External LCD Monitor - Older MBP

I have an older Macbook Pro, 2.16 C2D. The Graphics Card in it is an ATI Radeon X1600. I want acquire an external LCD monitor and I want to get one that is at least 1920x1080. Will I be able to use an HD monitor with my MBP and will it still look normal? Thanks.

The very first MBP (CD 2.16) supported external monitors up to 2560x1600,(such as the Apple 30") psiforce. So does the C2D with ATI Mobility Radeon X1600. See http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook_pro/stats/macbook-pro-core-2-duo-2 .16-15-specs.html
Any of them can do little 22 & 24" 1920x1080 monitors with one hand tied behind their back!
Cheers
Rod

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External LCD Monitor Connection - Unacceptable Quality

Hello,
I have recently purchased a Mac, hoping that I would be able to connect to my external LCD monitor (19" Samsung SyncMaster 920NW - only VGA connection).
I have easily hooked up my monitor to my Mac. However, what I see is of unacceptable quality. When compared to Macbook display, the display on the external monitor is darker and the text looks horrible. I have played with few settings but nothing good.
I have read other threads where people complain about similar things. But, I thought Samsung's monitors would be of higher quality. Mine is a relatively cheap LCD but not this cheap
I am just willing to confirm that I am not missing anything. I simply can't believe that the display quality could be this bad. In the worst case, I will have to buy a new LCD.
Many thanks in advance.

Hello stedman1,
Thank you for your quick reply.
Unfortunately, it is not running in the Mirror mode. The display with the mirror mode was even worse! But after reading the posts in the forum, I have learned how to change it to the extended display. It is better than the mirror mode, but still not good enough.
Maybe I am making a mistake comparing the external monitor with the MacBook's monitor?? There is a huge gap between the two. It is a lot darker, and the text quality is way worse.
Someone with a similar monitor having solved this issues?
Thanks,
Guven.

Quality of screen color flashes after connecting to external LCD monitor

After connecting my Powerbook G4 to an external LCD monitor via s-video, the quality of the image on the built-in screen flashes back and forth between what seems like a 8 or 16-bit image and a 32-bit image. I have run the hardware test and everything checks out fine but the image is grainy and washed out and only sometimes returns to normal. I have also reset PRAM and PMU to no effect, as well as tried recalibrating the display. And oddly, the external display is fine.
This is terribly frustrating as all colors are washed out and I can't truly gauge what I am doing design wise. Any help is greatly appreciated.
Thanks

Thank you, Silly Rabbit. I actually only hook the Powerbook up to the external monitor (LCD TV) to watch movies, show photos, etc. I don't actually use an external monitor on a daily basis.
Your suggestion is a good one, which I appreciate. I am going to the Genius Bar this afternoon, so hopefully they can provide a solution for the built-in screen.
Thanks again!

Connecting Powerbook to External LCD Monitor

The D-BUS port on the external LCD monitor is a female port, so is the VGA port of the DVI Adapter, How can I connect these 2 if both are female ports, what do I need???

Sounds like you need a VGA cable with male VGA plugs at both ends. Quite common, for VGA monitors that don't have hard-wired cables.

