World's biggest HD screen? Let's play a game on it

by Alexander Sliwinski on May 12th 2011 3:00AM

What's the first thing you do after installing the world's largest HD screen, a 16,000-square-foot ocular wonder? Play video games on it! The Charlotte Motor Speedway recently celebrated the installation of a big ol' Panasonic TV by inviting NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. to take a couple of virtual laps on the thing in iRacing (not our first choice, but an apt one, we suppose).

The project took 57 workers four months to construct -- totaling more than 11,000 man hours. The structure weighs 332.5 tons and features 158 panels illuminated by 9,000,000 LED lamps. This ginormous 720p display will be pretty much wasted on track replays, standings and stats. So tragic.

Via: Engadget
Source: Charlotte Motor Speedway

Tags: Big-TV, Charlotte-Motor-Speedway, iRacing, Panasonic, TV

Reader Comments (57)

What a waste.

@Rikerbot Your comment is a waste.

People do plenty of things, their will be duds every now and then .. unless you have this ! > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmQ5LsNMXZ4

@MiguelAMX

Most amazing thing I have seen all day. I thank you kind sir.

@oJMan240o And for all you people that think this is a complete waste, then you obviously don't live close enough to Charlotte Motor Speedway to realize how much they use that track for, as such you have no right to comment on its usefulness. There's something going on there at least 2 or 3 times a week every week from April through September. You got concerts and stunts and a whole bunch of stuff going on before during and after the All Star Race, and both of the normal races. You've got car shows and plenty of other type of entertainment that go on around there.

@oJMan240o

Talk about insulting people....

@oJMan240o
http://videogum.com/img/thumbnails/photos/you_mad.jpg

Only 720p? Haha my tv shits on that pos...

@LunarAura

I'm sure your television has 9 million LED lamps

@LunarAura

I'm with you on this.

idk why you got down voted. 720p for something that large is a joke.

@FuriousMailman

Like that even matters.

@Mechazawa Prime

The ability to tell when someone is making a joke is what matters.

http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn57/addaminsain/1261914823840.jpg

@FuriousMailman

I knew it was a joke actually, but it wasn't remotely funny. Sorry.

@Mechazawa Prime

Who called the comedy police?

@FuriousMailman

You called it on yourself when you insinuated I didn't get the joke, ironically enough.

@Mechazawa Prime

Well you certainly appeared to take my comment more seriously than what was required. I was just having a harmless jab at a guy stroking his cybercock.

Lighten up. Or alternatively, keep posting asspained comments.

@FuriousMailman My LED panel actually has over 12 million LEDs.

@FuriousMailman Why you defendin this tv like it was your mom?

Sure both things weigh 332.5 tons and totaled more than 11,000 man hours but even you should be able to tell a slight difference between the two.

@Mechazawa Prime Jokes on you because that post I made was an opener to this masterpiece.

@LunarAura Just came back to hand you two some salve to heal you from that SICK BURN I gave ya!

@FuriousMailman

There you go insulating things again. You must like belittling people or something I guess. I wasn't "asspained" in the slightest. You're the one who came back and had to so vigorously defend your joke, and bitched when I said it wasn't funny. I'm just being honest. So how about you stop trying to make it look like it's me who is being asspained.

@Mechazawa Prime

"bitched when I said it wasn't funny."

And you felt the need to bitch about a comment that had no effect on you whatsoever.

"I was just being honest".

You were also being a jerk.
Don't dish it out if you can't take it.

They should rent it out to people who want to use it for...you know, fun things.

@WiredKnight

Nah, porn'd be too pixelated on this.

Unless it was HD PORN!!! The most glorious thing that has ever been created. Take that, 3DS!

@Apsac D

You obviously haven't watched HD porn yet.

Some things were just not meant to be seen with that much fidelity.

@Apsac D

.....forget porn, I want to play things like Sonic and Street Fighter on this baby!

It's Frank's 2000 inch TV!

The screen cried as it was raped, over and over.

It'd be better if he was actually using the screen to play.

@Dirtyboy Agreed.

What a waste. They could play something like Crysis, or MGS4, or Heavy Rain...

..but no, let's do something that won't take advantage of it.

(If it needed to be some racing game, why not GT5?)

@Asakura H
"Why not GT5?"
1) GT5 doesn't have Charlotte Motor Speedway.
2) Like most PC games, iRacing looks better at max quality (no shadow jaggies).
3) GT5 doesn't support custom paint schemes, and their NASCAR simulation is pretty poor.
4) GT5 is unplayable with a wheel because of the always present deadzone.
5) Dale Jr. is a big iRacing fan (and beta tester).

Looking at the video of this really sucks, Its just a small video in a window. Need to experience this in reality.

720p? Is this 2005!?

@dylanspronck Exactly what I was thinking. My shitty 24" ASUS monitor does 1080p.

I would have thought they'd go the whole hog with a 4k screen.

@dylanspronck You don't see how many more million LEDs, and how much more weight and cost a 1080 billboard would require?

@Design by Adrian

Assuming they want to use one red, one green, and one blue LED for each pixel in a FULL 1080P set, it would take 6,220,800 LED's in total. Clearly this is not how they built this set here, the LEDs are a BACKLIGHT solution. Making this 1080P or even the next level above 4k which will be 7K, would not add any additional weight. For this type of screen to look good, you would have to view it from about a quarter mile away.

But still, if given the chance I'd love to plug in a gaming laptop to this bad boy and play some battlefield 3.

...but will it blend?

