The T-con board doesn't report anything to the driver board with the realtek chip on it. LVDS is simply a 1 way interface. You pull up the spec sheet for a similar T-con board as is being used, but it's missing the XR-1 revision addition, so its clearly not the exact same. It's pretty common to adapt an existing design for a slightly different use case. In this case though, 1 thing is sure. It's not going to drive more pixels with the same board layout and same amount of traces. I think you can safely conclude that the panel it's driving is actually a 1024x768 panel. You can verify this easily by showing some test paterns that have that resolution and checking the output spacing on the panel. Uneven scaling will show clear abnormalities.
you are correct. again this was all done very quick and just.. at the spur. but you are right the tcon just lights up and powers the panel.. but yes the tcon is meant for equal or less.. and this board is made for 1366x768. so any panel below it is perfect.. to drive the rows of pixels. But the driver board.. is what is telling the TCON what to display on the panel and it can be fed 1600x1200 its just not going to do it evenly. SO yes. you are 100 percent correct.
Pretty sure the realtek chip on the driver board is doing the actual scaling. T-Con is usually just a simple demuxer that splits the pixel datastream into row/column driver values.@@TheMidGeekCrisis
Is it possible that being they are keeping the contrast ratio at 1000:1 they are able to drive more pixels? I found this board on the Hisense 32A5600 which is a 1366 x 768 display but at 4000:1 contrast ratio which is more than the TCON is rated for.
Based on close-up photographs of the screen that someone posted on Facebook, it's looking like the native screen resolution is 1280x960, which is still a very useful 4:3 resolution.
@@qotile yeah. That’s not bad. But it’s not what is advertised. That’s the point I think. Yeah. Definitely not bad. But that’s not what is being driven at the moment.
Thanks for this video! I bought two panels as well, and immediately noticed the same thing. I told Unico on July 24 that I believe the native resolution of the panel is 1024x768.
Awesome. Yeah we need to hold them accountable. Because they really are selling it as one thing and we get another. Also the weirdness of the “paper insert” and it saying one res and the website saying another is strange. Because the CGA res on there is 960p and that might be the res. But unsure. 🫤 No identifying marks at on on the inside of the panel at all.
Oh boy 😬 I would love to know what magical firmware can change the physical panel to what was advertised 😳 Thank you so much for making this video. Your research is much appreciate and a great service for the community.
I seriously want this to work. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe this Tcon can do that. But folks with better equipment and testing setups should look into this. Because being sold a panel that is 768 at the price.. and told its 16x12 is bait and switch.
Great analysis, seems they may have taken a few shortcuts to get this one out the door. Not sure if that's a regular thing in this industry. Probably fine for what they intended.
Thank you for confirming pretty much all problems I had with this screen. What maddens me in this story is not the screen itself. The screen is absolutely fine on 1280x960 in VGA since the screen is crisp and clean with very little ghosting (unlike HDMI). MY arcade game needs doesn't need a bigger resolution than this anyway. What bothers me is the lack of internal communication between sales and tech, the lack of QA testing, or the blatant lies and dishonesty from Unico (hard to tell which one yet). For one, I WISH they would stop to constantly use their annoying argument of "but this was a replacement for Arcades CRT TVs". Diminishing your own product value is a very bad strategy for... well... everything regarding sales. In what world a company that dictate the correct usage of their product to justify weird design is a good sales strategy? They also used A LOT of information and content that came from their users to promote their product, which was another huge mistake. The 1600x1200 was indeed coming from user tests, which they then included in their website as a selling point, which was misleading. They even used that test resolution to justify that the booklet specs are wrong and was from test models to whomever pointed out the specs mismatch, but the booklet info were right all along and the documented resolution IS the max resolution in 4:3. QA Testing is the company's responsibility, not their fans. I don't know what kind of feedback they expected. It was a new product for a very specific need (the only 26 inch square LCD screen affordable to public) targeted at a marginal user base, which will undoubtfully be users that really looks for quality screen for their arcade experience. It would have required a minimum of transparency and product QA that is taken more seriously before selling those. Selling something that says it has specs, you pay for those specs, but it doesn't deliver and there's specs mismatch between the website and the instruction sheet is a whole other topic I don't need to dig in to say how wrong this is.