External LCD monitors with DVI PowerBook: Banding Issues

I have a DVI PB and would like to attach an external LCD monitor. I've looked at both Samsung 20 inch and ViewSonic 19 inch versions but whenever I attach them, I get "banding" around the edges of the external monitor. Tonight, I went to CompUSA to look at the Samsung 204B 20 inch. Taking my PB with me, I hooked up and set the resolution to 1600 x 1200 and the Samsung had huge, fat black banding all around the monitor. If you don't know - banding looks like a large, black border going around the screen. The sales guy pushed some auto-set buttons (which is said always work to remove the banding) but it didn't fix the issue. Any suggestions? Is there some secret that I'm not aware of on how to attach and use an external LCD monitor with the PB? One note: I did set the resolution down to 1280 x 1024, which worked fine to remove the banding but it monitor looked horrible. Not the best resolution for a large monitor.
Thanks,
B. Rose
TiBook 800 & iBook SE Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Hi, Bill. I can't speak to whatever happened with the Viewsonic monitor, since you didn't tell us about that, but it sounds as though the Samsung was in display mirroring mode rather than extended-desktop mode. The F7 key on your Powerbook's keyboard toggles an external monitor between the two modes. In mirror mode, the external monitor displays exactly the same thing as the built-in display. In extended-desktop mode, it functions as a separate portion of your desktop, and you can drag things (windows, icons) from one monitor onto the other. If you're going to use both displays, extended-desktop mode is probably what you'll want: why keep two copies of the same thing in front of you?
In mirrored mode, the fact that your Powerbook's display has a maximum resolution of 1280 x 854 means that only 1280 x 854 pixels of the external monitor can be used — leaving wide black borders of untapped pixels around the copy of your PB's display that's centered on the external monitor. In extended-desktop mode, the external display's native resolution of 1600 x 1200 can all be used, provided that your 32MB of VRAM is sufficient to drive the total of (1280 x 854) + (1600 x 1200) = 3,013,120 pixels, at the bit depth you've selected. (You might have to use the extended-desktop mode in Thousands of colors, rather than Millions.)
Another issue that comes into play with display mirroring is that the 4:3 aspect ratio of the 1600 x 1200 Samsung is different from the 3:2 aspect ratio of the Powerbook's display. If you set the Samsung's resolution to 1280 x 1024 to match the pixel width of the PB display, the top and bottom of the Samsung will be black bands, because the PB isn't manufacturing any pixels to fill those bands. And it will be blurry, because the Samsung has to interpolate to make 1600 pixels look (sort of) like 1280 pixels. Unlike a CRT display, the actual number of pixels in an LCD is fixed. When you change resolution settings on an LCD from its native (maximum) resolution to anything less, the image is always blurred. Only the native resolution can be really sharp.

My external lcd monitor for my mac book screen wont turn on?

my external lcd monitor for my mac book screen wont turn on, it was working fine, I came home hooked up my laptop and the screens bounced back and forth a couple time. I got an error message saying my dashboard client had crashed, screen went black on monitor. Now when I plug it in my laptop doesent even recognize my external mac lcd monitor. It still charges the battery, Any suggestions????

Hi, what still charges the battery?
Does the Laptop's internal screen still work?

External 1920 x 900 LCD Monitor on MBP

I am wondering if I connect an LCD monitor that has a 1920x900 native resolution, if I can get that resolution when it is connected to my MBP?

Yes. The MacBook's video card can drive an external monitor up to 2560x1600.

White dot (not dead pixel) on external LCD monitor.

Hi all,
I recently noticed a strange situation. I've owned a MacBook Pro 13" since October, and usually run it with an external Samsung T260 LCD monitor by MiniDP to DVI. I run the monitor at its full resolution of 1920x1200.
When I arrange the monitors so that the Samsung is on top of my MBP, there is a white dot about the size of a pixel approximately 3 inches from the left and 1/2 inch from the bottom of the screen. I thought it was a dead pixel, but when I move the external monitor to be on the left of the MBP, the white dot moves to 3 inches from the top and 1/2 inch from the right.
* The white dot does not appear when I arrange the monitors in any other configuration.
* The white dot appears when using MiniDP to VGA adapter as well.
* When I zoom using the modifer key+scroll method, the white dot grows bigger.
I've tried using the JScreenFix applet, but as I said, it doesn't look like a dead pixel.
Can anyone offer any other suggestions, that may involved poking around in the Video RAM space?
Thanks,
-Tony

Hi all,
Just returning to provide more information:
While playing around with my screen layouts, I found that the white dot is actually part of the menu bar graphic. I arranged my monitors and captured the screen to show the placement of the dot.
http://picasaweb.google.com/tonychung.ca/SonicTheme#5423207200689428946
I hope Apple is able to fix this in the next SW update.
Cheers,
-Tony

External LCD monitors - important specs???

