question : how does an lcd controller work ?

HI all,

I have been struck with curiosity ever since i saw a local guy outputting an hdmi signal on a bare sony lcd panel , ive been searching the net for days ever since that how can it happen because believe me i got a glimpse of the controller and it looked so simple with a huge ic in between which i think was the HDMI receiver and two ics in parallel which i think was driving the lvds lcd panel. (Over heard conversion while spying)
So according to my findings i have learned this is how a controller works:

1) VIDEO SOURCE ---> HDMI RECEIVER ---> TO LVDS CONVERTER ----> LCD PANEL (OUTPUT)

or

2) VIDEO SOURCE ---> HDMI RECEIVER ---> TO LVDS CONVERTER ----> LCD DRIVER ----> LCD PANEL (OUTPUT)

The second one seems much relevant but the problem is i cant find an IC that drives an lcd the only thing i can find are ARM processors with integrated lcd drivers or Soc's.

So please can you guys with your vast knowledge of awesomeness correct me or enlighten me !!!:!:

Thanks:-D

Large LCD panels generally (always?) have a basic 'LCD driver' built in. That driver needs a constant stream of display data that the driver routes to the LCD panel itself. That's why you won't find many LCD drivers like that. For very small panels which sometimes are actually just the bare display, there are a few driver chips, or as you found, MCU's with them built in.

That stream of data is generally LVDS these days, older panels might be parallel and need individual column and row strobes etc. I mostly used to play with the parallel panels.

An example of an HDMI (and others) to LVDS controller is the STDP5300. See more here: https://www.st.com/internet/imag_video/subclass/991.jsp

The biggest issue with these is usually working out the firmware for the particular display panel's requirements!

hmmm.... the panel i saw was 40" inch or more for sure ... indeed the firmware part is the issue because its not the same for every panel. Honestly speaking i set out to build a controller myself with no prior knowledge i found a similar project on the internet and the nice guy promised to mail it tomorrow ill post it here and we can discuss on it ? btw what are those video processors for ?

and thank you for the link it increased my knowledge