Review of 5.1" touchscreen --$ 300

RaZor · 07-18-2001, 01:43 PM

gotapex has a review on this 5.1" touchscreen lcd. for $300 retail, it doesnt look that bad. but the resolution sucks.
http://gotapex.com/reviews.php?rev=massworks/index.html

MattW · 07-18-2001, 03:16 PM

Dude, that thing's badass! If only you could use it as a normal windows monitor (albeit at lower resolution), that'd be super cool. They said they might be implementing that, I guess we'll have to wait and see. Jeez, you wouldn't even need a video card in the car computer, much less TV out! It's the same resolution as the screens most of us are using, only it's all digital. Someone could conceivably write an mp3car interface for it, and if they implemented some sub-pixel rendering for things like text, that would be awesome. Though, I don't know how you could use GPS on it without special software. I mean, most GPS screens (like handheld units) are only like 160x160 at most, so this 320x240 should be fine. But most windows software is made for 800x600 and whatnot, so you have a problem. Heh, someone want to write some GPS software, too? I see some definite potential in this sucker. Maybe we should write e-mails to these massworks people and get them to remarket it for car computers

Like they're actually selling that many with its current use (I can't imagine anybody paying that much for something so useless for games).

RaZor · 07-18-2001, 09:56 PM

hey, its another mp3car person from my area. sweet!! ok, i dont understand why they are trying to market it to gamers. they mention quake i think in that article and its pointless for gaming. as far as the programming goes, thats not my area. sorry.

schrodos · 07-19-2001, 01:15 AM

It's only 320x240 which makes it pretty useless.

cenwesi · 07-19-2001, 06:24 AM

lol...i say that and was like **yawk**, a 4" tft is even better than that crap.

Cexxy · 07-19-2001, 01:35 PM

If you throw together a layout to control winamp with it and use it as the secondary display, then you could use it as a really cool looking stereo interface.

Couldn't you?

cenwesi · 07-19-2001, 02:04 PM

i can write an app for it. But i am not willing to cough out that amount for that screen so if someone is willing to buy me one i will halt CobraIII for few months and work on an interface for this device

Cexxy · 07-19-2001, 03:41 PM

Would you even have to program for it? I mean, you could just set the comp up so that it has no video card, and use this as the secondary thing to display the layout you want to use.

Then it's just a matter of figuring out a way to make it control winamp, right?

And what's so bad about it? it's small, sure, but why is that a bad thing? Yes, the resolution is low, but if you're just displaying one of their layouts then what's the big deal?

I guess if you wanted a winamp visualization on it then it might be a problem. I'm not sure about ghosting, color bleed (if lcd's even DO this) and a 320x200 resolution vis would look kind of fugly.

..but for a winamp interface i think it's pretty neat.

MattW · 07-19-2001, 07:12 PM

Don't complain about the resolution unless you're using a VGA LCD display. Most people here use 960x240 LCD panels interlaced and fed through a composite connection that runs at 640x480. So, even though you're running at 640x480, you're cramming it onto a screen with only 320x240 pixels (it says 960 because there's a pixel for red, green, and blue horizontally). Even though it would be running at 320x240, it would look a *helluva* lot sharper. Plus, you could subpixel rendering to make text appear sharper; something that you wouldn't be able to do, or at least, would have a lot of trouble with trying to implement on a screen that's being fed through composite NTSC (because the pixels wouldn't match up properly--you're displaying 640x480 on a 320x240 screen).

This thing has immense potential for this application, and the price is very reasonable. Too bad it doesn't have something like composite input, too, for when you want to put video through it. Maybe they'll make a newer, better one some time? $300 for a 5" touchscreen running through USB, without needing a video card isn't a bad deal.