Better video quality on my old G3 than my new iMac?!?!

How is this possible???
The visual quality of my new 17 inch 2 duo iMac 1.83 is horrendous. The screen detail and colors look like they're stuck in thousands instead of millions. Even though the resolution says otherwise (1440x900 millions).
As a test, I played the same exact divx video file on my old G3 pismo powerbook and on the new iMac using my VLC player.
And despite the iMacs supposedly superior 3D card, screen resolution, intel-processor, and every other improvement over the past 7 years since I bought my G3 powerbook, the video image on the iMac is flat-out HORRIBLE!
On the old powerbook, every shade and color of the video is there. Crystal clear. On the new iMac, it's as if nothing but the 3 primary colors are available.
Is this because of the intel processor's need to borrow ram for video? I have 512MBs installed. Do I have to install a ton more just to get the same visual quality of my G3 powerbook?
Am I crazy? Is my iMac defective? Or are the new intel-chips that lame when it comes to VRAM?
Thanks in adavance.

I've discovered what the problem is with my new 17inch Duo 2 iMac...
DON'T EVER BUY A COMPUTER WITH A "GMA" GRAPHICS SETUP!
I'm not talking about 3D gaming, or iphoto, or even Youtube for goodness sakes. I am talking about the basic of basics! The desktop! The menu text! The color and contrast of the screen!
Just turning the iMac on without a single program running, and the machine looks like it's running on a thousand, even 256 colors, at best!
When I first saw how awful the display quality was, I was positive the iMac was defective. But after a couple hours of google research, I came to learn that this was what PC users have always referred to as "the curse of the shared VRAM". Something Apple users have never had to deal with... until now.
I've already ordered a 1GB chip to replace one of the two 256 chips that came with the iMac. But if I can't even get the basic screen quality comparable to a G3 powerbook that I bought nearly 7 years ago, I am going to raise the biggest stink with my beloved Apple Corp. until they take this **** thing back and exchange it for an Intel model with ACCEPTABLE display hardware.
BUYERS BE WARNED: DON'T BUY ANYTHING WITH THE WORDS "GMA 950" INVOLVED, NOT UNLESS YOU DON'T MIND STARING AT A SCREEN THAT'LL HURT YOUR EYES UNTIL YOU GO BLIND.

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What to buy: Old g5 PowerMac vs new iMac vs 8 Core Powermac?

Hi all,
I have a five year old Powerbook that has been around the world, dropped, spilled on, neglected. It’s time for a new computer that I can treat with more respect.
My chief problem is that Adobe Photoshop Lightroom runs on this computer almost too slowly to make using it worth my while. I also use Photoshop/Illustrator for design, will be recording more and more music (4 tracks max I should think). I would like something that won’t lag for these programs, while running Firefox (an increasing memory hog) and iTunes (with a 200gb library, also a memory hog).
I don’t know whether to get one of the new big ol’ iMacs, an old G5 PowerMac (which can be had for real cheap on Craigslist), or, to a lesser extent, go all out on one of the new 8 Core PowerMacs (which to me don’t seem worth the hefty price tag, especially as many of these programs aren’t keeping up with Apple’s processing innovations).
Can anyone give me advice based on this alone? I’d much appreciate!
Thank you!
Alec

I am very impressed with my iMac's ability to handle Garageband tracks. I have not been able to turn the playhead anything other than white. This machine is awesome.
I have always been an iMac fan. They are near to impossible to upgrade except for ram but who cares? By the time you are ready to upgrade it is better to buy another machine anyway...a new iMac! CPU and graphic performance is improved so drastically that it is difficult to keep up with it with upgrades.
I also love the new screens. They are much nicer than any of the Windows desktops or monitors I have seen in stores. My only complain is a slight darkening as you go down the page. The same color will be slightly darker at the bottom of the monitor. This has not effected anything I do so I can't really complain.
The hard drive is a little bit of a problem, especially of you are needing 200GB just for music. The least expensive iMac can only be upgraded to 500GB. For me, I only make sure there is enough hard drive space to do my work on with lots to spare. All other items are stored on an external drive. iTunes has no problem keeping the library on an external drive. You just set the drive up in the preferences. I like Firefire 800 compatible drives for speedy transfers. Garageband sessions can be stored their as well and will even run from the drive. Keep Garageband on your mac.
Unless you are a professional with some very demanding needs, the iMacs will be more than satisfying. As soon as you can afford it, max out their ram for more fun!
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Can anyone help me with process of moving only my pics and music (purchased and imported cds) from a old G5 to a new iMac. Thanks Dan

