Customer Reviews

Apple Cinema HD Display - LCD display - TFT - 23" - 1920 x 1200 - 200 cd/m2 - 350:1 - 0.258 mm - white

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This monitor was designed to be used with Apple's latest G4 Macintosh product line- A single proprietary cable (called the Apple Display Connector, or ADC) provides power and video information to the monitor as well as USB connectivity to the two port USB hub built into the back of the screen. The 1.5" surrounding bezel is grey, encased in clear plastic, giving it a crystal look matching the G4 Cube or Tower decor.

By utilizing Apple's ADC to DVI Converter (not included- provides backward compatibility with non-ADC Macs such as Apple's Powerbook notebooks) as well as a graphic card with a DVI (Digital Visual Interface) port, such as NVidia's GeForce4 4600 or ATI's 9700 Pro, the Cinema Display can be used by both older Macs and PCs. The converter combines AC power, DVI video data and USB data into one port for the monitor's ADC input cable.

The LCD display is roughly one inch taller and two inches wider than two sheets of paper (8.5 x 11) placed side by side- perfect for displaying two full page word processing documents, web page design, or any other applications which might require a number of simultaneous open windows.

There are three minor issues that I noticed. Most monitors have some kind of adjustment buttons... contrast, brightness, hue, tint, etc. Rather than provide external adjustment buttons, The Apple Cinema Display comes with their Apple Displays Software- Apple's "all digital", Mac-only display adjustment solution. PC users must make adjustments to the display via their videocard's driver software. The two touch sensitive buttons on the front bezel are specifically to turn on a G4 Mac and to access the Apple Displays Software... when attached to a PC with the converter, they serve no purpose (although they glow when touched).

Another caveat... Apple doesn't provide an *.INF file for Windows Plug and Play recognition. Windows XP just lists it as a "Plug and Play Monitor". It's an insignificant detail, but when there are few flaws to speak of, the insignificant ones tend to stand out.

Most flat panel displays are suspended from central hinge and mounted on a stand. The size and weight of the 23" Cinema Display make it difficult to implement this, so it stands on three feet- two 2" legs at the base of the screen and a central leg mounted in the back, similar to how a picture frame stands up. This makes the monitor tilt up at an angle, rather than flat in relation to the viewer. I corrected this by putting a video cassette under the back leg.

My Test System: Athlon 2800+, Asus A7N8X+ motherboard, 1Gb PC3200 DDR RAM, ATI Radeon 9700 Pro

First, I decided to watch a DVD. I had mixed results, but not due to the display.

Wide-format DVDs can be encoded two ways- either in full widescreen leaving the DVD software/player to create the black bars above and below the image when displayed on a standard monitor or television, or it can be encoded with the black bars as part of the video frames. This produces a normal widescreen look on a 4:3 ratio television or monitor, but a widescreen display will display black borders on the sides. As a result, the first TRON DVD release (not the 20th Anniversary Edition) and the theatrical release of DUNE (not the Sci-Fi Channel mini-series) that I watched had a two inch black border surrounding a widescreen video image.

Both Intervideo's WinDVD and Cyberlink's PowerDVD software exhibited the same problem, although PowerDVD does have a software zoom solution that cuts a little bit off of the left and right sides.

Independence Day and Star Wars: The Phantom Menace were a different story though. The Cinema Display has a 16:10 ratio, while standard widescreen format is a 16:9 ratio. Because of this, playback of true widescreen movies on this monitor will still have black bars above and below the video image.

According to the Apple Website, The Cinema Display has "lightning-fast pixel response for full-motion digital video playback." They weren't overstating their claim either... I could not detect any of the "ghosting" that occurs with some LCD monitors when high action/fast movement video sequences are displayed.

Next I tried gaming. The two games I have installed are Funcom's Anarchy Online and Dreamcatcher's Hegemonia: Legions of Doom.

Hegemonia is a 3D space battle strategy game. It had only a few resolutions available in it's graphics options screen- the highest being 1600 x 1200. When I played this game, like the 4:3 ratio DVDs, there were black bars on each side of the screen. This is understandable though- few games are written to take advantage of non-standard screen resolutions. Other than that the image was sharp and clear with no distortions.

Anarchy Online is a "massively multi-player online role-playing game", or MMORPG. It was written to be able to utilize any display resolution, either in fullscreen mode or in a window, and I was able to play the game easily at 1920 x 1200. Every so often, though, I'd see the screen "twitch" as I played the game... It could've been any number of things, from the software itself, to Microsoft's DirectX API, to a build up of static. When I actually started playing the game, (after about 15 minutes of "ooohing" and "ahhhing" over the image) the twitches were hardly noticable... in fact, I've noticed them occurring less and less, which leads me to believe that it was indeed a minor static issue.

Summary: The 23" Apple Cinema Display is, simply put, one of the absolute best displays on the market. ... more.

