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yoyoman · Oct 23, 2004, 04:27 PM

http://www.formac.com/p_bin/?cid=sol...ry1900_compare based on that is that a good deal. I am thinking of getting a flat panal and it came down to apple or formac so far. Maybe laci. Looks like your getting more for the formac vs the cinima

CatOne · Oct 23, 2004, 11:05 PM

Originally posted by yoyoman:
http://www.formac.com/p_bin/?cid=sol...ry1900_compare based on that is that a good deal. I am thinking of getting a flat panal and it came down to apple or formac so far. Maybe laci. Looks like your getting more for the formac vs the cinima

Some people have had customer service issues with Formac in the past.

Do a search. Goes back 3+ years.

yoyoman · Oct 23, 2004, 11:50 PM

any one else?

NYCFarmboy · Oct 24, 2004, 04:41 PM

I've used a Formac 20" LCD for a year and a half now...

it is stunning, and MUCH better than ANY Apple display LCD I have ever used.

Better contrast
Better color
Better view angle
Better brightness

Blows Apple displays out of the water in my opinion. I'd never purchase a Apple display until they match Formac's standards.

Having just flamed that out there.. Apple displays are beautiful... just that Formacs are so much better.

Having said that....its a german company and their idea of customer service is german. If somethign goes wrong you can ONLY reach them by fax. I've never had any problems, but I did read about someone who did that had a terrible time getting it fixed until he followed the faxing directive with Formac after which they replaced his moniter etc.

jfsnart · Oct 26, 2004, 10:50 AM

Originally posted by CatOne:
Some people have had customer service issues with Formac in the past.

Do a search. Goes back 3+ years.

I have heard about the bad customer experience, but also that there was a management buyout recently. Before I bought my Studio TVR I confronted them with this issue and they told me that the new company is taking this issue much more serious. I haven't had any problems with my product so I can't really tell if they do. The complaints seem to have disappaeared in the last few months though ...

The experience I had with their sales staff however was very pleasant (finally someone who knows a product in detail, and not as pushy and rude as the sales guys in NY (-

. They should take customer service serious though. Considering the great products they have, and the long time they have been in the Mac market it would be a shame if they would miss the last important piece of the puzzle.

Jack

hunterXD · Oct 26, 2004, 10:54 AM

Originally posted by yoyoman:
http://www.formac.com/p_bin/?cid=sol...ry1900_compare based on that is that a good deal. I am thinking of getting a flat panal and it came down to apple or formac so far. Maybe laci. Looks like your getting more for the formac vs the cinima

I have the 1740 and love it. I might get a second display, and the new 2010 look X-tremely nice (-:

coryknx · Oct 26, 2004, 10:14 PM

Originally posted by yoyoman:
http://www.formac.com/p_bin/?cid=sol...ry1900_compare based on that is that a good deal. I am thinking of getting a flat panal and it came down to apple or formac so far. Maybe laci. Looks like your getting more for the formac vs the cinima

I own the gallery 2010 (old version) and am very happy with it. If you look at the performance of this baby it was a real bargain. I have looked extensively at LCDs before making the purchase, and I have not seen one competitor that offers the same picture quality. Of course you can always argue about design, but for me the most important feature was the TFT. And here the Formac is second to none. To bad they are not in any retail store for people to see ...

southtdi · Oct 29, 2004, 02:33 PM

OK, like a few others I am seriously looking at the Formac Gallary Xtreme 2010. I read the older issues with customer service before and while that is a litttle bit of a concern it is not enough to sway me. Is there anything else I maybe haven't read yet to keep me form buying one?

The specs are the best I have seen for the price and they do have a far better policy on pixels than Apple does. I would get the three year warranty (even though it still only covers the backlight for a year) just to be safe.

To me the black still goes very well with the G5 and if I really want it to match I have an almost brand new pro keyboard with the black keys I could use to tie it together. I still am going to use my 21" CRT off the ADC port with a VGA adapter and hook it up to a KVM switch to also control my Windows server when not being used as a second display for my powermac.

