OK, I have a spare computer, and I want to try something new with my max.

If I were to buy a 5.6" LCD, do I just hook up the cable from TV-Out on my computer to the screen? Would that work? It seems like it would, but I read on some thread that I need an LCD TV, which is much more expensive.

I just want some input before I spend $200 or so on a 5.6" LCD screen.

Thanks

-Sam

 

Do you plan to intigrate this computer into the car or are you basically just talking about doing a plug and play with a laptop.

 

Yea, plug and play.. for now. Why, what else could I do? I was planning on just having TV-Out go into the monitor, and hook up the speakers to the computer also (computer allows 2 outputs, which would be front set of speakers and back set of speakers). So, I could play mp3's and dvds on the little LCD (im more interested in MP3's), and control it with remote.

What do you mean by "integrating"?

-Sam

 

I've had the same idea as you but I haven't tried it out yet. I've heard that it's hard for the lcd screen to handle the resolution and that it's hard to read text. Max'n out sent me a link a while ago when I asked, but the link was a little different than what I was looking for. A laptop would have video and audio out, and just send the video to the lcd screen, and then send the audio to the audio input in an aftermarket headunit. Bam you should be set, well that's what I think at least. Hopefully it'd work out.

 

I don't see why it wouldn't work. I am very curious as to what the output will look like... the specs on most LCD's say 900 something Horizontal pixels and only 234 or something Vertical. That is a big difference from 800x600 or 640x480.

You think it's worth a shot? I wish someone would have more info on this!

Thanks for your input

-sam

 

The link I sent him was for qpc. Its a car based computer. They have a few diferent computers that you permently mount in the car. Bascailly you program cds, mp3, movies etc wireless internet and so on. Anything you can do on a computer can be dun by it. It's more extreame than most want but nice if you really want to do alot of different things. This way it's all in one.

 

I think someone should just take their laptop to a place that sells and demonstrates indash lcd screens. Tell the salesperson you'll but a screen if the text output and dvd's look good. That's gotta work and we'd finally get an answer.

 

the good old days... a computer in my car

i used to have a full PC in my i30, wireless internet access, you name it... as some of you will remember. Many saw it at the Northeast meet a year or so ago.

it was very very cool, got me in a few magazines, but the huuuuge pain that it was just wasn't worth it. so i ripped it all out and settled on a wonderful audio system.

yes, you can run a TV-OUT to an LCD screen or whatever (i used an alpine cva1005) but good luck trying to focus on a 640x480 windows desktop on a 6" lcd screen. it is a joke, even if you crank up the fonts etc etc. they are just not designed for it. if you took a true 10" vga lcd and put it in your dash, then that would look great, but i wasn't ready to go through the hassle

just my 0.02

 

i dont see any reason why it wouldnt work......but how are u gonna control it?????cordless keyboard and mouse?

 

IRMan... it allows you to use just about any remote, and there is software to program any button to do any number of things. (i.e. I press a button, and the computer shuts off, or I press another button and it closes the window on top)

And yes, a wireless keyboard and mouse would work for when I'm not driving, but I would most likely use a small remote to ff, rewind, pause, stop and play songs in Winamp or something.

 

Interesting...

Is it really *THAT* bad? Can you make out what it says? I would just like to be able to view a playlist (and visual plug ins) in Winamp. Think a 5.6 or 6" will suffice?

Thanks for your posts!

A pic of what text on an LCD would be GREAT, if you have one or know where one is.

-Sam

 

I thought I posted this earlier but guess not.

My buddy for a 5.6inch LCD screen from www.partsexpress.com for his Civic. We haven't put it in the car yet but we did test it out.

For movies, the LCD screen is great. For text, not so great. However we made a custom MP3 player specifically for this application. Its 640x480, so the program will take up the whole screen. This way, the text will be large and it will be easier to read. The computer is running linux so it will be more flexible to play with. We are working on making a full software which incorporates the mp3 player, divx player, etc.. GPS probably won't happen for a while since we'd have to buy the reciver. It depending on your application the LCD might work out great. We don't plan on reading any webpages with it so its ok.

Here's the link to check out the screen:
The LCD..has links to other LCDs they sell

Any questions, just ask.

 

i ran a trackball mouse from my center console back to the PC in the trunk, and same with an ultrathin keyboard in the driver's side sun visor

worked great

 

Yes.

Mostly due to inductive reasoning, not vision.

No, you won't. You'll be able to see visuals great, that was the nice part of it. But unless you find a special windows shell, or make one yourself, it will be nearly impossible to read small-print stuff like the playlist editor.


Sure. Not trying to be a downer, just telling you how it is. As I said it was enough of an a$$-pain that I ripped it all out and went with a nice pure audio system.

Take a look at these pics of my old setup:

http://www.citrano.com/winamp1.jpg
http://www.citrano.com/winamp2.jpg
http://www.citrano.com/winampviz1.jpg
http://www.citrano.com/winampviz2.jpg
http://www.citrano.com/boot1.jpg

i got more pics, too, of the old setup if you need.

good luck


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