Re: Turn your Laptop monitor into a LCD TV

Hello Roger,


I have an old Notebook computer for more than 5 years. Because I use it
often, the notebook finally has some problem occurred. The most
important thing is that the plastic case between notebook and monitor
broke. I spent 120 dollars have those problem fixed. Recently, my
notebook was dead. I visited computer shops try to get some help. I
believe that my computer can be fixed, but it will cost me a lot of
money. While visiting those computer shops, I found a lot LCD monitors
for sell. An idea crossed my mind. Can I recycle my notebook and turn
it into a stand alone LCD TV or LCD monitor? But I did not find any
accessories in the shops.

You can't.
Sell the computer on ebay.
Buy a LCD monitor.
It's in principle possible, but in practice, it's much, much easier to
ebay, and buy a new one.

Very right.
I designed a board to do this a little while ago, for a company that sells LCD panels. You need first the TV tuner, then a system to digitise this into a memory area. Then the ability to rescale the access to this memory to match the size of the LCD, and the ability to clock this data asynchronously out onto the panel. Development cost was a few tens of thousands of pounds. The actual units are only a few dollars produced in quantity, but they have to be designed to match the connection sequence of the panel concerned (we did all the output , using a fpga, which allows this to be reprogrammed to suit different panels). You could probably make a 'one off', using some dual port memory, a video digitiser board, and some discrete logic to drive the panel, but you would need full timing details for the panel, and the cost would be many times what an LCD TV costs.
Sell the laptop as a non-working 'scraper' on ebay, and it may well get recycled into fixing some others, or repaired itself.


Depends on what died. If the notebook doesn't power up anymore, sure. But if it just lost a drive or battery capacity you may be able to use it, at least in Europe. I have heard that people in Germany buy these DVB-T sticks that plug into USB, to watch digital TV on their computers. In most regions over there TV has been converted to digital so you have a quite complete array of channels. The sticks are supposedly cheap and must contain the tuner.

These days I just would have a hard time to find anything worthwhile watching :-)

Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Turn your Laptop monitor into a LCD TV
    ... the notebook finally has some problem occurred. ... I found a lot LCD monitors ... it into a stand alone LCD TV or LCD monitor? ... asynchronously out onto the panel. ...
    (sci.electronics.design)
  • Re: overscanning in LCD monitors
    ... video input connector? ... The LCD ... a fairly narrow range of update rates (re the panel itself), ... operating the monitor at any such "non-native" rate (and the process ...
    (comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.video)
  • Re: Turn your Laptop monitor into a LCD TV
    ... the notebook finally has some problem occurred. ... I visited computer shops try to get some help. ... I found a lot LCD monitors ... it into a stand alone LCD TV or LCD monitor? ...
    (sci.electronics.design)
  • Re: A scratch on the screen of my flat-screen monitor.....
    ... > an LCD, you would have to replace the panel. ... > the monitor is fairly new, ... I've had limited success with CRT's by polishing off the anti glare coating ...
    (sci.electronics.repair)
  • Re: Connecting VAIO notebook to LCD TV
    ... that is why I get only 1 monitor and not 2 monitor, ... Another thing is that I can use resolution 1280 x 1024 on notebook, ... then I can not see the whole page on the LCD screen, ... graphics chipset and should be visible in the display properties box. ...
    (comp.sys.laptops)