[rcitrin]

Well, being that it seems that everyone on this board seems to love them, I took the plunge and picked one up this week. It was from the Dell refurb section, and cost me $450, that is $500 less than the ACD.

Anyway, I have seen the Apple 20" display, and I can honestly say that this Dell one is every bit as good...absolutely gorgeous.

Well, except for 2 niggling issues...the first is that when I have my Powerbook open, and I choose mirror mode from the display prefs, the image does not fill the Dell display, but rather displays in the middle, about the same size as on the PB. I do not yet have an external KB so could not test putting the mac to sleep, but it only works right now when I have it as an extended desktop...is this normal?

Also, DVDs look absolutely shockingly bad! Like I said the display is perfect in every regard, not even a single bad pixel, but I happened to have L.A Confidential in my PB that I had been watching the night before, and so tried it. It is really grainy and really shocking looking...not like the Apple ones that I have seen running DVDs in the Apple store. Can anyone tell me whether this too is normal, or whether I need to do or set something special to make DVDs look semi decent.

Thanks so much guys!

R.

[cakeandpie]

as far as i can tell, what you are experiencing regarding screen size is normal. in mirror mode i always have black bars at the top and bottom, and as an extended screen I get full screen on the 2005FPW. when you do use it when the Pbook is closed, you will be able to use the display full screen.

regarding the dvd's, I've been having the same problems. even when I'm just using my screen saver the image tears and looks really bad. I think the problem has been attributed to ATI video cards, but as of yet I don't know of any solutions.

[rcitrin]

I was afraid you were going to say that! ;-)

The screen issue is not just black bars on top and bottom, but all the way around it. Regardless, I will pick up a keyboard tomorow, and will survive.

The DVD issue is sort of a bummer...so many machines use the ATI card that I find it odd that the problem would be there. Is it the same for people who have used the 2005fpw with their PC's?

I was hoping to finally dump the TV (I get no channels anyway, and only use if for dvds) but I guess the time is not yet here...

[Mithras]

Check the on-screen menu -- my 2005FP is at work, so I can't check now, but I think I remember a setting where you could choose how the monitor scaled nonstandard resolutions, i.e. whether to fill the screen, or float a pixel-perfect smaller image. Perhaps, as a refurb, yours came with other than the factory setting.

Does it happen the same way when you select a different resolution for the external monitor (without mirroring)?