Display LCD's without bezel?

[GZS]

Sorry for the shitty title, but I've searched a bit, but I don't really know where to search.


What I am looking to do is have three LCD's next to each other. The two outer ones at a 45 (or so) degree angle, and the center one obviously head on.

What I would like to do is to remove the bezels for a seamless integration of the three panels.

Is this safe? Is this even possible? I plan to use 24" LCD's if this makes a difference. It is for a cockpit (for racing simulators) that I am building, I plan to use triplehead2go, connect it to my 9600 gt and hope for the best. Are my expectations too great?


(Cross post from Hardforums. Trying to get as much information as possible)

 

[Jax Omen]

Man, I don't know anything about modding monitors, but it seems to me you could "stack" the bezels and minimize the effect.

Like, put the center monitor so it's bezel is covered up by the bezels from the left and right monitors, or vice-versa.

 

[Buck Armstrong]

ViewSonic's Pro series have very thin bezels for just that reason (multiple monitors). You can also buy just the heads of some monitors at places like Monitor Outlet (who also has a fantastic return policy by the way).

At least one company, ELO, sells heads that have NO bezels, just an ultra-thin frame around the sides; I've used several for interactive displays at work, and they're good monitors, but they may all be touchscreens. They'd be perfect for this though because you could actually have panel touching panel with just a tiny seam in between. I believe Planar also sells heads with no bezels...

 

[jaqie]

having a zero pixel wide gap is what the OP may be after...but that's just impossible unless the LCDs are built from scratch for that very effect, which would be incredibly expensive. They are a stack of layered parts (basically, oversimplified) being held together with a small metal ring. even behind that ring, there is edge space that is not live pixels.

 

[GZS]

Well hell. Thanks for the replies everyone. I figured as much, but didn't want to start tearing down expensive monitors and break something in the process.

I will look into your suggestions, Buck Armstrong. Thanks again.

 

[GZS]

I looked into the ELO and Planar frame displays that you were talking about, Buck, and 700+ dollars a piece just... well. I can't justify the costs for the benefit. The Viewsonic Pro series does seem to be be best option so far, though. I do appreciate the references.

 

[Syntax Error]

The monitor I have (Dell E207WFP) has a bezel roughly around 0.5" wide, which is pretty thin compared to other monitors I've seen. Perhaps you can look into some Dell monitors without having to break your bank?

 

[Seggybop]

I'm actually surrounded by three monitors right now in a kind of similar setup. You can remove the outer housing of most LCDs without a lot of difficulty, but the LCD panels themselves have a dead area of a few mm around the edges. You can probably get the LCDs to within a centimeter of eachother, though.

I also recommend you try softth before dropping money on the triplehead2go. It's free and it lets you account for the bezel area so that you don't have the weird offset perspective/split line effect (hopefully you know what I mean).

 

[GZS]

I do know what you mean, but the Triplehead2go has a setting for that as well.

I was thinking about Softth, and ultimately decided that I would go hardware because the hardware allows for the utilization of SLI (Which I have a good feeling I will have to upgrade to).

Is it safe to remove the housings though? Do you have a picture of your setup?

 

[jaqie]

It's safe in that if you do it right you won't kill them. there is a metal band inside that holds them together.

However, the electronics inside contain a high voltage inverter and capacitors for the backlight CCFL so be EXTREMELY careful of the electronics boards even when the unit is unplugged.

 

[Seggybop]

Originally posted by: GZS
I do know what you mean, but the Triplehead2go has a setting for that as well.

I was thinking about Softth, and ultimately decided that I would go hardware because the hardware allows for the utilization of SLI (Which I have a good feeling I will have to upgrade to).

I didn't realize triplehead2go also has the bezel control option now, good to know.
Does it still have 3840x1024 max resolution or is that old information too? If it does, but the th2go still has to render the null areas the way softth does, does it restrict the max resolution to < 3840?

I have read about people who have softth + SLI working, but I had enough trouble getting only two cards to work independently, so I don't know if that's worth checking out.

Is it safe to remove the housings though? Do you have a picture of your setup?

I actually am using CRTs now instead of the LCDs because the lack of true black bothered me way more than the bezel area. But, I still have the LCDs around hooked up to other things, so I can take some pictures of how it looks with the plastic removed if I remember to later.

All the LCDs I have I got from ebay for around ~30 each. The previous owners thought that they were dead, but they simply had backlight problems. Since they didn't cost much and I had to take them apart anyway to fix them, running them without casing wasn't a big deal. But if you're going to spend a lot on them, I don't know if you want to risk it. It would definitely void your warranty, at least.

 

[jaqie]

Originally posted by: Seggybop
I actually am using CRTs now instead of the LCDs because the lack of true black....All the LCDs I have I got from ebay for around ~30 each....

I think I see the problem here. If you want a good LCD you are going to have to pay for it, find one with a high contrast ratio and a lower brightness level to get a "sharper" black.

 

[Seggybop]

All but one that I've gotten are actually IPS/S-IPS panels, Apple Studio/Cinema displays. They're a lot better than generic TN panels, with no backlight bleeding and good color, but in a dark room the black doesn't compare at all to the CRTs, and it makes a big difference in darker games like COD4.

 

[CP5670]

IPS panels actually don't have great blacks despite their other advantages. VAs are definitely better in that respect, and some of the newer TNs are better too. Although it's a moot point if you're planning to using them in a dark room, since there is basically no LCD that produces a decent black without any ambient light.

 

[GZS]

Originally posted by: Seggybop
I'm actually surrounded by three monitors right now in a kind of similar setup. You can remove the outer housing of most LCDs without a lot of difficulty, but the LCD panels themselves have a dead area of a few mm around the edges. You can probably get the LCDs to within a centimeter of eachother, though.

I also recommend you try softth before dropping money on the triplehead2go. It's free and it lets you account for the bezel area so that you don't have the weird offset perspective/split line effect (hopefully you know what I mean).

I think I might go this router and get a different motherboard and a second EVGA 9600GT now. It seems a bit more logical for playing games (The primary reason for this setup).

I appreciate the advice.

 

[Juked07]

I feel like I remember seeing a thread about an alienware superwidescreen monitor that may be the effect you're looking for. I'll post the link if I see it..