Just bought the 23" Apple Cinema display. It works at full res with a GeForce 4 4600 and Windows XP. It has no hardware brightness/contrast controls, but the NVidia driver has these controls + gamma. You can save configurations (such as nighttime, cloudy, office etc) and access them quickly from the taskbar. I have one dead pixel, but at this resolution it is hardly noticeable. You have to buy the DVI to ADC converter to get it to work with an NVidia GeForce card ($$$). There is no loss in quality when using the converter (it is all digital). Color quality and brightness are even across the entire screen. The pixel response is fast for an LCD, but not as quick as a CRT. Still, DVDs and flight simulator rarely exhibit ghosting. Definitely happy with my purchase.

As a software developer with broadband internet and a TV tuner in my PC, I usually have a ridiculous number of things on screen at the same time. It's not uncommon to catch me writing code in one window, reading documentation in another, and watching TV in a third. Attaching two side-by-side LCD displays to my PC would manage this just fine, and probably more cheaply to boot.

But I also like to play games and watch movies, and for that, I wanted a single large panel. The only thing that fit the bill was the Apple display.

I purchased it after much ogling of showroom displays, and attached it to my PC's DVI port (with the help of Apple's DVI-to-ADC adapter). Windows XP detected the new monitor, my video card (ATI 9700 Pro AIW) recognized the higher resolutions, and I was instantly using Windows in crystal-clear 1920x1200 resolution, with no dead pixels.

There are a few negatives:

- The brightness does drop a bit at about 45 degrees, so the sides of the screen may appear darker than the center, but only if you sit really close to it, and are really paying attention.
- On a PC, the Power and Brightness buttons do nothing (except glow in a really cool way when touched). You'll have to use whatever display settings your video card driver provides for color, brightness, contrast, etc. As for turning it off, you'll have to either use Windows' screen-saver option for powering the display down after a few minutes, or unplug it.
- The two built-in USB ports don't suport USB 2.0.
- The ADC connector is proprietary to Apple computers (and only a few models - go figure), so you'll have to buy an adapter (either VGA-ADC or DVI-ADC) to hook it up to your PC.
- Even with my Apple-manufactured DVI-ADC adapter, I get a small amount of "static", especially on black backgrounds. My eyes are trained not to notice it anymore, but considering how pricey these are, it's annoying. UPDATE: I have since found a setting in the ATI configuration that fixes this ('Alternate DVI operational mode'). So this is no longer an issue.
- On my PC, the display doesn't show anything until Windows XP has started up. This means you can't see the BIOS diagnostics or boot menu. On forums, some people have reported this as a problem, and some say it works fine for them. If anything ever goes wrong with the boot process, I'm not sure what I'll do.

This monitor meets all my expectations and more.For some of you that have been hesitant in getting this monitor because of the 1999.99 price tag,please consider my review.First of all, this monitor rocks!For those of you that have never seen it,you're missing out.The amount of desktop space is incredible.Text is vivid at its native resolution of 1920x1200.I'm using a PC with the GFX5900ultra.Setup was indeed flawless.Remember to buy the 99.99 ADC/DVI connector that gives the monitor power,converts DVI into ADC signal,and provides the USB port on the montitor connectivity.It totally sucks buying that POS but you need it for PC's.I ordered it from Amazon which is an excellent company.On time is the word.I received my monitor with about 3 bad pixels which isn't even a problem.
Now I know most of you are gamers and want to know about the pixel response times.As you arleady know, Apple doesn't give the specs for this which sucks again but from what I've noticed from playing games like Halo, it's really not noticeable.There is an overall feeling that it's not quite there; like a little somethings missing to make it butter smooth.But in no circumstance does this monitor lead to unplayable gaming.In Unreal 2 the ghosting effect was a bit more evident but it isn't bad.You have to understand that this is not a CRT.From what I've seen it beats the Samsung 213T like a maestro of meatflute.Unreal 2 worked great and having it set at max resolution was a real treat.You feel as if you were in the action because of this monitors large display.One strange thing I did notice in Unreal2 was that when I tried to change the brightness and contrast in the game, the screen started to show these strange colors that made the game unplayable.This problem was quickly resolved by just changing the gamma instead and tweaking around in the video software for brightness.ANother recent game that worked nearly flawlessly was Call of Duty.There was hardly any ghosting seen.Images were crisp and sharp with nice coloring.I highly recommend playing call of duty on this monitor because of the tremendous screen viewing area.Max Payne 2 worked almost at near excellence.At first I was dissapointed at the beginning scene where he was in the hospital because he wakes up dizzy which I thought was ghosting.This in fact was not ghosting but merely a visual effect imposed by the game to emphasize that he was dizzy.Again,the visuals were very sharp and clear.It just made me realize at how much of a good buy I really made by purchasing this monitor.I would seriously recommend this monitor for all you RTS gamers out there because you can see so much of the field.Hardcore FPS shooters won't be dissappointed with this display because of the above average response times and the sheer visual aspect of feeling like youre inside the game.
Movies were another concern.Movies still had that black border on the top and bottom but again it's not even a concern.Cinema performed well with miniscule amounts of ghosting.If you were to step back a little,it becomes unnoticeable.Again, this ghosting effect is so inconspicuous but I have to mention it so you know it's there. |-| For my observation,I used the movie Matrix Reloaded.The movie quality was gorgeous.It makes you wanna watch it again just because of the immersion factor of this monitor.One thing that I did notice was that the picture brightness was too high.It seems that this monitors blacks aren't as black as a CRT.In my amateur opinion the certain tones of black are grouped into the same palette on the display.This is a bit strange especially with the border being the same color as the picture at times.I've had to slide the contrast up and the brightness down to give it that theater feeling.But overall this monitor is excellent for movies.
The monitor saves so much deskspace and uses so little electricity that it's pleasant having it on.There is basically no heat given off.Definite plus.I leaned this monitor against the wall of my room with the rear leg hanging off and the two front on the table.There are rubberlike slide stoppers on the legs so it prevents it from sliding out from underneath.
In summary,buy this monitor if you have the money.Maybe you can buy this monitor and keep a small 15" or something to the side if you have the room.Trust me,you will enjoy this monitor immensely having it at home or work.Just remember to turn the brightness down some!

