piLagTeseterPRO 2.5 released

A new version of the piLagTesterPRO is out. The big change is that the raw data that you use to make pretty plots can now be exported to excel, etc. The native format for use with octave/matlab is still included, but now takes up less space than it did before, so you could say that all aspects of data export have been improved.


A bug fix for the autoTest script is also included, and the quickstart documentation (printed when you first turn on the pi) has been improved. Otherwise not much has changed - the code is getting mature and there's not a lot left to improve.

Finally, for the pi4, a new firmware is used that works better with 480i. My standard update script can't apply new firmware's so you'll have to download a whole new image. 

Download link and instructions here.




Comments

Post a Comment

Email me

Name

Email *

Message *

Popular posts from this blog

Panasonic TH-42PX75U Plasma TV review: input lag and upscaling tested using the piLagTesterPRO

Image
This 720p Plasma TV from 2008 is very unique and quite nice in many ways. It used to retail for around $1300. If you can find one it's a great choice for retro gaming.  Overview/Image quality This is a plasma TV, which generally means at least the following: nearly infinite viewing angles, and jaw dropping weight. That's true in this case as well. This 42" model weights 75lbs.  At native resolution (720p) this TV crops 20 pixels off the top/bottom and 30 off the sides. 480p/i crops 20 pixels off all sides. Both modes have aliasing, too, though it's not too bad. There's really no excuse for aliasing on a TV this big: you know the panel was designed specifically to be a tv. Why not hit 720p exactly? And as for 480p/i, they could have at least offered a zoomed out mode with black borders and 1:1 pixel mapping. But no such luck. There are zoom/stretch options to crop even more, but none that crop less. While the native resolution supposedly is 1366 x 768 it does accept
Read more

piLagTester PRO order page

Image
The piLagTesterPRO measures your monitor's input lag and response time. It is a cheap, full featured add-on to the Raspberry Pi; I provide the sensor and required software, you provide the Pi (a $5 pi Zero is more than sufficient). Although it has a DIY aesthetic, it is quite functional and in fact offers quite a lot more features than the commercial alternatives (Leo Bodnar and the Time Sleuth), and has been tested with over 40 TVs, including 4k models .  Here's what it looks like in action: The pi draws a black background, and then roughly once a second displays a set of target rectangles (top/middle/bottom). You place the sensor over the desired target, and the piLagTester measures the monitor's response starting from the moment the frame of video data is sent over the Pi's HDMI port. This is plotted in the graph, which is sideways for space reasons. The lag tester measures two thresholds. In red it shows how long it takes for the monitor to start displaying t
Read more

A $5 TV Input Lag tester using a Raspberry Pi Zero

Image
High speed monitors are all the rage now, with quoted response times  of 1-4ms. But does that mean that 1-4ms after you make an input (say, jump) you will see that on your screen? No. Often a much bigger issue is  Input lag. This is   the delay between your computer / game console sending a video frame to your display and your display starting to actually show it, and it ranges from 4ms to 80ms. The problem with measuring input lag is that you can't, at least with everyday hardware. The solution for hardware review sites is to purchase dedicated lag testers such as the leo bodnar tester,  timesleuth (both ~$100), or the pi lag tester pro ($40) or use homegrown methods utilizing an oscilloscope ("free" if you already own a $400+ oscilloscope and perhaps a $50k+ engineering degree). Here I introduce a $5 solution (or, "free" if you own the required equipment). What's required: A Raspberry Pi Zero ($5 + S&H from several sources). This single board c
Read more