Laptop LCD screen to TV

[cynikalhedonist]

I had an old Compaq laptop from 2002 that was broken. I took it apart and saved the dvd drive and the LCD screen.

Is there a way I can use my LCD screen as a TV screen? The plugs are intact; I assume I would need a way to power up the device and a way to send a signal to the TV.

Any ideas?

Thanks a lot!

[aedipuss]

not in any easy or reasonable way. no power supply, no lcd controller board, etc... but, maybe if you were already some mad electronics genius with a lab?

[cynikalhedonist]

I realize what I'm asking is a little crazy but it doesn't seem so impossible.

The screen has these two plugs that were originally plugged into the motherboard. I thought maybe there was an adapter of some type that allows you to plug those two into.

[edDV]

I realize what I'm asking is a little crazy but it doesn't seem so impossible.

The screen has these two plugs that were originally plugged into the motherboard. I thought maybe there was an adapter of some type that allows you to plug those two into.

In theory you could connect it to a laptop display chipset. As stated you still need a power supply to drive the screen and the display board.

When finished you won't have a TV but a progressive computer display. To accept TV signals you would have to add a tuner card connected by a PCI bus.

Sounds like a great science fair project.


Here are some similar reference designs
http://www.actel.com/documents/IGLOO_VIDEO_BOARD_DVItoLCD_RefDes_AN.pdf
http://www.actel.com/products/solutions/display/refdesign.aspx
http://focus.ti.com/docs/solution/folders/print/327.html

Here's a FPGA (field programmable gate array) based design.
http://www.altera.com/support/refdesigns/sys-sol/computing/ref-tft-lcd-controller-nios-ii.html

[Nelson37]

I have seen several projects to make a projection display using a laptop screen and overhead projector. These went into the power and video connections you would need in order to use the display. IIRC the components you would need were not terribly expensive, although moreso than just buying a new monitor.