Third Party Flat Panel Displays and Radeon

MacMuppet

MacMuppet

Registered
Hi everyone.

I'm in the market for a flatscreen, but can't stretch to an Apple Studio Display or even a Formac one. Basically, it'll be the cheapest I can find.
What I'm wondering about though is compatibility.
I have a G4 500 running Panther with a 64Mb Radeon 9000 AGP card. Can I just get any old flatpanel monitor? Bearing in mind this will probably be from eBuyer or Dabs or similar where Mac compatible is a foreign term, and might not be grounds for a return if it doesnt work.
For instance a family member has an (shudder) XP machine with a pretty good but cheap VideoSeven monitor, but would that work for me?
Should there be any terms or technlogies I should steer clear of or look out for? Any advice would be much appreciated....

Also, I can't seem to find out whether my graphics card supports dual monitors, I've looked on the Apple site, and the Radeon site and elsewhere, but I'm no wiser. I've got dual monitors running nicely at work off separate (older) graphics cards, but don't some of the newer cards run two monitors, one on the VGA and one the DVI? Or am I talking out of my hat? If its true I could concevably buy two smaller monitors....
 
I am not familiar with your radeon 9000. Why don't you just check if there is a second plug for video. I am sure you will have a tv-out plug (should be round). Maybe your mac on work has two graphic cards?
Anyway, I think you have a tv-out and a vga-out plug on your graphic slot. That means you should just go for vga lcds (no DVI or if there is no adaptor bundled). Fortunately these are the cheaper screens, so I think you will appreciate this. If dual screen is really important for you and you really have no additional video out, you might consider buying an old and cheap graphic card for the pci-bus.
 
Don't forget a thing, the cheaper you pay, the less quality you get (ie. dead pixels will already be there or will quickly appear).
 
Yes my work machine has two PCI grpaphics cards in, one 32Mb one 16Mb.

The one here, the 64Mb, has no round S-Video or other round ports. Its actually using an adaptor to convert to my VGA monitor, but I'm lost with the various DVI ports, it has two, one rectangular with the top corners lopped off, and one like a rectangle with rounded ends. I'm using the first (from my system profile):

ATY,RV250:

Type: display
Bus: AGP
Slot: SLOT-A
VRAM (Total): 64 MB
Vendor: ATI (0x1002)
Device ID: 0x4966
Revision ID: 0x0001
ROM Revision: 113-99703-112

Display:

Type: display
Display Type: CRT
VRAM (In Use): 64 MB
Resolution: 1152 x 870 @ 75 Hz
Depth: 32-bit Color
Main Display: Yes
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes

ATY,Radeon9000i_B:

Status: No display connected

....the second one is the port on the card not being used, I have no PCI cards installed.

Yes I could easily acquire a 32Mb graphics card (I'm in support - its all very embarassing really, I should know all this but the flatscreen world has left me behind). I just wondered if there was any way of telling if this was one of the ones that supported dual displays on its own.

As far as the new screen goes, yes I'm willing to sacrifice a little quality - if that was my main priority I'd have to save for a cinema display, theres no room for a decent CRT where I'm moving to. I suppose I'll have to take my chances with dead pixels, but don't we all?

Has anyone had any experiences with Samsung, Video7 or LG flatpanels?
 
I'm also looking (maybe) for a 17" LCD, have been for about six months. Here's some of what I've found out. First off, for some reason I could have bought around Christmas for $300 (no-name brands), now the prices are at least $100 higher usually more. Second, check the warranty! Most quality brands give some variation of a three year deal (check the variation), the cheaper offer only a year. Third, for what it's worth, the Contrast Ratio on the older models was in the 300-350:1 range. Now you should easily get 400, 450 or even 500:1. The brightness was a more or less standard 260 but now I notice that number creeping up also (along with the price?). Anyhow, I still haven't taken the plunge and my CRT works fine but one day the right combination will come along and I will.
You might want to check out Tiger Direct (http://www.tigerdirect.com/) for pricing. I happened to notice that Princeton Graphics has a new line of LCDs called SENergy with dual inputs (and they give a free DVI cable) in the mid $400 range.
I'd like to hear from anyone with experience comparing analog and digital LCD monitors.
 
