The Market: Panels From LG-Philips, Samsung, AU Optronics, Sharp, CMO

Certainly, the broader economic situation is of interest to anyone considering a TFT panel. 2004 is nearly over, and the supply shortage of smaller TFT panels (especially 15.1" models) that characterized the market around 6 months ago has eased up somewhat. Nevertheless, sales of displays for notebooks (15.1") and LCD-TV (19" and bigger) are up sharply, far greater than forecasted. At the same time, production levels of 19" panels begun to pick up, allowing the delivery problems to be fixed by mid-year, while production of 18.1" panels has nearly halted.

LG-Philips is still the market leader in LC panel production, followed by Samsung and AU Optronics.

Suitability Of Displays From Notebooks, Digicams, Etc

Another issue that must be mentioned: it takes a great deal of time and expense to prepare TFT panels taken from laptops for use in your homemade projector. All models work with their own controller board, which will not accept output signals from a graphics card (RGB) or a DVD player (FBAS). One solution would be to use the "old" VESA connector from an outdated graphics card, as it supplies digital signals. In that case, however, the display maxes out at 256 colors (8 bit).