Is it possible to buy custom LCD panel sizes?

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athenian200

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I know that the only mainstream sizes manufactured are 16:9 and 16:10, but I also know that there's no particular reason they couldn't make a 5:4, 3:2, or 4:3 panel because I've seen a square panel on devices like the Surface Book. So clearly it CAN be done, they just usually won't do it.

With mainstream monitor sizes, it seems like the closest I can get to what I want is trying to buy two monitors that can be oriented vertically, and use them next to each other in portrait mode. Which already isn't ideal because so much stuff like the computer BIOS would just assume I was using the monitor in horizontal mode and not understand it was a vertical configuration, etc. It's only getting more problematic as the average display size increases to something like 27" or 30", which would be way too tall if used in a vertical orientation, but still a bit too short in terms of vertical space if used horizontally. Around 19"-20" tall is perfect, and it's very hard to find a display that's about that height. They keep pushing the size envelope horizontally and giving me nothing vertically.

So far what I seem to find myself doing is buying a couple of 22" monitors that can pivot and using them in portrait, which is okay and gets the job done. But I keep finding that what I really want is something closer to a very large square monitor that isn't ridiculously wide or ridiculously tall. So I guess what I'm wondering is... are there any places I could contact that have the ability to make a custom sized LCD panel if I were willing to pay for it, hypothetically? It seems like the normal consumer market is stuck with 16:9 or even worse, 21:9 monitors, and 16:10 isn't really much of an improvement. So it seems like the only way I'd ever get what I really want is by trying to get something custom made.

I did an online search already, and I keep finding all these results for a much simpler kind of LCD which only has numbers on it, which obviously isn't what I mean, and the few places that looked viable for doing what I want weren't very clear about how I would even attempt to initiate an order with them. So I'm just wondering if anyone out there has done something like this before.
 
athenian200 said:
I know that the only mainstream sizes manufactured are 16:9 and 16:10, but I also know that there's no particular reason they couldn't make a 5:4, 3:2, or 4:3 panel because I've seen a square panel on devices like the Surface Book. So clearly it CAN be done, they just usually won't do it.

With mainstream monitor sizes, it seems like the closest I can get to what I want is trying to buy two monitors that can be oriented vertically, and use them next to each other in portrait mode. Which already isn't ideal because so much stuff like the computer BIOS would just assume I was using the monitor in horizontal mode and not understand it was a vertical configuration, etc. It's only getting more problematic as the average display size increases to something like 27" or 30", which would be way too tall if used in a vertical orientation, but still a bit too short in terms of vertical space if used horizontally. Around 19"-20" tall is perfect, and it's very hard to find a display that's about that height. They keep pushing the size envelope horizontally and giving me nothing vertically.

So far what I seem to find myself doing is buying a couple of 22" monitors that can pivot and using them in portrait, which is okay and gets the job done. But I keep finding that what I really want is something closer to a very large square monitor that isn't ridiculously wide or ridiculously tall. So I guess what I'm wondering is... are there any places I could contact that have the ability to make a custom sized LCD panel if I were willing to pay for it, hypothetically? It seems like the normal consumer market is stuck with 16:9 or even worse, 21:9 monitors, and 16:10 isn't really much of an improvement. So it seems like the only way I'd ever get what I really want is by trying to get something custom made.

I did an online search already, and I keep finding all these results for a much simpler kind of LCD which only has numbers on it, which obviously isn't what I mean, and the few places that looked viable for doing what I want weren't very clear about how I would even attempt to initiate an order with them. So I'm just wondering if anyone out there has done something like this before.
Click to expand...
Hypothetically this would likely cost 3-4K, or more. Depends on how much engineering is required and how adaptable the existing production lines are. If they need to do any sort of serious retooling, your looking at 30K+. Estimates from an experienced manufacturing engineer (not LCD's). oh and 6-12 months delivery, cash up front.
 
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Might be less expensive to get a monitor larger than you need, and make a control board which only uses the dimensions you want. OR, do what you wanted with two portrait monitors, and use a control board to split an image between them.