Hi,
I'm looking at getting an external 20" - 22" LCD monitor to go with my 15"MBP C2D.
Looking at the specs of various models, I'm wondering how important the contrast ratio is - it seems to vary from 500:1 to 800:1. I'm using the comp for video editing/design work and am keen on faithful colour reproduction.
I guess viewing angle is another important spec while response time is important for gamers. What are other specs to look out for? Pixel pitch? Display colour (is 16.2M adequate or should I hold out for 16.7M?)?
BTW, are there any third party models out there that offer additional USB/FW ports as the cinema displays do?
Thanks, Sean

If color is important to you the most important thing to look out for is professional reviews; specs are secondary to that. On paper one monitor might have better specs than another... but when you look at the two side by side the lesser spec monitor can have better overall image quality.
Basically narrow down all the models/brands you can afford... and then start googling for reviews on them. You'll find lots of reviews on online mags like trustedreviews.com etc... but you dont need to search those sites... just search google. Read all the reviews and then you can make your mind up from there.
The profesional reviewers usually use software like DisplayMate to measure the performance of the monitors in loads of different areas of image quality... color gradients, bw gradients... shadows, midtones, hilights, grey-grey response time, black-white response time etc. The figures you see in specs usually dont mean much as they have a lot of marketing crap attached to them. E.g. most cheap monitors which boast hi response times usually omit the fact that they can achieve those response times because they use lower-bit depth panels... which mean dark gradients appear very banded etc. YOU wanna make sure your monitor has as little banding as possible. Also the contrast ratio which they boast arent always accurate... they may say 800:1 contrast ratio but for some reason when the contrast ratio is measured it is nowhere near that figure... whereas other brands/model quote more accurate figures....
So in short, google for reviews.... dont put all your faith in ONE review but read as many as you can and look for COMMON points from all reviews (e.g. one review may prefer model A over model B, and another review may prefer model B over model A... this can be down to personal taste... but lookout for what common things which both reviews say about both models.... that stuff is probably accurate).
MacBook Pro C2D 17" Mac OS X (10.4.8) Week 46 Build

Recommend anti-glare LCD monitor for MBP 13

Hello, I need a decent quality antiglare type monitor to be the external monitor for graphics work with my MacBook Pro 13 inch unibody. I just tried an HP ZR24w but was not able to get it working. The monitor would light up for one second and my desktop showed, then it would immediately go dark. Apple support could not help, HP support kept me on hold for 45 min. and then dropped my call.
Unfortunately Apple no longer makes antiglare monitors for its graphics professional community. If they did I would buy an Apple monitor. I am currently using an old Apple Cinema Display but it has a bad case of creeping screen defects and looks terrible.
Is anyone out there sucessfully using an external monitor with MBP that has an antiglare screen, does 1920 x 1200 res and has an IPS LCD?
The usual suspects that people recommend for graphics work in the mid-range are Dell ultra-sharp and HP LP2475w. Since I do less graphics work than I used to I thought the ZR24w would be a good affordable option, however since I could not get it to work I am concerned that none of these other monitors will be compatible either. Buying and returning vis mail order is expensive... would really appreciate hearing what other people are using.
Please let me know what connector you are using. I tried the ZR24w with both DVI and displayPort but neither of these options work for me. Apple tech support was stumped and blamed it on HP.
Any thoughts?
TIA!

There should be a anti-glare option on ALL Mac's, however the 13" is certainly the next prime candidate for one given that they rolled out anti-glare for the 17" first, then the 15" next.

External VGA Monitor with MBP

I'm contemplating buying a MBP 15" and was wondering if I could attach an external monitor (older model - Samsung SyncMaster 175V) for use in my home office and get good results.

