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LCD Monitor, tinted or clear glass?
chucklepie:
Hello,
Been reading various forum entries and searching the web but most articles regarding tinting seem to be using arcade monitors or CRT.
I'm using an LCD. Should I get tinted or clear glass? I've a feeling greylite 14 is too dark for my needs though so if people recommend it I'll probably just get a lighter smoked grey.
thanks.
mytymaus007:
not sure the darkness of mine but i love it tint all the way. Depends on your lcd how brite it is my lcd is kick ass brite! Where you going to buy it from do they show the difference in shades. I would buy another one the one i have cam with my cabinet which was a custom cab that was gutted.
RandyT:
The problem with most LCD screens is that the brighter you make the display, the more washed out the blacks become. This has the effect of negating a lot of the positive effects of the dark glass.
You'll probably want something with a higher transmission for LCD use.
Mental:
The dark grey does look good with LCD. It hides pretty much everything under it except the actual display image. However, direct sunlight will give you some pretty bad glare and make it very hard to see the screen. This is probably also true in other bright environments like offices, etc.
If light is an issue, get the lighter grey. It still looks very nice. You need to take extra care with your bezel and such, since obviously you can see through it the glass easier, and it will show more flaws, if any.
You also want to factor in how it will fit into your design. For example, you wouldn't want to spend a lot of time and money on finishing some exotic wood and then hide it with the dark grey.
LeedsFan:
It's really personal choice, just try both and go with what you like. For my DK and Defender bartops I used tinted plexi under clear plexi with the bezel sandwiched in between. It looks fine. For my Star Wars though I stuck to clear plexi simply because it's a vector game. The default setting for vector games in Mame are terrible, but with tweaking they can come out to look really nice. Still not as nice as a real vector monitor of course. But that's why I stuck with clear plexi, so that the graphics looked as bright and clear as possible for that particular game.