MacMuppet said:
Yes my work machine has two PCI grpaphics cards in, one 32Mb one 16Mb.

The one here, the 64Mb, has no round S-Video or other round ports. Its actually using an adaptor to convert to my VGA monitor, but I'm lost with the various DVI ports, it has two, one rectangular with the top corners lopped off, and one like a rectangle with rounded ends.
Click to expand...

The rectangular one is a DVI port and will accept a flat-panel display with a DVI connector. The adaptor you speak of is probably the DVI-to-VGA adaptor, so any flat panel display that uses a standard VGA plug will also work.

The other port (rectangle with rounded ends) is an ADC port, or an "Apple Display Connector" and will only work with ADC monitors from Apple. As far as I know, no other monitor manufacturers use ADC.
 
Thanks Diablo, well I guess the ADC port will never get used. I have plenty of VGA adaptors and DVI cables - in fact I could probably do a nice line in DVI cables, we've had oh about 1000 Dell flatties delivered over the last year, all come with a VGa and DVI cable and we only use the VGA, so guess how many DVI cables I have? Now if only I could find a way to shift them in bulk.....
Also thanks to Ranasta, thats sueful stuff about warranties but kmore importantly about contrast levels - I think I'll go compare thise figures with the Samsung I was ogling last night. I know what you mean about the price fluctuations - its because of a worldwide glut on flatscreen materials. Count yourself lucky you're not in Europe, where theres an import tax on TVs and similar technology, and they've just ruled that a flatscreen can be used as a TV (or is it the other way around) so therefore it has to have the surcharge also, meaning all flatscreens in Europe will increase in price over the next few months, although various firms are appealing the decision.
It'll probably take me about two months to save up and a further two months to make my mind up knowing me....
 
Check it:

The Samsung SyncMaster 173s is a 17-inch TFT-LCD monitor delivering a 450:1 contrast ratio, 0.264mm pixel pitch, 1280 x 1024 maximum resolution, scanning frequency of 30-81 kHz horizontal and 56-75 Hz vertical, and horizontal/vertical viewing angle of 1500/1200. It features a slim design with built-in Power Brick.
Model : 173S-Black
PANEL : Type a-si TFT /TN
Size : 17"
Pixel Pitch (mm) : 0.264
Brightness (cd/m2) : 270 cd/m2 *How's that?*
Contrast Ratio : 450:1 *Yeah Baby*
Viewing Angle : 150 / 120
Aspect Ratio : 4:3
Response Time (ms) : 25
Interface : Analog
FREQUENCY
Horiz. Rate (Analog) : 30-81
Vertical Rate : 56-75
Bandwidth 135
RESOLUTION
Maximum (Analog) : 1280 x 1024 *Have to do I suppose*
Native : 1280 x 1024
COLOR
Maximum : 16.2 M
SIGNAL INPUT
Input Video Signal : Analog RGB
Video Level: Analog : 0.7VP-P
Sync Type : Separate H/V, Composite H/V
Input Connectors : 15pin D-sub *Is that good or bad?*
PLUG & PLAY DDC 2B
POWER On/Working : 45 Watts (Max)
WALL MOUNT VESA® 100mm
REGULATIONS : Safety UL 1950, CSA, TUV, NEMKO, EK, CCIB, PSB, GOST, SIQ, PCBC, NOM, IRAM, SASO EMI/Emissions FCC, CE, MPR II, VCCI, MIC, BSMI, C-TICK, TUV, GS
Emission Standard : TCO 95
CABINET COLOR : Black *Sweet*
DIMENSIONS : Physical (WxHxD) 15.0" x 15.3" x 6.9" Packaging (WxHxD) 18.1" x 17.9" x 7.9"
WEIGHT Net(Physical) 10.6 lbs. Gross (packaging) 13.6 lbs.
FEATURES : Built-in power
with 3year RTB warranty *Sweet*

Thats £293 including tax in real money, which is about $540.
 
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