Edit: this control board would replace the one the monitor(s) came with, and would have to deal with color correction, and all that other stuff the original board dealt with. You would also have to reverse engineer the display to figure out how to control it, if you can't find a document describing it.
 
Nobu said:
Might be less expensive to get a monitor larger than you need, and make a control board which only uses the dimensions you want. OR, do what you wanted with two portrait monitors, and use a control board to split an image between them.

Edit: this control board would replace the one the monitor(s) came with, and would have to deal with color correction, and all that other stuff the original board dealt with. You would also have to reverse engineer the display to figure out how to control it, if you can't find a document describing it.
Click to expand...
Never thought of that, yes, that would be the most practical solution.
 
travm said:
Hypothetically this would likely cost 3-4K, or more. Depends on how much engineering is required and how adaptable the existing production lines are. If they need to do any sort of serious retooling, your looking at 30K+. Estimates from an experienced manufacturing engineer (not LCD's). oh and 6-12 months delivery, cash up front.
Click to expand...
That is about what I expected, because that's the price I was quoted for a new CRT television from a place that was still making them for a few customers around the early 2010s. I was thinking around $5,000 and a 6-12 month wait for this, too, since it's the same kind of weird request as a CRT television would have been back then.

I have also thought about getting a monitor larger than what I need, but the problem is they just don't seem to make them that big vertically. Even if I go up to something seemingly crazy like a 38" monitor, they just keep making them wider and wider while leaving the height around 16" or so. I do eventually hit a 16:9 monitor big enough for this purpose... at the point of buying a 43" monitor, which I suspect is pretty much an overpriced TV at that point. That probably sounds huge, but really it's about the same vertical height as a 24" monitor turned sideways, and it's not really any wider than those huge ultrawide monitors, you just get more vertical height to go with it. I think it also demonstrates exactly why turning monitors vertical isn't very practical after you go above 24 inches, because it's already kinda like using a thin sliver of a 43" TV at that point.

That said, this is making me re-think the viability of using a TV as a computer monitor... I thought they were a lot bigger vertically than they actually are. Even though it's 43" diagonally, it's only 22" vertical and they have ultrawide monitors wider than that, and a 4K 43" TV would still have higher pixel density than the vertically-oriented 1920 panel I'm using now.

Necere said:
I got you.

A custom panel isn't happening unless you want to order a few hundred thousand of them.
Click to expand...

Actually, that's exactly what I wanted! It looks like someone did make exactly what I wanted, and the dimensions are perfect... 20" tall and 20" wide. Thanks for the suggestion. It looks like this is available for under $2000, and only about 1/5 the price of what I suspect it would cost to have something like this custom made, so it's actually pretty reasonable in those terms.
 
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thats weird, never seen a 1:1 before. looks like they have em on amazon, $~1700.
 
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athenian200 said:
...So far what I seem to find myself doing is buying a couple of 22" monitors that can pivot and using them in portrait,..
Click to expand...
Since you're willing to use a pair of monitors, then have you considered using a pair of ultrawide monitors stacked vertically? That would give you a 21:18 aspect ratio, which is quite square, and would avoid the sideways BIOS problem.
 
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I think it's a weirdly complicated solution to what amounts to having slightly more width. A 4K screen in the 40-43" range will be in the ballpark of the height you want with a bit of extra width. Unless you are trying to cram it into some inset type shelving or whatever setup then that extra desktop space is just fine. Push the display further away to make it feel smaller.
 
