So it's hard to use a laptop screen in a portable?

xelion · Post by **xelion** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 1:34 pm

I was reading ben's guide for the atari, thinking he may have used an actual laptop screen, when I saw his note:

The first order of business was finding a screen to use. The first noobish idea would be using an old laptop screen but that's quite hard, if not impossible. See, the Atari puts out composite video (like the yellow jack coming off your PS2) while a computer monitor takes RGB. On top of that most laptop displays are proprietary digital and therefore only work with the laptop they come in. Some people try hooking laptop screens up to their PC's and have a really hard time - connecting it to an Atari would be even more difficult and very expensive.

I was actually hoping to be able to sale my old laptop screen(17 inches too) with possibly the motherboard(fried as far as I know) for someone(or possibly myself, but probably nto after hearing from Ben that it would be difficult) to mod.

So yeah, I don't really get why it wouldn't work(forgive my noobishness) wouldn't you just need to change the signals to whatever you need? That wouldn't be too hard, would it? I mean, my screen has like 4 cables comming out of it, find out what those are, make some kind of convertor, and bam, big 'ol screen for your portable(and it's thin too)

Post by **gannon** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 1:38 pm

Very hard, with a degree in Computer Science or Electrical Engineering it might be just hard.

xelion · Post by **xelion** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 1:39 pm

But why is it so hard?

Post by **Sparkfist** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 1:45 pm

xelion wrote:But why is it so hard?

Laptop screens use a digital video interface to send the information. Video game systems, TVs, CTRs, Computer LCDs (that use DVI or VGA input) are all analoge.

There is only a slim chance that you can find an old laptop (like 10+ years) that has a screen that uses an analoge input from the laptop.

xelion · Post by **xelion** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 1:51 pm

Okay then, but what is so hard about making some sort of a convertor?

EDIT: okay from what I read on wikipedia, my laptop screen is about the same thing as the TFT screen that he used in his laptop. The only thing I see needed is a convertor to take the composit video and change it to RBG for the screen to display. and possibly something else for the proprietary screens, which I seeem to doubt it is, but that could be taken care of by just examining the motherboard of the laptop in question and finding out what it does stuff to.. wow i'm losing it, I should go lay down...

edit 2: okay I remeber what I was thinking. Even if the display was proprietary, again, coulnd't you just make a convertor for it!?! I mean like, how much harder is it tahn like making a power convertor?

teraflop122 · Post by **teraflop122** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 2:22 pm

No, YOU can not make a converter for it. An engineer can make a converter, a computer science major can make a converter. YOU can buy a converter for a few hundred dollars, if you're lucky.

LCD's take proprietary digital signals. Most everything else takes analog, as has been said. LCD displays are like thousands of people speaking completely different languages. You see, the laptop motherboard knows how to TALK to the LCD- but only THAT SPECIFIC LCD.

So yeah, you can convert the signals, but doing so involves quite a bit of logic components and experience.

xelion · Post by **xelion** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 2:26 pm

well I guess that makes a little more sense, thanks.

So basically, my laptop screen is useless? Great :/

teraflop122 · Post by **teraflop122** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 2:27 pm

You could try selling it on eBay for people who have a working motherboard but broken LCD panel.

xelion · Post by **xelion** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 2:34 pm

I'd probably waste more money putting it up for bid than I would from selling it...

MaDnEsS · Post by **MaDnEsS** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 3:18 pm

Sparkfist wrote:
xelion wrote:But why is it so hard?
Laptop screens use a digital video interface to send the information. Video game systems, TVs, CTRs, Computer LCDs (that use DVI or VGA input) are all analoge.

There is only a slim chance that you can find an old laptop (like 10+ years) that has a screen that uses an analoge input from the laptop.

i have one from 1992 analog input that could work

Post by **SpongeBuell** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 5:33 pm

xelion wrote:I'd probably waste more money putting it up for bid than I would from selling it...

Well, my laptop LCD sold for $200. Then again, this was on an Apple iBook, where the demand is a bit higher than a Dell or whatever you have (since Apple's hardware is so similar, and has few models available, where Dell, Compaq, IBM, etc. have their own screens most of the time)

Also, this is something that belongs in the Screens forum. Moving...

Kipple Snacks · Post by **Kipple Snacks** » Tue Dec 12, 2006 3:59 pm

Hey everyone, I'm new here and find this stuff pretty interesting.

I was hoping to utilize a laptop screen as well, as it is a convenient box. So if I were able to find an old laptop with analoge imput, I would be able to fairly easily set my genesis up with it?

tom61 · Post by **tom61** » Tue Dec 12, 2006 4:11 pm

Kipple Snacks wrote:Hey everyone, I'm new here and find this stuff pretty interesting.

I was hoping to utilize a laptop screen as well, as it is a convenient box. So if I were able to find an old laptop with analoge imput, I would be able to fairly easily set my genesis up with it?

Nope. You'll need a scan converter, as the few that take analog input take 31KHz VGA, and the Genesis only outputs 15KHz RGB.

Auken · Post by **Auken** » Sat Dec 16, 2006 7:00 pm

I was wondering if perhaps one of those generic "VGA Boxes" for some consoles (Dreamcast and PSOne come to mind) wouldn't serve, slightly modified, as a scan convertor? I am working on an Xbox laptop (Inspired by Ben's X360) And it's coming along nicely, but finding the VGA output I need to feed to the EarthLCD controller board to drive my laptop display is my issue. I know there are a few Xbox VGA boxes out there, ideas? (The one thing is it's gotta be small. I'm already on the fact it probably won't have a DVD drive)

tom61 · Post by **tom61** » Sat Dec 16, 2006 8:03 pm

Auken wrote:I was wondering if perhaps one of those generic "VGA Boxes" for some consoles (Dreamcast and PSOne come to mind) wouldn't serve, slightly modified, as a scan convertor?

Of a sort, most them (excluding the Dreamcast one) take composite, convert it to RGB and upscale it to poor-quality VGA. The one that I took apart converts video in one chip and then is digitally linked (no way to infuse 480i analog RGB) to the chip that upscales. This one was fairly old, and there are newer chips out there that can convert and upscale in a single chip.

Dreamcast can output VGA directly, so the VGA boxes for it just enable VGA out and don't do any conversion.

I am working on an Xbox laptop (Inspired by Ben's X360) And it's coming along nicely, but finding the VGA output I need to feed to the EarthLCD controller board to drive my laptop display is my issue. I know there are a few Xbox VGA boxes out there, ideas? (The one thing is it's gotta be small. I'm already on the fact it probably won't have a DVD drive)

A modded XBox can output VGA without a converter, when used with the right BIOS. Barring that, look into building a 'transcoder' for Xbox, it takes component out of the Xbox at 480p and drives a VGA monitor. One is usally made of only a few chips that you could cram most anywhere.