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How does a screen work?

(www.makingsoftware.com)
573 points chkhd | 2 comments | 13 Jul 25 14:09 UTC | HN request time: 0.49s | source
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rocqua ◴[14 Jul 25 07:22 UTC] No.44557309[source]▶
I'm much more interested in the hardware driver. This thing gets digital encoded input, has to decode it, and then multiplex it to 8 million pixels. 60 times a second. Being able to hit at least 4 million different levels (talking about 4K 60fps 12 bit color).

The input is roughly serial, so it takes a massive serial to parallel conversion.

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1. Aardwolf ◴[14 Jul 25 07:34 UTC] No.44557381[source]▶
Yeah, with an electron beam it's clear that it's a continuous signal and a single beam is being controlled, but how do you drive millions of individual digital pixels all at once, how does the signal get routed correctly to each one if them?
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2. p_l ◴[14 Jul 25 08:54 UTC] No.44557803[source]▶
with older HDMI/DVI displays, AFAIK you sync pixel clock to "address generator" for the matrix, with major issue becoming scaler AFAIK.

DVI (and thus older HDMI) being essentially "VGA that skipped Digital to Analog conversion" you're riding the beam, including porches.