Can I ask why? Curious... I've loved my widescreen monitors ever since I was upgrades from my 22" 4:3.
 
get some of these and make your own custom shape, to a point.
https://www.samsung.com/us/business/products/displays/direct-view-led/the-wall/

samsung-wall-panels.jpg
 
kasakka said:
I think it's a weirdly complicated solution to what amounts to having slightly more width. A 4K screen in the 40-43" range will be in the ballpark of the height you want with a bit of extra width. Unless you are trying to cram it into some inset type shelving or whatever setup then that extra desktop space is just fine. Push the display further away to make it feel smaller.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I was so excited about the Eizo that I was actually thinking about getting two of them to put next to each other, and it's a really tempting monitor, but after doing some measuring it turns out two of those monitors next to each other would be about the same as a single 40" 4K TV. It's really starting to hit me that at 40", 4K goes from being some impractical thing involving a lot of display scaling for people who don't want to see a pixel, to feeling more like having four 1080p displays all in one.

I probably won't even need to push it further away than I already sit from my vertically-oriented display, because it's about the same height and pixel density. It turns out that all these years I just WAY overestimated how big a 40" TV actually was vertically, because the last time I saw one it had a fairly large bezel and it was sub-1080p making everything look huge. The only reason I really don't want to go with a 43" model is because of a silly space constraint... I have this LAN station setup that has a shelf that I adjusted when building it to have a 23.5" inch clearance for the vertical monitor, and I would rather not have to take it apart to readjust the shelf because it's a huge PITA. It wouldn't be way too big or anything, it's basically the same problem as what would happen if I tried to turn a 27" monitor vertical.

One thing I'm curious about is... would there be any advantage to hunting down a 40" computer monitor instead of just paying $350 for a 40" TV? It looks like they're all 60 Hz panels anyway, and since that's not a deal breaker and I'll be running HDMI into it anyway, I wouldn't really expect issues unless the TV has some kind of built-in overscan or something that would cause things to be cut off. I don't know if that's still an issue that can come up when using a TV as a monitor or not, but I know it used to be an issue. The reason I ask is because I can only find 43" computer monitors in stock... all the 40" models are sold out, but there are still some 40" TVs. 43" is just barely big enough to not fit, and it doesn't seem to matter much whether it's for a computer or a TV, the panels and their bezels are about the same size regardless.
 
It can be an issue on some TVs (overscan/color format). Usually setting the input to PC (if it isn't auto detected) fixes most issues, but not always. TVs can also have more input lag if they have to post-process the image much before it is displayed.
 
athenian200 said:
That is about what I expected, because that's the price I was quoted for a new CRT television from a place that was still making them for a few customers around the early 2010s. I was thinking around $5,000 and a 6-12 month wait for this, too, since it's the same kind of weird request as a CRT television would have been back then.

I have also thought about getting a monitor larger than what I need, but the problem is they just don't seem to make them that big vertically. Even if I go up to something seemingly crazy like a 38" monitor, they just keep making them wider and wider while leaving the height around 16" or so. I do eventually hit a 16:9 monitor big enough for this purpose... at the point of buying a 43" monitor, which I suspect is pretty much an overpriced TV at that point. That probably sounds huge, but really it's about the same vertical height as a 24" monitor turned sideways, and it's not really any wider than those huge ultrawide monitors, you just get more vertical height to go with it. I think it also demonstrates exactly why turning monitors vertical isn't very practical after you go above 24 inches, because it's already kinda like using a thin sliver of a 43" TV at that point.

That said, this is making me re-think the viability of using a TV as a computer monitor... I thought they were a lot bigger vertically than they actually are. Even though it's 43" diagonally, it's only 22" vertical and they have ultrawide monitors wider than that, and a 4K 43" TV would still have higher pixel density than the vertically-oriented 1920 panel I'm using now.



Actually, that's exactly what I wanted! It looks like someone did make exactly what I wanted, and the dimensions are perfect... 20" tall and 20" wide. Thanks for the suggestion. It looks like this is available for under $2000, and only about 1/5 the price of what I suspect it would cost to have something like this custom made, so it's actually pretty reasonable in those terms.
Click to expand...

LG CX/C1 OLED in 48" or Samsung QN90A in 50" in June. Around $1400 to $1500.
 