This. You seem to have run into all the same conclusions I did. And you are right, their “support” seems to not know anything that their “engineers” are doing.
What do you think about their nova blast candy cabinet that's coming out? Do you think they'll have the monitor situation sorted out by then? I'm personally looking to run a PC with that thing if it actually is a decent product.
Long Story Short. This monitor is a 1024x768 XGA display instead of a 1600x1200 as advertised. I honestly think unless you are looking for a drop in lcd panel for an arcade cab, most people would be better off buying a 32" widescreen monitor. Same screen real estate playing 4x3 content for less money. I just want to know how a retrotink 5x performs on this with it's crt filters and such.
Problem with that is that 32" 16:9 monitors don't fit in most arcade cabinets. They're too wide. The only real option for that size is to get a 42" LG OLED and put it in a cabinet in portrait mode, but that might only work for computers/software emulators and not real arcade hardware. The response time on the Unico is garbage, too, and it's not a variable refresh display so it'd be useless as a computer emulator monitor.
Man, I’ve recommended this panel a couple of times just by the videos shown of it in action, and the specs provided on their site. What a slap in the face, and a fool I been made into 🤦♂️
homie, I understand the message your delivering in this video. but assuming you didn't run it through a pro line doubler, how's the built-in upscale lag? i was hoping you'd mention it.
Well, I took a chance and bought one, and if you plug it in with an hdmi to vga cable, you get 4:3 resolutions in windows that fill the screen and don’t look terrible. I was able to set it to 1280x960 using VGA. It looks terrible for windows, but that’s not why you buy this monitor anyway, if you are emulating old 4:3 content that was low res to begin with on a PC this is gonna look great on the VGA input. Mame with bgfx scan line filters looks very good on it. And windows desktop… is functional if you need it. It does look awful, as expected, as this is definitely not showing 1600x1200. But it works. Overall, this thing is terrible considering the price. But it’s the only 4:3 display over 20 inches out there, so if you want a large 4:3 display, this can at least be functional, this is pretty much it.
I have four of these for arcade games. They do WORK for 15khz games, but there are issues, as you noted. The aspect ratio is actually 5:4 on screen, but that's a hell of a lot better than stretching 4:3 content to 16:9. Mounting the thing is also significantly more difficult than it should be given the layout of the mount points. The biggest problem I've run into is that the brightness is maxed out from the factory and controls do stone NOTHING. Any bright colors are just a washed out mess. Don't get me started on the idiotic 5 pin connection China thinks literally every JAMMA cabinet in the US uses (which is none of them). The scary part about everything involved here: This is STILL the best option for a lot of cabinets. I mean what's worse, a roughly correct size/shape LCD that's over bright and requires some work on the operator end or a CRT with electron guns just about dead?
100% agree. In the FB thread I asked if they could partial refund as.. many of us (and them) priced this at that price because of specs. But now you have a panel that is super low resolution of the price and they said they won’t. Which is super troubling and disappointing to charge this much for a 1024x768 LCD. No matter the price.
@@beefquiche they offered a full refund. Which I could take. No doubt. But the issue here is, this panel is a unique size. You bought it for a specific application. The 16x12 is a selling point and a bonus. But you don’t have another option yet. So either you return it, or use the expensive 1024x768 panel. 😑 This panel should be 100 bucks cheaper
@@TheMidGeekCrisis There's really nothing standout about it, including its size, because it's also a laggy/slow response time screen. You're better off with a modern 32" VRR display or a 42" LG OLED in portrait mode if you want to try fitting it in a cabinet. The Unico is basically a display for no one. It's bad at everything.
