• Light/Dark
  • Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
  • We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.

PSA: Nintendo still hasn't given us an option to turn off the disgusting borders on any of the NSO apps

What do you love most about the NSO borders?

  • Their distracting allure

    Votes: 15 5.2%

  • Their ugly gradient aesthetic

    Votes: 44 15.2%

  • They remind me that mediocrity can be rewarded with financial gain

    Votes: 68 23.5%

  • Screen burn-in

    Votes: 115 39.8%

  • The lack of options for any design other than the fucking gradient

    Votes: 47 16.3%
  • Total voters
    289
Xwing

Xwing

This guy are sick of the unshakeable slayer
Member
Nov 11, 2017
9,924
Xwing said:
It'd be wild if Switch just had a device that let you easily display the video feed somewhere else, like another screen of your choosing, some kind of docking system.

(I agree that forcing the icon to constantly display in the corner is dumb as hell, lmao)
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Upon reflection, this was perhaps too much of a smartass reply, but to be fair, the OP was being rather hyperbolic.

Honestly, there's no 100% perfect solution for playing 4:3 aspect ratio on OLED screens. True black bars would allow the pixels on the borders to rest, but then you're wearing out the OLEDs in the middle of your screen faster. Gray bars without a gradient is probably the "best" solution, but even then, you might still be able to notice burn in in certain circumstances. Your best bet, other than the extreme option of playing on a 4:3 CRT monitor, is to play 4:3 games on a low latency LCD screen.
 
Lant_War

Lant_War

Classic Anus Game
Banned
Jul 14, 2018
23,601
I never like ANYTHING in the borders so yeah it's been a big gripe for me with the NSO app.
 
evilgenius

evilgenius

Member
Dec 12, 2020
390
Are you serious with this burn in thing? I bought a c3 a week ago and I'm playing Paper Mario should I stop play it on tv?
 

Atom

Member
Jul 25, 2021
11,596
I will never touch NSO for this reason, that and the fact you can't buy any games. Nintendo just doesn't believe in options at this point. Heck look at their options menu for TotK. The fact that they made an OLED switch and have these fucking targets for burn in is insane.

Honestly as always you're better off just using fan emulators. They give a better service than the official provider. Heck look at Sony fucking up every PS classic with PS2 MIA, or Xenia vs. Xbox's limited (albeit laudable) BC too.
 
Xwing

Xwing

This guy are sick of the unshakeable slayer
Member
Nov 11, 2017
9,924
Atom said:
I will never touch NSO for this reason, that and the fact you can't buy any games. Nintendo just doesn't believe in options at this point. Heck look at their options menu for TotK. The fact that they made an OLED switch and have these fucking targets for burn in is insane.

Honestly as always you're better off just using fan emulators. They give a better service than the official provider. Heck look at Sony fucking up every PS classic with PS2 MIA, or Xenia vs. Xbox's limited (albeit laudable) BC too.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I'm all for preservation and agree that the companies themselves cannot be trusted to do an adequate job, but Xbox has done leagues better than PS and Nintendo have. Xbox's BC is limited almost entirely by copyright law, not their ambition.
 
MissingString

MissingString

Member
Oct 28, 2017
228
I just don't care about first party offerings for retro games anymore. The best work when it comes to preservation is being done by fans as always.

evilgenius said:
Are you serious with this burn in thing? I bought a c3 a week ago and I'm playing Paper Mario should I stop play it on tv?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

It's over stated but yes, there's burn in risk on any OLED TV when viewing a static image. If you vary your content enough, don't leave the image on screen for extend periods of time and let your TV do its regular maintenance the risk will be minimal.

Still, it shouldn't be a risk you have to take at all. Plus it's just ugly and distracting.
 
JSRF

JSRF

"This guy are sick"
Member
Aug 23, 2023
1,136
New002 said:
Also kind of this, assuming OP is referencing OLED sets. Black bars will cause uneven wear on the panel since those pixels are all "off." Not sure how it is on more modern displays but on my old C6 it's very noticeable when I jump from say 4:3 to widescreen, or either to full screen content. You can see a hard line where the black bars were and any imagery in said areas is a slightly different... saturation I guess.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Yeah, if there were no borders you'd be more likely to get reverse burn in where the content on the sides will be unnaturally brighter than the 4:3 area in the middle.
 
kc44135

kc44135

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,725
Ohio
For OLED, can't you enable a 4:3 ratio somewhere on the TV itself, and basically force black bars onto the screen? I can do this on my old Plasma, as well as make them grey if I want (although I never worried about burn in much there, frankly).
 
dishwashers

dishwashers

Member
Dec 10, 2022
196
I actually like the gradient 😶
I downloaded a fan recreation of it to use as an overlay on my 16:9 emulation handhelds for 4:3, 8:7, and 10:9 content.
I agree that it shouldn't be forcibly enabled though, especially with OLED devices being involved.
 