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athenian200 said:
Yeah, I was so excited about the Eizo that I was actually thinking about getting two of them to put next to each other, and it's a really tempting monitor, but after doing some measuring it turns out two of those monitors next to each other would be about the same as a single 40" 4K TV. It's really starting to hit me that at 40", 4K goes from being some impractical thing involving a lot of display scaling for people who don't want to see a pixel, to feeling more like having four 1080p displays all in one.

I probably won't even need to push it further away than I already sit from my vertically-oriented display, because it's about the same height and pixel density. It turns out that all these years I just WAY overestimated how big a 40" TV actually was vertically, because the last time I saw one it had a fairly large bezel and it was sub-1080p making everything look huge. The only reason I really don't want to go with a 43" model is because of a silly space constraint... I have this LAN station setup that has a shelf that I adjusted when building it to have a 23.5" inch clearance for the vertical monitor, and I would rather not have to take it apart to readjust the shelf because it's a huge PITA. It wouldn't be way too big or anything, it's basically the same problem as what would happen if I tried to turn a 27" monitor vertical.

One thing I'm curious about is... would there be any advantage to hunting down a 40" computer monitor instead of just paying $350 for a 40" TV? It looks like they're all 60 Hz panels anyway, and since that's not a deal breaker and I'll be running HDMI into it anyway, I wouldn't really expect issues unless the TV has some kind of built-in overscan or something that would cause things to be cut off. I don't know if that's still an issue that can come up when using a TV as a monitor or not, but I know it used to be an issue. The reason I ask is because I can only find 43" computer monitors in stock... all the 40" models are sold out, but there are still some 40" TVs. 43" is just barely big enough to not fit, and it doesn't seem to matter much whether it's for a computer or a TV, the panels and their bezels are about the same size regardless.
Click to expand...

http://displaywars.com and https://multimonitorcalculator.com are good sites for figuring out size differences, placement and positioning. So try those.

Finding a 40" monitor is pretty difficult these days unfortunately and I think the best you can do at that size is to just try to find reviews to find any hidden issues. Most TVs have options for overscan. With TVs the one thing you need to truly worry about is BGR subpixel structure. Most monitors are RGB, Windows and MacOS font smoothing is built around that so any other pixel structure will have problems. Windows can be set to use BGR too but MacOS can't so personally I would just try to avoid BGR in the first place. You can disable font smoothing on MacOS (it's now the default) so that might work just fine too.
 
kasakka said:
http://displaywars.com and https://multimonitorcalculator.com are good sites for figuring out size differences, placement and positioning. So try those.

Finding a 40" monitor is pretty difficult these days unfortunately and I think the best you can do at that size is to just try to find reviews to find any hidden issues. Most TVs have options for overscan. With TVs the one thing you need to truly worry about is BGR subpixel structure. Most monitors are RGB, Windows and MacOS font smoothing is built around that so any other pixel structure will have problems. Windows can be set to use BGR too but MacOS can't so personally I would just try to avoid BGR in the first place. You can disable font smoothing on MacOS (it's now the default) so that might work just fine too.
Click to expand...
I would assume someone who uses pivot is completely blind to subpixel rendering issues XD
 
XoR_ said:
I would assume someone who uses pivot is completely blind to subpixel rendering issues XD
Click to expand...
I have actually never thought about what the OS might do in that situation. If you use pivot and tell the OS to display it the right way, does it use RGB pixel smoothing like normal or keep it like it would if it was in landscape?
 
kasakka said:
http://displaywars.com and https://multimonitorcalculator.com are good sites for figuring out size differences, placement and positioning. So try those.

Finding a 40" monitor is pretty difficult these days unfortunately and I think the best you can do at that size is to just try to find reviews to find any hidden issues. Most TVs have options for overscan. With TVs the one thing you need to truly worry about is BGR subpixel structure. Most monitors are RGB, Windows and MacOS font smoothing is built around that so any other pixel structure will have problems. Windows can be set to use BGR too but MacOS can't so personally I would just try to avoid BGR in the first place. You can disable font smoothing on MacOS (it's now the default) so that might work just fine too.
Click to expand...

