[cgbeeng]

What I want is simply a well-made monitor with a single HDMI input and built-in speakers. Make it as flat as you want.

The rest is almost unnecessary in this day and age.

If everyone were to do this, it would open a bigger market for a well-made upgradable combo smart device and air TV tuner that the TV manufacturers could produce if they wanted to.

[al_borland]

I’d like this as well, except I think more than one HDMI port would be useful, for something like a game console. Maybe the screen itself could have 1 to keep it simple, with an optional HDMI switch that could integrate cleanly.

[BizarroLand]

I think it wouldn't be very expensive to make a TV frame platform that could have user-installable screens and a simple power/display module.

Probably wouldn't be too much more than the default cost of a TV to sell the screens, and users could select what technology they are willing to pay for, LED, QD, MiniLED, OLED, etc.

The problem comes from things like upscaling, color tuning, refresh rates and resolution handling. That would require a custom compute module, and the module would need data on the attached screen that the screen itself cannot likely provide.

If you had access to a TV manufacturer who would be willing to work with you to create this platform, you might be able to start shipping TVs for only a few million dollars, but you need the money and the connections to make it happen.

I imagine you would need to go to Shenzhen, find a manufacturer, talk them into working with you, put a lot of money down upfront, and then hire programmers and UX designers and hardware designers to craft the perfect TV, design a unique TV brain module and have it manufactured, standardize the system so that other manufacturers can get in on the platform, make thousands of extra parts, and then hire a marketing team to let purchasers around the world know of the new product, pay for UL certification, standardize some sort of testing system so the panels can be calibrated to the brain...

It's a lot.

Although, now that I think about it, the calibration could be done with a set top camera system like the one used by those companies that sell RGB LED systems for TV backlighting, so if that were bundled in by default then it would do a lot to simplify the calibration and add a cool standout feature to the TV.

These TVs would be pricey to start with, like Sony Bravia pricey, so you're never going to move a lot of product. And you'll have to deal with tariffs, pushback from TV manufacturers, cheapskates, rude customers, and the risk that if you start to approach success then some other TV manufacturers with deep pockets might use their brand name power to make a competitor to blow you out of the water for a few years until your company goes bankrupt and then stop competing with you.

The only way to prevent that would be to open-source the entire platform, and even then you would be in a constant dogfight just to stay alive.

Despite all of that I say go for it. If you can deliver a 65" OLED Open Source TV with customizable inputs for under $3,000 then assuming I'm not financially worse off than I am right now then I'll buy one.