I'm wondering if such a beast exists: A relatively modern device in the tablet form factor, where the screen is big enough to display an 8.5" x 11" page at actual size?

Either a true tablet form factor like the Win8 tablets coming out now, or, a laptop with a fold-around keyboard so it folds completely flat. Or hell, even an Android or WinRT tablet, but I'm pretty sure none of the iPad/Droid/RT devices are anywhere near big enough.

Everyone who uses sheet music or chord charts these days is moving all their stuff to iPads/Androids running software like ForScore. That's all well and good, but the iPad/Android approach has serious problems for me:

• All the sheet-music-display software for iPads/Androids that I've seen (such as ForScore or others) requires a file format conversion to either PDF or to a proprietary format. You can't display your chord chart or sheet music in its original editable format (in my case, chord/lyric charts in Winword .DOC files).
• Lack of direct access to the file system means that you must do some kind of an import step in the sheet music software. Some of the software will support DropBox directly, which is real good, but still not quite as useful as copying the files directly.
• Cannot *source edit* the charts/music in their original format other than scribbling annotations atop them.
• If you annotate the charts by scribbling notes atop the charts, your annotations are locked into that software, you can't get them back to the original source documents. Any annotations are now in that program's proprietary file format. Even if they weren't proprietary files, because of the lack of direct-access-to-the-filesystem, you now don't have an easy way of transporting those annotations back to a source computer where the original files were composed.
• iPads, Android, and WindowsRT tablets are just too friggin small. At that size, you need the chart too close to your face to be useful for the way I use my chord charts. When I use chord charts, I stand really far back from the music stand and keep an eye on the chart out of the corner of my eye, and an iPad or Droid is just too small for that.

Right now I'm experimenting with one of my company's very old tablet PCs running WinXP tablet edition. The device is a Motion Computing M1400. This is actually QUITE CLOSE to what I'm looking for. It's close enough that I'm using it as a proof of concept (the "concept" being that I can somehow someday go paperless for my chord charts). Its 12"-diagonal screen is the correct aspect ratio, and when I display an 8.5x11 page on it, it's starting to come close to actual size. Not quite, but much closer than an ipad or droid would be. (Ideally, for a 4:3 screen like that, I'd want about 14 inches diagonal for Actual Size display and I'd be happy with 13.) Because the M1400 runs Windows, I can simply copy my .DOC files to it and display them. I even have a fairly fancy Word VBA macro that handles the process of setting up playlists and paging through the charts in a live performance setting (that was the thing I asked for "Save As" dialog box help in another thread recently).

If I don't find something better than that M1400, I will ask my company if I can buy it from them, and just use it for this purpose. (Heck, I'm thinking it was destined for the recycling rack to begin with.) The problem is, the thing is old and no longer supported, and Motion Computing no longer carries things like extra batteries for it (I checked). I found a replacement battery from one third party company but I've got no idea how good it would be. I'd like something new, something actively supported, something lighter, that I don't have to tether to a power supply, and that has enough CPU/RAM to run Win7 or Win8.

Okay, so there's a billion Win8 tablets coming out right now in all sorts of different sizes. I should be able to use one of them, right? Well, here's the problem. Their screens are all 16x9 ratio. Our fascination with watching DVDs on our computers has done this to us: Every computer made today has a 16x9 screen. (Even the ones made by Motion Computing.)

Okay, sure, so you can still display an 8.5x11 page in portrait mode on a 16x9 screen. There will be a gap above and below it, sure, but the page will display. True, but the problem with that aspect ratio is that you have to have such a massive screen to reach 8.5 inches in width. In order to view that 8.5x11 page at Actual Size, you need a screen that is more than 17 inches diagonal.

Does anyone make modern 16:9 tablets, for US sale, with screens in the neighborhood of 17 inches diagonal?

Anyone know of a relatively modern device (i.e., likely to be still supported with regard to replacement parts and batteries) with an NTSC (4:3) aspect screen in the neighborhood of 13-14 inches diagonal?

I'm having trouble finding what I want via Google.

How about something in the All-in-One PC range:

http://store.sony.com/c/VAIO-Tap-20-Touchscreen-Computers/en/c/S_J2_SERIES_PAGE

-jk

Interesting! Checking it out now.

The Sony Vaio name makes me cringe, having had prior bad experiences, but that might be the kind of thing I'm looking for, and maybe Sony has improved their stuff in the years since I last touched one.

Hm, at 20 inches in landscape mode, it'll display TWO pages at nearly actual size, meaning, no page-turning mid-song (my longest charts are two pages tops).

Investigating. Thanks.

Hm. Looking at the video of the thing in action, it looks like it would be a bit bulky for airplane travel. I wouldn't expect to *use* something like that *on* an airplane. What I mean is, it might be a hassle packing in the baggage and getting through airline security. Although not really any worse than a big laptop I suppose. Hm.