Anyway if there is anything else let me know. If there is another LCD out there with great specs and a great price that supports widescreen let me know since I may have missed it. Otherwise, if I don't hear anything, the Formac is going to be it.

Kenneth · Oct 29, 2004, 04:13 PM

First off, I don't have experience with its display line. However,I bought its Studio DV/TV thing back in 2002. I did run into trouble and send them an email. They issued a RMA#. Few days later, they sent me a new one. May be I am lucky since I read horrible customers' support on MacIntouch.com.. as far as the product design/quality... I like it.

goose15x · Oct 30, 2004, 02:32 PM

I just received my Gallery Xtreme 1900 and I must say the LCD is awesome!! To be honest I didn't expect too much due to the low price. But what I got is just far beyond my expectations. The screen is incredibly bright and crisp. I also did a video test and the playback is perfectly smooth. Verdict: Highly recommended.

P.S. I heard about the bad service experience, so I asked them about it before my purchase. The sales rep told me that this was a problem of the past (company is now independent after a management buyout). If you look at the dates of the google postings this seems to be true (they are mostly pretty old).

southtdi · Oct 30, 2004, 10:35 PM

I'm going to order mine in the next two weeks. Will post about it then. Besides the price the measurements against teh cinema dsplay was a big deciding factor. Sure the cinema is a true widescreen where the formac is more of a elongated 21" CRT but I could care less about that myself. The large savings after even getting the extended warranty were the final deal breakers.

Krusty · Oct 31, 2004, 08:11 PM

Originally posted by southtdi:
where the formac is more of a elongated 21" CRT

Tell us how it goes .. in a way, it almost seems better for OS X than a wide screen. Its like you have a "normal" 4:3 monitor (1280x960) with an extra 64 pixels for unusable dock space. Might work just great.

kevin_tha · Nov 1, 2004, 10:50 PM

Originally posted by southtdi:
I'm going to order mine in the next two weeks. Will post about it then. Besides the price the measurements against teh cinema dsplay was a big deciding factor. Sure the cinema is a true widescreen where the formac is more of a elongated 21" CRT but I could care less about that myself. The large savings after even getting the extended warranty were the final deal breakers.

Formac rocks!!!! I just got the new 2010 and it is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyy better than anything I have seen before (YES, including the Apple display). Actually the whole buying experience was pretty good. Friendly sales people, frequent email updates and a really low price. Thanks Formac for making a great display at a fair price.

Dr.Michael · Nov 4, 2004, 07:03 AM

Originally posted by CatOne:
Some people have had customer service issues with Formac in the past.

Do a search. Goes back 3+ years.

I once had a problem with a formac firewire burner. It killed the firewire of my TiBook due to a bad Oxford bridge. Not Formacs fault but it had to be solved.

The customer support wasn't bad. Not great, but they responded to my mail within 1 day, I sent in the unit and got it back within one week. No more issues then. I think I had to pay the bill for the transport to Berlin.
Noting compared to the problems I had with apple to repair the firewire. That was the most terrible customer support experience I ever had (also with a german company - Teleplan in Darmstadt - keep this name in mind!).

I never owned a Formac display. But I have seen them in many tests and the results are indeed great. Theres few out here that compares in price/quality ratio. Its only this design thing that is a little - ridiculous(?).

Mcroftksu · Nov 16, 2004, 12:30 AM

Does anyone have any experience using these monitors with a 12 inch powerbook? I am interested but want to make sure everything will work smothly.

Thanks

southtdi · Nov 16, 2004, 01:43 PM

It wold work just like any other DVI dispay would (including the Apple ones) with the mini DVI to DVI adapter which you should have received with the powerbook.

I still have not ordered the Formac. I am going to get one but I ended up buying a 17" Cinema Display that I probably am going to just resell and use to buy the Formac 20". I'll have it by the end of the year or soon after, just too much coming up with xmas and all.