Retina & High res Display, Tablets, Laptops, Cost, Manufacturers and Modding

Retina & High res Display, Tablets, Laptops, Cost, Manufacturers and Modding

Using an iPad-sized, Retina-like display as a high-res PC monitor EmerytHacks: Connecting an iPad retina LCD to a PC

This fellow bought a retina LCD/LED replacement for $55.

1 -If the prices of making Retina screens are not so high then why arent more manufacturers offering them? At least as options? Why are they still shilling 1366x768 machines?

2 - I am wondering if its possible to find cheap 13.x " Retina Displace LCD/ LED replacements from the Retina MBP Pro and mod them into other 13/ 14" frames/ laptops?

Thoughts?

 

1) 1366x768 is still cheaper than Retina. Customers seem not to care too much about the displays in their laptops.

2) Haven't seen any yet, unfortunately.

 

afaik LG has exclusivity agreement with Apple . It lapsed for mobile displays

 

Where could I go looking / asking someone who has Laptop Display/ Mod-Hack / LVDS connectivity understanding?

 

The Retina displays will not work in most laptops. They are driven with eDP (embedded DisplayPort) instead of LVDS, which most laptops use. The only non-Mac laptops I know of that use eDP are the Dell Precision and HP Elitebooks. Even then, only models with the 10-bit IPS displays have eDP.

 

Nice. Thanks for that insight. What about Thinkpads? Any of them? or 13/ 15" Asus/ other machines?

 

My Thinkpad W520 has an LVDS connection and it's faily new, so I don't think any Thinkpads use eDP. According to this ( G46 HD+ display availability info - Page 2), the ASUS G series gaming laptops have an eDP connection. I don't about their other models.

I don't know why eDP isn't more widely spread. It's more power efficient and shouldn't cost more to implement.

 

Interesting insights. Are there any 13.x" and 15.x" machines from the Series of Notebooks you've listed possible candidates for Retina mod? Which ones should I look at?

PS: Adding a question - Did the pre-Retina MacBook Pros have eDP connectors? Could a Retina display be popped into the 13" MBP from before?

 

I read up a little more on the retina screen and it seems that it wouldn't be an easy mod. According to What is the model number of the 2880x1800 LCD? - MacBook Pro 15" Retina Display Mid 2012 - iFixit, the display uses standard signals (eDP, backlight, etc), but they're all crammed into one cable. Every notebook I've seen so far uses separate cables for the display and backlight, so you'd need to use an adapter.

As far as I know, the non-Retina MacBook Pros use LVDS. I'd really like to do this mod, but it doesn't seem easy at all. We'd need to find an eDP laptop, figure out how to cram a 16:10 display into a 16:9 chassis, find an adapter and a longer cable ( http://d3nevzfk7ii3be.cloudfront.net/igi/TQ2TvZR1EKjPb3ix.huge), and then find a place to put the hinge, which is attached to the cable ( http://d3nevzfk7ii3be.cloudfront.net/igi/GeOrpeJLfPFOeagQ.large)

 

Ok- Let's drop the Mod and finding a laptop for mod now. How about buying a 13" Retina Display from Taobao or similar Chinese source and using it as an external display.

Since eDP is (I am hoping) apparently compatible with DisplayPort? Could I use it as a portable external Display with any machine that supports DisplayPort output and can support 2560x1600 resolution?

If so, then how do I go about it? I'd love to do this - Maybe it would be even better for me.

 

all Macbooks with the exception of the Retinas use LVDS

find the pinouts and use the same mod as the iPad linked above I would assume. Will prob need to wire up an external power supply for the backlight as Retina backlights are rather power hungry.

 

Here is a list of candidates:

https://hackpad.com/Best-Panels-Wiki-D5UvkrtVvJ9

Leokim from Korea did manage to fit that LG LP125WF1 with eDP on that ThinkPad X201 with LVDS as follows:

http://thinkpads.kr/xe/index.php?mid=REVIEW01&document_srl=173817
http://thinkpads.kr/xe/index.php?mid=REVIEW01&document_srl=174715

Samsung LSN154YL01 (Retina Display) should cost less than 100 bucks (500 Chinese Yuan) plus shipping from China:

http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=17535023312

The case was scratched for this one and the whole screen is listed here for just a little more than 100 bucks (700 Chinese Yuan) here:

http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=19770568442

Once we've found a way to convert eDP to LVDS, we also have to figure out how modify the BIOS before it could map all the pixels natively without scaling at all. Definitely a challenge unless someone could ask Leokim to post a tutorial of some sort:

http://forum.51nb.com/thread-1343342-1-1.html

 

SeeTeeYou - Wow! Thanks you are amazing. That's a lot of great info. Have you done stuff like this before.

I was originally looking for the 13" Retina and not the 15" Retina you pointed. Are there any machines that could take in the 15" or 13" retina displays?

But at that price, I am wondering if I can use that 15" as a portable external Display that can take DP inputs from any such laptop. Thoughts?

What kind of conversion / power kit would be needed?

 

Any ideas on finding a kit that works for both?

 

That would be really interesting to see a retina display from a MBP modded into another laptop