B.NTA92C – NT68667 Based LCD Controller Review

This relatively recent release is intended to replace the apparently temporarily unavailable original boards the R.RM5xxx, and I can imagine that whoever it was designed for, it’s probably adequate. But for us hobbyists?

NTA92C LCD Controller
NTA92C LCD Controller

This board, pitched as “new”, is based on the Novatek NT68667, which is far from new. This chip was first seen in classic prehistoric LCD Monitors such as the Philips 170/190 and is still knocking around to this day.

One of the biggest problems with all of the boards I talk about on this blog, is that they aren’t made for hobbyists, we don’t have any line of support to their creators, that we’ve got them at all is only thanks to leaked/stolen PCB gerbers and firmware images and the desire of numerous Chinese vendors to make a buck.

The NTA92C's OSD. Familiar?
The NTA92C’s OSD. Familiar?

To me the only interesting thing about NTA92C is that when viewing the OSD, I can see very clearly that is is the work of the same people who created the R.RM5xxx boards.

So far, all of the builds I have tried have the wrong EDID! 1440×900 panels report themselves as 1280×800, 1024×768 as 1440×900 and so on. This is a little frustrating as you’ve got to wrestle with the operating system to get it to output a resolution that’ll actually work, assuming that a standard timing will even work at all with the connected panel.

I had hoped that I’d be able to add support for this to my trusty ROVATools suite but thus far I’ve encountered strong technical resistance. The Novatek is a pig to program, and the code running on these is so different to that of R.RM5xxx that I’m basically starting from scratch. I don’t think this board is worth my time.

MStar Semiconductors's basic USB Programmer. It's not the Novatek offical programmer but it happens to be what I was given, and it is supported by Novatek's writer software.
MStar Semiconductors’s basic USB Programmer. It’s not the Novatek offical programmer but it happens to be what I was given, and it is supported by Novatek’s writer software.

As with the R.RM5xxx boards, I’ve once again got the feeling that the programming/flashing resources I’ve been supplied are not intended to be in the hands of the general public…

BLOATWARE: Novatek's people have committed the ultimate sin of a software developer: Skinning an engineering application. I'm not a big fan of the McuIsp tool used for Realtek solutions, but I enjoy using this program even less.
BLOATWARE: Novatek’s people have committed the ultimate sin of a software developer: Skinning an engineering application.
I’m not a big fan of the McuIsp tool used for Realtek solutions, but I enjoy using this program even less.

Conclusion: These boards are not a ready for market solution, but if you ended up buying one anyway, it’s not as if it’s not going to work. With enough mucking around they can be made to work with the available resources, but in terms of the experience and end result. they’re no match for the R.RM5xxx.

2 thoughts on “B.NTA92C – NT68667 Based LCD Controller Review

  1. Hi

    i have B.NTA92C-U (11424) running on my LC420WUN LG touch display running under Linux 14.04, which is failing to give me a resolution of 1920*1080 but 1024*768. If you may please assist me with drivers or help to run 1920*1080 for my display. Looking forward to your favorable response.

    Thank you.

    1. As I hint on this page – the firmware images for this board are a mess. I’d send it back and get a realtek.

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