The ultimate gaming screen
by Vladimir Cole 
{ Dec 31st 2005 at 5:15PM }
We can't tell you where this photo was taken or who is pictured in it, but we can tell you with some certainty that you will probably have to wait 20 years before your own gaming setup reaches parity with this one. The lucky gamer spotlit down in front is playing Need for Speed: Most Wanted (Xbox 360) on a digital projector painting a 35-foot screen with 10k lumens, ultra contrast ratios, and 4096 x 2160 pixel resolution. The screen alone costs more than most of us invested in our gaming displays.
Of course, some readers will point out that 4096 x 2160 pixels isn't technically HD. Normally, that's annoying. In this case, however, we must cope as we can when presented with overwhelming proof of our own graphical inferiority. Plus, sucking your thumb makes it difficult to type.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Nole @ Dec 31st 2005 5:45PM
That's awesome, but why the need for anonymity?
If I had a room like that I'd get it tattooed on my face.
matt t @ Dec 31st 2005 5:47PM
ok so since the 360 doesnt support 4096 x 2160 resolution, its actually 720p upscaled on the projector, right?
please, someone help me out because im confused as hell.
Matt @ Dec 31st 2005 5:57PM
1080i upscaled, probably
Boo Radley @ Dec 31st 2005 5:59PM
IF that's the actual system being run it would be a SONY 4k projector protoype. There's none used in the field as even digital cinema does not run at these levels. I doubt that the image is even upsampled so it's really just 720p anyway. If the person hooking this up knows what they're doing they may have 5.1 sound, but more likely standard stereo. The person is probably blurred because it's some popcorn slinger hooking it up after hours without anyones permission.
ryan @ Dec 31st 2005 5:59PM
thats some big ddr...
imaginw the sizes of the dance pads...
Baby Mario @ Dec 31st 2005 6:08PM
Anyone else think its Gates's mini-theatre in his house?
TRUEPATRIOT @ Dec 31st 2005 6:14PM
it cant be 1080i the 360 cant produce 1080i
vc @ Dec 31st 2005 6:15PM
Yes, it's upscaled.
It's anon because this projector is one of like two dozen in the entire country and the person who has access to it doesn't really want the publicity.
vc @ Dec 31st 2005 6:17PM
Truepatriot: I run 1080i on my 360. Not sure what you mean by that?
Lectoid @ Dec 31st 2005 6:18PM
I bet some manager or theater worker stayed after and hooked his 360 up to those advertisement projectors you see stuff on before the movies now.
Nathan Ziarek @ Dec 31st 2005 6:19PM
I've got a (no where near as nice) projector (benQ 6200) hooked up to my XBox, and while it is great for playing 4 person Halo matches (each screen is about 40" wide), I find it almost too large for playing some games. Too much screen to look over, even when sitting pretty far back.
Now, this is on the original XBox, so it isn't HD, which I imagine would make a pretty big difference.
Regardless, I wouldn't say no if someone was offering.
Dasutin @ Dec 31st 2005 6:34PM
It looks like someone decided to work late at there movie theater. How awesome would it be to play Geometry Wars on that display!
http://www.dasutin.com
Seabass @ Dec 31st 2005 6:43PM
I've done this myself once: a friend from my high school was working a summer job at the IMAX in Myrtle Beach, SC. He was closing one night whn I came down to visit him and since I brought my Xbox w/ me, we asked the manager if we could try the setup. He OK'ed it, so we frantically called our friends that were in the area, grabbed another Xbox, and hooked them up to two of the screens. Fifteen minuter, we had an 8 player Capture the Flag competition on screens three stories tall!!! Damn, those pixels were the size of your head.
Pat @ Dec 31st 2005 6:54PM
good lord.
Joe @ Dec 31st 2005 7:29PM
Nice setup, good for playing ports of XBox1 and PC games!
Borat @ Dec 31st 2005 7:32PM
4096 X 2196 isn't HD, it's super-HD!
Of course, 720p upscaled to that would not look as good as playing it on a native 720p display. Or would it? (I have never seen 720p content upconverted so can anyone tell how it looks?)
Finjitzu @ Dec 31st 2005 8:31PM
It could be Bill Gates. If you watched the special features on Episode 3 it looks like a theater from the Skywalker Ranch.
Vice Lexington @ Dec 31st 2005 8:52PM
That's just a tech demo center that happens to be running a 360. I've been in one just like it when I was taking a tour of a company's complex. Judging by the quality of the image set-up, I'd bet my money that the company deals with display technology, like projectors or something, and this is part of its demo center. *Glances at banner* DLP, maybe?
GoHome @ Dec 31st 2005 10:12PM
20 Years? Doubtful...
I may not OWN a theater, but I can certainly rent one.