Don't let anyone tell you that this display is incompatible with PCs. I'm running it on a system with Gainward GF4 4200 video card and Windows XP. I use the Dr. Bott DVIator ($...) to convert from DVI to ADC.

When I bought the display and adapter I had a moment of panic because after the orders were placed, the DVIator compatibility page was changed to read "DVIator is also currently incompatible with the new 23" Cinema Display HD". Their site still says this. I was very relieved when I hooked everything up and it worked without a glitch.

There are 2 issues. Since Windows does not have a driver for the display, I can only run the display at 60Hz. This is disappointing because DVDs and games with fast motion appear blurry. There may be a way to force the refresh rate to something higher, I haven't experimented much with it. The second issue is that there's no apparent way to power off the display. When used with a Mac the power "button" on the display will power the entire system on and off. With my current PC setup it does nothing.

With the exception of the refresh rate problem above, the quality is excellent. Since my video card has VGA out in addition to the DVI out, I run a dual display setup with my Sony 19" Trinitron monitor. The clarity of the Apple display is noticably better.

If you have the bucks, buy this display. I haven't heard of a single user that was disappointed.

I briefly considered buying this...but just couldn't justify the purchase...it seemed pricy, especially when you could get a CRT monitor with as much screen real estate for a fraction of the cost.

But the huge price drop and an unexpected financial windfall conspired to make me buy one despite the aching suspicion that I would regret spending that much just for a little (well, a lot) more screen space. Now, several weeks later, I'm wondering why I was ever worried. This thing rocks.

For starters, the display looks great, even when it's off. It takes up very little space on my desk compared to my old CRT and generates almost no appreciable heat. (My old monitor could turn my office into a sweatbox in summer).

I won't get into the technical specs--other folks have covered that well enough--but I will offer my subjective opinion that the colors are vibrant, the images decidedly crisp and the amount of screen space it provides is almost breathtaking. (When I create a new Word document, it appears at the far left side of the screen and I catch myself moving it to the center so that it is not *so far* away from me (!). That's a big screen.)

I use this display on a new Mac system for which it was designed, so there is no trouble with adapters or hardware conflicts. No dead pixels. Plug it in, it works, end of story.

To be fair and balanced, I've tried to think of something bad to say about it...

I think it's telling that this is all I could come up with: There's no easy way to anchor it for protection against a moderate-to-severe earthquake (a concern here in Southern California).

This thing is huge! The UPS driver saw the photo on the box and did not believe it was that big. We both had to open it up and take a look. It's like having two 17" monitors side by side, without the split. This would be great to watch DVD's on. I have it setup to 1920x1200 (19.2" x 12" viewing area or about 96 dpi), and the text is very readable. Works in OS9 just as well as OSX. Instructions were simple, just plug it in - no power cord, it's all in the one cable. I've looked for burned pixels and I can't find any - it's perfect! That was a concern I had, having old LCD's back 10 years ago, but not this one. Highly recommended.

an absolutely amazing display, worth every penny!

works with my Sapphire Atlantis ATI RADEON 9600 Pro like a charm. setup was easy.

previously, i couldn't get my nvidia FX 5600 geforce to work with it, try as i might. i've always preferred the ATI cards, anyway. (don't play games, just photoshop and such, so i'm not an expert at this!)

I can't say it enough!
I'm a desktop publisher/graphics artist and was using 3 monitors on my G4 just for the realestate for all the palletes and artboards, but they're all gone now and were replaced by this 23" beauty!
It's crisp, clear, no flicker, and my setup doubles at night to play DVDs!

Very happy camper!

BUY IT!!!

I recently bought this monitor through Amazon. I upgraded my video card to a GEforce FX 5600 since that has a DVI port. This is probably one of the best technology investments I have ever made. Razor sharp picture, have yet to find a single dead pixel - not saying there aren't any - just that they are not apparent. Have played a bunch of games on it - no ghosting. Have watched DVD's on it - they look awesome. Aesthetically it is beautiful. I have never owned a Mac computer - and don't expect I ever will - but I own (and love) an IPOD. I just hope Apple keeps making cool new "non computer" stuff since they are brilliant at it.