[bckid]

Hey guys. I'm thinking about getting an external monitor for my Rev D 12" Powerbook. The LCD i have in mind is the Sharp Aquos 26" (LC26GA5U specifically). I've only read great reviews about it, and my 12" is getting a little small for me, plus I can hook it up to my cable, dvd, sound system, etc.

Sooooo, will my little powerbook be able to handle it? I know it has mini-DVI, is that the connection i would use to the ext. monitor? is the quality going to be crappy or gorgeous? because if the picture's not going to be great, then i'm not going to spend $1500 on a monitor with a picture that is only so-so.

thanks....


also - what external monitors do you guys have? i'm open to suggestions...

[ibook_steve]

DVI is a digital connection, so the picture can't be crappy. You either have an image or you don't (or you get pixelation which you wouldn't get). "Crappiness" could only be a perception of what you think of the image on the screen. As for the connection, you would use the mini-DVI port for all external video, VGA or DVI. The 12" can drive up to Apple's 23" display, so what resolution you'd get depends on the resolution capabilities of the display you are talking about. What is its maximum resolution? The 12" can go up to, IIRC, 1920x1200 on the external display.

Steve

[bckid]

Thanks Steve. The sharp I'm looking at has a resolution of 1366 x 768, so that sounds like it should be just fine with the video card in my 12". what size external is everyone out there running on their 12"? do you guys like the picture quality?

[GSixZero]

I don't think you'll want to sit in front of that monitor. That sharp is a TV, not a monitor. While is is big, and it may work, the quality will be very low. That TV has about the same number of pixels as a 15" powerbook, but stretched out over 26 inches.

You'd be better off getting the 23" apple cinema display that has is $1499 and has 1920 x 1200 resolution. You'll get more than twice as many pixels.

[Phossil]

I just got the Samsung Syncmaster 242MP - it's 24 inches with native resolution of 1920x1200 - I love it (it also has a built in TV tuner )

[hubertusbreuer]

One caveat though. I also own the Powerbook 12 Rev. D and considered getting a 20 inch cinema display with it. What stopped me from buying one - for now -, is that many people pointed out that the GPU is getting very hot handling the extra screen space - in consequence the fans are on a lot, some people even said they are on constanly at the highest level. So, before you get an external screen, you might want to consider this - or at least test drive one first.

[hubertusbreuer]

PS: The heat issue is being discussed in this threat: http://forums.macnn.com/69/mac-notebooks/197095/albook-12-runs-hot-20-inch/

[Mithras]

I agree that the Sharp Aquos is a TV, not a monitor. Buy the Dell 2405fp or 2005fp if you want an external monitor for a reasonable price.

[bckid]

I pulled this off the tech specs. on the apple website:

NVIDIA GeForce FX Go5200 graphics processor with AGP 4X support and 64MB of DDR SDRAM video memory (12-inch models): Dual display and video mirroring: Simultaneously supports up to 1024 x 768 pixels on the built-in display and up to 2048 x 1536 pixels on an external display, both at millions of colors (6)

So this means that technically, my 12" can support the Aquos 26" because its resolution is 1366x768 (atleast that's the number of pixels, and i think thats the same thign as resolution)

why would apple say that it can support a screen that size if clearly everyone is having heat issues?

also, the reason i chose the sharp aquos for an ext. monitor is becuase is can be a TV also. if you dont think i should use it, then do you guys have any other tv/computer monitors in the 22"+ range that my PB12 can run?