empeg retro look

Went to http://steve.nac.net/empeg/ and downloaded the empeg demo clip.

Quite impressive. First time I could see "live" (sort of) what handling the empeg is like.

When I saw the empeg's display though with all the different visuals it looked like Winamp plug-ins played on an 80's green-on-black CRT. Weird.

I don't know whether this is cool or a turn-off for me.

And then the titles font: reminded me of one of those British 80's home-computers. Acorn? I couldn't tell, only had a sinclair zx81 back then and it had a different screen design. Oh well, those were the days...

Anyone else can share this "feeling" or am I seeing things? I made sure I downloaded the best-quality video clip and everything comes out quite clear.

Perhaps different color face plates help eliminate that retro look. But then, they had amber CRT's back then too.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to downplay the empeg player and its capabilities - they stand unrefuted -, but to see this cool product with such an ancient screen design is kind of awkward.

Georg
(Just thinking out loud)

VFD is not an ancient screen design. It is used very widely in audio equipment, car dashboards, head units, gaming machines, and other applications.

Speaking for myself, I love the empeg display. It pisses over any LCD technology I've seen on a head unit, partly because of the low persistence and fast refresh and partly because of the "feel" of it. The only thing I've seen which is better is OEL, but that has distinct disadvantages such as a poor MTBF.

As for the visuals - I've sat watching them for hours while chilling out with some excellent psychadelic trance. I can't say the same about any WinAmp visual - they're too jerky and under reactive.

The font.. is about as good as it gets in 8x7 pixels. Larger fonts are used in other parts of the player. In any case the entire UI is due a major overhaul for version 3.0 around the end of the year.

Rob

It's not so much "retro" as it is "low rez". The display only has 128x32 pixels, with only three shades of color.

There's only just so much you can do with that few pixels. Although I would love to take a stab at redesigning the font just for fun, the current font is very readable, which is what they were going for.

___________
Tony Fabris

I could write some font-compiler to replace the default font-files. Let me know if there is interest...

Frank van Gestel

I was interested in doing that when I first got the empeg Mk1 over two years ago. No one seemed to know how to edit the default font files at that time.

I mean, YES there is interest.

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Tony Fabris

Greetings!

Hold on - was that a pre-annoucement for a new and improved 3.0 version for the end of the year???

Paul G.
SN# 090000587 (96GB Smoke)

I didn't hear anything.. must have been the wind.

Hmm.. So there may or may not be a 3.0 version within the next 3 months or so... Should I wait for this or not? I'm still waiting for the tuners to become available before I place my order. Maybe the v3.0 will be out by then anyway!

I think Rob meant version 3 of the software, not version 3 of the hardware (it wouldn't be version 3 of the hardware anyway).

There is no reason to delay if you are thinking of buying, the UI is fully upgradable to new versions.

__
Unit serial number 47 (was 330 in the queue)...

These are software updates - the platform is fully software upgradable.

Rob

They might have 3.0 out by the end of the year he says. Where is 2.0?

Proud Owner of MK2 080000558 - 18gb Blue

And dont forget the 1.1 version, even more elusive than big foot.

-Doug
Mk2-12G Blue (Now A/R Green)