For those questioning why iRacing, and not another racing game, or even FPS - it's because iRacing has a very close relationship with NASCAR. NASCAR officially sanctions several of the iRacing online series, and iRacing supplies the simulators for the NASCAR Hall of Fame. Earnhardt Jr plays iRacing a lot (so do quite a lot of drivers, NASCAR and other series) and is involved in the development of the game.

iRacing isn't just a NASCAR Game, it's an incredibly realistic simulation of lots of cars and series. If you're a racing fan, I highly recommend it. Even if you hate NASCAR, you can happily ignore that portion of it anyway.

@DaveEllis
Yeah, Landon Cassil has been using iRacing to prepare for qualifying, as it uses all laser-scanned track.

iRacing is great for once you get tired of public rooms in other racing games. They license drivers by safety, so once you graduate from rookies wreckers and unsafe drivers are the exception instead of the rule.

why...

@starfox6456303

sometimes you see the people's focus and drive when they are doing something stupid.

@Bielzer

If you truly were making a reply, it was very poorly crafted. The way you replied to the wrong comment entirely sounds much more like you're proficient in herping the derp.

Chuck norris has this in his bathroom..closet lol and urm 720p? i know if they poped it to 1080p it would make much of a diffrence... but why not yank it to 1440p or 2114p (think thats it) ?? more the merryier right?

lmao yer lets jsut og and blen something that expensive and that time consuming :L .. but valid point!

Wasting money on a huge, pointless lcd screen is certainly better than wasting money on all the individuals who are currently dying of starvation throughout the world.

So we build the world's largest HDTV, and then go ahead and pump out 4:3 content stretched to fit the 16:9 display. What is this, a sports bar?

The irony of this situation is hilarious. God only knows how much this display cost to build, and not one technician or person thought about the aspect ratio? Idiots.

lol Nascar.

"AM GON DRIVE FORWARD THEN TUYURN LERFT SOMETAMES"

Was iRacing an apt choice? I don't think so. But it was certainly an app'd choice.

@Jinketsu
How many other racing games or sims have Charlotte and actually look good?

Now we need a surround sound system to go along with it.

Certainly there's a way to convince them to throw some Split/Second on there for PR purposes. Just say "they did it in Dallas, you gonna let them show you up!?" You make it happen Joystiq and you have a place to stay in Charlotte. I'll even stock up on Blueberry Muffin Tops.

Haven't been to the speedway in years and this HAS to look more impressive in person.

If they arent playing MvC tourneys on that thing they really need to rethink and prioritize.

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World's biggest HD screen? Let's play a game on it

Reader Comments (57)

Posted: May 12th 2011 3:08AM Rikerbot said

Posted: May 12th 2011 3:26AM MiguelAMX said

Posted: May 12th 2011 3:48AM sonicspike41 said

Posted: May 12th 2011 6:49AM oJMan240o said

Posted: May 12th 2011 6:53AM The Scout said

Posted: May 12th 2011 2:47PM Zacxx201 said

Posted: May 12th 2011 3:09AM LunarAura said

Posted: May 12th 2011 3:35AM FuriousMailman said

Posted: May 12th 2011 4:29AM Mechazawa Prime said

Posted: May 12th 2011 4:47AM FuriousMailman said

Posted: May 12th 2011 5:39AM Mechazawa Prime said

Posted: May 12th 2011 5:54AM FuriousMailman said

Posted: May 12th 2011 6:54AM Mechazawa Prime said

Posted: May 12th 2011 7:46AM FuriousMailman said

Posted: May 12th 2011 8:02AM TheTorch said

Posted: May 12th 2011 10:08AM LunarAura said

Posted: May 12th 2011 10:24AM LunarAura said

Posted: May 12th 2011 5:03PM Mechazawa Prime said

Posted: May 12th 2011 8:06PM FuriousMailman said

Posted: May 12th 2011 3:11AM WiredKnight said

Posted: May 12th 2011 4:26AM Apsac D said

Posted: May 12th 2011 4:41AM onan said

Posted: May 12th 2011 10:45PM WiredKnight said

Posted: May 12th 2011 3:13AM Marshillboy said

Posted: May 12th 2011 3:13AM Shockwave said

Posted: May 12th 2011 3:31AM Dirtyboy said

Posted: May 12th 2011 7:21AM Design by Adrian said

Posted: May 12th 2011 3:34AM Asakura H said

Posted: May 12th 2011 2:21PM Bakkster said

Posted: May 12th 2011 3:34AM MiguelAMX said

Posted: May 12th 2011 3:36AM dylanspronck said

Posted: May 12th 2011 3:54AM sortius said

Posted: May 12th 2011 7:22AM Design by Adrian said

Posted: May 12th 2011 4:51PM aea0a095 said

Posted: May 12th 2011 3:39AM shojx said

Posted: May 12th 2011 3:44AM DaveEllis said

Posted: May 12th 2011 2:25PM Bakkster said

Posted: May 12th 2011 3:48AM starfox6456303 said

Posted: May 12th 2011 4:25AM badaboompowman said

Posted: May 12th 2011 8:04AM FuriousMailman said

Posted: May 12th 2011 5:28AM Baroman said

Posted: May 12th 2011 5:29AM Baroman said

Posted: May 12th 2011 6:05AM Uracat said

Posted: May 12th 2011 6:40AM Ophidios said

Posted: May 12th 2011 6:46AM Banksyliveraa said

Posted: May 12th 2011 7:26AM Jinketsu said

Posted: May 12th 2011 2:27PM Bakkster said

Posted: May 12th 2011 7:51AM Nytemare457 said

Posted: May 12th 2011 8:30AM smidget said

Posted: May 12th 2011 8:37AM Spookimitsu said

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