I've already had to adjust ClearType when rotating my monitor vertical, and it does work okay if you adjust it or turn it off. That pixel layout is totally dependent on the orientation of the display. The thing is, since this is a TV and I would be using it in a horizontal orientation... I think I could fix the BGR issue by just mounting the TV upside-down to make it RGB, couldn't I? Then the OS just has to render everything upside-down, which would be right-side up from my perspective, and there you go.
 
athenian200 said:
I've already had to adjust ClearType when rotating my monitor vertical, and it does work okay if you adjust it or turn it off. That pixel layout is totally dependent on the orientation of the display. The thing is, since this is a TV and I would be using it in a horizontal orientation... I think I could fix the BGR issue by just mounting the TV upside-down to make it RGB, couldn't I? Then the OS just has to render everything upside-down, which would be right-side up from my perspective, and there you go.
Click to expand...

Yes that will work. BIOS will be your main issue where you can't just flip the image. Obviously you will also need to mount it using something other than the built in stand. Or you can just use it as is and set Windows to render using BGR subpixel smoothing. That's what I would try first and see if it looks alright to you.
 
It's also looking like I could potentially fit a 43" display in here after all, but I would have to be very careful about which display I selected. Essentially, I would need one with a fairly thin bezel, and I couldn't use the stand, but assuming I can find a mounting method that doesn't require additional vertical space... a 43" display with a thin bezel would take up 22" vertical, which comes in just under 23", but doesn't leave a lot of room for error. I didn't realize the heights I was seeing included the stand at first.

4K at 43" would be the exact same PPI as the 1080p monitors I've been using, so since I'm used to tall vertical orientations and not spoiled to high DPI displays... I could probably adapt to it. I imagine the hardest part of learning to use a TV as a monitor is getting used to looking up to see the top of the screen, and I'm basically already there, just feeling cramped by the narrow constraints of a 1080p monitor turned sideways. Otherwise, it's basically the same deal as an ultrawide display.

IMG_20210509_181819.jpg


Pardon the mess, but yeah... anyway, this is my setup. Those speakers won't have to be there if this works out the way I'm hoping. The Nintendo Switch is plugged into the back of my main monitor, and there's some jerry-rigged situation that allows the audio output to work with this ancient home stereo setup I have from 2003. Anyway... the main challenge I would have is finding a way to mount the TV so it sits as low as possible.

I'm thinking I would have to wall mount the TV on the wall behind the LAN station at just the right angle, but I'm also wondering if there's a mounting solution that could take advantage of the fact that this isn't a solid surface, but rather a sort of wireframe thing, and just let me run something up through the wireframe to hold the TV from the bottom and top rather than taking up vertical space on the actual shelf I need it to sit on.
 
athenian200 said:
I know that the only mainstream sizes manufactured are 16:9 and 16:10, but I also know that there's no particular reason they couldn't make a 5:4, 3:2, or 4:3 panel because I've seen a square panel on devices like the Surface Book. So clearly it CAN be done, they just usually won't do it.

With mainstream monitor sizes, it seems like the closest I can get to what I want is trying to buy two monitors that can be oriented vertically, and use them next to each other in portrait mode. Which already isn't ideal because so much stuff like the computer BIOS would just assume I was using the monitor in horizontal mode and not understand it was a vertical configuration, etc. It's only getting more problematic as the average display size increases to something like 27" or 30", which would be way too tall if used in a vertical orientation, but still a bit too short in terms of vertical space if used horizontally. Around 19"-20" tall is perfect, and it's very hard to find a display that's about that height. They keep pushing the size envelope horizontally and giving me nothing vertically.

So far what I seem to find myself doing is buying a couple of 22" monitors that can pivot and using them in portrait, which is okay and gets the job done. But I keep finding that what I really want is something closer to a very large square monitor that isn't ridiculously wide or ridiculously tall. So I guess what I'm wondering is... are there any places I could contact that have the ability to make a custom sized LCD panel if I were willing to pay for it, hypothetically? It seems like the normal consumer market is stuck with 16:9 or even worse, 21:9 monitors, and 16:10 isn't really much of an improvement. So it seems like the only way I'd ever get what I really want is by trying to get something custom made.