Can anyone help me with process of moving only my pics and music (purchased and imported cds) from a old G5 to a new iMac. Thanks Dan

The easiest way is to connect the G5 and your new iMac together via Firewire. Then you can use what is called "Target Disk Mode" which basically makes the G5 look like an external hard drive to your iMac. The potential gotcha is if your new iMac does not have a Firewire port. In that case, you need to get the Apple Thunderbolt-Firewire adapter in order to connect the two machines (as far as I know, all G5's had one or more Firewire ports). I have done this many times, it's easy and works perfectly.
Alternatively, you could connect both Macs to the same network and log into the G5 from your iMac. This involves going into System Preferences > Sharing on the G5 and turning on File Sharing and then logging in from your iMac to the G5 as if it were a server. (Logging in through the Finder or via Go > Connect to Server). This also works fine but it's a little more involved than using Target Disk Mode. I do this all the time and it too works fine.
Either way, once the two Macs are connected, you will use the Finder on your iMac to copy files/folders from your G5 the same as you would from any external hard drive. Regarding iTunes, you could just copy your entire iTunes library over to your iMac being careful to put it in the same relative folder location: /users/yourusername/Music/iTunes This method will preserve your playlists and album art. Alternatively you could go into iTunes and do Add to Library but I'm not completely sure doing it that way will bring over your album art and it certainly won't bring over your playlists.
I see no reason to use a separate external hard drive. It will just double the time it takes to transfer your files because you would first have to copy everything to the hard drive, then in a second step copy everything from the hard drive to your iMac.
Note: In all cases there is the possibility that you may need to change file & folder permissions on the things you copy over so you can access (read & write) to these folders & files once copied to your new iMac. This is not a difficult process.

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How can i transfer my music from my old PC to my new iMAC

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Bcouture wrote:
How can i transfer my music from my old PC to my new iMAC
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http://www.macworld.com/article/146958/2010/03/move_itunes_windows_mac.html

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How do I copy files from my old pc to my new imac?

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How can I do to use my adobe cs3 taken from my old powewrbook to my new Imac?

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Transfering itunes library from old mac book to new imac

I just purchased a new iMac and when I transfered data from my old macbook to my new iMac, my itunes library didn't transfer -- everything else did just fine. Does anyone know why or how to transfer either from the macbook or my ipod to my new computer. Thanks -- sorry if the answer is obvious.

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The current version of the free LibreOffice continues to support Word Perfect documents. OpenOffice had to drop this support due to licensing issues. LO installs in two places: /Applications and your local Library/Application Support directory. Simple to install. Simple to remove. Good PDF documentation from their site. It is a capable MS Office replacement.
I just opened a wpd legal deposition in LO and it looked fine.

Old Mac Pro vs. new iMac?

I have a nearly three year old Mac Pro that is currently being serviced at my local Apple Store. For almost three years I have had trouble with it -- first it spontaneously rebooted itself which was fixed by replacing power supply, logic board and processor. The other problem is the recurring (but randomly recurring) seizing of Time Machine. I've tried three separate external hard drives, three different cables, all the FW ports, archive and reinstall twice, erase and reinstall twice, and hours on the phone with tech support. No one knows what to do. I have no confidence that they'll find anything this time either. I've just about had it. And my Apple Care runs out in two weeks. So...I'm thinking of getting a new iMac to replace it, because I'm not doing the heavy duty phot/video/design work on the Pro that I thought I was going to do. I know it's a hard question to answer, but aside from the speed, which I probably won't notice that much, what are the biggest trade-offs "stepping down" to the iMac? Thanks

Your 2nd and 3rd disk drives will be external Firewire 800 drives. Slower than internal drives.
You can't change your mind. No video card upgrades 2 years down the road. What you buy is what you live with. You can expand memory to 16GB (which seems plenty to me) and you can (with some effort) replace the disk drive with a larger one.
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Transfering old G4 contents to new iMac.

