Hey guys,

I am looking to purchase either the Track IR 4 PRO or the Track IR 5 PRO. I have never used either one and was wondering if the $50 difference is worth it. I am a casual flight simmer as well as a ground combat simulation junkie (ARMA and such). Any suggestions would be appreciated. My mouth is watering already for the DCS: P51. Would love to see a DCS: Apache one of these days LOL as well.

Thanks,

Uncle

Might as well get the latest TIR, but whichever one you get, I would recommend pairing it up with the Track Clip Pro. Gives the TrackIR something actively emitting rather than a passive reflection-only device.

IIRC, TIR5 has finer resolution (smoother movement) and greater FOV than TIR4.

I can't tell you if the difference is worth it, but that either one will be a godsend to combat flight simulation.

The reason I'm using a TrackIR 4 now is because I bought it just before the TrackIR 5 was announced. Had I known about the latter then, I would've just jumped straight to the TrackIR 5, since I might as well start on the latest model.

As for the TrackClip Pro, that's mostly of benefit to headphone/headset users. I use headphones all the time, so it made sense for me, but if you don't like wearing anything more substantial than a baseball cap with a reflector clip on it, that may be problematic.

If you have a huge monitor, get a 5. If not, a 4 will work for you just fine. Just my .02.

I went from a TIR3 + vector to a TIR5 (w/o the clip) and, honestly, I didn't find the upgrade to be that significant. The biggest improvement did not come from the increased resolution (I didn't have any issues with smoothness with TIR3) but rather from the wider angled lens of the TIR5 which meant that I had more space to move my head about without losing tracking.

The increase of angle is not that great between the TIR4 to the TIR5 (the big jump in angle comes from the TIR3 -> TIR4) and I probably would have been just as happy going to the TIR4. Is the 50$ premium to the TIR5 worth it? For my purposes and in my subjective opinion, no. But I'm happy with the TIR 5 and I know it will serve me for many years to come.

I play mostly RoF and IL2 '46 on a 25.5" monitor.

I hope that helps.

Thanks for the input guys. I might as well bite the bullet and get the TrackIR 5 Pro. I use a Sony 55 LCD tv for my flight sim games so maybe the better resolution of the 5 Pro will be beneficial. I'll just have to work a few hours of overtime to pay for it. I am still wondering though on how this is going to work. I can not sit close to the tv using the suggested range of the 5 Pro (2 to 5 feet). The max of 5 feet still hurts my eyes which suffer from occular rosacea and severe dry eye. I plan on mounting this to my cockpit 2 feet in front of where I sit which in total is about 7 feet from my tv to where I sit. So this would be 2 feet in front of me while I am looking 7 feet to the tv. I hope I didn't confuse anyone with that statement 'cause it kind of confused me LOL. I hate to spend a bunch of money on something that might not work the way I want it to. I do know the software seems like it has alot of customization to it so maybe I'll get lucky. Any thoughts on this would be apreciated.

Thanks again to everyone,

Uncle

As the TIR unit is tiny, you can easily mount it closer to you than your actual monitor. Depending on your cockpit layout, you can mount it on the cockpit or maybe fashion a quick-and-dirty stand for the TIR.