YouTuber Matthew Perks, AKA DIY Perks, showcased his DIY dual-layer LCD monitor earlier this week. It’s a homespun reply to the issue of LCD dimming and an try to achieve elevated distinction by deeper blacks on an LCD show. It makes use of a pair of LCD panels from off-the-shelf screens.
There are just a few present fashionable laptop monitor applied sciences obtainable in the present day. Firstly there are LCD screens which make use of a full white backlight masking the complete display screen. In this kind of monitor colours and black are generated by liquid crystals letting the backlight by unaffected (white) coloring or trying to dam the sunshine (black). LCD IPS screens normally have a particular darkish gray look at their darkest factors, whereas LCD VA screens are a bit higher on this regard. Additionally, LCDs can typically undergo from backlight bleed as a result of full and intense white gentle behind the pixels. Extra trendy LCDs might make use of dimming zones the place the backlight might be turned off for higher distinction, with extra zones working with the monitor firmware for extra refined native dimming. There are additionally screens with rather more granular backlighting tech referred to as mini LED and micro LED shows. We don’t have to get into these right here, however will even point out OLED, the place every display screen pixel is its personal gentle supply – so there isn’t any backlight required.
The primary concept DIY Perks tried, within the quest for a extra OLED-like show on a finances, was to get two similar screens and place one panel in entrance of the opposite to have a black-deepening impact. One monitor was left intact and the opposite stripped all the way down to its very skinny and delicate show panel (with no backlight).
Sadly, the primary try confirmed that the two-panel darkening impact was so sturdy that no picture was seen in any respect! Undeterred, DIY Perks analyzed the difficulty and located it was because of superimposed polarization layer There are depolarization movies obtainable, however they’re prohibitively costly, mentioned the intrepid YouTuber. As a make-do answer, he discovered putting tracing paper between the panels did very a lot the identical job. With this hurdle behind him, the ensuing picture high quality was judged to be dim throughout, not simply within the black areas.
To deal with the dimness downside, the apparent subsequent step was to present the monitor backlighting a lift. The supply screens solely used backlighting from the sides, so Perks determined to create a way more intense backlight by filling the entire background with a matrix of LEDs. To keep away from seen gentle peaks and troughs, tracing paper was used once more, however for the perfect diffuse impact it needed to be somewhat distance above the lighting array.
To get the brand new system to work, the remaining monitor wanted to have its LCD extracted and positioned on high of the opposite show (separated by tracing paper). With this accomplished, the YouTuber did an admirable job of assembling the experimental dual-monitor with energy, controller boards and loads of cooling in a thick however serviceable case.
DIY Perks was very clear in regards to the successes of his challenge, in addition to the constraints. The result’s a mixture of successes and disadvantages.
Upon first boot, the picture distinction was mentioned to be spectacular, however as home windows have been opened and textual content / UI parts have been proven on display screen a “bizarre softness” was noticed. Softer textual content was attributed to the twin monitor that includes twin tracing paper layers and was described as somewhat like a refined drop shadow impact.
Shifting onto gaming, one of many key functions that this monitor was designed for, Perks was rather more proud of the outcomes. He praised the highly effective distinction and vivid shade. It’s arduous to catch this sort of impact on digital camera, after which present it through a medium like YouTube (and screenshots) however the photos helps exhibit how the challenge labored out.
DIY Perks admits a significant disadvantage of the dual-layer design is energy consumption. Apparently, the backlight array within the instance used 250W. Moreover, the height brightness of the ensuing monitor was considerably dimmer than a single unmodified pattern.
If you wish to make one among these DIY dual-layer LCD screens you possibly can take a look at some official DIY Perks discussion board steerage, and there are even options on make it higher than the video instance. One of the crucial fascinating options may result in elimating no less than one of many tracing paper layers.