Is it possible to convert Appleworks6 documents for acceptance and display on new 21.5-inch iMac (have 'Numbers','pages' and 'Keynote" apps installed)?

Pages will read AW word processing documents. Numbers can accept AW spreadsheets if you export them to CSV files. I don't think Numbers will read the native file. That's it.
The best way to be sure you can use the AW documents is to export them first to a common format such as text files, CSV or tab delimited files. Be sure you save your AW documents in these common formats because once you move over to Intel hardware there is nothing you can do with them.
A Basic Guide for Migrating to Intel-Macs
The Knowledgebase article Intel-based Mac: Some migrated applications may need to be updated refers to methods of dealing with migrating from PowerPC chips to Intel with the Migration Assistant safely. The authors of this tip have not had a chance to verify this works in all instances, or that it avoids the 10.6.1 and earlier Guest Account bug that caused account information to get deleted upon use of the Migration/Setup Assistant. However, a well backed up source that includes at least two backups of all the data that are not connected to your machine will help you avoid potential issues, should they arise. In event it does not work, follow the steps below.
If you are migrating a PowerPC system (G3, G4, or G5) to an Intel-Mac be careful what you migrate. Keep in mind that some items that may get transferred will not work on Intel machines and may end up causing your computer's operating system to malfunction.
Rosetta supports "software that runs on the PowerPC G3, G4, or G5 processor that are built for Mac OS X". This excludes the items that are not universal binaries or simply will not work in Rosetta:
1. Classic Environment, and subsequently any Mac OS 9 or earlier applications
2. Screensavers written for the PowerPC System Preference add-ons
3. All Unsanity Haxies Browser and other plug-ins
4. Contextual Menu Items
5. Applications which specifically require the PowerPC G5 Kernel extensions
6. Java applications with JNI (PowerPC) libraries
See also What Can Be Translated by Rosetta.
In addition to the above you could also have problems with migrated cache files and/or cache files containing code that is incompatible.
If you migrate a user folder that contains any of these items, you may find that your Intel-Mac is malfunctioning. It would be wise to take care when migrating your systems from a PowerPC platform to an Intel-Mac platform to assure that you do not migrate these incompatible items.
If you have problems with applications not working, then completely uninstall said application and reinstall it from scratch. Take great care with Java applications and Java-based Peer-to-Peer applications. Many Java apps will not work on Intel-Macs as they are currently compiled. As of this time Limewire, Cabos, and Acquisition are available as universal binaries. Do not install browser plug-ins such as Flash or Shockwave from downloaded installers unless they are universal binaries. The version of OS X installed on your Intel-Mac comes with special compatible versions of Flash and Shockwave plug-ins for use with your browser.
The same problem will exist for any hardware drivers such as mouse software unless the drivers have been compiled as universal binaries. For third-party mice the current choices are USB Overdrive or SteerMouse. Contact the developer or manufacturer of your third-party mouse software to find out when a universal binary version will be available.
Also be careful with some backup utilities and third-party disk repair utilities. Disk Warrior, TechTool Pro , SuperDuper , and Drive Genius work properly on Intel-Macs with Leopard. The same caution may apply to the many "maintenance" utilities that have not yet been converted to universal binaries. Leopard Cache Cleaner, Onyx, TinkerTool System, and Cocktail are now compatible with Leopard.
Before migrating or installing software on your Intel-Mac check MacFixit's Rosetta Compatibility Index.
Additional links that will be helpful to new Intel-Mac users:
1. Intel In Macs
2. Apple Guide to Universal Applications
3. MacInTouch List of Compatible Universal Binaries
4. MacInTouch List of Rosetta Compatible Applications
5. MacUpdate List of Intel-Compatible Software
6. Transferring data with Setup Assistant - Migration Assistant FAQ
7. OS X Lion: How to use Migration Assistant to transfer files from another Mac
Because Migration Assistant isn't the ideal way to migrate from PowerPC to Intel Macs, using Target Disk Mode, copying the critical contents to CD and DVD, an external hard drive, or networking will work better when moving from PowerPC to Intel Macs. The initial section below discusses Target Disk Mode. It is then followed by a section which discusses networking with Macs that lack Firewire.
If both computers support the use of Firewire then you can use the following instructions:
1. Repair the hard drive and permissions using Disk Utility.
2. Backup your data. This is vitally important in case you make a mistake
      or there's some other problem.
3. Connect a Firewire cable between your old Mac and your new Intel Mac.
4. Startup your old Mac in Transferring files between two computers using FireWire.
5. Startup your new Mac for the first time, go through the setup and
       registration screens, but do NOT migrate data over. Get to your
       desktop on the new Mac without migrating any new data over.
If you are not able to use a Firewire connection (for example you have a Late 2008 MacBook that only supports USB:)
1. Set up a local home network: Creating a small Ethernet Network.
2. If you have a MacBook Air or Late 2008 MacBook see the following:
a. MacBook (13-inch, Aluminum, Late 2008) and MacBook Pro (15-inch,
      Late 2008) - What to do if migration is unsuccessful;
b. MacBook Air - Migration Tips and Tricks;
c. MacBook Air - Remote Disc, Migration, or Remote Install Mac OS X and
      wireless 802.11n networks.
Copy the following items from your old Mac to the new Mac:
In your /Home/ folder: Documents, Movies, Music, Pictures, and Sites folders.
In your /Home/Library/ folder:
/Home/Library/Application Support/AddressBook (copy the whole folder) /Home/Library/Application Support/iCal (copy the whole folder)
Also in /Home/Library/Application Support (copy whatever else you need including folders for any third-party applications)
/Home/Library/Keychains (copy the whole folder) /Home/Library/Mail (copy the whole folder) /Home/Library/Preferences/ (copy the whole folder) /Home /Library/Calendars (copy the whole folder) /Home /Library/iTunes (copy the whole folder) /Home /Library/Safari (copy the whole folder)
If you want cookies:
/Home/Library/Cookies/Cookies.plist /Home/Library/Application Support/WebFoundation/HTTPCookies.plist
For Entourage users:
Entourage is in /Home/Documents/Microsoft User Data Also in /Home/Library/Preferences/Microsoft.
Credit goes to Macjack for this information.
If you need to transfer data for other applications please ask the vendor or ask in the Discussions where specific applications store their data.
5. Once you have transferred what you need restart the new Mac and test to make sure the contents are there for each of the applications.
Written by Kappy with additional contributions from a brody.Revised 5/21/2011

