20" Cinema Display - feedback

S

sabunab

Registered
Not here to gloat,

If you are looking at this message, and still contemplating the purchase, you have probably wasted hours of spec seacrching, comparing crts, checking max resolutions e.t.c - as i did.

I'm here to say that they totally live up to expectations.
even better in fact.

G4 + 20" cinema display

The perfect match for any designer/digital artist surely.

My opinion on the others

17 - crap
20 - Perfect size + resolution
23 - Too big, looks silly

I'm a designer/post production /web digital freak, and most days i'm looking at the screen for 18 hours a day....so I figured its worth the money, however if you don't make good use of it, it could still be a little overpriced, i got mine new for £990, for that price i could have had many things......a whole PC? I don't think so...

WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR, IF YOU HAVE THE CASH BUY IT NOW,

every day you are looking at that crap monitor you have wanted to replace is a day less on this planet having not experienced the joy of looking at one of these screens.

I won't go into techie descriptions of the quality and so on....

It HAS to be the next generation in screens, its just superior in every way to anyother LCD i have seen, (and I saw a lot!)

Trust me, save your valuable time, looking for comparisons, nothing compares. end of story.

Don't forget, the screen is the eyes to your work.

This may sound weird.

The main difference that i have noticed is that when you have a CRT in front of your face, its not just eye strain, but it feels like you are being drained of something.
Brain strain, similar to a TV.

with these, there may as well be nothing in front of your face - you don't feel any invisible field around it, no electrons being fired at your face......just a silent totally flat , super bright, crisp and rich image.

Honestly, don't listen to anyone that downgrades this screen.

Unless its a PC user, just feel sorry for him..........

steve : )
 
I was thinking about getting the 23"

But after seeing the 20" I went for it instead.

The 20" has much better picture quality in terms of color, contrast, sharpness, than the 23"

Yes, it's smaller than the 23" but I would rather seeing better pictures than a bigger but "suckier" images.....

Oh by the way....the discontinued 22" is a real p.o.s. compare to the 20 and 23......it used to be good back to a few years ago......technology.....


ps. I agree. This LCD is much better than CRT monitors....no flickers, doesn't make your eyes feel sore....which is a good thing™
 
I wish i could afford an LCD :). I got the 17 inch apple studio display and been very pleased with it. I got my comp when all they had was the 15 inch lcd for like 800 or something haha.

I don't know if I would change to LCD though. I keep having flashbacks to looking at notebooks from an angle and seeing black. I remember having to be in the exact right spot just to see anything.

I'm sure its changed by now. Maybe in 5 years or so when i get a new computer i'll consider LCD and prices will be very very low.
 
This screen just keeps getting better. (cinema 20)
I saw a 19in NEC lcd screen today, and you just couldn't compare the two.
The sharpness and colour richness is unbelieveable.

Could anyone tell me if I should upgrade my graphics card.

I have a Gforce 4 MX 64mb,

I have some problems keeping up the frame rate of intense full screen movies.

Would anyone recommend that I upgrade to get the most from my cinema display?

Thanks
Steve
 
The best screen i have is a Samsung 17" 172 T. Much better quality than the 17" of the iMac I currently use, but the form factor of the iMac screen is better. What do people still use the old 4/3 CRT form factor ? It's a non-sense with an LCD.
 
I saw the imac 17" screen and thought the whole look of the new imac was great, and so stylish.

I was a little disapointed with the screen on the imac though,
it almost put me off getting an lcd, things seemed to turn brown when you were anywhere else besides a head on view of the screen.

The 20" apple cinema display is a new kind of screen, much different to the screen on the imac, it must be omething new.

the viewing angle does not effect the image at all.

I could have got 2 x 17" for the price of the 20, but I am glad I settled with the one 20" It really is perfect, in every way.

They should only sell G4's if people agree to get a cinema display too. It really is the mac experience to the max!

I still use Os 9.2 for my primary OS.........am I being stupid>?
 
Yes ;) Unless you use software that isn't avaliable for OS X, I would definet;y buy a copy of Jaguar. The prettiest OS on the prettiest monitor... I wish I could get a g4 with a 20 incher. Just wait until Apple releases a 30 INCH monitor (I really hope they do :b) That would be HEAVEN.
 
True, but I think the 20" inch is just right for size and resolution.

there is only so much screen space you can see at once, and the 1680 x 1050 is ample room for most things.

Maybe i'm wrong, but i thought the 23 was a little too big,

if its bang in front of your face then its like sitting in the front row of the movies, in one of those huge warner screens, your neck could get strained?
 
I can understand your undying love for your new monitor, but the 17" is crap??? How can that be????? The yearbook teacher at my school has a 17", and it's damn beautiful. Seriously, I don't see anything wrong with it.