@@TheMidGeekCrisis yep, false advertising. there's no way the biz owner was unaware of the resolution. even if his supplier "surprised" him with a lesser panel, he should have informed his customers before shipping and asked them if they a) still wanted it for a discount, or b) wanted a full refund
So question: does this behave reasonably in windows if you tell it 1024x768 over hdmi? The price for what it is sucks. 1024x768 in 2023 sucks. 1024x768 especially sucks on a 26” panel. But, the elephant in the room is that monitor manufacturers all suck and this is really the only thing bigger than 20” that is 4:3, and there’s not even anything that is 16:10 between 24 and 30 inches. So suck as it is, if it at least works as a 1024x768 panel in windows, I might grimace and buy one anyway.
people have overcome the resolution issues in windows, mr fpga, and raspberry pi by either inserting a line of code, or tweaking the graphics settings for their gpu (not windows). What's frustrating is arcade collectors, enthusiasts, and operators have been PRAYING for a large, drop in 4:3 lcd replacement for the weakest point of every arcade machine, and the bifocal wearing crt diehards and puritans that constantly shout FPS, input lag, response time, because they suck at gaming, are going to endanger the potential that was finally delivered. for $299, dont expect a thousand dollar monitor experience like the LG dual up.
I’m always willing to give a company the benefit, especially if they brought out a product that no one else seems to be bothered with. 4:3 panel this size is needed in the community. Just sucks they couldn’t do better.
Игры
Thanks for all your work and research on this Joe! It's pretty obvious what they are selling us isn't capable of what they claim.
Damn. This sucks. I was really gonna grab one.. oof. Saved me money thanks dude.
The T-con board doesn't report anything to the driver board with the realtek chip on it. LVDS is simply a 1 way interface. You pull up the spec sheet for a similar T-con board as is being used, but it's missing the XR-1 revision addition, so its clearly not the exact same. It's pretty common to adapt an existing design for a slightly different use case. In this case though, 1 thing is sure. It's not going to drive more pixels with the same board layout and same amount of traces. I think you can safely conclude that the panel it's driving is actually a 1024x768 panel. You can verify this easily by showing some test paterns that have that resolution and checking the output spacing on the panel. Uneven scaling will show clear abnormalities.
you are correct. again this was all done very quick and just.. at the spur. but you are right the tcon just lights up and powers the panel.. but yes the tcon is meant for equal or less.. and this board is made for 1366x768. so any panel below it is perfect.. to drive the rows of pixels. But the driver board.. is what is telling the TCON what to display on the panel and it can be fed 1600x1200 its just not going to do it evenly. SO yes. you are 100 percent correct.
Pretty sure the realtek chip on the driver board is doing the actual scaling. T-Con is usually just a simple demuxer that splits the pixel datastream into row/column driver values.@@TheMidGeekCrisis
Is it possible that being they are keeping the contrast ratio at 1000:1 they are able to drive more pixels? I found this board on the Hisense 32A5600 which is a 1366 x 768 display but at 4000:1 contrast ratio which is more than the TCON is rated for.
Based on close-up photographs of the screen that someone posted on Facebook, it's looking like the native screen resolution is 1280x960, which is still a very useful 4:3 resolution.
@@qotile yeah. That’s not bad. But it’s not what is advertised. That’s the point I think. Yeah. Definitely not bad. But that’s not what is being driven at the moment.
Thanks for this video! I bought two panels as well, and immediately noticed the same thing. I told Unico on July 24 that I believe the native resolution of the panel is 1024x768.
Awesome. Yeah we need to hold them accountable. Because they really are selling it as one thing and we get another.
Also the weirdness of the “paper insert” and it saying one res and the website saying another is strange. Because the CGA res on there is 960p and that might be the res. But unsure. 🫤
No identifying marks at on on the inside of the panel at all.
Oh boy 😬 I would love to know what magical firmware can change the physical panel to what was advertised 😳 Thank you so much for making this video. Your research is much appreciate and a great service for the community.
