Hardware Review: Provision 8" 16:9 VGA Touchscreen

lightman · 05-25-2006, 06:29 PM

The Short answer..

Hardware Review: Provision 8" 16:9 VGA Touchscreen
What it is/does: Make pictures in my dash
Reviewed by: The amazing me
Manufacturer: Provision
Model: PRTV805VT
Specs:8" 16:9 Widescreen TFT VGA USB Touchscreen
Price: $206
Rating: 6.5/10
LCD Manufacturer: Hitachi
Manufacturer website: Unknown
Purchased at: http://stores.ebay.com/ZviewVision
Pros: Bright, nice touchpanel, easy connectors, easy to rotate inside the case, well constructed, wide resolution range.
Cons: No auto-on feature, missing parts in the box, lackluster instructions.

The real review...
So I have missed my 7” Lilliput for months now and finally splurged and purchased a relatively unknown monitor in the Carputer world. I specifically went looking for a 8” widescreen to replace my 7” Lilliput so I can have more useable screen area in my double DIN dash hole. Which, by the way had been staring back at me for months now.

I made my purchase off of Ebay from a very respectable fellow who I actually spoke to on the phone. His English was good, but he was obviously foreign. Not a big deal in this world market that we live in. After a false start with the buy, I made my payment via Paypal. This fellow only ships to verified addresses so I had to do a little wrangling so he would ship it to me while out on the road. No big deal and the UPS truck arrived 4 (business) days later. Trust me folks, having your *puter down after having one for several years is NOT a pleasant experience. Gleefully I ripped open my prize, relishing the fact that I’ll be back in the mobile computing world after a long hiatus. After removing the brown shipping paper, here is what I found.

Popping the top I feast my eyes on my new gear.

Grabbing the instructions and tossing them aside, I unpacked my equipment. This montor arrived with Panel, remote, 6’ VGA extension cable, 6’ USB Extension cable, 6’ video/power pigtail, standard mount and monitor bracket, a headrest mounting cup and surround, and 2 pages of “instructions”. It did not arrive with the screws to mount the backplate to the LCD to allow use of the stand, however given my application I did not care. What I did like though, was the power/video pigtail arrangement. The screen had three, 6” pigtails exiting the flat bottom of the case. One multipin (PS2 like) for power and 2 composite videos, one for the VGA, and one for the USB touchscreen. I would have pictures of this but it’s already in my truck and I’m not paid enough to go pull it for pictures. Trust me when I say it’s neat and certainly knocks out the all-in-one connection on the Lilli’s. I also like the video inputs are on the tail and not the monitor.

After attaching all the cables, I applied power from my desktop Astron power supply, connected the USB and VGA to my laptop and powered up. All is well and I would compare the video quality to the Lilliput, however, I believe it to be slightly better than my old lilli. Not having seen any other brand of monitor I really can’t speak to other comparisons, suffice to say, it looks nice. It’s sharp and bright. Brighter than the 400NIT advertised Lilliput. After I verified that the monitor works and wasn’t DOA, I commenced the install in my truck. I’ll have the install in the truck up in the LCD sections shortly.

Overall thoughts. Nice monitor at a great price. 200 bones is cheap for this kind of quality. The touchscreen is NICE. Very sensitive and has a nice texture when using it. Brightness is great, even in daylight I’m not having any problems viewing. At night it’s TOO bright for me. I’ve used the “dimmer” feature on the remote, but it’s only a hackjob of a “dim”. Menu is strait forward and the viewing ratio is selectable from the OSD. Lackluster instructions, but really, whom among us really uses them, or really needs them. Plug the right cables in the right holes and your rocking. The touchscreen even worked with my 2 year old version of touchkit. I did download and install the new version though, as the old was interfering with hibernation.

Up until this point I would give this monitor a 9, however two MAJOR complaints. No video invert switch is one. This really isn’t much of an issue as the screen is very easy to rotate inside the case, however it would be a NICE feature. Now for the flaming red, strobing, on fire, screaming complaint. Anyone want to guess? NO AUTO ON FEATURE!!!!! WHAT THE CRAP PEOPLE? Can we NOT have a montor that would say, POWER ON when it see’s VGA? Or gets 12V+??? GIVE ME A BREAK here... So, with the fairly weak remote, and the fact that the IR sensor is behind a trim piece, I’m back to where I started from with the Lilliput. I know, relays, RS232, etc.. but com’n, really.. Is an Auto-on so freak’n hard? Sigh, perhaps there will be a hack soon.

I digress.. I’m happy with my purchase, however the turn-on is a PITA. Plus with the separated cables I don’t have any VGA screen flicker. The 6.5 maybe 7/10 is justified and would have scored much higher had the screen turned on when it saw 12V+.