And is it me, or is the guy in the pic sitting in the second row? Why so close with such a big screen?
eric @ Dec 31st 2005 10:16PM
My favorite pastime is sneaking into work (off hours of course) with my console and using their projection system.
m2nal @ Dec 31st 2005 10:19PM
i work at one of those "DLP" companies in Dallas(take a wild guess), we have a demo theater just like that setup but that one sure aint ours.
Jeff @ Dec 31st 2005 11:16PM
"Of course, 720p upscaled to that would not look as good as playing it on a native 720p display. Or would it? "
With the right processor, it would look better.
A lot of guys right now run DVD's through their home theater PC's and use ffdshow to process them in various ways and then output them at double the resolution (1440x960). I have seen side-by-side comparisons; the upconverted ones *do* look better.
Obviously, you can't get any more detail than what's actually there. But what you can do is basically smooth and sharpen at the same time - with more resolution you have more "headroom" to anti-alias, and the processor can then sharpen so that the result looks both sharper and smoother than the original.
Doing all this processing in real-time requires a LOT of horsepower, which is why so many scalers in current TV's and DVD players suck so bad. The guys who do this stuff on HTPC's right now are running 3+ ghz machines, and you're not even talking very high resolutions there.
But eventually we'll get to a point when yes, it'll be viable to take a 1080i signal and upconvert it to "2160p" or whatever you want and it'll come out looking better than the original, with no detail lost and a smoother picture that appears just as sharp.
Zenigata8o8 @ Jan 1st 2006 12:39AM
that is so awesome!!
that is gonna be me with my friends come february 17th 2006
ill be at a loews in nyc playin some mario kart 4 player action on the big screen !!
Todd @ Jan 1st 2006 2:06AM
"It's anon because this projector is one of like two dozen in the entire country and the person who has access to it doesn't really want the publicity."
Actually there are around 140 digital cinemas in the US alone with more being added all the time. Any kid with access to the projection booth could have hooked the 360 up to a projector long enough for a photo. At least he was smart enough to not lose his job over it.
vc @ Jan 1st 2006 3:38AM
Todd -- what you say is true. But this projector is special. It's not your typical digital projector.
rico @ Jan 1st 2006 6:28AM
It must be bill gates house
cyberdog @ Jan 1st 2006 9:08AM
Lol its not as if this guy is bill gates - hes just the cleaner at the local cinema who has plugged his xbox into the projector and had a bit of a laugh
Hence the anonymity ;)
illspirit @ Jan 1st 2006 10:31AM
Been there, done that, with a PC in a cinema. Not quite that high a resolution, but still quite amazing. Pics here, if anyone's interested:
http://gtasanandreas.net/news/single.php?id=1421
Zo? @ Jan 1st 2006 12:59PM
It's not some room. Looks like a movie theatre to me. And if I must say, it looks quite like the one at The Alamo in Bucksport, Maine... where they'll let you hook up game machines before showings start if you like.
We had a blast a few years ago playing Super Smash Bros. Melee and Gran Turismo 3 on that screen.
Milton Bradley @ Jan 1st 2006 1:52PM
Definately a movie theatre like everyone has stated.
Heck, I can rent a theatre room at my local movie theatre for conference meetings, private screening, birthday party or like this, massive gaming party.
Although(and very obvious), the price isn't cheap.
davediego @ Jan 1st 2006 8:14PM
Actually I'm pretty sure there is only 1 of these screens in the US right now (at least there was when I saw it october at my university ;)
Todd @ Jan 2nd 2006 1:01AM
Yea, I understand that this person is claiming that they are using a special projector that only started shipping last October and costs about 100 grand, but I don't see any proof that this is what they are using. Unless this person has a picture of his 360 hooked up to the projector then we can't say any of these claims are true. I could produce a picture just like that at my local cinema easily, then make just as grand of a claim. A lot of people want to believe anything that they see in emails and on the internet without taking it with a grain of salt. That's the reason tons of ludicrous urban legends are forwarded from person to person all the time without any attempt to see if it is true.
Ree @ Jan 3rd 2006 9:09AM
It's stupid letting the 360 upscale to 1080i and then upscale to the projectors native resolution, so I hope he has set the 360 to output 720p.
If the projectors native resolution would be 1280x720 the image quality would be better, although with this resolution I don't suppose you would be able to tell the difference.. ;)
He might be sitting that close to the screen because hes still calibrating the projector..?
Oh, and NFS:MW exists for PC, why not use a PC with one of those 360-controller-replicas and get much higher resolution? (He does seem to have the money..)
Swoopie @ Jan 4th 2006 10:23PM
Not Bills house. But it is a Famous place. :)