Monitor christmas mayhem

I am a macbook pro user getting a little to excited at the prospect of christmas round the corner.
Display! I thought, not thinking of the ultimate dilemma that will come of actually choosing the thing.
My budget is around 200 - 250 pounds and I would like a 24" plus monitor. I have boot camp and run games on windows, yet this is probably not the most important aspect of why I am buying a monitor - it's more for movies and logic studio.
I have done a bit of research, but in general, people buying monitors are buying them for their PC's rather than macs, so getting a bit of advise from OSX users would be much appreciated. I have been looking at the Samsung 226CW, Hanns-G HG281D (freaking 27.5"!!) and the Dell S2409W.
I asked my housemate, a PC user if I could have a quick look at how my macbook pro would cope on his 22" Cibox - however, when setting it up on the screen the quality was blurry even though I set the screen resolution on the mac to 1680 x 1050 which was the highest I could set it. I mirrored the screen with my macbook pro - I wondered if that had anything to do with it.
Any advise on purchasing and/or why the Cibox didn't give me a good picture would be greatly appreciated!
Simon

I would definitely try it without mirroring your screen (use it as a second display). When i hook mine up to my 1080p monitor it looks like crap unless either my lid is closed, or I don't have them mirrored. It doesn't get the resolution right in mirror mode for me.

Similar Messages

Monitor suggestions for Christmas list

I have been using a pair of JBL2600 bookshelf speakers for my monitors. They are OK, but I'd like to get some nice studio monitors in the under $500 range, preferably in the $350-400 range. I am looking for a nice tight bass response. The JBLs I have offer 60Hz - 23kHz. I am told the listed Frequency Response for monitors is not always across the board, so I am now confused. I see the Alesis M1 Active 620 boasts 38Hz - 23.5kHz, but the sales associate assigned to me at Sweetwater suggests the Event ALP 5 which shows 53Hz - 20kHz. I have nowhere locally that I can go and check them out for myself. Can anyone here offer some advice to pander?

I wouldn't pay any attention to specs in this spectrum of the marketplace, as I don't think (given your budget) that you'll get anything that'll deliver real low-ish bass response.
Maybe wait until you could afford some Mackie HR 624 or (even better) HR 824's. Both have great, tight, bass IMO, but I listen and work with rock music, so your mileage may vary, depending on the music you work with.
Within your budget, I have heard KRK Rokits and Wharfedale 5" Diamonds which were nice.
This might help:
http://www.tweakheadz.com/studio_monitors.htm
which contains one of my favorite lines: ...This brings us to Tweak's Law, which says, whatever your monitors are good at is exactly what your mix will be bad at...
Finally, can't you spend some time auditioning monitors somewhere near you with your own material? Monitors are such a personal choice that it's really hard to decide without listening to a bunch of them. If you're located too far from a dealer, at least Sweetwater probably gives you a 30-day return, so you could order 3 or 4 different models and send the least impressive back before you have to pay your credit card bill!

Hi i got a new airport express for christmas and i set it up as per instructions ,i even give a static ip and wpa2 security ..the problem is is when i come to want to use it it says its not on my network and a orange triangle shows .when i reboot it works

hi i got a new airport express for christmas and i set it up as per instructions ,i even give a static ip and wpa2 security ..the problem is is when i come to want to use it it says its not on my network and a orange triangle shows .when i reboot it works..then if i leave it a while and try iy agian its disapeared of my network...i have a bt hub 3 ....any help please ..im not sure if itsa faulty express

I really don't have an answer for that one. I guess that while trying to get things working correctly, I would use the most basic monitor I had which in your case would be the Eizon using the Thunderbolt port and adaptor.
When you boot into Safe Mode the startup is quite slow, but you should get the Apple logo and then the spinning gear below it (release the SHIFT key when it appears.) Then after a little more time you should see a gray progress bar appear below the spinning gear. When that disappears the computer will startup to a login screen.

