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Comment by notatoad | Hacker News Reader

what would you be doing that i couldn't get by just buying a display from one of the big name's "digital signage" lineups? like, for instance, any of these:

https://www.cdw.com/search/computer-monitors-displays/large-...

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Large format or digital signage displays are not necessarily industrial displays. In fact, they would not last long in a real rugged manufacturing environment where they could be exposed to extreme heat, toxic chemicals, dust, weld arcs, and physical trauma caused by heavy machinery.

Our company caters to this market by designing and fabricating our own thick metal casings for our displays. We also bond our sourced LCD panels with an additional layer of 1/8” to 1/4” thick anti-glare polycarbonate sheets to help them resist physical trauma. We have also designed our own controller that operates these displays with a super minimal/barebones RTOS. Our controllers can be controlled via RS232, but unlike other displays, we do not have an onboard PHY (Ethernet connectivity capability). This is an industrial requirement that originated due to Stuxnet.

Majority of the large format displays in the market today are more like smart TVs than actual dumb TVs, and though they are great products, they would not last in a real rugged industrial environment. I can create large format displays without the smartness for consumer use at an approximate 50-70% of their price.

Mostly saving money. Digital Signage is what you want if you want a "dumb" display, but they don't have TV tuner (which may or may not be an issue) and also are rated for 24/7 use and thus much more expensive than consumer level TV's at the same size. They usually have minimal image processing and very low input lag as well.

If you don't mind dropping the money then go for it, but I think most people will want to go for consumer model for much less.

Also I am not sure if those support HDR or other features that may be desirable in a consumer display.

digital signage is <2x the price of consumer TVs. i'm skeptical that an independent can do a comprable product for less, when normal consumer TVs are subsidized by their data collection and advertising businesses, and operate at the scale they do.

HDR is a good point, i haven't had a chance to use any of those newer TV features so i'm not sure what i'm missing there. but that's the sort of thing i'd wait a few years for to see if they stick around, or if they're just a fad to sell more TVs like 3D was.

HDR is very well adopted. Basically all 4K content now includes it. 3D was indeed a fad. But HDR is standard on 4K movie as well as video game consoles (excluding Nintendo Switch)

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