I seriously want this to work. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe this Tcon can do that. But folks with better equipment and testing setups should look into this. Because being sold a panel that is 768 at the price.. and told its 16x12 is bait and switch.
Thank you!! I was going nuts over why it didn’t look right to me.
Glad I could help!
Great analysis, seems they may have taken a few shortcuts to get this one out the door. Not sure if that's a regular thing in this industry. Probably fine for what they intended.
Thank you for confirming pretty much all problems I had with this screen. What maddens me in this story is not the screen itself. The screen is absolutely fine on 1280x960 in VGA since the screen is crisp and clean with very little ghosting (unlike HDMI). MY arcade game needs doesn't need a bigger resolution than this anyway.
What bothers me is the lack of internal communication between sales and tech, the lack of QA testing, or the blatant lies and dishonesty from Unico (hard to tell which one yet). For one, I WISH they would stop to constantly use their annoying argument of "but this was a replacement for Arcades CRT TVs". Diminishing your own product value is a very bad strategy for... well... everything regarding sales. In what world a company that dictate the correct usage of their product to justify weird design is a good sales strategy?
They also used A LOT of information and content that came from their users to promote their product, which was another huge mistake. The 1600x1200 was indeed coming from user tests, which they then included in their website as a selling point, which was misleading. They even used that test resolution to justify that the booklet specs are wrong and was from test models to whomever pointed out the specs mismatch, but the booklet info were right all along and the documented resolution IS the max resolution in 4:3. QA Testing is the company's responsibility, not their fans.
I don't know what kind of feedback they expected. It was a new product for a very specific need (the only 26 inch square LCD screen affordable to public) targeted at a marginal user base, which will undoubtfully be users that really looks for quality screen for their arcade experience. It would have required a minimum of transparency and product QA that is taken more seriously before selling those.
Selling something that says it has specs, you pay for those specs, but it doesn't deliver and there's specs mismatch between the website and the instruction sheet is a whole other topic I don't need to dig in to say how wrong this is.
This. You seem to have run into all the same conclusions I did.
And you are right, their “support” seems to not know anything that their “engineers” are doing.
What do you think about their nova blast candy cabinet that's coming out? Do you think they'll have the monitor situation sorted out by then? I'm personally looking to run a PC with that thing if it actually is a decent product.
Long Story Short. This monitor is a 1024x768 XGA display instead of a 1600x1200 as advertised. I honestly think unless you are looking for a drop in lcd panel for an arcade cab, most people would be better off buying a 32" widescreen monitor. Same screen real estate playing 4x3 content for less money. I just want to know how a retrotink 5x performs on this with it's crt filters and such.
Problem with that is that 32" 16:9 monitors don't fit in most arcade cabinets. They're too wide.
The only real option for that size is to get a 42" LG OLED and put it in a cabinet in portrait mode, but that might only work for computers/software emulators and not real arcade hardware.
The response time on the Unico is garbage, too, and it's not a variable refresh display so it'd be useless as a computer emulator monitor.
Man, I’ve recommended this panel a couple of times just by the videos shown of it in action, and the specs provided on their site. What a slap in the face, and a fool I been made into 🤦♂️
homie, I understand the message your delivering in this video. but assuming you didn't run it through a pro line doubler, how's the built-in upscale lag? i was hoping you'd mention it.
Thank you for the video. I was considering the ULM26, but if it's not providing the advertised resolution, it's probably not worth it. Disappointing.
8 months later have they actually patched the firmware?
What are the alternatives? I need to replace my 27" CRTs at some point. At least they're offering something to the community.
It’s definitely good enough, just specs they’re advertising for it is wrong/misleading
Well, I took a chance and bought one, and if you plug it in with an hdmi to vga cable, you get 4:3 resolutions in windows that fill the screen and don’t look terrible. I was able to set it to 1280x960 using VGA. It looks terrible for windows, but that’s not why you buy this monitor anyway, if you are emulating old 4:3 content that was low res to begin with on a PC this is gonna look great on the VGA input. Mame with bgfx scan line filters looks very good on it. And windows desktop… is functional if you need it. It does look awful, as expected, as this is definitely not showing 1600x1200. But it works.