MacBook & HP W2007 monitor

After buying my GF a Samsung 216BW LCD for her WinXP system this Christmas and seeing how great that display looked, I started hunting for an external monitor to hook up to my MacBook.
On seeing how sharp, clear and detailed HP's W2007 monitor looked running Vista at a local electronics store, and being that I really like the MB's native glossy display, I purchased one of these 20" LCD's just over a week ago.
However, the display of this monitor driven by my MB isn't as sharp as I'd hoped for, and text looks especially fuzzy. In addition, any screen area showing what should normally be a smooth gradient of shades of the same basic color (like the grey menu bars at the top of most Mac OS X Leopard applications) is displayed as horizontal bars of different shades where you can see the color change from one area to the next. A really good example of this occurs while viewing the blue background of the website, tuaw.com, and the shade bars seem to flicker when I scroll up and down the webpage.
I have my MB connected to the HP display using the provided DVI cable and the mini DVI to DVI adapter that I purchased at an Apple store. Resolution of the display is the max. 1680 x 1050 pixels. I have also tried the Apple mini DVI to VGA adapter, but the display is even more blurry than through DVI.
I've also tried calibrating the display several times using the Apple ColorSync utility and this did help give a more lifelike look to some of the family portraits in iPhoto, but on the whole skin tones look blotchy with areas of bluish-green, instead of that natural smooth graduation in color that I know is there from viewing the same photos on the MacBook's own display.
If I had to sum up the problem I'm having, it's that the HP's display seems like 16-bit color (to borrow a Windows term) versus the 32-bit that I know (think?) is coming out of my MB. There just seems to be too much graininess to everything on this external display and it's spoiling my viewing pleasure..... besides giving me a headache!
Has anyone else had a similar experience with this HP monitor, or it's 22" brother, the W2207? I bought the smaller 20" model because the resolution is the same for both displays and I thought mine would look clearer as a result.
Is there some 'trick' to setting up one of these monitors, or could I possibly have a bad HP display and need to replace it?
Any and all help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Nigel

Exchanged my monitor for a new one of the same model tonight. Have it hooked up now and it is a big improvement over the prior sample. Out of the box colours are very good (family photos are realistic), but the horizontal gradient problem is still there - although to a lesser degree.
It can be seen in the the navigation banner at the top of this webpage and all application window headers, and while the blue background at tuaw.com is much smoother, the gradients are still there in the top 2-3" of the screen.
However, my other two "benchmarks" (iTunes Store webpages for 'Pirates of the Carribean: At World's End', and 'The Brothers Grimm') still show the above problem very clearly. The gradients appear in the grey area at top right for 'Pirates...', and throughout the whole page for 'Brothers Grimm' which shows coarse steps from top to bottom going from black to grey.
I think I'm going to give HP a call tomorrow to get their take on this matter.
On a positive note, neither of these panels had a dead pixel and while the bleedthrough on the first monitor was significant, this latest LCD has barely any.
If anyone can add anything else that I should be doing, or looking into, I would appreciate it.

How do I hook a Mac Mini to an existing PC Laptop Dock in order to use existing 23" monitor, mouse, and keyboard?

My parents currently have a Dell Inspiron desktop (which thanks to Windows has crashed and requred re-installation of the OS and then ordering an OEM hard drive and starting from scratch). Anyway, my dad has started bringing home a work laptop, and I got him a laptop docking station so he could take advantage of the 23" monitor, keyboard, and wireless mouse that he prefers.
My brother and I are going to buy my parents at Mac Mini for Christmas. It's probably simple (or with my luck, impossible) but I need to know what I need to know in order to also hook up the Mac Mini to the monitor/keyboard/mouse (we may buy a keyboard and mouse). Is it just a matter of cables/splitters?
I'd appreciate any assistance. I've been trying to get my parents switched over to Mac for almost 10 years now. Dad is stubborn and will definitely want to use the 23" monitor he bought so I have to find a way to make that work. The keyboard and mouse aren't a huge deal - instead of being on the drawer that rolls out from under the desk, the Mac stuff can be on top of the desk. I just need to know if it's possible to avoid that and do everything through the docking station (even if I have to get a USB hub). I'm pretty sure the monitor has a DVI input, and the current work laptop is using the analog input.
Thanks all.

