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Ask HN: Has any progress been made on large format E-ink displays?

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Re: Ask HN: Has any progress been made on large format E-ink displays?

#41

Post by numpad0 »

I forgot to reply to the previous post on topic but is there someone looking for a single purpose typewriter laptop?

One that I know is Kingjim Pomera line. They have a few reflexive LCD models based on some rare Toshiba uC, an E Ink model that runs on good old ARM926EJ-S, IIRC, and a color backlit LCD model that just runs Android Linux stripped bare(no Android GUI at all). Some people are running X on the last one.

Those are only available in Japan with JP106 keyboard(think of ANSI with ISO return, ISO symbols and two extra keys next to spacebar) and I can’t assure hackability, but as an input...

Re: Ask HN: Has any progress been made on large format E-ink displays?

#43

Post by frosted-flakes »

dheera wrote: post #39
ipsum2 wrote: post #8

Have you looked at https://remarkable.com/ ? It's a little smaller, 12" diagonal. Dasung sells a 13.3" e-ink monitor: https://www.amazon.com/Dasung-Paperlike-13-3-E-Ink-Monitor/d...

Can anyone comment on the difficulty (for a hacker) of using Remarkable with Kindle books? I have a Kindle already, if that makes a difference in generating DRM-free files of content I already purchased reading rights to.

It is trivial to convert DRM'd Kindle e-books you own into epub or other formats. Check out Calibre and the Apprentice Alf plugin.

https://calibre-ebook.com/

https://apprenticealf.wordpress.com/

Re: Ask HN: Has any progress been made on large format E-ink displays?

#44

Post by enricozb »

dheera wrote: post #39
ipsum2 wrote: post #8

Have you looked at https://remarkable.com/ ? It's a little smaller, 12" diagonal. Dasung sells a 13.3" e-ink monitor: https://www.amazon.com/Dasung-Paperlike-13-3-E-Ink-Monitor/d...

Can anyone comment on the difficulty (for a hacker) of using Remarkable with Kindle books? I have a Kindle already, if that makes a difference in generating DRM-free files of content I already purchased reading rights to.

I have never been able to get EPUBs to reliably work on remarkable. My solution is to convert them to PDFs.

Re: Ask HN: Has any progress been made on large format E-ink displays?

#45

Post by frosted-flakes »

gen3 wrote: post #23
tomxor wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Was thinking something similar - rather than an old panel you could take a newer large high res panel, chosen carefully so it's easy to separate from the back-light. I wonder what it would look like with just paper behind it instead? (or a slightly more reflective white material). I wouldn't expect color to "transflect" very well, but it might work ok as a simple 1-bit screen, fully transmissible as possible reflecti…

This sounds pretty similar to the display on the Pebble Time. It was a color LCD, sometimes marketed as a low power LCD or reflective LCD. For the majority of the time the display didn't use the backlight. They don't seem to be widely manufactured in my attempts to look for them... I should check again!

Or the GameBoy Advance and Advance SP. The Advance SP had a toggle-able front light, but was very usable without it.

(A later version of the Advance SP had a regular back-lit LCD screen.)

Re: Ask HN: Has any progress been made on large format E-ink displays?

#46

Post by ipsum2 »

JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #37
ipsum2 wrote: post #8

Have you looked at https://remarkable.com/ ? It's a little smaller, 12" diagonal. Dasung sells a 13.3" e-ink monitor: https://www.amazon.com/Dasung-Paperlike-13-3-E-Ink-Monitor/d...

Looks like I can get the Dasung for $1200 used... It’s a pity because I’d love that thing to read the web on actually.

They might be out due to COVID-related supply issues, I remember seeing them in stock a few months ago. You might have better luck ordering from the company directly.

Re: Ask HN: Has any progress been made on large format E-ink displays?

#47

Post by j88439h84 »

scottlocklin wrote: post #38
Abishek_Muthian wrote: post #32

There is a need gap for 'Affordable E-Ink large external displays'[1]. Dasung, Onyx have been market leaders in this category and they are expensive. There are E-ink tablets from several other manufacturers as mentioned in other comments, but they rarely are external displays. Then there are reliability issues with cheap DIY E-Ink displays, they don't last long and especially when displaying low refresh rate data lik…

Not only are Onyx expensive; they're basically unusable. A rooted Kobo H2O with koreader in landscape mode is vastly better. Sony is apparently still selling the DPT-RP1, and it still doesn't connect to Linux or read DjVu. I guess at least it has an OSX client.

Onyx boox note pro is expensive but fwiw I really like it.

Re: Ask HN: Has any progress been made on large format E-ink displays?

#48

Post by jdkaiwei »

enricozb wrote: post #44
dheera wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can anyone comment on the difficulty (for a hacker) of using Remarkable with Kindle books? I have a Kindle already, if that makes a difference in generating DRM-free files of content I already purchased reading rights to.

I have never been able to get EPUBs to reliably work on remarkable. My solution is to convert them to PDFs.

You can also install KOReader on remarkable as a reader. Works better IMHO. https://github.com/koreader/koreader

Re: Ask HN: Has any progress been made on large format E-ink displays?

#49

Post by beezle »

solarkraft wrote: post #31
arvinsim wrote: post #26

An iPad-sized, Kindle-like reader would be a godsend.

These things do exist (Sony DPT, Onyx Boox, ReMarkable) - they're just more expensive than you'd expect them to be considering what they can do.

Remarkable has a premium for the ability to write on the display with tactile feel and response time near identical to ordinary pen/pencil.

Re: Ask HN: Has any progress been made on large format E-ink displays?

#50

Post by namibj »

TACIXAT wrote: post #19
mhh__ wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like the sharp memory LCDs? They're pretty cool but I think the limiting factor is demand rather than technology (although they do have a pretty niche construction in that the control sillicon is AFAIK actually fabricated inside/along the LCD panel)

I'm actually more interested in a high refresh rate, non backlit monitor. Power isn't really an issue for desktops, so that part of eink doesn't appeal to me. I'm trying to limit my time looking at illuminated sources. Something like [1] with no front light. 1. https://youtu.be/kDk-t6XkFvc

Would greyscale be ok? If so, you should be able to delaminate a panel and replace the backlight with a reflector. If you'd do that with a color LCD, you'd have a very dark image, however.
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