I asked this question on an electronics forum and it was suggested that I ask it here. Anyways, here's my problem:
I'm trying to make an LCD controller for a 18 bit LCD panel that will take a DVI or VGA input (yes, I know I am insane). I've found an appropriate 18 bit FPD-Link LVDS transmitter but the only DVI converter chips I can find output 8 bit per channel RGB (24 bit color). So what I need is either a chip that can convert the 8 bit color the DVI converter outputs to the 6 bit color the LVDS transmitter needs OR a different LVDS transmitter that does the conversion internally. I have found LVDS chips that can to the 8 to 6 bit conversion internally, but have low resolution limits like 800x600
-- I need them to be able to do 1400x1050 (SXGA+) or 1600x1200 (UXGA).
This is driving me a little bit nuts because I know there has to be an easy way to do this, there are literally millions of 18 bit LCD monitors that take DVI and/or VGA inputs. If anybody could give me a clue on how to do this, whether it's finding a part I didn't know existed or telling me I'm going about this all wrong, I would be extremely grateful.
I have considered what it would take to build something that would do this conversion myself, and I think it's a bigger project than I'm willing to tackle, especially since I know there has to be an easier way.
BTW if anybody is unclear on this, I can't just use the most significant bits and forget about the other two, the way 24 bit color is converted for 18 bit LCDs is by using dithering to create a color depth that resembles 24 bit color (or at any rate looks a lot better than just using straight 18 bit color).
I know this is a pretty esoteric area of electronics, but hopefully somebody out there will be able to help me out with this one.
Thanks in advance --Michael Tripp