[RWoelk]

I am but minutes away from travelling up to Los Angeles, solely, to view Apple's Cinema Display in action. Me thinks it will be an enormous MISTAKE on my part as I may just be too tempted to find a way to purchase one in the near future. My 19" Mag Innovision is a perfectly fine monitor in conjunction with my G4. I don't need the Cinema display, but I have serious misgivings after seeing it, I am going to WANT this more then my usual common sense would permit. Can anyone say the word "D-e-b-t?"

Pros and cons from purchasers or those contemplating same would be welcome

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Rocke "Why yes, I have brought our
network down." Woelk

Only the educated are free!-Epictetus

Well, obviously you are now back from viewing the Cinema Display and are either unpacking it and setting it up, or are trying to figure out how you can afford to do so. For those who haven’t seen this beauty, it’s truly a work of art.

But nothing is perfect. Four grand is a whole heck of a lot of money. One could buy a tricked out G4 and a great 20-inch monitor. Some of the problems associated with this unit is the probability of voided pixels (I have one so far). Text is difficult to read at 1600 x 1024 (I went down to 1280 x 800). A good CRT is usually a bit sharper and has better color accuracy.

With that said, there really isn’t a display around that can touch this baby. It is one of the most impressive pieces of hardware I’ve seen. If you require a lot of real-estate, this one sure does the trick.

[Cipher13]

$8000 dollars in Australia - and I haven't worked out the GST effect on that yet either.

Cipher13

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"I may be dead but I'll be damned if I'm gonna turn around"

[RWoelk]

Thanks for your interest, guys. I must say, my trip up there was a most enjoyable one. With my lady friend in tow ( she's a PC gal who has yet to see the light, but is wearing down quickly ) we made excellent time in the hour's trip to L.A.. Traffic was on our side with the exception of a little congestion around L A X. Creative Computers is the only brick and mortar store representing P C Mall and Mac Mall in the Southern California area. Not a large store, but well-stocked with about 80% of its inventory Mac related. The Apple Cinema display was prominently placed directly in front, resting at the end of a long entrance hallway on the outer ring of two concentric rounded display counters .

At first blush, one has to catch their breath at the sheer beauty of the casing and size of this magnificent display. Somewhere between halfway from the outer casing's edge to the outer lip of the actual LCD screen ; there exists a prominent black border which helps shape the elegance of this incredible design. This thing really is bulletproof weighing in at 14 lbs. and feels as solid as a rock. The screen was set at its maximum resolution with a number QuickTime movies readied for play sitting on the desktop. The screen was quite bright with little or no degradation from viewing at even extreme angles. As expected the QuickTime movies looked terrific framing up to about three-quarters of the full screen . Played any larger, and they had a tendency to be a bit grainy. Without my making any comments to the issue, one of the several helpful store attendants proffered that the QuickTime movies were formally streamed off the Internet, hence their quality wasn't quite up to par . " OK, how about we try DVD in this connected G4 500 of yours." I said. The attendant begrudgingly stated they didn't have any do to people helping themselves to same when left in the G4. After a little negotiating , he finally went behind the counter and came back with what looked like a well used( heavily scratched) copy of the "A Bug's Life." not exactly my idea of very good DVD to showcase this display. Still, it looked gorgeous even at full screen . In the meantime, knowing this display has been in house and on view for several months, I noted still crowds of people coming in or stopping by to admire this work of art. My lady friend also found a display to be amazing. The closest monitor to this one in size on display was a Sony 18 in. LCD for $3,000. No comparison!

After trying a number of settings, and different resolutions; I was long past the point of discomfort and needed to make a bathroom call, not to mention, we were both hungry. We left the store with me feeling less than satisfied at wanting to see more of what this display can do. Just across the street was the famous delicatessen "Izzy's" replete with former presidents and celebrities adorning it's walls. As we walked across to dine I noted a high end video equipment store across Wilshire Boulevard . Relief and hunger would have to wait for prominently displayed on the store's window was an ad for Sony plasma TV, something I'd always wanted to see. Again, not a particularly large store but really jam packed with the latest and greatest of just about anything one can think of including high-definition TV, another one of my interests/desires. They actually had several plasma displays of various models and makes hanging on the wall along with some beautiful high definition television systems. None of the plasma displays seem to be hooked up to high-definition tuners/decoders so the resolutions observed were comparable to most any digital display. Interestingly enough, the plasma displays did not seem to be generating much in the way of heat as I had formally read they sometimes do. While there, a noted celebrity " Ben Stein " walked in and ultimately made his way back to one of the service areas in back. Needed relief and hunger were taking its toll so I hurriedly went over to their small selection of DVDs and found one that I had been wanting. HBO 's first run of "Sex in the City." I wasn't sure if this is shot on videotape or film, but it might serve as something of a little better to later see the Cinema display's abilities over that of a cartoon.

Having dined and consumed what surely must of been too many calories, my lady friend and I meandered back over to see what " Sex in the City" would look like on the Cinema display. Frankly, at full screen it looked rather grainy, but in fairness I really do think this series was shot on videotape. A different sales rep happened by and wanted to try different frame sizes and resolutions. Certainly smaller framing did help, but I was really hoping to see film from a DVD. I asked if he had any in the back and without hesitation he came back with a copy of "Matrix" a film I did not particular like, but was very pleased to have demoed. At full screen , it looked great and although many of the scenes were shot in darker hues, there was certainly no graininess such that was noted in my newly purchased DVD.

It should be clear to the reader that I'm obviously not technically well versed in monitors, nor in my graphics professional. However, while I loved this monitor, it's simply did not offer enough of an edge for me to spend the $4,000. To be perfectly honest, and while my simple DVD tests may NOT have been a fair assessment of this monitors' capability; I simply didn't feel the display looked any better than viewing DVDs on my FireWire PowerBook. Let me be clear here by stating that viewing a DVD on my PowerBook, my current monitor or by virtue S-video out from my PowerBook to my TV looks fabulous. I suppose with the Apple cinema display's capability of higher resolution , I was hoping for more in the way of obvious definition. That said, I came away not at all disappointed. I felt proud to be a Mac user and among the elite who realize how really cutting edge Apple's accomplishments have been. Hell, if I had money to burn this display would be sitting on my desk by virtue of its artistic expression alone. I would love the increased desk and desktop real-estate it could afford. However, me thinks I'm forever spoiled after spending the last several months drooling over high-definition television sets and the incredible pictures they are capable of. For those of you who have not yet seen a true high-definition signal displayed; it's a truly breathtaking experience. Frankly, I would spend money on one of these beauties now. Indeed, I think it would be worth it, but too much in the industry is yet unsettled and there is too little in the way of broadcasts just yet for me to make the plunge.

My apologies proffered for a lengthy post and aren't you sorry you asked, Russell** Smiling ** It is simply a little too easy to get carried away using speech recognition.

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Rocke "Why yes, I have brought our
network down." Woelk

Only the educated are free!-Epictetus

Ha. No, I'm not sorry at all. It was an interesting story and I'm glad you shared it.

[blizaine]

but too much in the industry is yet unsettled

just thought that I'd let you know that the Government decided that 720p (progressive scan) would be the HDTV standard, instead of 1080i (interlaced).

Later

[MacOS761]

Yay! I was hoping for progressive. It seems that technology is advancing quickly enough to do better than 720, tho. But it's been a while since I read up on that, so I'm sure that's excellent quality anyway.

No, the story was interesting, don't apologize!