Think I found a great cheap 800x480 7" tft pal/ntsc deal: mm400
 

After a whole lot of searching for a screen for our camera that we could use to flip our image from the adapter AND use for focussing, I think I found it...

I spent a lot of time looking around in the portable DVD player department and on ebay etc... But we have an extremely limited budget (like... a few hundred euros) and we have to be sure that when we spend any money, we better get something that works exactly the way it should work.

So, the most reliable and interesting deal I've found so far seems to be this:
http://www.cartft.com/catalog/il/527

Costs 229EUR new, does 800x480 and seems to have all the basic features we need.

This is the price of a new unit, not an ebay thing, which is pretty cool I think because we'd rather go for something new as it's more reliable.


Only questions floating around in my mind now are: Will our widescreen PAL signal look good? Will it be undistorted?

What do you guys think?

you can find many screens like that, they are almost all the same price and probably made by same manufacturer (liliput ?)
this one seems to have no plug , just cables, so it could be an annoyance.

Thanks for the info, if anyone has anything else to add?

BTW this store is located in Germany, which is a huge plus for me because all Lilliput and other similar screen sellers I've found were either U.S. or Hong Kong or something like that. As I'm from Belgium, this should be the most low-cost shipping and there's no extra tax to be paid, plus warranty stuff is more reliable.

I was looking for the same kind of thing.

This unit uses a Hitachi panel of only 7" but with a good resolution of 800x480 and the proposed price is very good (for Europe...). It has a video input (but no sound) and can be used as a VGA/SVGA monitor.

The main drawback is that this unit is not supllied with a battery pack (it's supposed to be powered by the 12V of a car, or on the 230V with the supplied adaptator).

The only alternative I've found (but for quite the double price...) are the Toshiba's portable DVD players SD-P2800 and SD-P30DT: they use a 8" screen of 800x480 too and have an audio/video input (and, sure, they are sold with their battery pack).
But they are 2 times bigger than the mentioned LCD monitor...

The other alternatives that I've found at a reasonnable price have, or no battery option, or no video input, and have generally a LCD with a lower resolution (360x234 or 480x240 or 480x272...).

Reese, if you decide to by the MM400 unit, give us a feedback about it.

Have a look to this thread too: http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=85271 where Wolfgang Winne has build its monitor with the same kind of product than the MM400 (here the LCD that Wolfgang has bought: http://babelfish.altavista.com/babel...2b706085777622 at 169 Euros --without any 230V adaptator--).

Ok, I'm going for the MM400, I'll definitely do an extensive review of it here, thx for the feedback guys.

Hey Reese,

Looking for something similar myself, but I'll probably go for the xenarc at the same site, because it has proven quality (relatively for its price of course):

http://www.cartft.com/catalog/il/106

Either way, I was looking at this battery (normally used for surveillance cameras) and thought you might also look at it. It is sold here in holland so that's pretty close to you. If you can mount this up somehow you'll be good all day without charging, because it is 4800mah. So assuming these screens need 8W at 12v, it's 0,67A, so that would be 7,2 hours.
It's a pretty big battery, coincidently almost exactly the size of the monitors. But you might be able to mount it somewhere. Don't know how heavy.

http://www.wilnic.nl/product_info.ph...-camera-4800ma

See ya,

Steven

I found another battery elsewhere (can't remember where) in the shape of a 2 inch square stack about the length of a soda can. 6000mAh, really great discharge, and easy to charge again. It was a bit more expensive though. Velcros right to the arm of my tripod.

lots of battery on www.batteryspace.com

Hah! What do you know. That's where I got it. Another great source is www.all-battery.com

Hi, Since reading this thread i've been digging deeper into this subject, especially over at mp3car.com which has a forum with a lot of stuff about cheap small lcds, because they put 'em in their cars over there to use as carputers.
Anyway, turns out that mm400 isn't half bad at all. In the sub €500 range the xenarc is supposedly best, followed shortly by the mm400 (which is the same as the linitx/tview screen). Both of them should be much better than the lilliputs. The reason why they think the xenarc is better is because it has a bit better brightness (for viewing while exposed to sunlight). However, they always use those things with touchscreens, which is a sort of overlay that in the case of the mm400 dims and blurs the displays some. So if you buy it without touchscreen, it should be similar to the xenarc. Also, the xenarc is reported to have a nasty uncorrectable white balance, which makes everything yellowish. So with that mm400 you're getting a more color-neutral, just as sharp and bright and little bit cheaper display than the xenarc, if you believe these sources! Might even get one myself now :)
But hoping to hear your review as soon as yours arrives, especially in respect to our kind of workflow (ie filmmaking).

Cheers, Steven

Ok, an update about this monitor (mm400/linitx/tview):
I received it yesterday from cartft.com, fast shipping, all accessories included, no problems. It was a bit of a disappointment to find out it has NO flipping function, even though it has a button on the remote that says 'mirror', it doesn't work. Also got this confirmed from the manufacturer.
Anyway, this is not an enormous problem for me, since I'll make something to hold it upside down (I don't really trust the screwhole at the bottom of the monitor for use in the field anyway).
Also the picture quality seems very good, and there are much more image controls than I thought for this price. Aside from brightness, contrast, color, hue and phase there is also a color temp control for R, G and B separately. So as soon as I have my camera, I should be able to calibrate it from a good monitor. So more workflow details when I have my full setup.

Insignia™ 8" 16:9 Widescreen LCD Screen Portable DVD Player
 

I found this DVD palyer in BestBuy for only $ 99.99.

Insignia™ 8" 16:9 Widescreen LCD Screen Portable DVD Player
Model: NS-8PDVD
Take this portable DVD player on a trip with you to inject some fun into the voyage. The 2 headphone jacks allow more than 1 person to listen simultaneously.
8" widescreen LCD display with high-resolution and high brightness



16:9 aspect ratiow
Specialized DVD controls include previous, next, up, down, left, right, menu, wide and play/pause
1-2/5" thin for maximum portability
Adjustable volume and brightness controls for a customized viewing experience

2 built-in stereo speakers
Inputs: composite A/V
Outputs: 2 headphone, composite A/V
NiMH rechargeable battery (included) for up to 3 hours of playback time
A/V cable, car power adapter, AC/DC adapter and remote included

I am thinking to buy this for my DOF project to use for image flipping. Any one has experience with this LCD player. Can I use to INPUT composit A/V?

Question is how to mount on Tripod?

Thanks

Jay

I recently ordered my MM400, and I'm looking for a battery!
Has anyone used the battery Steven Fokkinga mentioned?
http://www.wilnic.nl/product_info.ph...-camera-4800ma

Thx!

I haven't yet, first want to see what more is out there. I did get some more info on this battery though, it's li-ion and it weighs only 175g...
Got my A1 today so you'll soon here more about this stuff! Whohoo!

Ok, so I tested it today, doesn't work well yet. I have linked the A1 via component to the mayflash, and then from the mayflash via vga to the mm400 tft. I does show something, but it the image is 'double', i.e. there are two images overlayed over each other slightly (1 cm) shifted from each other. Besides that it looks very sharp (much sharper than via composite) and I don't see grain, but it's hard to see with the image shift.
Anyone has an idea what might cause this/how to solve this?