The Mac mini is not going to be able to use the Dell docking station itself, due to
the Mac mini is not a laptop
it does not have a docking connector
However you might be able to achieve what you want with a KVM (Keyboard, Video, and Mouse) switchbox which would sit between the dock and Mac mini and the Screen/Keyboard/Mouse.
For this to be as easy as possible, both computers need to be using the same types of connections, so that means USB for the keyboard and mouse, and ideally DVI for the monitor. I am using a dock with a Dell laptop and the dock does have a DVI connection as well as a VGA connection so yours might as well.
You would then need a KVM switchbox with USB and DVI connections. This one would be a suitable example http://www.amazon.com/TRENDnet-2-Port-Switch-Audio-TK-214i/dp/B004L62KN4/ref=sr_ 1_4?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1322228493&sr=1-4 you don't have to use the audio connections.
In theory you could use a VGA adaptor on the Mac mini to make both use VGA but widespread reports suggest VGA on the latest Mac mini is very unrealiable.

What cable do I need for a mac mini with this monitor

I want a mac mini for christmas, I have a monitor but it only supports VGA, so what cable do i need to get a mac mini up and running on this monitor
Thanks

You will need the mini-DisplayPort to VGA adapter cable, here.

How to set up multiple monitors

I got a 27" 3.1 gz Imac for Christmas. I need to run multiple monitors on it.
#1 How many monitors will it support?
#2 How do I hook them up to the Imac?
#3 What hardware do I need in order to do this?
Phillip

This link is talking about using the Imac as a display for another computer. So basically, this article is telling me how I can use my Imac as a display monitor. That is not what I am trying to do.
I want to use multiple monitors on this Imac.
Phillip

I want to switch my Father to a Mac Mini this Christmas, but...

I want to switch my Father to a Mac Mini this Christmas, but It's going to take some work. First, he does not use his pc for much. Microsoft Office (98 version), Quicken (2001 version), Outlookexpress, and Internet. OH and his favorite game the internet checkers thing. I want to try to get all I need under a thousand bucks.
I am sure a lot of things will change after leopard but lets talk what we know about.
Mac Mini with upgrade ram to a gig.
upgrade hd to 80 gigs. (He has been wanting to put his music on his computer)
He has a 4:3 monitor flat panel (i like widescreen but I only got 1000 here) and mouse and I have a wireless apple keyboard already for him.
Do I get Apple care? It is a nice chunk of my 1000 allowance.
Can he buy it on his own after wards?
I have to buy him office because he feels that he could never leave Pcs because of Office ( I use neo office) but I'm sure he would not be happy with that.
Hopefully by then Office for mac 08 will be out for 150 bucks. When do you think it will be out?
He use quicken manage his checking accounts. I have never used Quicken before can you export your data?
I heard quicken ***** for mac. I don't believe he uses it for all its features but I would think it would be easier for him to accept quickin then some other third party. Soley based on the name.
I'll try to find out more.

You can buy Applecare anytime before the 1 year warranty expires, so you could leave that to his discretion if you wanted, and he'd have 1 year to consider it.
You can save ~$30 on the mini if you qualify for an educational or corporate discount. Office 2004 costs ~$145 with educational discount.