The 20" monitor is bound to be sharper and brighter than the others because it is new. New products like these tend to be better than the old ones if they aren't all upgraded. Just look at the TiBook line... the new ones have certain features the 15"ers lack, because they are new.
 
What I would like to know, sabunab, is what other LCD screens you looked at.

I'm sure you have seen the SGI 1600SW (link to google images). Well, I saw one a few years back, and wanted it badly. Now they're affordable on ebay for well under a grand USD. Have you compared them to Apple's offering lately?

Also, IBM and NEC have some very nice screens out.

I'm sticking with my Mitsuibishi Diamond Plus 920, which I run at 1600x1200 for now - its a great monitor as CRT's go - warm, high frequency (85hz at 1600x1200 aint' bad at all!), extremely flat, etc.

But man.... LCD's are looking pretty sweet.

Anyone else compared other LCD's to Apple's offerings?
 
My dad just put on a 19" Optiquest CRT on this computer, and it looks really nice. The only trouble is I'm trying to get my whites super white without washing out my blacks. Should I lower the gamma?

I read a review in Mac Addict or Macworld of a 20-something" monitor comparing to Apple's that was really similar. It was better in many ways, though not as good in others. I read lots of reviews, so I don't remember the exact details, but if any of you read this article you know what I'm talking about.

The point is, Apple makes excellent monitors, but they're not automatically the only game out there. Look around, compare everything you can, and make a decision.
 
I think the 20 you are talking about is the Formac Gallery 20.1 screen.
The only difference is in the Brightness about 100ms more than the apple (supposedly).

But a fundimental advantage of the cinema displays is the wide screen format.

The only contender is the Silicon Graphics one (SGI 1600SW ) but the resolution is still lower (1280x1024 ) than the apple 20" (1680x1050) it is also more expensive to buy than the apple.

Seriously, the reason I started this post was to save other people research time, and say.....

Get the 20" cinema display !

I spent far to long looking into the other options.

The only other monitor I would have been happy with is the Lacie 22 electron blue CRT, but it is amazing to have an LCD that actually compares to a CRT in clearity and color.

GET ONE, they are quite affordable with the drop in price.
or if you can't afford to buy it, get it on a payment plan....

If you have a G4, there is no better screen for the money!
 
PS, to adjust your gamma, go through the new calibration option and set the contrast to get the results you want.

That is if you are on a mac, if its a PC forget it.....
 
I know HOW to adjust the gamma, I was just wondering if I should, if this would make my whites white without making my blacks white as well. (Look at my sig for the computers I use: no pee cees in sight!)

I'm glad you like your new monitor; I really don't have the money for one (I'm in high school), and all we have is G3's anyway, but if I had a new G4 I'd definitely go for one. I think, the bigger the better; if the 23" and 20" were the same quality (which it sounds like they are, in your opinion), I'd get the 23" (money not being an option), but I'm glad you, like thousands others, enjoy your monitor.
 
I get to see all the Apple displays whenever I work. Based on my experience, deciding between the 20" and the 23" is no easy task... The 20" does offer an incredible viewing experience, and offers enough screenspace for most people. However, with the 17" PowerBook now shipping (a little ;) ), I find screenspace is like an addiction - the more I get, the more I want. Since 17" is pushing the limits of portability, I don't see laptop screens getting much bigger. Now that the 17" PB has satisfied my desire for laptop screenspace (or will if I get one) my craving has turned to desktops: I want these displays to keep getting bigger! Obviously there have to be some smaller screens available for those with particularly limited space, but I want an Apple display big enough to warrant figuring a way to hook up an HDTV reciever to my Mac. Of course, this is where the next generation of TiVo can step in....with Rendezvous support, maybe they can transfer the stored video to a Mac's HD to view on that wonderful screen, or in a window if one so chooses, or perhaps similar to the way we can have a screensaver replace our desktop picture. Well, now I've gone off on an industry-inspired tangent, and since I don't see myself getting back on track soon, I will simply stop myself now.
 
Thanks,

sorry, I don't mean to sound like I am a bragging show off...

Just wanted to help people make a good buying decision.

Maybe you can start to save up a little cash for one.

they are still very expensive, you could get a whole computer system for the same price.

Its only worth spending it if you are a heavy user....or have more money than sense.
 
WHEN WILL THE DAY COME THAT SCREENS ARE BUT HISTORY, AND WE DONT EVEN NEED TO USE OUR EYES?

HOPEFULLY SOON!
 
That day willl come someday, my friend. We will all be able to view all the information we need with special contact lenses as we colonize the galaxy.
 
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