Something like that is less like a tablet and more like a 20" desktop monitor that happens to have batteries and a computer inside it. Maybe I should expand my proof-of-concept testing to include a 20" desktop monitor in that role and see if that's something I could be happy with.

Now that I calculate it out, I see that it doesn't really get me two pages at actual size. Width is OK, but height only gets 9.75 inches.

Of course if I go vertical with something that big, then I'm way beyond 8.5x11 and I could do some tricks, like, put the music even farther away, or lower down, which would be even better.

Hm. It's got me thinking. Thanks.

Hm. Battery life is only a couple of hours. Some of my gigs run three hours. I could turn it off and top off its charge during set breaks, though. Still, that's a razor-thin margin on battery life. And yes, I could just run the power cord out to it, but I'm trying to avoid that.

Sorry everyone... just thinking out loud here.

Contrary to your earlier assertion, Android devices DO have "direct access to the filesystem", not that this helps with the other, more important points.

Cheers

And this guy's kickstarter for a 17-inch tablet never got anywhere.

So the industry is doing 10-inch tablets and 20-inch tablets at the 16:9 aspect ratio, but nothing in between. Hm.

I may be back to trying to find an older 4:3 tablet or foldable PC in the 13 inch range.

Anyone know of any model numbers of older PCs in that form factor?

Asus is working on a 18" tablet, the tablet runs Android and the base/stand runs Windows.

Asus tablet

Lenovo is working on a 27" table top tablet.

Lenovo tablet

How about using a tablet / laptop with DVI/HDMI output or MHL and an MHL-HDMI converter to a screen of your choice. Neater still would be a Nexus 10 and Netgear PTV3000 to do it wirelessly over Miracast.

There are a number of interesting products coming from the USB display space, including things like this Monitor 2Go (DisplayLink chipset inside).

If my memory serves, several companies (AOC, and perhaps Fujitsu?) make a USB powered monitor that you could drive from a compact laptop.

I considered doing some kind of remote display thing. A couple of issues with that.

First, I don't yet see a battery powered or wireless remote display, meaning, anything I put in front of me is going to need two cables running to it, and that's two cables more than I want.

Second, it means that now I'm traveling with two large heavy expensive LCD displays instead of one, it's two things I need to take out for the TSA, it's two things that might have an electronics failure or get damaged in transit, etc.

Yeah, if it weren't for that, I'd just bolt a cheap LCD monitor to a mic stand and be done with it. Still not entirely set against the idea, but it's mostly out of play at this point.

On a side note: I looked at the Monitor2Go specs and I don't see how it's any better than just any other LCD monitor. Maybe some additional plastic to help it stand up on its own and dock with an ipad easily, but that's about it.

So you just need this, right?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81iiGWdsJgg

Except.. productised.

Hells yes.

Of course all the ways they're showing those things being used, I don't care about. I just need a display in that size and shape, and E-paper would be an awesome way to do it.

I could envision hacking up an old laptop to add a display like that.

For what it's worth, I have a Sony Tap 20 unit in my office, which we're planning to turn into an electronic voting prototype, donated by Sony and Microsoft who are intrigued by the idea.

You can think of it as a big, heavy, battery-powered tablet. Or, you can think of it as an all-in-one Windows 8 touch-enabled PC that happens to have an internal 2.5 hour battery and ships with Bluetooth keyboard and mouse.

If what you want is to have sheet music in front of your face and have swipe gestures to go between pages, this Sony thing plus a swipe-grokking PDF viewer might be exactly what you're looking for. You will need something more substantial than a standard music stand to hold it, though.

The Sony thing sounds great but for the 2.5 hour battery life. That's right on the hairy edge of being too short. Still, that's very tempting and very close to what I'm looking for. With a screen that big, it could almost be propped on the floor farther in front of us, more like a stage teleprompter.

I've already got the page-turner app sorted out. I don't want PDF, I want it to be source-editable doc format, meaning I had to write a Word macro for crating set lists and paging through them, but that all works now.

Swiping, or even a touch screen for that matter, is not a necessary part of my plan. The page turning will be accomplished with a wireless bluetooth pedal ala this or this.

Actually, Dan, if you've got that thing handy...

Does it happen to have Word on it?

If so, and if you have access to it, do me a favor and open up *just* Word, showing a 20-page document in full screen reading mode. Let it sit there, ideally with a bluetooth mouse connected. Screen brightness can be turned down a bit, but it must be set so that it does not go to sleep nor have the screen turn off at all. How long does its battery really last in that state?

Any chance you could just have an auxiliary battery plugged in and sitting on the floor? Doesn't have to be anything fancy or compact, a lead-acid gel-cell motorcycle battery would do the trick maybe 8" by 4" by 4", about 12 amp-hours at 12 volts.

tanstaafl.

The Sony's power brick is 19.5V at 3.3A. That's not exactly a standard thing for which you can buy a battery pack.

