$10 3.5" Screen? Has anyone used one of these?

[thedrew]

Just wondering if anyone has used one of these and if it is even usable among portables. It has a yellow wire I'm assuming for composite and red and black for power. I contacted the seller and he just said he is unable to answer my questions...?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/3-5-320x240...le-/381964503824?_trksid=p2349526.m2548.l4275

 

[MasterNate]

I would assume the yellow wire is composite. It couldnt really be anything else.

 

[thedrew]

I would assume the yellow wire is composite. It couldnt really be anything else.

Yeah and it has contrast, color, and brightness controls. Was hoping somebody has used it before to confirm for me. Otherwise, I might just take the plunge since its just $10...

 

[MasterNate]

Ten dollars is almost too good to be true. It is weird that the seller is unable to answer your questions. But ten dollars could be a good deal. I once bought a portable dvd player for 8 dollars, and I got a nice screen and speakers. The board that came with it controls the screen, the speakers, and has a headphone jack. The board also has built in charging and a built in protection circuit. I will probably use it in my next portable.

 

[YveltalGriffin]

If you do decide to buy that screen, be aware that the video decoder and other chips on the driver board are not standard by any means. Most common screens have an MStar (MST-XXX) chip, or a Realtek (crab logo) chip. I'd say go for it and let us know how the video quality is!

 

[thedrew]

If you do decide to buy that screen, be aware that the video decoder and other chips on the driver board are not standard by any means. Most common screens have an MStar (MST-XXX) chip, or a Realtek (crab logo) chip. I'd say go for it and let us know how the video quality is!

Yeah I realized that and tried to get data sheets for the chips with not much luck. Decided to just get the standard 3.5" backup monitor instead haha. I appreciate the replies and feedback though, thanks guys

 

[fibbef]

I just bought one because why the heck not. If it's a dud I consider that taking one for the team. When it gets here I'll test it and report back. Most interested to see if it works on older consoles since all the 3 and 4" screens I bought lately have frequency/scrolling issues.

Any specific game systems anyone want me to test on it?

 

[YveltalGriffin]

If you can, Wii and N64. Thanks Fibs!

 

[Doom]

@fibbef sega genesis pls, mostly Nomads I guess (A Genny 2 usually runs the same) thx ily

 

[fibbef]

Don't have a nomad but have all 3 genny models so I'll test those plus Wii and 64 and snap some pics for you guys.

Just got the shipping notification email. Have another week to wait. At least it's not shipping from China.

 

[thedrew]

I just bought one because why the heck not. If it's a dud I consider that taking one for the team. When it gets here I'll test it and report back. Most interested to see if it works on older consoles since all the 3 and 4" screens I bought lately have frequency/scrolling issues.

Any specific game systems anyone want me to test on it?

Sweet! One for the team

 

[Doom]

@fibbef

If you can, connect a Raspberry Pi (or some computer) to the screen and try to display text. Plz tell us if the text is readable at a good size.

of note, no matter what the internet says, everything i've tried for composite on the Raspi's suggests that the A/V jack is NOT trss or whatever, so keep that in mind when testing this

 

[fibbef]

Got my order in a few days earlier than expected (USPS tracking sucks) and was pleasantly surprised: the seller shipped 2 screens for some reason even though I only paid for one! Ok, sounds great unless the screens suck. So what's the verdict?

I tried powering it from a 5V cell phone charger but the best I got out of it was a white screen, if it would turn on at all. Switched to a 7.4V PSone power cord, and that was enough juice. I might try it again with a different USB charger with a higher amperage, but it's nice to know that 7.4V batteries should suffice.

Spoiler: Screen testing (lots of pics)

First off, tested Wii. Menu screen doesn't look too great but there's quite a bit of detail on there to expect it to look any good on a tiny screen. All the weird lines you see in the pics are a result of the camera and it looks much better in person. (Click the pic to enlarge and it should look better.) The arrow in the top right is printed on the peel off film, so that'll turn up in all images.

In-game looked pretty good. Again, Wii games aren't meant to be in such low resolution, so not the Wii's fault.

View angle isn't great. This pic was taken at about 45 degrees and this was the point where I'd say it was unplayable.

PortablizeMii doesn't look great, but I could still figure out what games are what.

SMW through PM looks fantastic imho.

This was a biggie for me; VERY pleased to see that this screen doesn't have the scrolling issue with N64. I think the picture looks pretty good too.

Another shot of it playing N64.

Running Genesis model 2. Looks good except the strange artifacts in the lower left.

Got into game and they're still there. But now the border is blue? I have a feeling this is something with the game and not the screen, so...

Tried another game, still on Genny 2. This looks better except you can still see some white pixels at the bottom of the screen. These actually dance back and forth really quickly and it's pretty distracting. Kind of inconclusive, but I'm still pretty sure this is built into the game. Probably the developers figured this would be hidden when the game is played on a CRT.

Dancing pixels disappear once in-game.

Same tests but now on a Genny 3:

Final verdict:

Am I happy with this screen? Yes. Definitely. It's a tiny screen and is the first of its size that I've bought in a long time that works with N64 and older game systems. It's not VGA or component, but it still looks pretty good. Definitely worth the price point (especially since I got 2 for the price of one) and I would definitely buy again. Actually, I already bought another one. Part of my decision is wanting to get my hands on more N64-compatible screens before they go away but part of me wants to see if the seller will ship 2 again.

Edit: @Doom I went to hook up my Genny 1 but realized that I've never actually had an AV cable for it, so I wasn't able to test that.
@The Save State Gamer I can't seem to find a microSD card with at least 4 GB anywhere in my house so I can't test the Pi yet. Once I find one I'll update this post.

 

[cheese]

The blue around the screen in sonic is the background color, on a CRT it would be cut off.

From what it looks like (so far), this screen would be perfect for any console before the gamecube (especially the consoles measured in bits). I guess I'll have to get some too now

 

[fibbef]

FYI - I checked out the seller’s other items and he has some listings where he’s selling bundles of 10 or 100 of these screens. I almost pulled the trigger on the 10-lot since it comes out to $5/screen, but I really don’t need that many screens.

 

[thedrew]

Wow that's great, gonna get me one as well! Thanks @fibbef !

 

[YveltalGriffin]

Just found the datasheet for the video decoder. (TW9910 for those interested.) Only supports composite and software-selectable s-video. The datasheet also confirms that the decoder runs on 3.3V.

 

[link270]

The seller has a 'make offer' thing going on there, so I decided to make an offer for 2 screens at $6 each and he accepted! I figure 2 screens at $12 is worth it just to have some extra small screens.

 

[MasterNate]

If you read later on the datasheet, it says it is compatible with YCbCr output

And it could be less than 5 dollars a screen if you make an offer they accept.

 

[link270]

Just got my order of 2 screens, and there were 3 inside! Cool, that’s $4 a piece.