Hello,
all you knowledgeable people:
I want to connect an Apple Cinema Display to a PowerBook.
I know of the obvious options, but they are not great.
• Margi Display-to-Go 4MB (has only 4MB VRAM, thus only 16k colours and I do not think it is very fast)
• Magma PCI chassis through PC-Card with ATI Radeon and Gefen ADC-VGI converter (costs as much as the PowerBook, well, nearly…)
• Mobility Electronics T35 / T45 expansion chassis through PC-Card with ATI Radeon and Gefen ADC-VGI converter (not quite so expensive, but huge and cumbersome).

What I need to know is: Is there any other solution that actually is workable:
Anyone know of a VGA to DVI (Digital) converter?
Anyone with a Silicon Graphics 1600SW and the MultiLink converter:
Does the Multilink work with other displays (i.e.: the Apple Cinema Display).
I could get a used DVI version of the Apple Cinema Display.

All you clever people, please help! (I really want that display…)

Cheers

Originally posted by JTVD:

Anyone with a Silicon Graphics 1600SW and the MultiLink converter:
Does the Multilink work with other displays (i.e.: the Apple Cinema Display).

No, the connectors are different..


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[This message has been edited by cteselle (edited 04-10-2001).]

Thanks, where precisely do they differ?
I assumed that the sgi panel had a DVI-I connector similar to the old Apple ACD, which is then plugged into the Multilink-thing.
Then, there are all sorts of DVI adapters available, I just need to get the digital outpu somehow.

Have you got one of the sgi panels with the Multilink adapter?
How do you like it? (That is my other, obvious choice).
Thanks again

Originally posted by JTVD:
Thanks, where precisely do they differ?
I assumed that the sgi panel had a DVI-I connector similar to the old Apple ACD, which is then plugged into the Multilink-thing.
Then, there are all sorts of DVI adapters available, I just need to get the digital outpu somehow.

The SGI 1600SW has some kind of proprietary connection. You put this connection into the "multilink," which is a large chunk of curved plastic that's farily ugly and needs its own power supply. On the multilink then is a DVI-I port, into which you can run a cable that does DVI, DFP or VGA (SGI supplies three cables with different combinations of plugs). The multilink has controls on it to address a great number of monitor functions directly on-screen.

In my case, I put a VGA-->DVI cable from my PowerBook (firewire) into the multilink. I'm running system 9.1 and voila! 1600x1024 in thousands of colors, with the Powerbook screen staying at 1024x768 in millions of colors.

The SGI site (which has a Mac FAQ) stresses that to get the 1600x1024 (which they call SuperWide) you have to run OS 9.1. Don't know about OS X.

Have you got one of the sgi panels with the Multilink adapter?
How do you like it? (That is my other, obvious choice).
Thanks again

I just got this thing up and running yesterday; today is my first day out with it. Overall, I'd say I'm impressed. For a little while I had trouble with some "noise" at the far end of the screen, but it seems to have gone away (I'm having memories of SCSI voodoo). With the 1600x1024 resolution text is very small -- going between this and the Powerbook's display is a little disorientating. You can run the SGI at other resolutions, but these either don't fill up the screen (leaving black bars at the right or left) or the multilink "stretches" the display, which doesn't look good to me.

In my opinion the SGI is kinda ugly, and the multilink too, and now I've got two monitor cables, two power cords and two bricks. Not nearly as elegant as the ACD.

But having said all that...these things don't bother me. I am very impressed with being able to drive such a large screen from my Powerbook, and so far the analog connection doesn't seem to be a problem. Perhaps all-digital would be better -- ala the Margi route -- but I'm pretty happy as is.

And at half the price of an ACD, I'd say it's a good deal.

Tell us what you end up deciding on.

Timo

Oh, and I don't know if the multilink works with the ACD.

Thank you for the information.
I am still intrigued by the Multilink Adapter.
Do you mean that the proprietary connector is indeed unlike any other? I thought the sgi panel had a DVI connector as well.
Why do people make life so complicated…
Ideally I would like to find a solution that lets me use the VGA port on the PowerBook so I can run it with the lid closed tucked away somewhere and just have the ACD on my desk with the Wacom tablet and a keyboard. That should give me millions of colors at full resolution. That is why I do not like the PC-Card solutions so much.

Originally posted by JTVD:

I am still intrigued by the Multilink Adapter.
Do you mean that the proprietary connector is indeed unlike any other? I thought the sgi panel had a DVI connector as well.

One of the cables that connects to the multilink is DVI-->DVI.

Why do people make life so complicated…

My guess is that the proprietary connector goes to an SGI box.

Ideally I would like to find a solution that lets me use the VGA port on the PowerBook so I can run it with the lid closed tucked away somewhere and just have the ACD on my desk with the Wacom tablet and a keyboard. That should give me millions of colors at full resolution. That is why I do not like the PC-Card solutions so much.

One of the things that the Multilink does is some heavy duty translation from VGA (analog) to the digital standard of the SGI 1600SW. You may need a card to do that work for the PowerBook, since the ACD doesn't "translate" from analog to digital -- at least that's how I understand it.

I think I saw some info about the ACD in the Mac FAQ at www.sgi.com.

One more thing -- after working today with this monitor, I'm still happy, but it isn't "perfect" the way I guess an ACD would be. There is noise on occasion and redraw issues...but for my CAD work, I think it will be OK.

Good luck.



[This message has been edited by Timo (edited 04-10-2001).]