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Displays Media

Computer Optional For AOC's New HD Display 118

Posted by kdawson from the now-that's-convergence dept.
MojoKid writes "As a 22-inch, HD flat-panel display, AOC's new 2230Fm LCD has nothing necessarily earth-shattering about its design. But what got our attention was the marketing tag for the device: 'No PC Required.' It turns out that, in addition to being a traditional flat-screen LCD with a native resolution of 1680 x 1050 (HDCP ready), the 2230Fm also includes a built-in media player, with what AOC calls its HD3 technology. The 2230Fm supports MPEG-1, 2, and 4 video formats. Supported audio formats include MP3, WMA, WAV, OGG, FLA, and M4A. Supported photo formats include JPG, TIFF, PNG, BMP, and GIF images with resolutions up to 8000 x 8000 pixels. The display also has a low 2ms response time and high 20,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio."
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Computer Optional For AOC's New HD Display More

Computer Optional For AOC's New HD Display

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  • Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Sunday July 13, 2008 @04:59PM (#24175541)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Run? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Darkness404 ( 1287218 ) on Sunday July 13, 2008 @05:02PM (#24175559)
    What does it run? It would be interesting if it was embedded Linux, because there would be so much you could do with it (server, etc)

    • Re:Run? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by bloodninja ( 1291306 ) on Sunday July 13, 2008 @05:08PM (#24175599)

      What does it run? It would be interesting if it was embedded Linux, because there would be so much you could do with it (server, etc)

      Do you mean to ask "But does it run L****?"?

      I don't really care what it runs. It's a slashvertizment. Call me when C|Net or Taco or Ars or someplace that I've heard of reviews it.

      • The funny thing is... it's not even a new technology. It's been done... my 42" LG 42LB5D has a feature that's eerily similar to what's described in the summary... It can be hooked up to a USB hard drive, and display pictures, play mp3s, and other media content. *shrugs*

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward

      It probably runs Java on a low powered CPU such as the Z80 or 6502.
      It's the latest "Just-In-Time" virtual machines that make it possible, dynamically recompiling the video codecs at runtime to give unprecedented optimizations.
      Even the very best hand optimized home-theatre video codec assembler can't approach one-fifteenth of the speed of a Java application.
      Over medium turn runs of a few months, it's been known for the entire mpeg-4 codec to be optimized down to just a hand full of instructions.
      This is one o

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward

      What does it run? It would be interesting if it was embedded Linux, because there would be so much you could do with it (server, etc)

      Embedded Vista, you can't do anything with it.

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Looks like it is just some sort of limited entertainment center. Watch some movies and that is it; no nic, browser, wifi. So, it is like looking at a DVD player and saying no PC required. Sum it up; it plays video, its a monitor with no DVD reader. Whats the point? TV/DVD player combos are (sadly) more useful.

      FYI: You can plug it into a PC/Mac:
      "PC/Windows, Mac® Equipped With Analog VGA D-sub or DVI Port"

      Build a low profile PC with MythTV; connect it to a large screen LCD/Plasma TV and you're bet

      • I agree with everything in your post except I don't think it will sell all that well.

        Mainly because the screen is too small to be a replacement for my living room TV (yes, I'm basing my analysis on what I want). It might be useful in the den or the workroom however as you point out there are other and better alternatives.

        If they doubled the size of the screen I might consider it otherwise it's just a gadget for people with more money than common sense.

    • It would have been worthy of saying "No PC required" if it had a Via EPIA mini-ITX board and Linux on a CF card inside, or something like that.

      This way, the whole post is just a poor advertisement.

    • It probably run an ESS ES6430 or something equivalent. These sorts of chips drive DVD players and similar devices. Usually they have a basic menu system capability and the ability to play the file formats listed

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by StarkRG ( 888216 )

      My HDTV runs Linux. It's got the slow startup time to prove it too!

      I have yet to figure out where a back door might be, it's got a USB port but it's apparently only for doing firmware upgrades and it doesn't look like there are any hacked firmwares around.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by KGIII ( 973947 )
        If you are both serious and correct then just contact 'em and get the code so that you can see for yourself. A mini OS in a dedicated media display device has great potential and I'm thinking that with some tweaking you could use that USB port for additional memory and all sorts of other unadulteraded goodness. (Don't mind me, I spent all day hacking my old RAZR V3i do my mind is stuck on hardware hacks at the moment.)