Well, it's hard to say. Factors such as resolution, refresh rate, even size can make it look a little different than what you have on your screen. Since it's not DVI, the colors may be a little different, probably not as rich as your MBP screen. If your resolution is lower than your MBP, it might have a smaller screen area, and make your icons look a little bigger than normal.
There really shouldn't be any driver issue at all. Just plug it in, and tell your MBP to go to your external monitor, it should show almost right away. You have the adaptor right? There's only one way to find out if you'll like using your external monitor on your MBP, and that's to try it out. You have nothing to lose..

Tecra A2: Cannot use the 1680x1050 resolution on external LCD monitor

Hi All,
I need to make my Tecra A2 run at 1680x1050 at 60Hz for my new external VW222U LCD monitor which is connected to my port replicator.
I know the card (which is 82852/82855) can run at this resolution as when using the Intel Embedded drivers it works, just one has to give up all the little nice things when using the standard drivers, like monitor switching etc....
I have been discussing on many forums over at Intel's site why this resolution is not available by default, it appears that it is not a resolution enabled in the video BIOS which the display drivers read by default, so the vendor need to add it, the reason that the embedded drivers work, is that they don't read this directly from the video BIOS....
Thanks and regards,
Adam

Hi,
I know that issue, but we have to live with it because it seems that the graphics card vendors are giving some really "default" drivers to the notebook manufacturers.
I have an Satellite Pro S200 and I also use the Intel drivers from the Intel homepage. But my monitorswitching, etc.. works like a charm so maybe if you install the tools like the "FN-F5" etc.. it would probably work.
I would give it a try, otherwise: it is like it is.. :/
Greets

Windows 7 Laptop to external LCD monitor show low resolution

Hello,
I'm connecting my laptop to external LCD 1920*1080.
When Extend the display, each screen works with its full resolution allowed (Laptop has lower than 1920*1080 and the LCD works with resolution of 1920*1080), but when duplicate the display, the LCD has a black frame and the desktop is only at the center
of the screen and not an all the screen.
Is it possible, when duplicate the display, that each monitor work with full Resolution? or when
dup the higher resolution will be according to the lower resolution?
thanks.

Getting the best display on your monitor
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-in/windows/getting-best-display-monitor#getting-best-display-monitor=windows-7
Yolanda Zhu
TechNet Community Support

External LCD monitors stopped working

I have used external LCD displays connected to my MacBook2 for a few years. Recently it stopped sending a picture to external monitors (I've tried a couple.) The ColorSync utility can not repair a damaged profile: Adobe RGB 1998 I think. There is something wrong with the 'desc' tag. I will upload its log later, when I can connect the LCD screen again (away now.)
I am pretty sure it is just a file or a setting somewhere that needs to be changed, with Adobe probably. Can I delete the profile? The displays work with my Nintendo Wii.
Running 10.5.8 on white MacBook
Any ideas??

Thanks for the reply...
I cannot see the drive in windows disk management, it sounds like its running because i can hear it whirring.... but its not spinning up and down.
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Is there any other ways i could retrieve the files ?... 5 years of holidays photo's with the missus lost, im not going to be popular !
Thanks

External LCD Monitor and MacBook Pro - Bad Experience

Hi,
I have an LG 22" LCD (W2252TQ) attached to my MacBook Pro. And it is a horrible experience. It buzzes if the brightness is not at 100%. The colors are not like they are on the MacBook Pro LCD.
I am getting the LCD replaced for the 2nd time (the first time was because of a slightly different experience).
I am beginning to wonder if my MacBook Pro just doesn't play well with this particular model of LCD display. I have it connected via the VGA-DVI adapter. Could that be causing my problem? If I go straight to DVI, will it be better?
Anyone have any recommended settings for an LCD monitor (gamma, color, etc.)?
Thanks.
Message was edited by: jmFightSpam

I have my MBP hooked up to a Viewsonic 22 in. LCD directly with the DVI cable that came with the monitor. No problems so far. Perhaps try a different brand of monitor. I have heard good things about both Viewsonic and Samsung.

External LCD Monitor - Older MBP

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