Apple Cinema display and PC no controls

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Submitted By: Tim Clifton

Location: Washington

Joined: Nov 15 2005

Posts:

Apple Cinema display and PC no controls

Posted: January 16, 2006 - 9:19am

I just purchased a 20" Apple Cinema to use with my PC. I felt I had done some due diligence to determine if there were any issues connecting to a PC. It connected just fine and I was able to use it. Pretty impressive display. Then I came to realize the manual controls for brightness and on/off were not functioning. I called Apple Care this AM and learned while the display will work with a PC DVI, you have no manual adjustments for brightness or any other adjustments for that matter.

It would have been nice to adjust brightness to calibrate. While I understand, I feel disapointed no one at the Apple Store brought up this issue prior to purchase. I made sure to ask for any issues connecting to a PC and to be able to calibrate the monitor. Also a bit frustrating is the $79.00 penalty for the open box, which you don't about the non adjustability until you connect it. Also since the receipt was emailed and you connect your monitor to get the receipt. Kind of a close the barn door after the animals are gone.

So Just wanted anyone else thinking this route, while it is a beautiful display, you have no adjustments. So I guess it is the Samsung 214T, since buying a new Mac and monitor is not a feasible option at this time.

Thanks to all for the info posted on monitors

Tim

Submitted By: David B. Brooks

Joined: Apr 19 2011

Posts:

Re: Apple Cinema display and PC no controls

Posted: January 16, 2006 - 11:28am

Tim,

Thanks for posting that information. I had not realized that the brightness control will not function on a PC. Although I have tested the Apple Cinema Displays, I don't have a DVI connector video card on my IBM windows PC, so I had not tried the Apple Cinema Display with my PC.

I will no longer recommend the Apple Cinema Display for PC users, you can be sure, only for Mac computer users.

I am very sorry you were put to the trouble and expense you have had. And under the circumstances like you have experience, I don't think Apple should promote the Cinema Displays for use with PC's at all.

Submitted By: Tim Clifton

Location: Washington

Joined: Nov 15 2005

Posts:

Re: Apple Cinema display and PC no controls

Posted: January 16, 2006 - 12:23pm

David, thanks for your reply and support. Apple was very good about taking it back and voiding the restock fee of $79.00. They did agree the sales person should have mentioned since I did say it was for a PC. I am more impressed with the attitude of the staff when returning it. So I am not outraged.

I do have a question on the Samsung 214T or similar that you tested. You talked about setting the white temp. Was there a problem getting a specific 6500K selection? My trinitron makes me approximate and does not have presets for the actual temps.

I am steering towards this disply for my PC, but am trying very hard to gather my info first.

Thanks again for your support
Tim

Submitted By: David B. Brooks

Joined: Apr 19 2011

Posts:

Re: Apple Cinema display and PC no controls

Posted: January 16, 2006 - 1:47pm

Tim,

Although the specs do not include what the native whitepoint is, it measured close to 7000K, so I simply set the aim point to 6500K when I calibrated and profiled the 244T. This seems to work fine, and I believe is usual practice with most LCD's Photoshop users are doing from the feedback I get. Works fine as far as I am concerned. But if your calibration and profiling software supports setting the whitepoint interactively by measurement, the mAgic Color monitor control supports that.

Submitted By: Anonymous

Re: Apple Cinema display and PC no controls

Posted: January 17, 2006 - 1:55pm

Of course if you look into Display/Properties/Advanced you will find there gamma correction, brightness and contrast control - for ATI and NVidia cards at least...

In Linux, though, you got a tick less control, unless you running KDE (not sure if GNOME got it, cant remember).

Then again - more reason to not use PC