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Has anyone interfaced a display from a portable DVD player? — Parallax Forums

Has anyone interfaced a display from a portable DVD player?

mrgadgetmrgadget Posts: 5
edited 2010-01-07 01:36 in Propeller 1
I just inherited a Toshiba portable DVD player with a 9" screen (MN: SD-P1900SN). The disc drive portion doesn't work but the screen is fine and could make a cool display for a project. It has A/V Out, A/V In, and a Bitstream/PCM jack. I have no Prop or PIC experience as yet, just BS2.

Any insight?

Thanks,
Mike

Comments

  • StefanL38StefanL38 Posts: 2,292
    edited 2010-01-05 07:49
    Welcome to the forum mrgadget.

    The AV-in should be able to work with a tv-signal created by the propeller.
    Which board are you using? Some of the boards have a RJ-jack inluded with the resistors that build the DAC to create the TV-composite signal

    best regards

    Stefan
  • Graham StablerGraham Stabler Posts: 2,510
    edited 2010-01-05 09:42
    Mike,

    Not quite the same but I used the screen from an in car DVD player where the screens attach to the back of the seat head rests. With a little snooping it was easy enough to find out which wire was which on the LCD module and this let me use it stand alone, have a look at my little development set up:

    http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?p=621981
  • mrgadgetmrgadget Posts: 5
    edited 2010-01-05 16:52
    Thanks Stefan, I will have to investigate the Prop's abilities further. I have no "board", just the raw DVD player electronics which are all SMD components. The display has 2 headers, one 20 pin and one 15 pin and loosely has the following specs:

    9" Diagonal Wide Panel TFT
    480 x 234 Resolution
    Wide Aspect Ratio
    Brightness 350 cd/m2

    Now Graham has going on exactly what I pictured for myself.....but I have a lot to learn to get there! Your automotive DVD screen is likely quite similar at least in it's original intended usage, so my portable player version shouldn't be too far off. I'm just wondering though how practical (outside of educational gain) this might be to integrate to a point that it's useful.

    Thanks
    Mike
  • WBA ConsultingWBA Consulting Posts: 2,935
    edited 2010-01-05 16:55
    I use a 5" screen from an old Audiovox portable DVD player all the time. It has AV in and I just use the TV objects for the propeller to make use of it. If you don't use the propeller currently, take a look at the propeller backpack board. One of it's features is to give Stamp users access to the propeller's TV output without needing to learn SPIN.

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  • CannibalRoboticsCannibalRobotics Posts: 535
    edited 2010-01-05 17:00
    As a BS2 guy, you might also look at the Parallax backpack board. It uses a prop to generate NTSC but is workable from a BS2.
    In any case, welcome to the world of Prop.

    www.parallax.com/StoreSearchResults/tabid/768/txtSearch/Backpack/List/0/SortField/4/ProductID/602/Default.aspx

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  • StefanL38StefanL38 Posts: 2,292
    edited 2010-01-05 18:07
    mrgadget,

    if you don't have a AV-IN-connector it might be pretty complicated. It depends on if one of the two connectors you mentioned is for feeding in a video-composite signal.
    If the conversion-circuit from video-composite to pixeldriver-circuit is not included you would have to deal with the pixeldriver-circuit hwich has a complete different specification
    than the video-composite-signal.

    best regards

    Stefan
  • mrgadgetmrgadget Posts: 5
    edited 2010-01-05 19:40
    This is all great info [noparse]:)[/noparse] So I put the unit back together and plugged it into my home DVD A/V out and the portable unit played the A/V fine. Ironically after that I tried a DVD in the portable and the drive spun up and all worked (seems you have to tilt the bugger to 90 degrees to make that start - yeah for Toshiba innovation, but apparently this model player is a total lemon in that regard).

    I also tried an old composite out B&W CCTV camera and it works fine thru the player. So it seems that I have something usable here, much less complicated than I first anticipated as I was first thinking I had to interface the 35 wires from the display to a controller.

    I'll check out the backpack options for BS2 usage as well, thanks!

    Mike
    (more questions likely to follow...)
  • WhitWhit Posts: 4,191
    edited 2010-01-05 20:06
    mrgadget,

    See - http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?p=743936

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    "We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths." - Walt Disney
  • mrgadgetmrgadget Posts: 5
    edited 2010-01-05 21:18
    Whit, you hit the nail on the head. Looks like a Prop is in the near future... Thank you all so much for such quick and detailed answers!

    Mike
  • VIRANDVIRAND Posts: 656
    edited 2010-01-07 01:36
    Last year the portable DVD players with AV in were dropping in price.
    This year I could not find any more of them with input to the screen.

    Other options...
    Surplus game screens for automotive use of gamecube and playstation, under $50.
    CCTV, but usually costs over $100.
    Ebay
    Old TVs and NTSC/CCTV Monitors.
    Sometimes: Automotive screens for electronic rear view, dashboard displays, rear seat DVD players.
    Small flatscreens (TV) with DVI, VGA, Composite, made a year or more ago; haven't seen them new anymore.

    In case HDTV has made NTSC extinct,
    do we have a VGA emulation of the TV driver that works with GRAPHICS?
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