[saltines17]

Hey guys, first time posting outside of the OS X forums, wahoo!
Anyway, I'm confused about a few things about the displays.
Well, actually, here are some specs from Apple's displays pages:
15" Studio Display: Brightness (typical) = 230 cd/m
Contrast ratio (typical) = 300:1
17" Studio Display: Brightness (typical) = 200 cd/m
Contrast ratio (typical) = 350:1
22" Cinema Display (I WANT ONE ): Brightness (typical) = 180 cd/m
Contrast ratio (typical) = 300:1

Now, my question is: what does this mean??
Which is the brightest? What does "cd/m" mean? For the contrast ratios, does this mean the 17" has the best contrast? Can someone explain what exactly the contrast measure means? Thanks!



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"Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day; teach a man how to fish and he will be rammed by a nuclear submarine"

(btw, saltines17 = Pollo Verde )

[DMK]

I'm with you, somewhat confusing. From seeing the ACD though, I am purchasing a 15" and later on when prices are within range, I will jump into a Cinema or similar. I have made my decision based purely on actually using the display at Apple Specialists stores. They are truly the industry's best.
DMK

[saltines17]

Originally posted by DMK:
From seeing the ACD though, I am purchasing a 15" and later on when prices are within range, I will jump into a Cinema or similar. I have made my decision based purely on actually using the display at Apple Specialists stores. They are truly the industry's best.
DMK

Yeah, I was just wondering. I have a 15" one already, but have always wanted the 22" (who doesn't?! ) and I wanted to know which monitor has the best brightness, contrast, etc, even though from what I read, they are all excellent. (The 15" one is awesome, at least…)



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"Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day; teach a man how to fish and he will be rammed by a nuclear submarine." - Japanese proverb…

[saltines17]

Ack, I forgot to ask… but does anyone know the dot-pitch (i think that's what its called… ) of the Apple monitors?

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"Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day; teach a man how to fish and he will be rammed by a nuclear submarine." - Japanese proverb…

[Fyre4ce]

I know that "cd" is short for "candela," which is a unit of luminous intensity. I haven't studied the candela in any of my classes (yet...) but I would guess that they're telling you how much light a given area of display puts out. (Although I would have guessed the units would be "cd/m^2" and not "cd/m"...)

"Contrast ratio" is a measure of how accurately the monitor can differentiate between white and black. The differences between pure white and pure black, as the monitor displays it, is the contrast ratio. The higher, the better. BTW, a contrast ratio of infinity would mean that the monitor is a black body (at least for the visible spectrum) when displaying black!

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Fyre4ce

"I need a vacation." - Terminator robot

[Fyre4ce]

originally posted by saltines17:
Ack, I forgot to ask… but does anyone know the dot-pitch (i think that's what its called… ) of the Apple monitors?

You can calculate it yourself! Here's how: (I'll walk you through it the first time. After that you're on your own!)

You know that the aspect ratio of the monitor is 4:3. That is, the ratio of the width of the screen to the height is 4:3. Now, Apple tells you the diagonal size of the monitor, or the distance from one corner to the opposite. Now, we need to do a little math, and also use the Pythagorean Theorem:

Call the width of the screen 4x and the height 3x. Now you know that (for Apple's 15" display):

(15)^2 = (3x)^2 + (4x)^2

(15)^2 = 9x^2 + 16x^2

225 = 25x^2

9 = x^2

x = 3 (Hey, that worked out nicely! An even division and a perfect square! )

So how we know that the screen is 3*4 = 12" wide and 3*3 = 9" tall!

The resolution on the display is 1024x768. So, 1024 pixels / 12" = 85 pixels per inch.

To convert that into CRT-speak, the "dot pitch" is 0.30 mm.

Hope that helped. Let's pray I didn't screw up any of those tags!

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Fyre4ce

"I need a vacation." - Terminator robot

[Severed Hand of Skywalker]

Rex Sanders offers a few interesting comments on the increasing density of Apple's displays:

"With the release of the new Apple 17" Studio Display, Apple is hastening the demise of the 72 pixels per inch (PPI) standard for Macintosh displays first set by the original Macintosh in 1984. Here are the calculated PPIs of Apple's current displays:

85.3 - Apple 15" Studio Display
96.4 - Apple 17" Studio Display
86.3 - Apple Cinema Display
92.8 - iMac (high resolution)
72.5 - iMac (medium resolution)
91.1 - PowerBook G4 (Titanium)
105.8 - iBook (2001)


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[saltines17]

Originally posted by Fyre4ce:
To convert that into CRT-speak, the "dot pitch" is 0.30 mm.

Hope that helped. Let's pray I didn't screw up any of those tags!