  • if it was a IPS panel and not a TN Panel :(

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by ameline ( 771895 )

      This is very true -- and that native resolution is pretty sub-par as well. For a monitor that size I'd like to see an absolute minimum of 1920x1200 pixels. I'm pretty spoiled by the 17" 1920x1200 monitor in my macbook pro -- even though it is TN, it is very, very sharp.

      Also this thing apparently has no led backlighting either.

      All in all, this is a real yawner. Wake me up when someone has a 23 or 24 inch led backlight monitor with true 8 or 10 bits per channel, and a dot pitch in excess of 130/inch.

      • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

        by cheater512 ( 783349 )

        Oh and it costs under $100.

      • Ummmm (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Sycraft-fu ( 314770 ) on Sunday July 13, 2008 @11:51PM (#24177763)

        Well I think you need to do a little more research first. The resolution isn't sub-par at all. Par would mean normal, median, average, etc. A little research turns up that essentially every 22" desktop monitor is 1680x1050. So the resolution is right on par.

        As for LED backlighting, are you kidding me? That is currently very expensive. It's neat and all, but you aren't going to see it outside of either laptops (where the reduction in thickness and power is worth it) or extremely high end displays (where the increase in colour gamut is worth it). At present you need to be willing to drop serious cash to get such a display.

        I also don't get all the hating on cheap monitors. Are LCDs something only the rich should be allowed to have? No? Then stop bitching when companies want to make budget displays. You want a better monitor? Go get one. There's plenty out there. I personally have an NEC 2690 and I just love it. Highly recommended. However, don't cry when you can't have it for $400.

        There's a market for high end displays, and a market for cheap ones. If you aren't interested in a given segment, ignore it, but don't hate on those that are. Some people don't have thousands to spend on a display and want a monitor for a couple hundred, even if that means a cheap TN panel.

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by ameline ( 771895 )

          Point me at a monitor that can be had for *any* amount of money which fits my criteria -- >= 23" diagonal, >= 130 dpi, led backlight, >= 8 bits/channel. I haven't found one. Yes that one is "par" by your definition -- but then I happen to think that the vast majority of monitors out there are horrible. I'm not asking for one that meets my spec to be cheap -- I'd be willing to pay serious money for it. The closest I've ever seen was IBMs T221 -- but it was not led backlit, only 22 inch, and it was *

          • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

            by KGIII ( 973947 )
            At risk of seeming like an ass, well, the term "par" is pretty well defined as both an exacting specification for a sport and a use in the English language meaning something like "equally balanced." Your specifications are for something you can't find meaning it is certainly not in balance with the non-vaporware products. To be honest, it looks like a fairly decent product for the cost BUT my view is that if one's going to invest that much in a screen they might as well go all the way and spend the money, g

          • Re:Ummmm (Score:4, Insightful)

            by Sycraft-fu ( 314770 ) on Monday July 14, 2008 @02:52AM (#24178473)

            You haven't found it yet because you want the latest greatest right now. That doesn't always happen. Drop the LED requirement and you can probably have what you want. Likewise, you can also get 10-bit colour and LED backlight, if you are willing to take a lower resolution in the form of the HP LP2480zx. However part of life is compromises. You can't always have everything you want. If you can't deal with that, well then you have some maturity problems. You can have most of what you want (3 of 4 criteria) if you are willing to pay for it. So deal with that.

            Regardless my original point still stands, don't hate on things just because they aren't high end. Maybe not everyone wants as much as you do. There's nothing wrong with that, there's no reason to hate on normal consumer technology just because you want something high end. That's just being a snob. If this monitor isn't for you that's fine, but it is no reason to make a post dissing it.

        • Well I think you need to do a little more research first. The resolution isn't sub-par at all. Par would mean normal, median, average, etc. A little research turns up that essentially every 22" desktop monitor is 1680x1050. So the resolution is right on par.

          As for LED backlighting, are you kidding me? That is currently very expensive. It's neat and all, but you aren't going to see it outside of either laptops (where the reduction in thickness and power is worth it) or extremely high end displays (where the

    • I dunno for sure but it seems a lot of manufacturers aren't making IPS pannels. Do they want to attact more customers with lower priced pannels? Low Supply? Or larger markup/margins with less expensive pannels? All the above?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by atrus ( 73476 )
      Agreed. TN panels... such suck. PVA does too. I'll stick with my professional series wide-gamut NEC monitor (LG panel). Great, ACCURATE colors. Very even backlighting. Lots of desk realestate.