I did an online search already, and I keep finding all these results for a much simpler kind of LCD which only has numbers on it, which obviously isn't what I mean, and the few places that looked viable for doing what I want weren't very clear about how I would even attempt to initiate an order with them. So I'm just wondering if anyone out there has done something like this before.
Click to expand...
Just look at this:
32-inch 3:2 IPS -monitor with 4500 x 3000 @ 90 Hz 10-bpc.
https://www.techpowerup.com/281978/...ct-ratio-32-inch-monitor-with-4-5k-resolution
 
athenian200 said:
It's also looking like I could potentially fit a 43" display in here after all, but I would have to be very careful about which display I selected. Essentially, I would need one with a fairly thin bezel, and I couldn't use the stand, but assuming I can find a mounting method that doesn't require additional vertical space... a 43" display with a thin bezel would take up 22" vertical, which comes in just under 23", but doesn't leave a lot of room for error. I didn't realize the heights I was seeing included the stand at first.

4K at 43" would be the exact same PPI as the 1080p monitors I've been using, so since I'm used to tall vertical orientations and not spoiled to high DPI displays... I could probably adapt to it. I imagine the hardest part of learning to use a TV as a monitor is getting used to looking up to see the top of the screen, and I'm basically already there, just feeling cramped by the narrow constraints of a 1080p monitor turned sideways. Otherwise, it's basically the same deal as an ultrawide display.

View attachment 354835

Pardon the mess, but yeah... anyway, this is my setup. Those speakers won't have to be there if this works out the way I'm hoping. The Nintendo Switch is plugged into the back of my main monitor, and there's some jerry-rigged situation that allows the audio output to work with this ancient home stereo setup I have from 2003. Anyway... the main challenge I would have is finding a way to mount the TV so it sits as low as possible.

I'm thinking I would have to wall mount the TV on the wall behind the LAN station at just the right angle, but I'm also wondering if there's a mounting solution that could take advantage of the fact that this isn't a solid surface, but rather a sort of wireframe thing, and just let me run something up through the wireframe to hold the TV from the bottom and top rather than taking up vertical space on the actual shelf I need it to sit on.
Click to expand...
I would just ditch this shelving solution rather than try to work around it. Or mod it so you can put the top shelf a bit higher.
 
That Huawei looks like a great productivity solution assuming it pans out and is reasonably priced.
 
I saw some videos about MicroLED pricing earlier this year. The average installation is 6 figures, well over $100K. Sony has a competitor coming soon, they hope to bring entry level installs to 30K.
 
sethk said:
I saw some videos about MicroLED pricing earlier this year. The average installation is 6 figures, well over $100K. Sony has a competitor coming soon, they hope to bring entry level installs to 30K.
Click to expand...
They're already there for entertainment industry screens. Just they are bulky for home use.
 
travm said:
If they need to do any sort of serious retooling, your looking at 30K+.
Click to expand...
Tooling is closer to $500k on a panel like the OP is talking about. You MIGHT be able to have a custom low-res monochrome LCD about 2-3in for $30k. Custom OLEDs in the 2-3in size range are $50-80k. Mechanical tooling for the casing if you want to make it a product instead of just a bare panel is probably about $100-150k depending on how many tooled tiny plastic parts you need on the interior (buttons, latches, snaps, etc).
 
paradoxical said:
Tooling is closer to $500k on a panel like the OP is talking about. You MIGHT be able to have a custom low-res monochrome LCD about 2-3in for $30k. Custom OLEDs in the 2-3in size range are $50-80k. Mechanical tooling for the casing if you want to make it a product instead of just a bare panel is probably about $100-150k depending on how many tooled tiny plastic parts you need on the interior (buttons, latches, snaps, etc).
Click to expand...
I was making the assumption that most tools were already on hand and only minor adjustments were required, but I have to admit display panels are not my aoe
 
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