-al-

I am close to buying a 700TS, but was wondering how the daytime brighness was? It will be mounted in the dash of an expedition.


-Thanks, AL

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chut

Are your windows tinted?

samc

700TS is 250 nits right? the no. Its very hard to see those screen during the day. I have a 20/20 vision and I still have trouble.

__________________
Mine needs to be updated.

-al-

Yes, my windows are tinted, but it sounds like the brightness of the display still will not be that great. That kinda sucks...$500 for a display (susposidly state if the art), and it's hard to see in daylight? Are there any other touchscreens that have better performance?

Maybe I should just use a 7" CRT!



-AL

chut

I have the 700TS and during the day it is not easy to see, I've been thinking about changing where it is mounted. During the night, it looks great! Oh well, is there a really bright monitor, that fits in a small package?

Peter

sq_geek

Get the ultrabright upgrade option from Xenarc for $199.

gork

Ditto me. I am planning several approaches to a solution for this problem either by adding an extra backlight, modifying the existing backlight, or changing panels. I'll let you guys know what I end up doing.

decube

Another possibility is to make the screen transreflective:
http://www.astraproducts.com/i_dr2tdr.htm

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tejesh83

Transreflective stuff sounds neat. Anyone try it yet?

chut

Wouldn't this interfere with the touchscreen operation?

decube

Dunno, but PDAs use this stuff and they have touchscreens!

mhermann

What is the ultra bright option? Can this be done after the fact with a DSCustoms screen?

gork

If you get Xenarc to perform the "ultra-bright" upgrade you'll get a panel that is up to about 450 or more nits of brightness.

I have been told that they change the panel's optics somehow (possibly removing a filter) to boost the brightness without having to add or change the CCFL or inverter. Someone who knows more about exactly what they do, feel free to chime in

Xenarc won't touch a DSCustoms screen for this upgrade at any price. I have contacted them about it twice with different approaches to see about having it done. I really don't understand why they don't want my money even when I've specifically told them I wanted to pay the regular price without wanting a warranty. They seemed not to understand why I did not want to spend $600 on their screen with a better warranty when the first thing I did with the monitor was void any warranty it ever would have!

I am competent to perform this upgrade myself if I knew exactly what it was they do. I'd even be willing to upgrade DSCustoms / digitalWW screens for others, too.

The other alternative I know about is to replace the Panasonic EDTCB18QCF panel used in the screen with a EDTCB18 panel that has 400 nits of brightness. Unfortunately, I can't find a vendor that sells this panel "in the raw."

If worse comes to worst, I'll probably sell this screen and get a brighter one as I really want more brigtness during the day. If I lived somewhere other than TX where it was a little less blinding outside all the time, the screen would be more than bright enough. I'd still like to figure out how to do the brigtness upgrade, though, so this is my first option. I'm sure we can figure this out!

Alanh

I can add that TX isn't the only place where its difficult to see the display in the day! I have that in WA too.

I might have missed it, but has anyone compared the 400 nit units against the regular ones in side-by-side tests? I'm wondering if 400 is enough to make a real difference.

I've looked a little bit for anti-glare filters, but those I've seen all seem to be much bigger and I don't know if they do any good. I'd get a bigger one and cut it down (if that is even possible) if it helps.

I'm not to really hard-over on esthetics, so I've pondered some sort of hood too, but never gotten far enough to figure out what to make it out of. In desperation on a trip, I folded a cardboard box into a makeshift hood and it helped some.

My Xenarc has the touchscreen, but I'm not even using it now because I have an RS-232 GPS and only one serial port. So far I've been getting by with one of those "egg" trackballs. I think I'd permanently sacrifice the touchscreen for better visibility although that may not be a good option for those using their carputer for music. I use my display for GPS moving map, so I try not to be driving and fiddling with the GPS software at the same time; its pretty dangerous even at slow speeds.

Alan

gork

400 nits or thereabouts is where the LCD manufacturers start pushing their screens at the automotive industry. Desktop LCD's and whatnot are typically 200-350nits (I use a pair of 300 nit 19" flat panels on my desktop and they are really bright!) LCD's start claiming "sunlight readable" if they are either transreflective or up at 600+ nits. I would guess most OEM in-car LCD's are dimmed toaround 200 nits in "night" mode and 500-600 nits in "day" mode. I have not seen transreflective displays used for GPS/navi screens, though, but I do know the digital (LCD) odometer, radio display, On-board computer, and gear selector are all transreflective...

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