[HN Gopher] E-ink art frames are a scam (2021)
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E-ink art frames are a scam (2021)
Author : scottmcdot
Score : 45 points
Date : 2022-12-04 20:03 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (kurotimedesign.blogspot.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (kurotimedesign.blogspot.com)
| userbinator wrote:
| _With only 16 gray levels_
|
| It's disappointing that, even after several years of a _hobbyist_
| showing that it is indeed possible for an EPD to display more
| than 16 levels, none of the commercially available panel
| controllers out there have this capability:
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16140284
| its-summertime wrote:
| Legislation for labeling product images as selectively enhanced,
| or composite, would be nice
| sofixa wrote:
| There's already a law for this in France and it's quite useful.
| agys wrote:
| Especially for food!
| fredley wrote:
| And people!
| dehrmann wrote:
| It'd be about as useful as California's Proposition 65.
| asciimov wrote:
| I'm sorry that this guy feels that these devices are a scam.
| E-ink frames have their own aesthetic and do a decent job of
| displaying black and white photos. Sure they have some
| limitations, but they are good enough and solve a particular
| problem if you have a large amount of b&w photos to display.
| 8n4vidtmkvmk wrote:
| maybe, but this is pretty damning
|
| > Nice looking website, edited and misleading pictures and
| videos with a soothing voice to let you sleep and distract you
| from the truth.
|
| > High prices, unclear specifications. Unclear business model,
| subscription based, phone app dependant, making you bound to
| their service. These devices may easilly become useless if
| (when) the company closes its doors.
|
| just be transparent about what you're selling and don't require
| a service for something that can easily be done offline
| AdamJacobMuller wrote:
| The author makes it impossible to judge though by refusing to
| link to the website in question.
|
| While I won't judge him or assume malice, I would strongly
| prefer to make my own judgements about the honesty of their
| advertising.
| seba_dos1 wrote:
| B&W photos generally don't look very nice on e-ink (you end up
| with either strong banding or plenty of noticeable dither); ink
| drawings do though. You want high contrast content that doesn't
| rely on grayscale too much there.
| seba_dos1 wrote:
| > Unclear business model, subscription based, phone app
| dependant, making you bound to their service.
|
| Get an Inkplate[0] and easily display whatever you want however
| you want. My one serves as an automated calendar and trash
| collection schedule, decorated with inkpen drawings that look
| great on e-ink[1].
|
| [0] https://inkplate.io/
|
| [1] https://mastodon.social/@holypangolin/108698546628218087 /
| https://mastodon.social/@holypangolin/109291506657105213
| sedatk wrote:
| E-paper and E-ink are different technologies though. E-paper is
| transfletive LCD and requires power to keep the image on the
| display.
| seba_dos1 wrote:
| E-paper and e-ink are synonyms (well, to be more precise,
| e-ink is a brand of e-paper, but those terms are being
| commonly used as synonymous). Not sure what you're referring
| to regarding transflective screens, as both the article and
| my comment refer to displays that only need power to update
| their content.
|
| I also have a device with a transflective LCD, it's called
| Nokia N900 - it would be hard to mistake one display for
| another ;)
| lazycow wrote:
| Might be referring to monochrome RLCD as used on Hisense
| Q5. Some press calls it e-paper.
| jrm4 wrote:
| Honestly, this is as close to an objectively wrong "opinion" as
| I've seen on here. I think a _scam_ is best defined as something
| where there 's a _huge_ disjoint between what is sold /marketed,
| and what the person actually receives or experiences.
|
| They may not look AMAZING, but so what? They do what they say on
| the tin.
| spiderice wrote:
| > there's a huge disjoint between what is sold/marketed
|
| I think that's exactly what OP is arguing here. The website
| (which they didn't link to) showed entirely different
| capabilities than what the product can do. Nothing "objectively
| wrong" about that
|
| EDIT: Take this website for example [1]. I have no idea if this
| is the website OP ordered from (it's just one of the top google
| results), but if I ordered a picture frame from this website,
| and it turned out to be what OP ended up with, I would 100%
| consider that a scam. No question.
|
| [1] https://www.ionnyk.com/
| dandelany wrote:
| OK, but that is just one product. I agree that some companies
| are overselling e-ink in a way that is scammy, but that
| doesn't mean the whole market is a scam. Plenty of products
| eg. Inkplate are upfront about what you're getting, and I
| think it looks pretty good, albeit not nearly as good as a
| proper print.
