Cool little lcd monitor...

[severdhed]

hey guys, i was looking around over at thinkgeek.com and ran across this little 7" USB Monitor. 

http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/usb-gadgets/bfa3/

there are two models, one is touchscreen capable.  800x480 resolution...not exactly amazing, but i'm sure there are some possibilities here.  plus they are USB, so do not require a second video output of any kind.  i dont know if they would be good enough to play games on, but as a marquee display, or small touchscreen input area..it could be pretty cool.

[smalltownguy]

Wow, can you say DIY wall mini-juke?

Pass a cable through the wall to a closet (or in my case, the wall next to my HOT TUB *heheh*)

I wonder if it would stand up to outdoor use? Up tight against a wall.

[thewmster]

I had found a similar product on ebay, the Samsung SyncMaster U70. Also, a 7" screen but cheaper than the thinkgeek monitor. No touchscreen though and the Samsung takes two usb connections. I ordered it and got it in about 10 days from S Korea. I'm hoping to incorporate it into my arcade to show controls when I get around to it. Right now I'm using it at work as a second monitor for testing. See my post: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=94907.0

[RayB]

thats so cool. I wonder how hard it would be to push game control instructions to that monitor while mame runs the actual game on the main monitor ??

[Ginsu Victim]

Not hard at all Ray. I use Mamewah and Irfanview to do it.

[mini77]

I recently bought these from a local store for £25 each (approx $40).  No idea what I'm going to use them for but they're cool little monitors.

[vrf]

Anyone know if you could use the USB monitors as a main monitor? Or does it need to be a secondary display?

[severdhed]

you may be able to use it as a main monitor, but you'd have to at least still have a video card in the PC in order for it to boot.  you'd more than likely have to boot up with a regular monitor attached, install the usb monitor, set it as teh primary display, then disable the other one and disconnect the monitor.  as long as the video card is still in the PC, there should be no booting problems, and once windows loads, that monitor should activate.  although because it is USB, i cannot verify that.

also, due to the fact that it is a low resolution usb monitor, i'd suspect that the response time is probably not that good...so for doing slow moving stuff, or desktop icons, it would probably be fine..i have a feelign it would probably suck to actually play games on, there would probably be a good bit of motion blur