Thread: Portable DVD player as a cheap screen?

'less-than-VGA' monitors look like crap when hooked up to a composite monitor. hook your laptop up to a regular TV and you'll see how bad it looks; then picture in your mind how hard it would be to use a screen like that while driving

Originally Posted by tazyman

Is this a viable option if my intended use of the car computer would be:
- GPS

it depends on the GPS software you're using, but in general the answer is: yes. GPS software made for carPCs (like iGuidance) will look ok on a composite monitor, but you can forget about using anything with small text.

Originally Posted by tazyman

Is this a viable option if my intended use of the car computer would be:
- Music album navigation

that depends on the front end you use, but in general the test on most front ends is large enough that you could probably see it without an issue (but it won't be pretty )

Originally Posted by tazyman

Is this a viable option if my intended use of the car computer would be:
- Limited browsing (where WIFI is available)

with a composite monitor, web browsing will be almost impossible. I suppose you could increase the font size to make text readable, but then you could only see a small piece of the web page at a time (which IMO makes it completely impractical to use).

the bottom line is; just but a VGA screen. you'll be much happier with your setup if you do. you can get VGA monitors on eBay for around ~$150 (sometimes even less).

good luck

Ok, here is my take on this. If you are going to be cheap, find somewhere else to do it. The monitor is the only part visible and is pretty much the center of your entire system. It is the ONLY place you shouldn't even consider skimping on. Heck, buy and old 386 laptop running windows 95 if you really want to save money. The touchscreen isn't the place.....never.......ever.

Of course, try to get the best deal, but dont try to cut corners. You'll hate yourself if you do. And in the long run, it's going to cost you a good touchscreen AND the cost of the craptastic one.

Originally Posted by tazyman

Yes, the title says it all... I am cheap!
I would like to start off with a carcomputer project and try to minimize my initial outlay of cash.
So I would like to consider the possibility of using my old Toshiba laptop (which has a composite video output) and a portable DVD player (say, 8" screen) as the screen. I noticed that some of these portable players support A/V input (possibly for use as screens for game consoles).

Is this a viable option if my intended use of the car computer would be:
- GPS
- Music album navigation
- Limited browsing (where WIFI is available)

Thanks in advance.

Here's my take on it. I used a psOne 5" screen for almost 3 years in my 2nd CarPC build (first one was a 4x20 character LCD!) with a 5.6" touchscreen overlay from digitalww. It was awesome for just about everything EXCEPT browsing/text. Don't expect web pages to be readable, but could possibly kick up the txt size and have a bit of usability. But GPS/Nav, music, and video would be awesome with it, given you use a good frontend and nav software with big text. Also another problem you may run into is some composite vid out have a limit of 640x480 or 800x600. My 5" psOne screen had 640x480 limit (hacked it for VGA anyway). Was good enough for me at the time, but doing Nav on a 640x480 would bite the big one. And it did which is why now I'm using a lilliput.