Widescreen Gaming Forum

Hi guys,

I spent the week at E3 checking out all sorts of neat stuff. A while back on these forums (and others) there was discussion of a curved display from Alienware. It turns out that this display is not actually an Alienware product; they are just marketing it. The Curved Gaming Display is made by Ostendo, and I interviewed their Senior Director, Product Marketing.

Details of the device, which is quite impressive, can be found at SimHQ's E3 Day 2 Technology page; scroll about halfway down.

There's also a brief discussion and some video of me flying DCS: Black Shark on the E3 Day 3 Air Combat page.

I like those curved screens, but thay are as far out of my price range as a F430 is.

The Ostendo product is called the Curved Gaming Display, and it is a 2880x900 ultra-widescreen monitor. The display is driven by four LED-lit DLP rear projectors that achieve a 10000:1 contrast ratio. Each projector outputs a 1024x768 image rotated 90 degrees, and the projectors are aimed to overlap each other at the edges

http://www.simhq.com/_commentary/all_090j.html

How come the numbers dont add up? 3x 1024 isnt 2880 (guess its loosing a large 192pixels to "overlap") and if the input is only 768pixels tall, why is it listed as a x900 high pixel monitor?
I did a quick search for "Ostendo curved", they have been demo'ing the same monitor for literally years now. It also appears the Alienware and NEC monitors are the same model (as this Ostendo, presumably they are the OEM).

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[GTX1080 - 4.48GHz 4690k - planning projector mayhem]

As I said in the article, "Each projector outputs a 1024x768 image rotated 90 degrees, and the projectors are aimed to overlap each other at the edges."

So, without overlapping, the image would be 3072x1024. Remember, each projector is rotated, so the image would be 1024 pixels tall, not 768.

The display is designed to waste 192 horizontal pixels and 124 vertical pixels to achieve 2880 x 900.

I'm curious who the OEM manufacturer is for the NEC, Alienware and this one is. They're crazy to push this thing at $7k price tag....especially with no improvement in resolution and using the same old 3 gun rear projection DLP they've been prototyping forever. It need to use a standard surround-display resolution like 3840x1024 or 5040x1050 so at least everyone has a good idea of what games will work or not. This new resolution is just small and awkward. Several manufacturers will start pushing OLED come Q4 2009, so I expect some seriously interesting possibilities in 2010 for a decent screen that won't cost as much as a used car.

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Brad Hawthorne
Product Manager
Nthusim Pty. Ltd. | www.nthusim.com

Though an odd resolution I can understand why they wouldn't go for 3840x1024 or 5040x1050. Those would target high-end users, the gtx285 and 4890x2 and whatever. Which is all likelyhood is still the minority of the target market. With 2880x900 you get a larger target.

Of course this flys in the face of their ludicrous claim for a 7000$ pricetag.

For that money you can get a th2g/softth setup with 1080p projectors ...

Though an odd resolution I can understand why they wouldn't go for 3840x1024 or 5040x1050. Those would target high-end users, the gtx285 and 4890x2 and whatever. Which is all likelyhood is still the minority of the target market. With 2880x900 you get a larger target.

Of course this flys in the face of their ludicrous claim for a 7000$ pricetag.

For that money you can get a th2g/softth setup with 1080p projectors ...

Yes, but the thing is, all the game surround-screen hacks are all targeted at very specific resolutions: 3840x1024 and 5040x1050. This would mean a long list of games would need a whole new set of patches and hacks be made for this new resolution. That makes it a mess for everyone in the community. If you can afford a $7k rear projection DLP display, you can afford a $140 GTX260 or a $200 GTX275...or even 2 or 3 of them. I seriously don't think they targeted that resolution to be for mainstream/economy cards. Right now the video card is the cheap part of the equation. :wink:

_________________
Brad Hawthorne
Product Manager
Nthusim Pty. Ltd. | www.nthusim.com

Where are you guys seeing that this device will retail for $7,000?

I remember reading about it under the NEC brand some time back with a pricetag in that range, a quick google search turn out an example:
http://www.newlaunches.com/archives/nec_crv43_is_a_curved_monitor_and_costs_8000.php

Intetresting. The Ostendo rep told me there was currently no price. I imagine it's a ballpark figure, but even if they're off by a few thousand the product is clearly not worth it if you have the knowledge to do something similar yourself (i.e. 3 projectors mentioned above).