[shadwig24]

To anyone who has experience with the Mac Mini at high resolutions, on VGA, or who has used multiple inputs on an LCD monitor simultaneously:

I'm looking to buy a Dell 2405fpw for use with my Mac Mini, and unfortunately I may need to use the VGA input rather than DVI because I have it on a KVM switch with a PC. My first question concerning that is, what could I expect as far as quality? I already know from personal experience that the Mini produces somewhat dim and bland color through VGA; my concern though is about the resolution. The specs say, for some reason that I cannot begin to fathom, that on VGA the Mini's max res drops from 1920x1200 to 1920x1080. To anyone who's actually tried it, is this actually what happens when it's used on a 1920x1200 monitor, and if so, how is this achieved (i.e. are there black bands of unused pixels at the top and bottom of the screen, or does the image stretch vertically to fill it)?

My second question concerns an interesting alternative mentioned in this thread: http://forums.macnn.com/65/mac-desktops/291907/buy-mac-mini-now-wait-intel/ There, Maflynn claims to have hooked up a PowerMac to a 2405 on DVI, and left the Mini on VGA. Could this be an alternative to the KVM approach (at least as far as the monitor's concerned)? How do you switch between the two computers when they're both hooked up on different interfaces? If I could put the Mini on DVI and leave my PC on VGA, and yet somehow be able to switch between them without manually disconnecting cables, that would be ideal...

Worse comes to worse I could wind up buying an inordinately expensive DVI KVM, but I want to know if I have any other options before I take that particular plunge.

Thanks,
Brianus

[EFFENDI]

Maflynn is probably manually switching his input devices between machines, and changing the input selection on the monitor itself. The only other way around manual switching is a KVM with DVI and USB inputs/outputs.

You should just buy a new KVM. The DVI quality advantage over RGB is worth it.
http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProdu...duct_Id=262900

This one is also cool, but i'm not sure if it has DVI
http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProdu...uct_Id=255941#

Regarding the pixel resolution question, the monitor will scale to whatever resolution it is fed. Each monitor usually has controls on how scaling is handled.

If using RGB, (and the non-native resolution of 1920x1080) that would mean the image would be streched vertically. If I am not mistaken though, the Dell LCDs do have options to scale with a center anchor, keeping the display's native resolution intact, resulting in letterboxing. If it was a non-widescreen (4:3) resolution, the result would be black bars all the way around the image. Again, this is all dependant upon that particular display's scaling options.

[tooki]

[moved to Peripherals since this is more about displays and KVMs than it is about Mac minis --tooki]

[Maflynn]

Originally Posted by EFFENDI

Maflynn is probably manually switching his input devices between machines, and changing the input selection on the monitor itself.

No I'm not, the display has multiple inputs. The monitor comes with both DVI and VGA cables. I run the DVI on my G5 and the VGA is hooked up on my mini. All I do hit the input selection button on the monitor when I want to choose the display.

I also have a wireless keyboard and mouse that I use exclusively with the mini.

For the most part I access the mini through Apple Remote Desktop, but when I want to access it natively I switch it over. The VGA display on the mini is not as nice as DVI there some slight almost imperceptible vertical lines.

Overall this is a great monitor with a ton of featues for an excellent price.

[EFFENDI]

I wasn't talking about the display input, I am well aware the display itself has multiple video inputs.

Input devices = keyboard/mouse.

Even with that setup, the typical user would still have to switch keyboard and mouse manually (or in your case, using Remote Desktop).

[shadwig24]

Thanks guys, that clears things up a little. I had no idea there was an 'input selector' button on the Dell -- that's great (I've never had a monitor with multiple inputs, so I was unaware of this feature)! What I'm thinking is, perhaps I could reuse my existing KVM switch for my USB keyboard and mouse, and audio (it's an IOGear Miniview Micro), but for display purposes hook the Mini and the PC up separately to the DVI and VGA ports, respectively. Using DVI for the Mini would get around the Mini's problem with crappy VGA output and cut-off resolution; while the PC has a better graphics card so it should be ok on VGA. Sounds like a plan?

[EFFENDI]

That will work, but it's still two steps to switch over...not a bad trade-off if you are comfortable with using RGB.

[Maflynn]

Originally Posted by EFFENDI

I wasn't talking about the display input, I am well aware the display itself has multiple video inputs.

Input devices = keyboard/mouse.

right and take a look at my post again - I mentioned that I use a wireless mouse and keyboard