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Modos Color Monitor Pushes E-Paper Displays Further

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Re: Modos Color Monitor Pushes E-Paper Displays Further

#71
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm pretty sure e-ink has a much higher ceiling for reflectance than TLCDs/RLCDs, so you'll be able to use it comfortably without a frontlight in a lot more situations which could more than make up for increased power usage. I think they are also naturally better in terms of glare compared to any type of LCD.

Viewing angles are also fantastic compared to almost all T/R LCDs - they tend to be fairly directional. It's a great display tech for many things that don't need 60+fps.

And contrast ratio seems far higher to add on to the benefits. I want to like reflective displays, and there are many new ones lately too, but they just fall a bit short, especially if they try to do color

Re: Modos Color Monitor Pushes E-Paper Displays Further

#72
Last time I read about them (here in HN) somebody highlighted that the problem wasn’t to get them to function at a high refresh rate, the problem is they stop being energy effecient at that rate. Now I mostly skimmed the article but I couldn’t find any information regarding that.

Re: Modos Color Monitor Pushes E-Paper Displays Further

#73
post #46
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The current crop of controllers are optimized for low power, which fits the e-reader use case but that is not optimal for the interactive use case. Why try to contort the technology for something it's not good at, instead of using a more appropriate technology like transflective LCDs? Eink isn't the only option for reflective displays. If you increase the power use of eink to get better refresh rates, I imagine you…

It isn't clear to me that eink's underlying display technology isn't good at the interactive computing use case so much as the implementations aren't optimized for it. There could be a position where more power than an eink reader is used but still far less than traditional active displays since unchanged pixels aren't driven.

It should be good enough for interactive use, but not for watching movies.

In TFA it is said that for these new faster panels the transition time of a pixel is around 50 ms. This is comparable with some old LCDs.

Re: Modos Color Monitor Pushes E-Paper Displays Further

#75

Last time I read about them (here in HN) somebody highlighted that the problem wasn’t to get them to function at a high refresh rate, the problem is they stop being energy effecient at that rate. Now I mostly skimmed the article but I couldn’t find any information regarding that.

I think that's true, but energy efficiency is only one potential benefit of epaper displays, and not one that is a goal with this product.

Re: Modos Color Monitor Pushes E-Paper Displays Further

#76
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, I'm glad to see that person is getting some more recognition for this work. A claim in the video that I can't verify but makes economic/logistic sense is that the speed problem isn't the panels but the controllers. The current crop of controllers are optimized for low power, which fits the e-reader use case but that is not optimal for the interactive use case.

> A claim in the video that I can't verify but makes economic/logistic sense is that the speed problem isn't the panels but the controllers. I don't understand the claim. It is lacking in specifics. Are they claiming that electrophoretic materials (meaning the panels) can actually switch (meaning move pigments) faster than say x.y micrometers per second? I don't think that is true. The article shows that what Wenting…

> Are they claiming that electrophoretic materials (meaning the panels) can actually switch (meaning move pigments) faster than say x.y micrometers per second?

No, I think the claim is that the controllers are slower that what the panels can theoretically support.

Re: Modos Color Monitor Pushes E-Paper Displays Further

#77
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I had the 600-odd dollars, I'd absolutely buy this. It's a damn shame it's so expensive.

I think the 600 dollar price is more than double the price of the same diplay as a mass-produced product it's a price for enthusiasts of the technology and it's open source so nothing stops a bigger producer of copying the exact technology with institutional funding and manufacturing expertise

I wasted 2k on a color e-ink monitor that ended up being pretty much unusable. Reviews said as much but the risk was worth it to me for the chance to spend my days looking at something that doesn't feel like a screen. I believe it's an "if you build it they will come" thing especially for anyone working on a computer all day.

Re: Modos Color Monitor Pushes E-Paper Displays Further

#79
post #42
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, I'm glad to see that person is getting some more recognition for this work. A claim in the video that I can't verify but makes economic/logistic sense is that the speed problem isn't the panels but the controllers. The current crop of controllers are optimized for low power, which fits the e-reader use case but that is not optimal for the interactive use case.

> The current crop of controllers are optimized for low power, which fits the e-reader use case but that is not optimal for the interactive use case. Why try to contort the technology for something it's not good at, instead of using a more appropriate technology like transflective LCDs? Eink isn't the only option for reflective displays. If you increase the power use of eink to get better refresh rates, I imagine you…

I'm currently reading your post on a transflective LCD monitor. The problem with them is the very low contrast ratio which requires very high ambient illumination to make them readable or other workarounds like what they did for the Daylight DC-1.
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