I first bought it. Some time later, through an act of supreme stupidity, I cracked the screen. When I went to replace it, the minimal 4K screen I could find ANYWHERE was 43"... too big for my cab. Had to buy a 40" screen used. These are becoming more rare as time passes. My point being, you can plan your purchase painstakingly, but at some point you will likely need to replace it and size options do change over time. 3) I hate to say it, but anymore I think this topic is a bit academic for many because clearly the best screen option is a VR headset. I find it almost impossible to go back to a "flat" screen to play pinball after using VR for some time. If you're tight on $$$, put a basic screen in to drive the system and launch your frontend, invest the real money on your VR headset (Quest 3 is a very compelling and relatively affordable option that does Augmented Reality pinball (color passthrough) quite well and can also be used wirelessly via Virtual Desktop rather effectively)

My virtual cabinet is built to vintage widebody dimensions, and uses a Bally Paragon lockdown bar. I'm currently using a 49" 4K screen (running at 2K), but like you I built my cabinet originally around a 47" 1080p screen with a thick bezel (that we had laying around!). I do try to get 1:1 ratios on all the tables.

P.S. What I'm really looking forward to is Pinball FX VR in lime 9 months or so. Im thinking having a physical full size cab would be great for tactile feel and fooling my brain into thinking it was the real thing, especially since ill have the 3D of VR.

FINALLY I see all the display option sizes laid out and compared to each other. The true pros and cons were all nebulas to me until watching this vid. I built around a Asus Rog 48" monitor but never understood the 1:1 ratio and the impact of stretching the width.

1000% if you are looking at updating your Vpin setup, documenting step by step would be awesome. Would be a cool series of videos to watch.

Interesting with the apron you have there. I'm scared that wouldn't work for all games.

Always wanted a cab, but I honestly just don’t feel the need to get one anymore thanks to VR it’s like the choice between a flatscreen 2d pinball cab or literally feeling like you have a real pinball machine in front of you Also I know you like emu vr did you see there’s a pinball machine on there now that you can set vpx on with the back glass display etc, you set it up in the same way as you would set a cab up 😃

Love these discussions about VPX. Very informative.

I have a mini 27 inch custom built. I’m happy as it was s sweet spot between space and still fun for my apt.

I wanna see you upgrading to 4K!!!! Looking forward to the video!!

Nice comparison video. One thing we can use to get some extra "lenght" off the monitor is to mount it on a relative high angle inside the cab. Real playfields are laied more flat than the playfield glass, all depending on the machine. On my real cab, the playfiled glass is roughly 15-16 degrees from horisontal, while the actual playfield is 6-7 degrees, when the machine is leveled. If the monitor is mounted with an angle equal or greater (up to 20 degrees maybe?) than the playfield glass, the vertical distance from standing positionview will be greater. When you then adjust the virtual table angle down, you will have more room show more of the lenght of the table.

If you do live POV edit (F12) and choose "Window" mode, then hit the "Start button" you get the exact POV for the measured playfield dimensions you have set in "Video Prefererences". From there, look at the options to raise/lower the top end and bottom end of the table and you can perfectly fit it on your monitor. I do this always in 3D stereo mode with my red/cyan anachrome aviator glasses on. That gives you the most realistic perspective for your pov setting. I tend to also crop off the apron for better fit considering real tables not being 16:9 ratio

Really interesting stuff. Could you walk us through with the settings POV for 43" or 50" tv??? Theres no much documentation for good practices in settings vp POV's . Thanks for.your video! It was very educational!!

Watching the video over again...and taking Notes! Couple of Questions 1) Did you come to the conclusion that a 48" screen would fit inside a Data East Wide Body Cabinet but is TOO WIDE to fit in a WMS SuperPin (Wide Body) Cabinet? 2) Can you review what a 42" Monitor and 43" Monitor would look like within a WMS SuperPin (Wide Body) Cabinet? * with DE GNR Table (wide body table) * with WMS IJ Table (wide body table) * with WMS TOTAN Table (standard table) Thanks, Scott

I would love to see a Screen Upgrade...to a WMS SuperPin games...and WMS Sys11 games and WMS SYS3-9 games...including 4K.

Excellent topic!

VR Headsets is the only way to go for Virtual pinball 😉or 16:10 flat screen in Desktop & FSS mod.

Thanks so much for this!! Question, you said it matters whether the developers did the perspective right or something like that around the 16:20 mark. I'm just not a VPX guy and never will be: is a full cabinet still worth having to just play Pinball FX and Zaccaria? I have a PinSim with legs, but have been considering upgrading to a full cabinet and a 48" 4k 120 hz display.

I have a widebody (Red Ted roadshow) converted pinball cab. the screen in it fits perfectly when taken out of its case however its a 1080p 46inch screen. I would love to upgrade to a 4k screen but AFAIK no such size exists any more and god knows what i will do when it packs up. I do regret buying it to be honest, i wish i had gotten a smaller custom cab based around standard pinball dimensions..

What is the correct aspect ratio of a real pin

How do you have your vetical screen attached to that table? looks good!

Im looking into this for my playfield. 43 " Neo QLED 4K 144Hz Gaming Smart TV QN90C. 37.8 x 22 x 1.1" / 96 x 55.9 x 2.8 cm (without Stand) Thanks i was always wondering about screen sizes.

*21:9 is still an option...*

What about doing the same that will fit into a widebody (WPC wide body) cab? Considering doing an update as my machine is a decade old also now with a 1080P LCD TV. Id love to go to a 4k setup in it and upgrade the PC also. Looking at this again so if you do research and share the journey id be happy to contribute/share /learn