Lowblood

Lowblood

Member
Oct 30, 2017
5,236
I always assumed the icon is there to support online play (since it displays all the connected players then) and Nintendo being Nintendo didn't give an option to turn it off during single player.

CesareNorrez said:
No, you would want grey bars for an OLED. With black bars the pixels would effectively be off so they would not age along with the pixels in the middle causing brightness levels to differ. Solid Grey bars were an option on Plasma TVs back in the day when displaying 4:3 content and that was a good thing. This would require a ton of screen time with modern OLEDs though.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

So burn in and reverse burn in are both issues…clearly the TRUE solution is to design a randomized animation of Waluigi dancing on the screen edges at all times.
 
FTF

FTF

Member
Oct 28, 2017
28,596
New York
kc44135 said:
For OLED, can't you enable a 4:3 ratio somewhere on the TV itself, and basically force black bars onto the screen? I can do this on my old Plasma, as well as make them grey if I want (although I never worried about burn in much there, frankly).
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Hmm this is a good point. That might cover the ridiculous static player icon in top left the whole time. Will try this later and thank you if it works.
 
Serif

Serif

The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
3,812
It is disappointing considering they're the same S/NES emulators that are used in the mini consoles, which offer several border options including pure black. And plenty of retro game collections on Switch including Nintendo's own port of Mario 64 let you have black borders. I already accept the risk of reverse burn in or whatever when I play other retro or 4:3 games on my TV, just give me the option to disable it.
 
jkk411

jkk411

Member
Jul 22, 2018
1,037
They should have the option to turn it off. It's not ideal that my Steam Deck offers a better experience than Nintendo's own device.
 
evilgenius

evilgenius

Member
Dec 12, 2020
390
MissingString said:
I just don't care about first party offerings for retro games anymore. The best work when it comes to preservation is being done by fans as always.



It's over stated but yes, there's burn in risk on any OLED TV when viewing a static image. If you vary your content enough, don't leave the image on screen for extend periods of time and let your TV do its regular maintenance the risk will be minimal.

Still, it shouldn't be a risk you have to take at all. Plus it's just ugly and distracting.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
ok thanks I will finish it in handheld mode, better safe than sorry
 
GWX

GWX

Member
Oct 25, 2017
547
They are so stubborn, goddamn it. I never play the NSO apps on my TV, since it's OLED and those borders are a huge no go. At least I don't have an OLED Switch, so I can play in handheld mode with peace of mind. They're so ugly, though, and the damn profile picture there too, all the time, ugh.
 
BrandoBoySP

BrandoBoySP

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,178
I get they're annoying, but "disgusting" feels particularly exaggerated to me honestly. I don't understand why they didn't give options for it, though - it's a really weird choice and I'm sure it's not difficult to implement some border options.
 
kc44135

kc44135

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,725
Ohio
FTF said:
Hmm this is a good point. That might cover the ridiculous static player icon in top left the whole time. Will try this later and thank you if it works.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Yeah, hopefully it's something you can enable. I'd really like to know if it can be done. It's the only reason I'm not as angry about these borders as everyone else in here, because I just cover them up, lol.
 
FTF

FTF

Member
Oct 28, 2017
28,596
New York
kc44135 said:
Yeah, hopefully it's something you can enable. I'd really like to know if it can be done. It's the only reason I'm not as angry about these borders as everyone else in here, because I just cover them up, lol.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Ugh damn, didn't work. All it did was further shrink the entire screen into the 4:3 tv setting size lol
 
Turnabout Sisters

Turnabout Sisters

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
2,358
What if TVs could just draw black borders themselves, to cover up unwanted borders. It'd be an absurdly situational feature though
 
ss_lemonade

ss_lemonade

Member
Oct 27, 2017
6,691
oakenhild said:
On OLED specifically, if you just had true black there, you wouldn't have any brightness from the edges, the pixels would effectively be off. It would be such an improvement over having the gradient. Would also be much easier on the OLED itself, if you play for long sessions. So TV or the switch oled would benefit.

This is the annoying part about Nintendo. Small QOL changes would be great but they just get overlooked or ignored forever. There feels like there is no feedback loop from the customer to Nintendo at all.

Defending the gradient is silly too. You could have both.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
In that case, you'll possibly end up with something like this due to uneven degradation

WKm4yOV.jpg


This is with a first gen QD-OLED though. Don't know how resistant others like LG OLEDs and the Switch OLED are when it comes to content like this.
 
oakenhild

oakenhild

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,921
ss_lemonade said:
In that case, you'll possibly end up with something like this due to uneven degradation

WKm4yOV.jpg


This is with a first gen QD-OLED though. Don't know how resistant others like LG OLEDs and the Switch OLED are when it comes to content like this.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Yea, I guess at the very least, some type of solid color that isn't quite black would help with that.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.