| maxbbraun wrote:
| Photos are tricky, but you can make e-paper displays look nice if
| you embrace the constraints. For example: https://accent.ink
| louwrentius wrote:
| Personally I think e-paper screens are good enough for art
| reproduction, but it depends on what you are looking for. laser-
| sharp photo reproductions are out-of-the-question. But to me,
| that doesn't mean they can't be suitable art frames.
|
| E-paper or E-ink displays can totally reproduce art, but they
| convey more of a 'vibe'. Look at the examples of my 3-color
| epaper display [0],[1] and/or read my blog article about the
| device to see for yourself [2].
|
| The key take away is that from a distance, images look great and
| they are definitely good enough to be fit for purpose. Just take
| into account the limitation and select artwork for display that
| better suit this type of screen.
|
| [0]
| https://louwrentius.com/static/images/epaper/epaper05_large....
|
| [1]
| https://louwrentius.com/static/images/epaper/epaper04_large....
|
| [2] https://louwrentius.com/a-1248-inch-1304x984-three-color-
| e-p...
| mysecretaccount wrote:
| One of my primary "consumer electronics" dreams for the future is
| that e-ink displays become cheap and commonplace.
|
| Something about screens causes them to steal away your attention.
| "Ambient" screens for menus in bars/restaurants are convenient
| but are awful decor. This is why I will never have a utility
| display in my house for e.g. displaying news, weather.
|
| I do not even really care if the tech improves - just give us
| larger, cheaper e-ink displays with the same DPI/contrast ratio
| and let them replace ambient screens.
| shultays wrote:
| They indeed feel magical after getting used to non-ink
| displays.
|
| When I got my first e-ink reader and opened the box I saw that
| beautiful black and white artwork on screen. My first
| assumption was it was a plastic film with the artwork on it to
| protect the screen and I was supposed to remove it
|
| But nope, the art was actually being displayed on the screen.
| Since the display consumes no power even while it is "on", they
| were shipping with that art on the display
|
| My brain was just not able to comprehend a display can show a
| picture like that without emitting any lights
| Gigachad wrote:
| You can get TVs that look like paintings. I'm not talking about
| just having a painting like frame, but I wasn't actually sure
| if I was looking at a print or a TV. It's mostly to do with the
| matte screen and low brightness I guess. Supposedly you
| sacrifice color accuracy for this effect though.
| ketralnis wrote:
| The word scam is really losing all of its meaning
| beardyw wrote:
| Not really related, but I did see an art installation where the
| screens had been completely disconnected and removed but retained
| the grainy image which was on them last.
| selamtux wrote:
| a sculptor want to make a good art and last to the end. one
| artist chooses the sand to make sculp to last longer and it
| doesnt last longer. who's we should blame? to artist, to sand, to
| wind and waves, to art?
| donatj wrote:
| I'd love an e-ink frame, regardless of the contrast issues.
| mdp2021 wrote:
| The article writer is attacking unspecified providers that are
| promising more than it is deliverable - not the technology.
|
| > _High prices, unclear specifications. Unclear business model,
| subscription based, phone app dependant, making you bound to
| their service. These devices may easilly become useless if
| (when) the company closes its doors_
| Kiro wrote:
| Most of the article is spent on explaining why e-ink is
| unacceptable for art and why no-one wants this. Clearly
| nonsense. I want an e-ink display for showing art, regardless
| of the quality.
| rasse wrote:
| I bought one from Clemens at https://framelabs.eu/en/
|
| I've been extremely happy with mine. There are contrast
| limitations, of course, but you quickly develop an eye for what
| works on it and what doesn't. But sure, you can't just throw
| any picture on there and expect to get away with it.
|
| Note that it's made in and ships from Germany.
| mdp2021 wrote:
| I can see that the maximum is 13'', 150 PPI.
|
| I suggest one could buy an EPD tablet - you can find 13'',
| 300 PPI - and build a nice wall mounted (or table sitting)
| frame structure for resting.
|
| (Setting the "power off" picture in Android (you do not need
| the OS to be on to display the picture) can be an ugly
| process, but there may be workarounds)
| api wrote:
| Is it locked to someone's cloud where it will stop working
| randomly when they decide to shut down the service?
| Hellion wrote:
| The page linked doesn't say a lot, but it does say "local
| web interface"
| api wrote:
| That's a good sign.
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(page generated 2022-12-04 23:01 UTC)