Yes, that did help, and no, you didn't screw up the tags

Thanks!!



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"Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day; teach a man how to fish and he will be rammed by a nuclear submarine." - Japanese proverb…

[Fyre4ce]

No problem!

Just one thing I should perhaps elaborate on: To convert "pixels per inch" to "dot pitch," simply divide one by the number of pixels, and then convert that measurement into millimeters.

1 inch = 25.4 mm (That's exact. An inch is defined as 2.54 cm)

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Fyre4ce

"I need a vacation." - Terminator robot

[saltines17]

Originally posted by Fyre4ce:
No problem!

Just one thing I should perhaps elaborate on: To convert "pixels per inch" to "dot pitch," simply divide one by the number of pixels, and then convert that measurement into millimeters.

1 inch = 25.4 mm (That's exact. An inch is defined as 2.54 cm)

Yeah, that's ok, I figured that part out myself



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"Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day; teach a man how to fish and he will be rammed by a nuclear submarine." - Japanese proverb…

17" Studio Display on non-apple graphics card?

I have a PM G4 with a *Retail* ATI Radeon card, so it only features vga analog and the DVI digital display connector. I thought that was much better when I bought it as I can easily connect lots of 3rd party LCD displays. Now as I'm seriously considering buying a TFT display, it turns out the 17" Studio Display might be the best for me, but could I connect it? There is an adaptor by Belkin to connect DVI-display to new, ADC-macs... but does it work "the other way", too?
Any experiences/ideas?

Originally posted by nailbunny:
There is an adaptor by Belkin to connect DVI-display to new, ADC-macs... but does it work "the other way", too?
Any experiences/ideas?

Dr. Bott has a adaptor that connects a ADC display to a DVI graphicscard. It is called DVIator

*Dr. Bott has a adaptor that connects a ADC display to a DVI graphicscard. It is called DVIator*

Thanks a lot for your reply! Seems to be a really nice product, it allows adc-mac users even to connect 2 displays to their card... still, it's $149... I'll have to think about that...

[bugs]

I'm not sure that you are asking the right questions. While brightness is a useful measurement, and dot pitch is important on CRT monitors; there are far more important considerations depending upon how you will use your monitor.
 
For games, for instance, you need to understand that some will change the resolution of your screen. An LCD that looks great at its native resolution can look awful at others unlike a CRT. It is possible that high speed action will leave a trail of blurs that are annoying.

For critical graphics work, precision color is often paramount. Apple's big LCD came out badly in a recent MacWorld comparison to quality CRTs.

Apple and other companies have decided that it's OK if a few pixels are stuck on or off on your LCD monitor. How do YOU feel about that?

There are probably other things to consider. Have you called tech support to test if they answer the phone? Do they require you to wait 3 months for a replacement? (as Apple once did to me for a defective monitor.)

[saltines17]

Originally posted by bugs:
I'm not sure that you are asking the right questions. While brightness is a useful measurement, and dot pitch is important on CRT monitors; there are far more important considerations depending upon how you will use your monitor.

Woah there, I was just curious I'm not a pro user or anything, but I may end up getting a 22" anyway
I just wanted to get a sense of what those figures mean, and how crisp/bright the other displays are compared to mine (15" Apple Studio Display) Does anyone know if the greater brightness of the 15" compared to the 22" is really noticeable? Is the difference between 230 and 180 cm/m a big one?

For games, for instance, you need to understand that some will change the resolution of your screen. An LCD that looks great at its native resolution can look awful at others unlike a CRT. It is possible that high speed action will leave a trail of blurs that are annoying.

Not a problem, and the blurs really aren't too much of an issues for me. Btw, is the refresh rate (?) of the 22" cinema display the same or better than that of the 15" display?

For critical graphics work, precision color is often paramount. Apple's big LCD came out badly in a recent MacWorld comparison to quality CRTs.

Really? How badly? What about for non-critical graphics work/color precision - is there a noticeable difference for regular day to day use?

Apple and other companies have decided that it's OK if a few pixels are stuck on or off on your LCD monitor. How do YOU feel about that?

Not a SINGLE dead pixel on my 15" LCD. Is this a common problem? Did I just get lucky?

There are probably other things to consider. Have you called tech support to test if they answer the phone? Do they require you to wait 3 months for a replacement? (as Apple once did to me for a defective monitor.)

Ugh, this sounds like a yucky issue… How are other people's experiences?

Also, another question. How long does an LCD's backlight last for? People with Cinema displays especially - how long did your screens last/how long have you been using them for?

Thanks!!



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"Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day; teach a man how to fish and he will be rammed by a nuclear submarine." - Japanese proverb…