Migrating large iPhoto library from my old mac to a new iMac

Hi there. This seems a little complicated, but hopefully I can explain my problem clearly and somebody will have faced this same problem.
I currently have a Macbook pro of approximately five years old and it is running an outdated version of iPhoto (6.0.6) and has just over 5,000 pictures in its library which have been edited and updated.I have recently purchased a new iMac (11,3) which is running iPhoto 11 (version 9.1.5) which so far has only about 30 photos in it which were loaded as a “test” import and could be removed if necessary.
What I want to know is how do I best go about transferring my old iPhoto library and its contents (critically, I obviously want to keep the 5,000 shots intact in their edited state) over to the new iMac so that I can view my whole photo library in iPhoto ’11?
I have actually moved the whole iPhoto library folder across to the iMAC hard disk and put it in a separate dummy folder, however, I am usure about exactly how to go about combining them as it would appear that iPhoto ’11 may have a different underlying file structure and I don't want to mess this up!
It had occurred to me that it might be worth upgrading iPhoto on my macbook Pro to iPhoto ’11 (I have recently upgraded to snow leopard so I have access to the App Store)....... Am I right in thinking that this provides a simple down-loadable upgrade all the way to IPhoto’11. Would this help me in any way what I am trying to do, do you think?
Be grateful for all advice on this.
Thanks,
Alan.

It's really simple.
I have actually moved the whole iPhoto library folder across to the iMAC hard disk and put it in a separate dummy folder,
Hold down the option (or alt) key key and launch iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library' and point it at this Library. Iphoto will upgrade the library to the new format.
Regards
TD

How do i transfer data from my old PC to my new imac?

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Does this help? http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4796

Better video quality on my old G3 than my new iMac?!?!

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