Apple Cinema Displays?
 

Hi,

are the Apple Cinema Displays still a good buy? I know they are at the expensive side, and they haven't been updates in a LONG time, and many are hoping/expecting for Apple to update them soon (although it didn't came with the new Mac Pro's and at Macworld... strange), but are they outdated?

If one was looking for a 30" screen for editing, to go by a new Mac Pro, what would your advice be for the Apple Cinema Displays?

Thanks in advance,

Hi neighbour!

I'm also very interested in this. Just like you I also hoped that Apple was going to release a newer version of the Cinema displays. It was my idea to buy two 23" displays with a new eight-core. To me, the current ones are too expensive for the specifications they have.

Hah, hello Ivan, always nice and special to see people from Belgium around here.

Yes, our company is going to buy the new 8 cores, but we aren't out on the screens... I would love a 30", so I would like to know how good it's a value.

I have a 23 and love it. Yes, it is sad that they have not updated the Cinema line of displays and as things go they are getting old. The image is wonderful and - I confess - I like the aesthetics of it!

Bob

I bought a Dell Monitor instead. I got the 24 inch, and it comes with more inputs, VGA, RGB, DVI, S-Video, Composite, and a card reader. It was alot cheaper than the 23 inch Cinema Display.

I am looking into the 3007 30 inch, at 1049.00 that beats Apples 1800.00 for their 30 inch.

I owned a 23" Cinema Display with my last Quadra

And after that experience, when I got my new MacPro system 18 months ago, I bought a 30" Cinema Display without a an instant's hesitation.

It's AMAZING. I can't say enough good things about it. I know it's expensive but if you can swing the money - I guarantee you'll NEVER be sorry you bought one.

It always surprises me when my clients mention it (typically with expressions of surprise and envy) cuz I don't really "see" it anymore. I just get a LOT of work done without EVER worrying about eyestrain, needing more screen real estate or ANYTHING to do with my computer display.

I don't know if there's better because I don't EVER worry about it.

The Apple Cinema Display is an absolutely first class product in EVERY way.

Period.

I must confess the 23" calibrated with a spyder 2 pro is beautiful thing. I have a samsung 226bw right next to it and its just not as good. Of course you can't get too crazy with color correction or anything with it but its very pleasing to the eye.

Quadra? The ancient mac, or did you mean "quad"?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...quadra_800.jpg

It's worth noting that both Apple and Dell displays use the same LCD panel manufacturer, Sony. In fact, the Dell 3007 and Apple 30" inch displays use the very same LCD panel from Sony and have the same specs, the only difference is how the casing is designed and what connectivity it has.

Dell does make a newer version of the 3007 which sells for almost $2k, but it also has a much higher contrast ratio - not something that would be of benefit for video work.

If you want the best bang for the buck, get the Dell, the image quality will be identical to the Apple. If you're more into aesthetics and want a display to match your Apple product, get the ACD.

Oops.

Had a small Apple LCD (17"?) with my old blue G3 and a 23" with my silver G4.

Went with a 30" when I got my MacPro Quad.

Too many computers over too many years.

Sorry.

They were never a good buy. As many have already stated save yourself about $900 or more and get the 30" Dell. I have three of them and one 30" Cinema display.

I don't regret getting the Cinema display, its just that after using the Dell monitors for almost as long I realize that once again I got bent over by Apple.

In the tests I have seen Apple Cinema displays have not come on top, Eizo tends to get the top positions.

I have the 24" Dell, I would rather have 2 of those than one 30" Cinema Display. Cheaper also?

Eizo and NEC make better displays, but they are also more expensive than the ACD.

There are obviously many options for brands/size but keep in mind that what you need for video editing truly isn't that critical. Yes, you do need something that will properly display color-space and gamut but the truth is any decent LCD made by Sony (which means either Sony's own brand, Apple and Dell), Samsung, LG and Eizo (overpriced) will do the job extremely well.

What's actually MORE important than your LCD computer monitor is seeing how things look on output, which is why for critical work you always have to have either a broadcast monitor, a good quality NTSC TV or plasma HDTV. Obviously for those you'd need something to send that signal to such as a BlackMagic or KONA card or the Matrox MXO or the newly released MOTU V3HD.

So if you're really considering going all-out on your monitor needs, spend less money on the LCD and put the bulk towards external monitoring instead.

Robert,

As much as I appreciate video card engineers, you don't really need ANY of them for most typical editing.

Any firewire deck or even a camcorder will transcode your NLE's output and display it on a broadcast monitor perfectly well.

