Apple Cinema 30-inch HD Flat-Panel Display

by Apple

Product Details

• Item Weight: 27.6 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 41 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B0002ILKWM
• Item model number: M9179LL/A
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (53 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #920 in Computers & Accessories (See Top 100 in Computers & Accessories)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: June 28, 2004

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

Feast your eyes on more than four million pixels in the first high-resolution 30-inch flat panel display designed for the personal computer. The Apple Cinema Display line features a gorgeous new anodized aluminum enclosure to complement the Power Mac G5 or PowerBook G4.

See the Forest and the Trees
The 77% increase in screen real estate of the 30-inch Cinema HD Display gives you the space you need to visualize your entire creation yet provides the resolution necessary to edit in place. So you can lay out a two-page spread and edit text without squinting. Or work with a Photoshop document with room for more than 30 layers in a palette. Take in the whole timeline in Final Cut Pro HD, with audio controls. Display an unheard of 126 Logic mixer controls simultaneously. Or peer into four different modes of a molecule visualization with subatomic detail. Add this colossal advancement in innovation to your well-equipped Power Mac G5 for a very reasonable price.

Eliminate Tunnel Vision
The widescreen design of the Apple Cinema Display line offers a natural format for arranging documents the way your brain processes them—longer wide than high. That's why each display gives you the best view for your work. It just makes sense to be able to display a Web page and its code next to each other horizontally, or long video timelines in wide format. Apple engineers find that the nearly 100-pixel per inch resolution is ideal for images, yet allows you to easily work with sophisticated type treatments or just plain email. This painstaking attention to detail moves the industry forward and gives you best LCD technology available.

Enjoy One or Two Artful Displays The Apple Cinema display matches the sculpted aluminum enclosures of the Power Mac G5 and PowerBook. This strong, anodized aluminum also allows for an exceptionally narrow bezel, so you can use multiple displays together seamlessly. The Cinema Display hovers above your desk on a curvaceous stand, and hardly requires any pressure to adjust the viewing angle from -5 to 25 degrees, since the enclosure is the lightest Apple display ever, at each size. And some ineffable quality of pure elemental aluminum just feels better to the touch. Connect with Pure Digital DVI Give your PowerBook G4 a second display when you're not on the road. Connect directly to any PowerBook G4 with a DVI port. The DVI connection removes all barriers to using an Apple display with a PC, if your graphics card supports DVI with DDC technology for widescreen viewing.

Strong anodized aluminum also allows for an exceptionally narrow bezel, so you can use multiple displays together seamlessly.

Adjust your Apple display from -5° to 25° with little effort.

Effortless Adjustment The smooth motion hinge on your Apple display requires very little pressure to tilt the monitor to a different position. This design allows you to you view the display at whatever angle works for your environment, anywhere from -5° to 25°. Pure Signal When you need to manipulate color in any media, image distortion is simply not an option. Analog conversion problems caused by a VGA connection become progressively worse as you move to monitors that have higher resolutions or longer monitor cables. These issues fade away with an all digital signal. DVI transmits a distortion-free digital signal from a digital location in the graphics card to a digital location on the display’s screen. This digital connection gives you the full clarity and stability of liquid crystal technology — with sharp, clear pixels from edge to edge. Responsive Feedback Pixel response time provides a good measure of a display’s performance in media critical applications, such as video, 3D and motion graphics, or even when you’re taking a break with a game. An Apple display provides fast pixel response time across the entire spectrum from black and white, to every shade of gray.

Peripheral Devices on Your Desktop This display includes a FireWire 400 hub and a USB 2.0 hub, each with two ports. So you can connect a printer or scanner, or a digital camera or camcorder. The FireWire port provides a convenient place to plug in an iSight camera for video chat, presented beautifully on your Apple display, or to connect your iPod dock. You can also make best use of all the latest USB 2.0 devices, whether you're using your display with a Mac or PC.

This display includes two-port, self-powered USB 2.0 hub, two FireWire 400 ports and a Kensington security port

Note: This monitor requires an NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra DDL Card, sold separately.

Product Description

Apple 30" LCD Cinema Display - This huge 30" computer monitor is perfect for the prosumer and professional alike. Imagine multi-tasking with multiple full-size windows open simultaneously, or editing video with a super-wide timeline! It has a native resolution of 2560x1600, and a contrast ratio 400:1, for stunning quality on a Mac G5 powered computer. Brightness - 400 cd/m2 Viewing Angle - 170 degrees horizontal / 170 degrees vertical Antiglare Hardcoat Screen Treatment Kensington Security Port User Controls - Display Power, System Sleep, System Wake, Brightness and Display Tilt Connects to a Macintosh via a digital DVI connection Macintosh system requirements - Power Mac G5 and NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra DDL graphics card (offered as CTO option for new Power Mac G5 customers and as a kit for current Power Mac G5 customers (M9593G/A) PC capable only if Windows PC is equipped with a dual-link DVI graphics card (some resolution adjustments may be required).

