[Discuss] Large DVI monitor

[mark at buttery.org (Shirley Márquez Dúlcey)]

On 8/7/2011 12:02 PM, Glenn Hoffman wrote:
> I use a Mac Pro as my principle coding machine and am looking for a good, large, DVI monitor for it. Any suggestions?

If you want the highest resolution monitor you can get (leaving out the 
old IBM ultra-high-definition one that was only 21" and really meant for 
medical imaging rather than general use), pretty much any of the 30" 
ones are good if you can still find one. That includes Apple's old 
Cinema HD Display; they don't make them any more. (They're a victim of 
the manufacturing shift from 16:10 panels to 16:9 panels because the 
HDTV industry wants the latter aspect ratio.) HP's similar product is 
also gone, but Dell still makes one: the Dell UltraSharp U3011. At that 
size and price class, nobody makes cheap displays in either sense of the 
word. Those displays are 2560x1600.

Moving slightly down in size, the new 27" Apple display is nice but 
pricey; it's higher resolution than the usual 24" or smaller display but 
doesn't show quite as many pixels as the old Cinema HD. It will consume 
a lot less power because of the LED backlight. Make sure not to get the 
Thunderbolt Display; that only works with new Macs that have that port. 
Dell has a comparable product at the same $1000 price. These are 2560x1440.

Stepping down another notch, there are a few 1920x1200 24" displays 
still around, and lots of 1920x1080 displays in all sizes. Paying more 
tends to get you wider viewing angles, better color accuracy, faster 
pixel response, and/or LED backlighting.

If you want an physically larger display, DVI, DisplayPort, and HDMI use 
compatible signalling for video. (HDMI can also carry audio.) All you 
need is a cable adapter to go from one to the other, and then you can 
hook up the HDTV of your choice.

Monitors bigger than 1920x1200 will need a dual-link DVI connection if 
they don't have a DisplayPort input (which means pretty much anybody 
other than Apple), so make sure to get the dual-link DVI adapter for 
your MacBook Pro. (The first message said a Mac Pro which would be a 
desktop system but a later one said it was a MacBook Pro.) There are two 
versions of the DVI adapter; the dual-link one costs more.

There are also adapters to go from Thunderbolt to DVI, so the monitor 
won't be wasted if you later upgrade to a newer Mac.