My Program and Source Monitor Stopped Working: Premiere Pro 2014

Heres how it all started.
I got an error which said I didn't have the correct video modules, then came the ugly face of BSOD. I restarted, tried again, same result. I did a system restore with Windows, reinstalled Windows 8.1, reinstalled all of my plugins and Adobe CC programs, and when I opened my project was completely scrambled. Uninstalled all Adobe software, ran CC Cleaner, reinstalled. This got the audio in my videos to work but now there's only a white screen on my my Source and Program monitor when I try to play my timeline. I did another system restore on Windows, went to my laptop manufacturers website and updated my bios, graphics driver, and processor. Also reinstalled windows updates, and my Adobe software, I've tried CC Cleaner before each install, tried going back to the previous version of Premiere and still nothing in my source or Program monitors.
MSI GE70
Intel Core i7 4700MQ Processor
NVidia GeForce GTX 765M / 2GB GDDE5
12 GB Memory
using .MTS footage from a Canon C100
Premiere Pro 2014.2
Things I've tried from other threads:
-I read that there might be a problem with the .MTS files so I've also tried starting a new project with .MOV files and h.264 and still nothing.
-I tried going into the project settings and choose "render with software", still nothing.
-I tried emptying media cache files under C://users/my user/app data/roaming/Adobe/common.....you guessed it, NOTHING.
-I tried using my daughters "Frozen" magic wand we bought her for Christmas to fix the problem with icy magic like Elsa did in the movie.......surprisingly, still nothing.
Any other ideas out there?

Hi,
Do you have Dual Graphics Adapters? You can check that under Device Manager > Display Adapters.
If yes, Disable Intel Graphics and see if it helps.
Have you tried to Trash the Preferences?
Rename the 8.0 folder to trash the preferences: <drive>\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Premiere Pro\
Thanks,
Rameez

External monitor for MacBook 4,1

Hello all,
I am wanting to run an external monitor for my old 2008 MacBook 4,1 13"
I understand that I can run a 1920 x 1080 monitor via my machine.
However, I don't know the upper size of monitor that goes to.
I have plugged it into a 40" screen, and the image was not sharp.
I plugged it into a 23" screen, and the image was sharp.
I am wanting to know the largest screen I can run, and still have a sharp image
Thank you for all time, and Merry Christmas everyone.
Sincerely, Xiao Ping Guo

The inch dimensions of the screen don't matter. The pixel dimensions, 1920 x 1080, can be sharp enough depending on the viewing distance. What matters is if the number of pixels and screen size are properly coordinated with the viewing distance.
On a 23" diagonal screen, 1920 x 1080 is about 96 ppi. On a 40" screen, 1920 x 1080 is about 48 ppi, or about half the resolution. The 40 inch screen should look half as sharp as the 23 inch screen, because the same number of pixels (1920 x 1080) is being spread over twice the area.
If the 23 inch is a desktop monitor, it is meant to be viewed at about desk distance, or about 2 feet. If the 40 inch is a TV, it is meant to be viewed at sofa distance, or about 10-12 feet. If you are viewing a 40-inch TV only a couple feet away, it will seem unsharp because it is not intended to be seen so close. At a normal TV viewing distance, 1920 x 1080 at 10 feet should look sharp enough.
If you want the 40 inch to be as sharp as the 23 inch than the 40 inch must display more pixels. That's why 4K screens are becoming popular. But the MacBook is at its limit already.
The reason I originally said the inch dimensions don't matter is that a screen of any screen will look sharp at its intended distance. Your MacBook could drive a 100-foot screen at a stadium at 1920 x 1080 pixels and it would look sharp enough, from the seats. If you're 2 feet from that stadium screen every dot will look coarse and huge, but that's not how close you're supposed to view it.

External monitor causes earth loop problems

When i connect an external monitor to my macbook pro it creates horrible interference, soudns like an earth loop somewhere but i can't stop it.
Is very irritating!
Any suggestions would be much appreciated.
cheers,
josh

still has horrible interference. Think its not an earth problem now as the interence is more than a simple hum problem, it changes when i click mosue or open applications and can hear digital nastiness to it.
I spoke to a lecturer at uni who has the same problem he seems to thinks its a design fault with the core audio processors position i nthe mac. Its very near next to the circuits for the external monitor and it causes the intereference or soemthing like that when an external monitor is connected. Though mac are known to be good for msuci production for stablilty and software support the core audio is far too noisey even without external monitor plugged in so i feel the only way to resovle this is with an external soudncard. When used with my RME fireface the interference disappears but this card is for my PC as i don't wanna be taking out adn about with me for obvious reasons! Maybe a nice edirol FA-66 will be in my stocking at christmas...
cheers for the reply.