And since nearly all of us need to go to some from of digital video tape for master delivery - eventually you're probably going to need a deck anyway.

For SD and HDV work, and increasingly even HD with the new H-264 and Apple codecs, a specialized video transcoding card might be an unnecessary expense.

YMMV - FWIW

I don't quite follow you. You can't output an HDV signal via FW in real time like you can SD so you need another device to get your HDV signal onto an external monitor. The same goes for every format, AFAIK, besides DV and DVCPro 25/50/HD.

Getting an quality LCD that gives a good image and is easy on the eyes is important, but in terms of judging your work you need to view it on an external/b'cast type monitor. The only exception to that that I know of is using the Matrox MXO in conjunction w/a 23" ACD.


-A

ACD 32" en 'zeer tevreden', to say it in Dutch ;-) . From ergonomics point of view a winner. I don't like Dell, Samsung,... for this purpose: most standard PC 'mainstream' LCD monitors, good for word & excel, are lot harder for the eyes, and all tending very much to the 'blue' kind of chroma.

The only remark, is that ACD are video... getting a bit slow, but still acceptable.

The displays on the new i-Mac deliver an impressive performance, surely regarding contrasts & colors. Very crisp display. It can be assumed that in not very far from now, Apple will update the present ACD line with the same kind of technology, or even more advanced.

Another someone from Belgium ;-)

Don't forget that the colours from the iMac screens look crispier and contrasty because it are glossy screens, but most professionals DON'T want that for their screen, because it isn't such a neutral true presentation, + reflection.

Dell and Apple have the same LG panel on the inside. I'm not sure about the new 30" Dell though, I just noticed them a little while ago but haven't had time to look into what runs them. I love Apple but refuse to pay the extra for a pretty silver bezel. But to each their own. It all gets the job done.

Do you have a link for this? Someone else in this thread said they both use the same Sony panel and I've read else where that 23" ACD uses a SWOP-certifed IPS panel while the Dell 2407 only uses a PVA panel. Of course this is a non-issue as we should all be using reference monitors to get an accurate representation of our video. But if you buy an MXO and use the 23" ACD you can get an inexpensive setup that is nearly as accurate as using a b'cast quality Sony HD CRT.

Ugh.


-A

[QUOTE=Andrew Kimery;811337]I don't quite follow you. You can't output an HDV signal via FW in real time like you can SD so you need another device to get your HDV signal onto an external monitor. The same goes for every format, AFAIK, besides DV and DVCPro 25/50/HD.


Nope,

At least on the Mac side, folks have been doing direct FW export to FCP timelines since 6.01 provided they have modern Intel based boxes.

Check out the apple website here for details:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread....0048&tstart=60

You can chose to export a bit copy of HDV native, or transcode to either the Apple intermediate - or ProRes Codecs during transfer without any card at all.

Remember the HDV datarate is actually a bit LESS than DV as far as stream size is concerned - that's how efficient the HDV codec is.

Yes, it takes more horsepower to decode/encode for editing on the fly, but Firewire can handle the stream transport with no more hassle than plain vanilla DV.

Okay, that's where the confusion lays. I thought you were talking about outputting a signal (because that's what Robert was talking about in his post you replied to), not capturing a signal. Yes, for getting media onto your NLE you can do a lot w/o an I/O card, but to get an accurate video signal out of your computer to a reference monitor you still need an I/O device unless you are working w/DV or DVCPro HD and have a deck/camera handy to act as a pass thru.


-A

Firewire monitoring
 

I know this is an old thread but i stumbled upon this and it raised a few questions in my mind. I edit full raster HD on a 1080p footage (in vegas mind you) and for colour correction im using a jvc broadcast sd crt monitor, the way i have my system doing this is through firewire. I have a firewire cable running from my computer into a vtr deck that then outputs a composite signal to my monitor and i have found that its VERY accurate for colour reproduction and plays everything back in real-time no problem and my computer is very standard with no special i/o cards. Now im not sure if this is a Vegas thing and maybe FCP cant do it (i hope not as im moving to fcp very soon) but this workflow has served me well for a while now.

Fair enough the signal that is being outputted is not hd but if it was i would need a suitable hd monitor to view it, plus most work we do or at least I do is for sd broadcast/sd dvd which means it's preferable that the signal going into my jvc monitor isn’t hd, that way i'm seeing exactly how my final video will and should look. Please someone chime in here because i realise i have just contradicted what hundreds of people are saying so i am very open to hearing what i'm doing wrong or what I may have misunderstood because i simply cant understand how i manage to do this yet it's apparently 'not doable'. Thank you