[xyzzy21]

With current supply chains and infrastructure, yes, flat panels in general are easier. OLED are still somewhat specialized so most come from JP or KR companies (with factories in JP, KR or CN).

My current employer (based in Taiwan) makes an "LCD Flat Panel Manufacturing Plant" product.

You literally just need a building shell (the plans for which we can provide to qualified sales prospects). Then you place your order and a few months later dozens of shipping containers arrive and you put the contents into the shell like a child's construction toy or Ikea furniture. All the cables are snapped together and you start feeding it the inputs, and out pops flat panels. It's 100% turn-key.

This product is part of the reason why flat panel TVs are so cheap now - and Chinese customers LOVE how it's so simple for them and requires zero actual knowledge of making flat panels - sort of the ideal manufacturing for them (we also sell a support contract service to run them).

Also one of the very last CRT manufacturers on the planet (which now manufactures flat panel screens as well with CRT production ending in the mid 2000s) was in Taoyuan TW (their logo still has a CRT in it last time I drove by their plant).

Taoyuan and Hsinchu have been glass centers for TW for the last 200-300 years due to natural reserves of highly pure silica and natural gas in the area. Before semiconductors, these places made scientific glass products (chemical/medical glassware, lenses, etc.) which is why this former CRT plant was located there. Note that the supplier of lenses for iPhones is located in this same area. The common supply chain of silica is why Hsinchu is the semiconductor center that it is. Old fashion geography still applies to why the world is the way it is.

If you were to start a CRT manufacturing plant in the US, the only best place would be in NY or PA near Corning NY because Corning Glass is still there and doing leading edge work in glass still. There's no company nor area better for glass or glass dependent products in the USA at this point in history.

[missedthecue]

What's the ballpark figure for the amount of money it takes to buy one of these factories in a box?

[kurthr]

I don't know the business that the original poster is talking about. However, I would guess that this is a ~Gen4 LCD glass plant. That would make the sheets ~1m^2 and the factories are typically over 300m in length. You can get the mother glass delivered by truck (even get poly silicon pre-deposited), if you don't have those facilities on-site... however that would make the product more expensive and sensitive to supply chain disruption. Most productive factories are almost sand in to panels out.

If I had to guess on pricing of a single line capable of generating ~1-3000m^2 a day, it would be in the 10s of $million excluding the factory building or land itself.

[Arrath]

Time to crowd-fund a startup that makes truly dumb panel tvs, wow.

[nebula8804]

Just crowdfund the development of alternative firmware for a handful of popular models and then pay to maintain for future models. Much cheaper.

[wmf]

Nah, just buy existing panels. The firmware is the "hard" part.

[BizarroLand]

They already make "dumb" monitor controller boards for almost every panel in existence. The difficult parts would be:

1. Designing a shell that is unique enough but simple enough to pass muster for the average person. Aesthetics matter, after all.

2. Incorporating a remote that had the features you want without directly copying another design, and making it fully functional with the TV brains

3. Finding a microcontroller that can be purchased at the appropriate quantity that is able to handle the latest features that you want without requiring internet connectivity. (HDR, Post Processing, Dolby/Atmos/Surround, etc)

4. Getting the appropriate inputs to handle all of the expected inputs for at least 90% of your target audience's expectations

5. Getting the finished product UL Listed and fully evaluated by the appropriate licensing bureaus.

6. Doing all of the above without causing the TV's price point to explode well past the point where your average target purchaser can or would choose to afford it when less expensive brands exist that have reliable warranties or customer service or a name to live up to.

Should you pass those bars and have a modicum of success, then you will have to fight off all of the competitors who will leap at the target audience you've uncovered, releasing dumb tvs at price points you may not be able to match with the goal of driving you out of business even if it costs them money so that when the next cycle comes around customers will have no choice but to purchase their products again.

[hakfoo]

I don't know if anyone remembers the brief craze there was for off-brand Korean monitor imports a few years back.

Basically they had similar panels to the then-current 1440p 27" Apple Cinema Displays but were usually "Grade A-/B/etc." instead of A+. They had the flimsiest, crappiest cases and most primitive controller boards (i. e. no OSD or multiple inputs on many models, just keep tapping the button and trying to get the brightness where you wanted it.). I think the original market for them was domestic, and you pretty much had to order them via eBay or sketchy small retailers.

I suspect what did it in was collapsing prices for mainstream-brand monitors, and a choice-paradox problem (there ended up being dozens of seemingly identical units to choose from with different cases, so the market was probably sliced too think for anyone to succeed).

But the concept is completely viable here. Remember that the name brands have major cost centres you don't-- advertising, a high-touch retail sales channel, the R&D on smart features.

TBH, I'm surprised you don't see more higher-end TVs without speakers. There's always going to be physics-related problems with trying to have really decent speakers in a 5cm deep set. You can target the demographic of people who already have competent audio systems AND save on the BOM!