  • Slashvertise much? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 13, 2008 @05:06PM (#24175585)

    How is this "news for nerds" or "stuff that matters" exactly?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mdwh2 ( 535323 )

      Yes, I see. A single story about an interesting new product that is actually related to computers is "Slashvertisement", but the regular Iphone adverts we get here all the time are stuff that matters.

  • Some standardization would be nice... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by fuzzyfuzzyfungus ( 1223518 ) on Sunday July 13, 2008 @05:10PM (#24175609) Journal
    I'm all for having the option of having a low power embedded computer system in the display, just the ticket for a number of applications; but I cannot help but suspect that the value of such systems will be severely curtailled without some sort of standardization.(particularly given that the slightly uglier but much, much more standard option of an embedded PC in a VESA mount is always waiting in the wings)

    Obviously, whatever board is working its magic in this AOC, and similar, is a full blown computer. I'm not sure about this case; but a fair few of these have a network stack, browser, and everything. Do you want to depend on a monitor vendor for security updates and bugfixes? Do you want to learn that the board embedded in your pricey display has all the personality quirks of a cut-rate DVD player from the wrong side of the bargain bin? Any sort of real integration with other systems, which would open all sorts of really interesting possibilities, is likely to be either a)a gigantic pain in the ass and kinda flakey, b)specifically blessed by the vendor and all the gods for this and only this use case and accompanying software, or c) Not Happening Buddy.

    Going ahead and turning these things into full blown computers probably isn't the answer; but it would be very, very nice to see some sort of standardization, option for user access to the guts, etc. Appliances have their place; but they really do limit the possibilities of a given situation.

    • I don't think there's (much of) a computer in there. Just a bunch of specialized decoder hardware, plus a low-powered "computer" for the UI. It doesn't come equipped with network hardware, either. I think it's an appealing product to me, cause it's probably noiseless (I don't like that extra-hum when I'm watching something), and I can switch off an energy-wasting appliance while watching videos. It probably renders videos better than many older computers anyway.
      My only gripe with it is that its resolution i

      • Re:Full blown computer (Score:2, Interesting)

        by drago ( 1334 )

        If there was a full-blown computer inside the beast, they would not be able to sell it for 400 bucks.
        What most people do not see is that most of the work inside a flat-screen TV today is done by software anyways. There is an assembly of chips, one for the tuner, one for decoding digital streams, one for analog stuff and some memory, and what holds all of it together is software.
        If you have the computing power to run the TV with all its control logic and OSD, plus the decoder DSP you need anyways to process

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by sr180 ( 700526 )

      Obviously, whatever board is working its magic in this AOC, and similar, is a full blown computer.

      Not necessarily. Theres a range on multimedia players that have similar specs and are running on DVD player type hardware.

    • ...(particularly given that the slightly uglier but much, much more standard option of an embedded PC in a VESA mount is always waiting in the wings)...

      You mean like this [logicsupply.com]?

  • Wow, nice way to drive traffic to hothardware.com. Is HotHardware paying Slashdot for the traffic or are Slashdot editors just not so bright.

    • Re: (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Is HotHardware paying Slashdot for the traffic...

      Why not? HotHardware's money is just as good as Roland Piquepaille's, you know.

  • Reminds me of that laptop I saw once. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Grendel Drago ( 41496 ) on Sunday July 13, 2008 @05:13PM (#24175629) Homepage

    I saw a laptop some years back which had a CD player separate from the computer; if you had a CD in the drive, you could spin it up and plug in headphones to get tunes out of it without powering up the whole machine.

    Sounds pretty similar, I think. I didn't see the point of it then, either.

    • Call it the iPod Meter and people will be all over it.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by EvilIdler ( 21087 )

      CD-ROM drives used to have play/pause/skip buttons back in the day. Just power on and stick the disc in. All my first CD and DVD drives had this feature in the previous millennium. Now you need a functioning OS to play discs, for the most part (although the BIOS on at least two of my systems recognise and play discs with MP3s).

      • Some computers didn't even have soundcards, and those that did certainly weren't going to handle the CD audio. So the CD player itself handled all playback and converted it to analogue audio, which you then listened to by either plugging headphones in to the CD player or running a wire to the sound card which then mixed it (again in analogue). All the OS did in terms of CD playback was tell it to start to play the disc.