Can I connect my ps4 to my Thunderbolt Monitor?

Hi all, I was just wondering if there was any way to connect my ps4 to my thunderbolt monitor. I'm getting both of these for christmas, so I want to make sure I'm getting the right stuff. I'm also receiving an Elgato Capture Card, but I think that's irrelevant.
I've done quite a bit of research, and I think it's possible if you use an HDMI to thunderbolt connector, which you can buy on amazon for like 10 bucks.
Overall I just want to know if this could work, using my ps4's hdmi to plug into my Elgato, using another HDMI from the output of the elgato to the adapter and then using that thunderbolt cable to plug into the monitor. If anyone could help it would be greatly appreciated!
Links:
Adapter - http://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-Mini-DisplayPort-Thunderbolt-Adapter/dp/B00C2 8L51G/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1418342206&sr=8-1&keywords=hdmi+to+thunderbolt

A Thunderbolt requires a computer with a Thunderbolt port. It will not work with anything else. There are no adapters or converters that will help.
The Amazon adapter is for connecting a computer with a Thunderbolt port to a display with HDMI. It will not work the other way round.

Urgent: Adjusting brightnes on LG monitor?

Hi u all,
I got a sweet monitor for christmas, the LG L200WJ. The only problem is that the software that came along for adjusting settings such as brightness, contrast and so on is for windows only . And the monitor itself has nothing but a power button on it (very nice design though...
So the question is, how is it then possible to adjust these settings? Can it be done through my Macbook? Any other 3.party program?
Just for the record, I rang LG support and they told me they couldn´t help me with this problem as long as I was using a Mac... i-n-c-r-e-d-i-b-l-e......
I really do hope this is solveable, the monitor is so neat that I would rather not exchange it for another uglier one..
best holiday rgds,
Roger

Hi John,
and thank you for your answer.
I found a solution which I´m pleased with, and it´s called Shades. It lets you install a preference pane in System Prefereces, which again gives you the opportunity to adjust all your different connected monitors in a really easy way. This way I won´t have to return this nice looking monitor...
Anyone with the same issue as myself will find Shades here:
http://www.widgetworld.nl/apple/software/7786-shades-1.2b2-control-the-brightnes s-of-your-screen.html
Another option I ran into on my search is BrightnesControl, a small and really simple program:
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/17670
rgds Roger

DVI MONITOR will it work?

My mini has a DVI output for the monitor, I can't afford an Apple display, will another monitor work if it has a DVI intertface? If so, any recommendations?My mini was Christmas present. I haven't hooked it up to try it out yet. Thought getting this monitor question figured out first would be a good idea.
THANK-YOU

I'm not sure of the model, I think it's fairly recent. It has 5 USB200 ports, and a firewire 800 port, as well as the DVI and mini DVI PORTS.
Thanks again.

How to clean dirty keyboard and aluminum around monitor?

Hi all,
I've been happily using my 24 inch aluminum iMac since Christmas. I've noticed that some of my keys on the keyboard are getting dirty (I guess this happens with white keys!) and also the nice band of aluminum at the bottom of my monitor could use some spiffing up. Ideas as to the best thing to use to get things looking new again??
Thanks--

On my keyboard I use a paper towel that has isopropyl alcohol on it and for in-between keys area use a Q tip with isopropyl alcohol. For the monitor and aluminum I mix a little distilled white vinegar and water and dampen a cotton rag lightly and use it for cleaning all my glass surfaces like my iMac, windows, my desk (it's glass) and even my iPhone screen.
Regards,
Roger

Monitor christmas mayhem

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for