AU Optronics Screen and VGA driver board (large images)

[Maximus]

Managed to play around with it a bit more today and depending on what people mean by
"exposed to direct sunlight" I think it handles it pretty well.
I also managed to get 800X480. At least I think so, because the ODS never displays what mode it's in so you don't have any way to tell.
I'll check into that a bit more.

If you get the sunlight directly at the screen you cant see sh-t due to all the reflections,
you could have all the backlight you want and I still think you wouldn't be able to see anything.
The camera isn't able to capture the correct image, but you can make out some parts
of the display, but it's not really usable.
It would have been sweet to have the transflective version, but not even my Ipaq handles
direct sunlight very well since it has an ever smoother surface than the AU screen does.


Luckily sunlight almost never hit the display directly (unless you own a convertible)
and if the sun hits the display at an angle it's a lot better. This is at ~45 degrees.
The brightness is at about 80% so it has a bit more to give, but then the colors start to wash out so I like it better the way it is.

[Silentbob343]

the setup is a little pricey, but looks much better than lilliput or xenarc offerings

[Maximus]

The Xenarc is $375 @ mp3car store, I'd expect this kit would be around $350 in the US.

[Fiberoptic]

We (myself and ziplock) are in Taiwan now where they make this screen. We just had a good meeting where we talked about integrating this into future products with price drops. There will be more details soon.

[Maximus]

Way to go
Have they showed you the transflective version ?

A double DIN case with this screen pre-installed as a flip down unit would be sweet.

[Arathranar]

How come this is brighter than the Lilliput? The specs in the first post give it about same number of nits.

[Maximus]

Aren't you old enough not to trust specs. ?

To be honest I don't have a very scientific explanation, the only thing I know is that specs. is not the whole truth.
It all depends on how they measure the brightness, maybe AU measure with a certain quality in mind since the picture will tend to wash out at full brightness, maybe Lilliput measure without the touchpanel.
The AU screen is 400 nit without touchpanel and 320 with.

[Silentbob343]

Quote: Originally Posted by Maximus

The Xenarc is $375 @ mp3car store, I'd expect this kit would be around $350 in the US.

ahh yes good point I forgot you said that in you earlier post

[gork]

Well since it's fairly established that the Lilliput panels are recycled and refurbished from pachinko and pachislo machines it stands to reason that even if the tubes were the same brightness when new they would be diminished by the time they are made into the screens we know and love.

The penultimate screen for carpc's though really is going to be the transreflective. I really hope that mp3cars meetings with AU in Taiwan are focusing primarily on that.

[Arathranar]

Quote: Originally Posted by gork

The penultimate screen for carpc's though really is going to be the transreflective. I really hope that mp3cars meetings with AU in Taiwan are focusing primarily on that.

I heard transflective don't have great color quality. Anyone know if that's the case?

[Arathranar]

Quote: Originally Posted by Maximus

Aren't you old enough not to trust specs. ?

That's why I asked....

[gork]

Quote: Originally Posted by Arathranar

I heard transflective don't have great color quality. Anyone know if that's the case?

I would hope that they have fairly decent color reproduction since they are used on a great deal of consumer to very high end professional cameras (Video and Digital) where color reproduction matters a heck of a lot. The key to a TR screen is that you can always see the image though. In a car PC that is important, which is why I think it would be the best screen for the job. Why do you need 100% accurate calibrated color reproduction on your car PC anyway? Are you doing prepress / video editing while driving around and parking under all kinds of external lighting conditions?

I have both a $1000+ digital still camera and a $2000+ HDV video camera both of which use TR screens. In dim lighting where you are mainly seeing the backlit image, color reproduction is as good as any backlit screen. When the backlight is turned off (My video camera allows this to save power) color reproduction is probably not even on par with a reflective-only screen, but the key here is that at least you can see the image. In bright sunlight or other bright light with the backlight on color reproduction is not great, but it's still extremely good. In all the cases, it's enough to set white balance and gain/iris/exposure (all kinds of different terms between photo and video)

[Maximus]

If you look at an Ipaq for examle they're pretty good and they're transflective.

The only problem I can see with the transflective screen from AU Optronics is that it doesn't have a touchscreen, so you'd either have to do without one or buy a separate touchscreen and install it yourself.
With the touchscreen you'll again have problems with glare, catch 22.

So the best option would be if you could skip the touchscreen and use steeringwheel buttons and a BMW I-Drive (powermate / rotary encoder) for input.

/M

[Fiberoptic]

From the asia trip we have a 500 nit 5 wire package that will blow away these options. These two features combines should increase screen brightness by about 40%. The backlight will dim in 10 stages. We are thinking about selling it as a kit with no housing, just controller boards, panel, and cable kit only.

[Arathranar]

Any idea of the price?