What do I need?

T

ThomP

New member
I'm building a HTPC and need a display. I just don't know which display will suit my needs best, and if it should be OLED or LCD!

The main purpose is navigating my music collection (using a remote control) without having to turn on the pcs primary display, so the display should be large, readable from a distance and preferably have 4 lines and be compatible with LCD Smartie. At the same time the colours should be discreet (no flashing red background) and without visible pixels in the background - I think it is very hard to tell from the pictures which colour combinations are best.

Since I'm from Denmark it must support the special danish characters æøåÆØÅ.

The pc does not have a printer port, so either the display should be serial/USB, or I will need some sort of converter/controller - I haven't seen any, so maybe they don't exist?
Crystalfontz LCD Blog
Looking for additional LCD resources? Check out our LCD blog for the latest developments in LCD technology.
 
T

ThomP

New member
Thanks for the answer! That generates some further questions ;)

CF Tech said:
Take a look at the CGROM of the CFA-634 to see if it suits your needs:

http://www.crystalfontz.com/products/634/cgrom.html
Click to expand...
It does :) But what about readability? Is the contrast, viewing angle etc. of LCD displays good enough or do I need a OLED for this purpose - If I do, it looks like I'm in trouble since all your OLED displays are for parallel interface and only 2 display lines :(

CF Tech said:
If it does, then a USB CFA-634:

http://www.crystalfontz.com/products/634usb/index.html
Click to expand...
Any special reason for recommending the USB version? The display needs to be built in to a home made pc-case with onboard headers on the mo-bo for both serial and USB, so I might as well use the cheaper serial port if there is no special advantage (I can't find any in the specs)?

CF Tech said:
or an "XE" might work out for you:
Click to expand...
Well that won't work since it's going inside the case:)

BTW: I've looked at the CFA634-YMC-KS and the CFA634-TFB-KS. There seems to be a price difference of $5 in the price list, but building a "drive bay kit" the difference is $19,5!! Is this intentional or an error? Is it possible to buy just a display, a power cable and a face plate without the drive bay insert (I want to mount my display directly on a wooden case, but I guess I still need a plate to cover the surface of the display)?
 
CF Tech

CF Tech

Administrator
> . . . what about readability? Is the contrast,
> viewing angle etc. of LCD displays good
> enough? . . .

Yes, the LCDs are fine. Lots of them in use on PCs.

> . . . Any special reason for
> recommending the USB version?

Just because it is "easiest". If you have an accessible motherboard serial port then that is a good way to go. If the motherboard pin-out happens to be right, the WR232Y08 will go directly between the display and the motherboard.
 
T

ThomP

New member
CF Tech said:
> . . . what about readability? Is the contrast,
> viewing angle etc. of LCD displays good
> enough? . . .

Yes, the LCDs are fine. Lots of them in use on PCs.
Click to expand...
That's excactly what I'm worried about; This is not a "PC" - with a typical PC you often have a short distance to the display and more or less always the same viewing position. This is more like a VCR or a stereo, where the display must be readable from many different viewing positions...
 
CF Tech

CF Tech

Administrator
Well, you would want to go with the largest character size (like the CFA-634) to help with the distance.

As far as viewing angle, these displays will probably work fine for your application. Lots of HTPC guys use them.

If you really need radical viewing angles, then you would need to go with a VFD.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top