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Displays Hardware

Project Seeks To Build Inexpensive 9-inch Monitor For Raspberry Pi 176

angry tapir writes "A Kickstarter project is aiming to bring an inexpensive 9-inch portable monitor to the popular US$25 Raspberry Pi PC, which comes without a keyboard, mouse or monitor. The "HDMIPi" will include an LCD panel that will show images at a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels. Computers can be hooked up to the monitor via an HDMI controller board that can be wired to the LCD. The display is being made by Raspi.TV and Cyntech."
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Project Seeks To Build Inexpensive 9-inch Monitor For Raspberry Pi

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  • Yes, 1280x800 is a horribly small resolution. But at least it's a good aspect ratio. 4:3 is bad for entertainment use - movies, games, and the like. 16:9 is similarly weak in productive use - even putting two windows side-by-side, it's not tall enough, and rotating it to portrait mode is often laughable. But, IMO, 16:10 is a good compromise - it works well for anything you do with it.

    If it weren't for the fact that 2560x1600 monitors are absurdly overpriced compared to 2560x1440, I'd have gotten one of thos

    • Would anyone really be likely to use a 9" screen hooked up to a RPi for any of those endeavors, though? Iworked recently with an old computer of mine with an 11" monitor, and it felt cramped enough that Iwouldn't use it if Ihad a larger screen of any sort available.

      That said, don't forget that there's a growing number of people getting into older games, which were primarily written for 4:3 screens, as are a lot of games written for use in a windowed environment (some genres are also more comfortable for me

      • It's amazing how privileged we are with large monitors. I have a 23 inch monitor on my home PC. Even though it's only 1080p, it still provides plenty of room to work with. I remember that my dad had a Commodore PET. I didn't live with him, but I remember the time I visited him after we got a PC, and noticing how small that Commodore PET monitor was (coincidentally enough, they were 9 inches). For reading novels and media consumption, smaller monitors like 6-7 inches are fine, but for anything else, the
  • HDMIPi? Come on! (Score:4, Interesting)

    by glitch0 ( 859137 ) on Monday November 04, 2013 @12:53AM (#45322769) Homepage
    HDM-Pi sounds so much better than HDMI-Pi. How did they let that one slip through the cracks?
  • Found several... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by evilviper ( 135110 )

    This project would be nothing if not for the clever marketing of linking this to the Raspberry Pi. Otherwise, it's just an overpriced, under-spec'd and under-featured monitor. With the switch to HDTV, every cheap little TV out there has HDMI inputs, and can incidentally also work as a TV:

    19" HDTV under $100:

    http://www.walmart.com/ip/Seiki-SE19HY10-19-720p-60Hz-LED-HDTV/28379383 [walmart.com]

    7" HDMI touch, under $100:

    http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=161137962772 [ebay.com]

    • by linuxguy ( 98493 )

      Don't be a doofus. Is the 19" one portable? No! And that is important to some of us. We already have large/cheap displays. We want portable/cheap displays!

      The 7" one you listed is utter joke. First of all it is not under $100. You forgot to look at the sneaky $70 shipping charge. After you add that, you are looking at $150. Oh and you also forgot to look at the resolution. 1024x768. It seems that you haven't been paying attention. But, by now, that isn't surprising.

    • The 19" isn't portable, like someone else also said. The 7" is a second hand one, they are $129 new and have a native resolution of 800*480.
      • The 7" is a second hand one,

        Oh yeah?

        Condition: New: A brand-new, unused, unopened, undamaged item in its original packaging (where packaging is applicable). Packaging should be the same as what is found in a retail store, unless the item is handmade or was packaged by the manufacturer in non-retail packaging, such as an unprinted box or plastic bag.

    • Re:Found several... (Score:4, Interesting)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) * on Monday November 04, 2013 @07:58AM (#45324147) Homepage Journal

      7" HDMI touch, under $100:

      Not at all comparable. For a start it's a private one-off eBay listing, not something that anyone can buy from a website. It is also not HD, and in my experience you often can't use this kind of screen's native resolution directly as it is designed to only accept SD, 720p and maybe 1080i. That's okay for a TV but useless for a computer where you want sharp pixel perfect font rendering.

    • by knarf ( 34928 )

      While the HDTV might be an option, forget about that '7" HDMI touch' display unless you think a native resolution of 800x480 is enough for all your computing needs. Yes, it says nice things like '1080p' but all that means is it can accept signals close to that resolution and rate. It down-converts them to be displayed on a WVGA screen. The ad you linked to does not mention this, but then it is a 'US seller'. Better link to the source which is not the US but China:

      7-Touch-Screen-Display-HDMI-1080p-RCA-AV-VGA [ebay.com]

    • With the switch to HDTV, every cheap little TV out there has HDMI inputs

      New ones do, I'll grant. Used TVs at pawn shops and charity shops still don't. I see CRT SDTVs in local charity shops that don't even have composite in; all they have is RF, with an analog tuner that only picks up low-power stations exempt from the switchoff.

  • by linuxguy ( 98493 ) on Monday November 04, 2013 @02:59AM (#45323151) Homepage

    I shoot videos with my DSLR. And I have often wanted a portable HDMI monitor for my rig. When I looked, I was quite surprised to find out that no reasonable options exist. Most portable HDMI monitors utterly suck. They are bulky and max out the resolution at 800x480 or 1024x768. The ones that do not suck are uber expensive. Since this is just a hobby for me, I did not want to shell out the big bucks.

    I have been quite surprised that I can buy a $200 Nexus 7 tablet with 1080P display, but cannot get a 1080p or even a 720p portable monitor for anything even close to that.

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) *

      It's because the DRM required to receive and decrypt HDMI adds a lot of expense. Inside the Nexus 7 the GPU has a direct digital interface to the LCD that doesn't do any scaling, colour correction or encryption. It's actually cheaper than the old analogue DAC system.

      • HDCP isn't required to make HDMI function. That's only required for input sources that are DRM'ed. Doubt you'd find that in a DSLR or an R-pi, so there's no technical reason at all.

        • HDCP isn't required to make HDMI function.

          But I'd bet it is required to license one or more of the "HDMI" trademark, the patented connector shape, and the patented signaling mechanism.

        • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) *

          Sure, but try to buy a HDMI receiver chip without it. Since 99.99% of them are used in TVs they need to implement HDCP, or most of the devices people attach won't work.

          • And many of these chips have the HDCP key flashed into EEPROM (Analog Devices AD9889 is one example). If you don't put in a key, you don't need to license HDCP.

  • They got the aspect ratio right, that's for sure. Can't say that for many monitors coming to the market since 2007.
  • Given that Atrix dock is cheaper than the target price and can be hacked (and we did just that at Google when Hexxeh interned there), why not just make a plastic case with a couple of connectors on it, and clip the Pi into it?

  • The biggest obstacle to using the RPi in a lot of projects is the cost of a monitor. You'd think with all the cellphones out there small monitors would be easy to find but really there's nothing for under $150 worth your time.

    • No, there are plenty of unboxed LCD screens available for SBCs. The problem is that the Pi doesn't have enough free GPIO pins to drive them. Cubie and Olimex both offer LCD screens that plug directly into their ARM boards. However the Pi is crippled by it's design, board size and component choices, so none fo the cheap and plentiful LCDs are usable with it.

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