Overall, this thing is terrible considering the price. But it’s the only 4:3 display over 20 inches out there, so if you want a large 4:3 display, this can at least be functional, this is pretty much it.
I have four of these for arcade games. They do WORK for 15khz games, but there are issues, as you noted. The aspect ratio is actually 5:4 on screen, but that's a hell of a lot better than stretching 4:3 content to 16:9. Mounting the thing is also significantly more difficult than it should be given the layout of the mount points. The biggest problem I've run into is that the brightness is maxed out from the factory and controls do stone NOTHING. Any bright colors are just a washed out mess.
Don't get me started on the idiotic 5 pin connection China thinks literally every JAMMA cabinet in the US uses (which is none of them).
The scary part about everything involved here: This is STILL the best option for a lot of cabinets. I mean what's worse, a roughly correct size/shape LCD that's over bright and requires some work on the operator end or a CRT with electron guns just about dead?
Appreciate the video. I love this panel, but I feel deceived by what they've said and how they reacted.
100% agree. In the FB thread I asked if they could partial refund as.. many of us (and them) priced this at that price because of specs. But now you have a panel that is super low resolution of the price and they said they won’t. Which is super troubling and disappointing to charge this much for a 1024x768 LCD. No matter the price.
@@TheMidGeekCrisis wow no refunds? the better business bureau should help you there as that's blatant false advertising
@@beefquiche they offered a full refund. Which I could take. No doubt. But the issue here is, this panel is a unique size. You bought it for a specific application. The 16x12 is a selling point and a bonus. But you don’t have another option yet. So either you return it, or use the expensive 1024x768 panel. 😑
This panel should be 100 bucks cheaper
@@TheMidGeekCrisis There's really nothing standout about it, including its size, because it's also a laggy/slow response time screen. You're better off with a modern 32" VRR display or a 42" LG OLED in portrait mode if you want to try fitting it in a cabinet. The Unico is basically a display for no one. It's bad at everything.
@@TheMidGeekCrisis yep, false advertising. there's no way the biz owner was unaware of the resolution.
even if his supplier "surprised" him with a lesser panel, he should have informed his customers before shipping and asked them if they a) still wanted it for a discount, or b) wanted a full refund
So question: does this behave reasonably in windows if you tell it 1024x768 over hdmi? The price for what it is sucks. 1024x768 in 2023 sucks. 1024x768 especially sucks on a 26” panel. But, the elephant in the room is that monitor manufacturers all suck and this is really the only thing bigger than 20” that is 4:3, and there’s not even anything that is 16:10 between 24 and 30 inches. So suck as it is, if it at least works as a 1024x768 panel in windows, I might grimace and buy one anyway.
people have overcome the resolution issues in windows, mr fpga, and raspberry pi by either inserting a line of code, or tweaking the graphics settings for their gpu (not windows).
What's frustrating is arcade collectors, enthusiasts, and operators have been PRAYING for a large, drop in 4:3 lcd replacement for the weakest point of every arcade machine, and the bifocal wearing crt diehards and puritans that constantly shout FPS, input lag, response time, because they suck at gaming, are going to endanger the potential that was finally delivered.
for $299, dont expect a thousand dollar monitor experience like the LG dual up.
Full refunds for every single customer. Better business bureau. Just out of curiosity - How did you get to that resolution screen in MAME?
🙄
@@Gorilla_Jones 🍌
wow great video...
Unico only makes trash. They'll never change. Stop giving them money.
I’m always willing to give a company the benefit, especially if they brought out a product that no one else seems to be bothered with.
4:3 panel this size is needed in the community. Just sucks they couldn’t do better.