W

xBrady · 05-26-2006, 12:46 AM

Nice review, thanks.

reiner15 · 05-29-2006, 09:45 PM

Thanks for the review. Too bad about the auto-on, though for the price I'm sure some people are willing to work on that.

cliffloehr · 06-01-2006, 02:09 PM

I bought one of these screens off ebay about a month ago for $185.
Here is my list of pros and cons:

PROS:

The extra inch is absolutely awesome!
The straight clean edges make it easy to mount or mold into the bezel

CONS:

On first boot - The red pin was not firing due to a bad connection inside the screen
My Inverter transformer fried two days after getting it mounted in the car. I got a replacement Inverter for $20. After goofing around for awhile, I finally got it working again.
The VGA pig-tail coming from the screen is the wrong sex to plug directly into the PC forcing you to us the 6' extension cord included in the box. If you're mounting the PC behind the screen, the VGA pig-tail is too short (about 6") and the extension makes it too long.
Three of the internal connector plugs (VGA/Power/Inverter) are smaller then the jacks they insert into allowing the connections to work loose when the screen vibrates... like when using it in a moving vehicle!

I'm an unhappy customer... but I do like this screen - in spite of the "isolated" problems i had with it.

probability · 06-23-2006, 11:29 PM

Hey Lightman, thanks for the great review.
I am planning to buy this same monitor, was wondering if yours is still running and if you would recommend it?
Thanks

lightman · 07-03-2006, 01:22 PM

Hi! Yup.. It's still up and kicking.. Works great and I've had it about 1.5 months now.. The auto-on is a pita, but overall I love it.
W

Quote: Originally Posted by probability

Hey Lightman, thanks for the great review.
I am planning to buy this same monitor, was wondering if yours is still running and if you would recommend it?
Thanks

balconio · 07-06-2006, 01:21 PM

I just got the 4:3 version and it works very well. I was scared off by some of the other screens only being 640x480 native res. All said, 189 bucks off Ebay.

juhoa · 07-18-2006, 11:13 AM

I purchased this screen in March this year, but only now am getting to the point when I might actually install it. When I bought it, I installed it on another computer with the old (3.2.xx) version of Touchkit, with which it worked after a little bit of fighting.

Now I am installing it on my to-be-carPC, and I don't seem to get the touchscreen to work. I've tried installing it over and over, in the order depicted in the manual, but no luck. The best result so far has been that it works in a weird "mirrored" order, and thus, is impossible to calibrate so that it would respond in a correct way.

EDIT2: I found a newer set of drivers and touchkit from somewhere, and it installs with those. Finally, after fighting with the "engrish" calibration program I realized that it wanted me to stick my finger on the corner for a couple of secs to calibrate it. Well, lost some 5 hours but at least it works now.

cliffloehr · 07-19-2006, 06:32 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by juhoa

When I bought it, I installed it on another computer ... it worked after a little bit of fighting.

Try it on that same computer again to see it it still works. This will tell you if the new driver is the culprit or the screen was damaged some how over time.

Quote: Originally Posted by juhoa

I've tried installing it over and over.

Did you ever 'un' install the old version it?

Quote: Originally Posted by juhoa

weird "mirrored" order.

I was wondering what the "Mirror" button was for, on he remote... try pressing that button to see if it flips back.

Good luck, I've had similar driver issues with the screen, but it cleared up on it's own.

AcuraTLFan · 09-01-2006, 09:54 PM

Can anyone give the dimension of the LCD panel and the overall monitor. Thanks

The auction describes it as 640x480, but if you look at the box in the picture, it says 800x480. Can anyone confirm the native resolution.

Also can someone measure if the screen is 8" or 8.4"?

cliffloehr · 09-02-2006, 07:01 AM

I just so happened to have mine is pieces while I redo the car's bezel.

Display area:
Diagonal: 8.044"

LCD Panel (Outside):
Height= 4.729"
Width= 7.447"
Thickness=0.416"

Casing (Outside):
Height= 5.103"
Width= 7.623"
Thickness=0.980"

The correct native resolution is 800x640 but do to limitations of the VIA Mini-ITX motherboards I run mine in 800x600 and it looks good enough. It also handles 1024x768 just fine but stuff is too tinny to see.

AcuraTLFan · 09-02-2006, 07:39 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by cliffloehr

The correct native resolution is 800x640 but do to limitations of the VIA Mini-ITX motherboards I run mine in 800x600 and it looks good enough. It also handles 1024x768 just fine but stuff is too tinny to see.

Isn't there a hack/mod on the VIA video drivers to get it to work with 800x480?

cliffloehr · 09-03-2006, 08:56 AM

try this...
http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/show...800x480+m10000

Be sure to reed through the whole post... is covers the MII and M10000

redls1bird · 09-06-2006, 05:25 PM

what kind of switch/button/anything does this screen use to turn on? is it a momentary switch? im sure we can come up with something to turn it on and off automatically. with all the good reviews, im going down to measure the room in my car to see if i can make it fit!

anik321 · 09-13-2006, 03:47 PM

lightman,

I know this is asking a lot (since it already doesnt even have auto-on feature)

but does it by any chance switch from one input to another (say VGA to RCA) if a video signal appears on the RCA input ? (for reverse camera purposes)

thanks!