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

223 of 249 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't attempt to rationalize - Trust your instincts, November 29, 2007

By 

Brian Seeve - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Apple Cinema 30-inch HD Flat-Panel Display (Electronics)

In all likelihood, you are reading this review with two separate goals in mind. First, you want to make sure that nothing is horribly wrong with the lyrically-beautiful, breathtakingly-enormous 30-inch Cinema Display. After all, it is only natural to worry that its intoxicating attractiveness is counterpoised by some hidden, yet devastating, flaw. Well, you can breathe a sigh of relief: it is flawless. Indeed, it represents the very essence of perfection in both function and form.

Second, you are reading this review in a desperate attempt to find some way to justify the purchase of a 30-inch Cinema Display. Perhaps you need to justify it to your thrifty spouse, and are trying to find a reasonable answer to that inevitable question, "but why do you NEED a 30-inch monitor?" Or perhaps you must justify the purchase to an emotionless manager, who is unable to appreciate the aesthetic beauty of this gargantuan monitor. Fortunately, previous reviewers have outlined a number of possible justifications that you might find helpful: a larger monitor improves work efficiency, reduces strain on your eyes, can double as a TV set, etc. Simply select the justification that will be most convincing to your target audience, and don't take no for an answer. I wish you luck.

However, never lose sight of this fact: you do not need to justify the purchase of a 30-inch Cinema Display to yourself. Even trying to do so is dangerous, since in all probability you will be unable to justify spending $1800 on an enormous monitor when you have a perfectly serviceable monitor already. Yes, I'm sure that some people have a genuine need for a 30-inch monitor, but (be honest with yourself) you are almost certainly not one of them.

And more to the point, any attempt at justification is irrelevant. This monitor is not about need, or utility, or functionality, or productivity, or other such tedious concepts. It is about sheer, unabashed, covetousness. You want it. You must possess it. You feel an inexplicable, unjustifiable compulsion to buy it. The vast expanse of the 29.7-inch viewable area haunts your waking thoughts, and appears in your dreams as a luminous vision of perfection that is always just out of reach.

Don't question it. Just buy it.

A year ago today, I did exactly that. Twice. Now, looking at both of my 30-inch monitors in front of me, I feel that I have come closer to true contentment than most people do in a lifetime. Is that shallow? Maybe. But I don't think so. And I'm willing to bet that you don't either. If you did, you would have stopped reading this review a long time ago.

52 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Apple Cinema 30" HD Flat-Panel Display, January 12, 2006

By 

Victor Bono - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Apple Cinema 30-inch HD Flat-Panel Display (Electronics)

This screen is great.
Upgraded from a 23" and the increase in realestate is awesome.
You can play games with crystal clarity; have so many pages up and read them clearly.
You will need a graphics card that supports Dual-link DVI, not a card that says dual DVI.
I installed the GeForce 7800 GT on my PC and it works flawlessly!
The Quadro cards are great, but big $$$.
The 7800GT can be had for under $300!

Here's a list of cards for PC and Apple:
NVIDIA Geforce 6800Ultra DDL AGP for Powermac G5
NVIDIA Geforce 6800GT DDL AGP for Powermac G5
NVIDIA Geforce 6600 PCI Express for Powermac G5(PCI Express)
NVIDIA Geforce 7800GT PCI Express for Powermac G5(PCI Express)
NVIDIA QuadroFX 4500 PCI Express for Powermac G5(PCI Express)

For the PC Windows platform, the following graphic cards support the Apple 30" Cinema Display:

NVIDIA QuadroFX 2000
NVIDIA QuadroFX 3000
NVIDIA QuadroFX 3400
NVIDIA QuadroFX 3450
NVIDIA QuadroFX 4000
NVIDIA QuadroFX 4400
NVIDIA QuadroFX 4500
NVIDIA Geforce 7800GT
NVIDIA Geforce 7800GTX
NVIDIA Geforce 7800GTX 512

68 of 76 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It takes a little getting used to..., November 10, 2004

By 

Mark Bessey (San Jose, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Apple Cinema 30-inch HD Flat-Panel Display (Electronics)

I've had mine for a few weeks now, and it's a great monitor. It's just amazing to be able to open up 100+ thumbnails on the screen at once, and still be able to see what each one is. Games look fantastic on it , though not all support the native resolution. The dual firewire and USB ports on the monitor are very handy, too.

There are a few quirks, due to the sheer size of the thing:
It *just barely* fits under the overhead storage hutch on my computer desk. Measure carefully before you buy any furniture that you intend to put one of these displays on.

Neck strain is a definite possibility if your chair and/or desk don't adjust far enough. The top of this monitor is a lot higher than the typical 20 inch or so monitor, and the stand is pretty tall, too.

It's possible to "lose" things off towards the sides of the screen. While the (relatively low) pixel pitch means that a dialog box is the same size as it would be on a smaller Apple monitor, it can be far enough to the left or right to be out of your central vision. Sitting back a little farther from the monitor helps.