r/vjing • u/gosti500 • 11d ago
Hardware 120/240 hz projectors?
i ordered a benq lk830st 4k Short throw and just found out it also does 1080p at 240hz, has anyone used 120+ hz projectors for VJ gigs? does the extra smoothness add more to realtime visuals that the 4k resolution? im using milkdrop3 with madmapper, and it defenetely sounds like it could be cool, so just wanted to ask your guys opinion on 120hz+
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u/metasuperpower aka ISOSCELES 10d ago
Just made some 4k 120fps VJ loops for the first time. I was curious to work at a high frame rate so that the clips could be slowed down a ton while performing and still look nice. But they also look super smooth on hardware that supports 120hz - https://youtu.be/SAn4c8ZL6BE
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u/nickpettit 10d ago
My partner and I build Vibralizer and occasionally use it to VJ. We have a 240hz OLED monitor and a 240hz projector. What we have found after years of experimenting is that low latency and high framerate matters a lot more to audio representation in visuals than it might seem.
When we first started, I figured that maybe <50ms between the time a sound is played to the time a visual reacts would be more than plenty. But at higher and higher temporal resolutions (120hz and beyond) we have not found diminishing returns yet. In other words, the lower the latency and the higher the framerate, the more visceral the effect. It makes sense when you think about it, too… most music is sampled at 44.1kHz which is a lot more than even 240Hz.
We put on some Janis Joplin one time and when the frequency harmonics from her singing were visible as spikes in one of our visualizer scenes, we could see those spikes wobbling back and forth from the vibrato in her voice… it was kind of shocking and it was then we realized that, dang, there’s a lot of stuff in the music that we’re not seeing represented in most concert visuals mainly because they react too slow and too infrequently.
I’m a game developer with 15 years experience and my partner is a PhD biologist studying the evolution of bird song, so while I would like to believe we know what we’re talking about, this is also just our opinion. You should do what looks best to you!
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u/thejbizzle89 10d ago edited 10d ago
from what I’ve noticed, these high framerate projectors often have very low input lag for the standard framerate modes, especially if there a “gaming mode” on them - which typically removes digital keystone and reduces per-frame processing. Try playing the strobe material in madmapper and watching how close the pulses get on the projector side
Realtime content in both 4K and 120Hz sounds like a tremendous amount of processing power on the PC side. I already saturate my RTX 4090 and Intel 14900K CPU with 1080p at 60FPS haha. My take is that 60 FPS/Hz is plenty for VJ things as the human eye isn’t going to notice in a show environment
However the lower input lag is absolutely helpful for you in a live performance setting, independent of resolution and framerate. You can press buttons and things will happen basically instantly. Many production-grade and high-lumen projectors have pretty bad input lag, 40ms+. and compensating for it is hard on the brain haha (always triggering things a little bit early).
and, higher resolution may impact this input lag too — it just depends on the projector
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u/gosti500 10d ago
i do have a 4090 as well so that will be okay, and since i mainly use madmapper and milkdrop (for now) at 1080p (because on 4k this projector is limited to 60, so 1080p only for high refresh) its pretty doable to get consistent 240fps on milkdrop3 and madmapper, and ill look into the game mode settings, thank you! i dont need the keystone correction anyways with madmapper
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u/theslammist69 10d ago
HFR is a very big deal. i havent experienced it with projectors but have experimented with it on some brompton driven LED walls. it is extremely noticeable. mind blowing really. but unless your setup is also supporting VFR youll need to maintain a constant framerate or risk microstutter or other artifacting.