        Little different now. You'll discover that many CD players lack analogue outs at all, and

    • I saw a laptop some years back which had a CD player separate from the computer; if you had a CD in the drive, you could spin it up and plug in headphones to get tunes out of it without powering up the whole machine.

      Sounds pretty similar, I think. I didn't see the point of it then, either.

      That reminds me of a laptop I read about a couple years ago, except in this case you could watch a DVD without booting into the OS. I haven't heard anymore about it, or similar laptops since.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by KGIII ( 973947 )
        I wish I'd seen this one before posting my last comment. I have an old(ish) HP Pavilion DV5000 that does exactly that. It is low power too so I can/could watch a couple of DVDs without needing to recharge.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by KGIII ( 973947 )
      My ancient Pavilian DV5000 has a DVD player (and media player) that works without actually booting the PC to the OS. Just click the DVD button and it turns it on and will play a variety of formats including music and .AVI and .MP4 IIRC. Hell, that lappy is a few years old now as I recall.

  • "HD" is useless (Score:1, Insightful)

    by dal20402 ( 895630 )

    No 720-line standard should have ever earned the "HD" moniker. The term "HD" should be reserved for displays and sources with resolution of 1920x1080 or greater. Real HD sources will look like ass on this display.

    Life would have been much clearer if we had called 720p "extended definition" instead of HD. A lot of people would have been saved from buying lousy TVs and monitors.

    • I'm happy with my 720P TV. I have a 1080P as well. I can live with my 720P TV but i would rather it be 1080P. So i agree with you. What pisses me off most is, HD TV is broadcast in 720P, but heavily compressed. I have FIOS, and FIOS TV and there is a lot of grain and compression artifacts in fast motion on HD TV broadcasts such as sports etc.

      You can easily see the compressed signal. I'm not sure its from FIOS to save bandwidth (probably is), or if its from the source... (probably is).

      Whatever the case is...

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by AC5398 ( 651967 )

        HDTV broadcast over the air is not compressed, the picture is phenomenal, and the subscription fee consists of purchasing an antenna.

        Otherwise I'd recommend going satellite. I had HDTV, free 6 month offer, from the local cable provider and the compression was horrific. HDTV from satellite is a world better if that's your only other way to get a signal. But over the air is by far the best available.

        • ATSC is compressed (Score:3, Informative)

          by tepples ( 727027 )

          HDTV broadcast over the air is not compressed

          Citation sorely needed. "Uncompressed" is what gets sent over your DVI or HDMI cable: 1920x1080 pixels, 3 channels, 8 bits per channel, 24 distinct frames per second, or 1.2 Gbps. To squeeze this into the roughly 19.39 Mbps provided by the 8VSB physical layer, ATSC DTV uses MPEG-2 video compression [wikipedia.org].

        • HDTV broadcast over the air is not compressed

          Broadcast HDTV is most certainly compressed. The ATSC standards utilize MPEG-2 compression over 8VSB modulation to give a ~20 Mbps channel per transmitter, whereas cable companies can use 16VSB, 256-QAM or better modulation to give a 40+ Mbps channel. Couple that with the fact that most broadcasters transmit multiple streams (subchannels like 9-1, 9-2, 9-3, etc) which each take up some of that 20 Mbps, and OTA HD broadcasts get ridiculously compressed.

          Satellite providers are just as bad, trying to send H

    • Re:"HD" is useless (Score:5, Interesting)

      by ya really ( 1257084 ) on Sunday July 13, 2008 @05:25PM (#24175721)
      There's no real use for 1080i/1080p though at the moment, other than for PC usage and BluRay. By the time telecomm companies get around to broadcasting in 1080, it's most likely OLEDs will have taken over the market of LCDS, leaving you with an outdated television.
      • Apparently 1080 allows you to display at 8000x8000 now. That's a use.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tepples ( 727027 )

      Life would have been much clearer if we had called 720p "extended definition" instead of HD.

      I've started to use the names "basic HDTV" for 720-line monitors and "premium HDTV" for 1080-line monitors.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Zak3056 ( 69287 )

      Compared with 480i, 720p is definitely "high definition."