Amusingly, I thought the computer was asleep, since its screen was off, but instead it had apparently crashed, while sitting there, and I had to hard boot it. At least it boots fast. I don't have Office on here (despite having a bunch of stuff in C:\Program Files\Office15), but there is a PDF viewer that does 2-up and lets you swipe to advance.

It's too late today for me to start a battery drain test for you, but I'll give that a shot tomorrow.

Awesome, Dan! Thanks!

Yeah, I'm really curious what kind of battery life it *really* gets when it's sitting there displaying a document for a long time (i.e., the screen is never allowed to go to sleep).

And that "kickstand" on the back: That only works for a landscape mode display, right, you can't prop it up in portrait mode using that kickstand?

Hm. CNET said they got three hours and 42 minutes out of the thing in a video-focused battery drain test. That's more like it.

Hmmmmmmmmmm........

Are you familiar with the MusicPad Pro? It's a 12.1" screen tablet purpose built for a music library. It's a discontinued product now, and your requirements for Word file editing probably count it out, but it seemed really well thought out. If what you're doing is chiefly displaying words and/or chord charts, you've got probably more flexibility in solutions, but if you were depending on actual scores and relying on having a lot of them available at any one time, it was about the only game in town for many years.

If I were to guess at the reasons for its demise, it's that the company was just a few years ahead of its time. The market for a many hundred dollar piece of equipment just to manage sheet music is probably terribly small. Now that everyone has a tablet or is contemplating purchasing one, it makes a lot more sense to sell that kind of solution as a software app, which many companies are in fact doing.

When I have the screen brightness all the way up, it estimates 2 hours of battery life. When I turn it all the way down, the estimate becomes 3.5 hours. Right now, I'm doing a run-down test for you with the brightness all the way down.

The kickstand is a bit wonky. Works just fine for landscape. If you fold it to the middle, the machine will stand up in portrait mode, but one bump and it's going down. If you want to run this machine in portrait mode, you'll want to build/buy your own stand for it.

Or add a little bit of gaffer tape to the setup.

With minimal screen brightness and nothing running (just whatever Windows Explorer is called now), I'm at four hours and three minutes with 7% battery life left and the machine gently reminding me to plug in now, damnit. Not bad.

I'm currently doing proof-of-concept testing on a WinXP tablet with a 12.1" screen (the aforementioned Motion Computing M1400), so basically, I'm doing that same thing but with the bonus of having live editing available by having Word installed on the tablet.

And yes, I once upon a time seem to recall seeing a web site for a company that had a purpose-built tablet for sheet music (pre-ipad days), so it might have been them.

Interestingly, a google search for those people turns up these people, who have a pre-made list of computers, some of which look like the sorts of things I'm looking for:
http://www.musicreader.net/hardware/tablet-pc/tablet-pc-comparison.html

I'm going to investigate the 13" ones in that list and see if I want to get one of them on ebay or something. (*EDIT:* Never mind, all the 13" ones on that list are 16:10 widescreen displays, we're back to my same original problem.)

Okay, that is awesome. Thank you SO MUCH for doing that rundown test.

They have one of those on display at the Best Buy near my house. Glimpsed it (but didn't get to play with it, thanks to that painting/drawing app on the thing that draws all the kids to it). Vixy thinks it's too big, and that if we did what I wanted to do and prop it on the floor like a teleprompter, we'd have to put it too far forward. I still want to poke at it and do some experiments with something that size. I have a 20" monitor at my house I could stick on its side and experiment with.

The bezel is roughly an inch all the way around, which doesn't seem unreasonable. If you hold up two US Letter pages to the screen, they fit by width, but the top inch of each page gets cut off. That says if your sheet music is printed with 1-inch margins on US Letter, you can have it on screen at full-life size without cropping anything.

Like I said before, a regular music stand would not stand up well to this much weight on top. You'd want to build/buy/cobble something more substantial. The built-in kick-stand thing seems reasonably solid and you can change the view angle. It's just held together with friction on the joints, so over time I'd expect it would loosen up, and thus the need for a more substantial stand.

Aha okay, here's something interesting:

http://hk.viewsonic.com/en/products/airpanel/index15.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_Display

Back in the early aughts, Microsoft wanted to sell folks on the idea of a tablet PC you carried around the house which RDP'd into your desktop computer. It didn't fly, but Viewsonic managed to make a few of these, which can be had for about 100 bucks on Ebay:

- 15" diagonal screen, 4:3 aspect ratio (EXACTLY PRECISELY the size and shape I want because that's 9" x 12" viewable area)

- Battery powered (LI-Ion 4-hour rechargable, I'll have to see about replacement batteries).

- WiFi with the ability to RDP into a Windows PC. (Via a Windows CE os with an RDP client built in.)

If I kept a real laptop off in the corner somewhere and used this as a remote display, this could be perfect.

One catch: this thing has to have the ability to run in portrait mode, with the RDP display going full screen in portrait mode.

Can anyone with better google-fu tell this thing will do portrait mode? My searches aren't coming up with much and all the pics show landscape mode.