  • Other wise.. sounds pretty cool :)
  • obviously it'll come without the extra £200 or so that Apple normally charge for having it in black

  • Ooh, HD movies from an SD card. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by wastedlife ( 1319259 ) on Sunday July 13, 2008 @05:32PM (#24175775) Homepage Journal
    TFA doesn't mention network streaming or what USB HD file systems it will support, or even if it supports USB storage other than flash drives. So, based on description available, users will need to copy a few of their media files to an SD card or flash drive (using the computer that is not necessary), and plug it into the back. Fantastic. This is definitely worth the extra space and the 200 dollar markup over regular 22 inch monitors.
  • slap in a NIC and web browser and you have the future PC.

  • It's a digital picture frame (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    So this is really another digital picture frame.

  • Skype, web? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by pimpimpim ( 811140 ) on Sunday July 13, 2008 @05:52PM (#24175885)
    from the have-been-living-under-a-rock-department?, sd card readers, usb ports, mp3 and video decoders have been built into, say, dvd players, for quite a few years now. I can buy them for about 100 euro at any local discounter. Come back when it has builtin skype and web capabilities. This tv is just like a tv with built-in dvd player, it probably has the same hardware as any current dvd player, except that it doesn't have the dvd-drive. This slashdot post is crap.

  • I'd pass... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Agram ( 721220 ) <ico@v t . e du> on Sunday July 13, 2008 @06:16PM (#24176027) Homepage
    I got a total of three different LCDs from AOC with the last one purchased approx. a year ago. Poor craftmaship (chipping paint, uneven edges around the screen), more dead pixels than other brands I commonly buy, and most importantly unbearable ground loop hum generated by poor grounding that affects all equipment on the same circuit make me believe they are not all that hot (they may have improved since--although you won't see me holding my breath)...

  • Does the embedded player contain DRM? If not, it sounds like a great piece of gear! If it's crippled with DRM, it has about as much value as microsoft's media player to me: $0.

  • I like it. Anyone know where it's from?

  • I hate to beat a dead horse, but it seems to me that in a case like this, there's no partiuclar reason for the vendor to lock you out of the system.  Why not let you dig around in the OS?  You're not even trying to sell me some kind of addon or anything, so there's not even short sited selfish motivation (Sony PSP, etc.) for locking me out.

  • LG scarlet line of LCD HDTVs already do it (google for "lg scarlet" - I am too lazy to type in the URL :-). It needs a FAT filesystem on a USB HDD. Samsung Series 6 and Series 5 LCD TVs do it - though it's doesn't do divx movies (LG model does). This is clearly a slashvertisement.

  • A TN panel, I guess? Good to know that AOC's new HD display is optional for my computer, then. :-)
  • That sounds ominous ... does this mean it will self-destruct if the user attempts to play a file without first presenting it with a valid photo ID, passport, security certificate and retinal scan? I prefer monitors that aren't purposefully crippled and that don't attempt to moonlight as copyright lawyers ...

    • It means that you can hook it up to an HDCP-ready video card and play stuff that requires HDCP. Most monitors intended for media playback have this now.

  • HD3 defines a new category in high definition displays with its built-in media player, allowing consumers, for the first time, to view movies without the use of an external DVD player or PC. With the 2230Fm, simply load a film onto a memory device, plug it into the display and use AOC's proprietary, user-friendly menu and remote control to enjoy a movie PC-free.

    Isn't it infinitely much easier just to load a DVD into a tray, than it is to rip a DVD, copy it onto a storage device, and plug it into a TV?

    It's m

  • You click on his name and you land on a store. What a surprise. Slashdot editors....
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • These TN Panels are simply POS.
  • Samsung and many others have marketed full blown XP, CE and Linux based thin clients for many years Capable of all the above plus web & email
  • I always suspected they were going to port Age of Conan (AOC) for consoles....

  • This functionality is actually somewhat common in current high end televisions.

  • I don't see why this is news. My parents have a Toshiba 30" CRT TV with a media card reader in it that plays the cards and any media on it as if it were playing a DVD or VHS tape. Why is this new technology?

    Oh... I get it. This is an advertisement disguised as a news item.

    But seriously, WTF, /.? I'm fairly new to /. so this s**t may be going on all the time for all I know, but this really is low. Advertisements should be advertisements, news items should be news items (we get it, guys. And we do click ads y

  • I'm guessing this will be one of the models that uses dithering to fake its claimed "millions of colors."

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