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The state of external retina displays

caseyliss.com

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Re: The state of external retina displays

#191

Post by massysett »

I have two of the LG 24-inch 4K monitors from this list. They’re great for web browsing and Terminal work.

I use them with an Intel Mac mini and unfortunately the power management doesn’t work. Sometimes on computer boot, the monitors just don’t come on, and sleep is problematic too. Sometimes unplugging and replugging the video cable works, sometimes no. Sometimes the only fix is another reboot, which seems to reset something.

I’ve found that Thunderbolt to Displayport cables work best, and I disabled all monitor power management both in the Mac and the monitors. Still sporadic issues though. Don’t know whether to blame the monitors or the Mac.

Other than that, no complaints.

Re: The state of external retina displays

#193

Post by chipotle_coyote »

minimaul wrote: post #182
washadjeffmad wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't blame you for wanting to remove the Intel innards, but iMacs can already be used as external displays. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204592 Also, you can just spec the panels from Aliexpress most of the time. That's how I got my first Korean Retina IPS display over a decade ago, and I'm doing it again now for a non-standard OLED panel for a project.

Target Display Mode doesn't work on any of the 5K iMacs, from what I understand.

You are correct! IIRC, it wouldn't have been possible (or at least, wouldn't have been very easy) with the external display protocols available at the time the first 5K iMacs came out, and they've never gone back and revisited the idea.

Re: The state of external retina displays

#194

Post by neither_color »

querulous wrote: post #81
urthor wrote: post #73

> Ridiculous Option: Apple Pro Display XDR I'll admit, a monitor that costs more than my first car is beyond affordable for 99% of the population. But saying that, many of the people reading this are pulling truly exotic salaries right now. After devoting untold hours to reaching the top of their profession. Let's say you're a professional earning $300k plus in software. You're often working 100% remote, using your m…

the problem with the apple xdr display isn't just the price though. it's not a good monitor for a lot of users. it's limited to 60hz, it's response time is really poor, it suffers from really obvious blooming and bleed at high brightness and it has bad off axis color accuracy and brightness. sure, if you care deeply about color accuracy and 6k resolution it's pretty good. these aren't the only metrics on which monito…

I didnt realize it's only 60hz, that's pretty bad. You can get 4K gaming monitors that do 120hz for under $1000, even if the monitor itself looks dorky it's a very comfortable viewing experience scaled to 2560x1440 high density.

Re: The state of external retina displays

#195

Post by chipotle_coyote »

aichi wrote: post #17

Eizo Fortis Nova https://www.eizoglobal.com/products/foris/nova/sp/

While that looks like a great monitor, it's a 21.6" 4K OLED monitor that seems to retail for over $3000. It's less of a ridiculous option than the $6000 Apple 32" display, but for most of us (including, I'm fairly confident, original article author Casey Liss), it still falls into the "if you aren't sure you need this, you don't need this" category.

Re: The state of external retina displays

#196

Post by Macha »

never_a-pickle wrote: post #186
Macha wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As some of them have found (e.g. Linus window snapping burn in, in under six months), OLEDs have real drawbacks for use as standard desktop use displays. It's why even Apple don't use OLEDs on their Macs yet, who you would expect to do so if it was just a matter of "more money = more premium" with no deference to the gaming use case.

Agreed re: the medium-term issues of OLED. But I can get a $1000 4k, 120hz OLED screen. Sure, it might be 42-48", but I could just as easily buy a deeper desk, wall mount it 4-5 feet away for the same effect. I'm currently sitting 3.5 feet from a 24" monitor. In this instance, the TV becomes "retina" past 3 feet. https://www.designcompaniesranked.com/resources/is-this-reti... Let's assume when used as a monitor witho…

For many many people, 2 years is not a reasonable life expectancy for a $1000 monitor. My current home monitors are 1 (€400 27" 1440p165 IPS), 4 (€500 27" 1440p144 IPS) and 7 (€250 21" 1080p60 IPS) years old

Re: The state of external retina displays

#197

Post by greedo »

ProZsolt wrote: post #151
ivalm wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am guessing scissors, esp if they get sharpened 2x/day will not last multiple decades (because sharpening an edge removes material).

Not necessarily. You can sharpen a knife(and I assume a scissor) with a sharpening steel. Which won't remove any material just straighten the edge.

Eventually that folds over after becoming brittle.

Re: The state of external retina displays

#198

Post by vvoaterr »

xyzzy123 wrote: post #96
urthor wrote: post #73

> Ridiculous Option: Apple Pro Display XDR I'll admit, a monitor that costs more than my first car is beyond affordable for 99% of the population. But saying that, many of the people reading this are pulling truly exotic salaries right now. After devoting untold hours to reaching the top of their profession. Let's say you're a professional earning $300k plus in software. You're often working 100% remote, using your m…

Some work tools get treated like capital or heirloom and some get treated like consumables . Scissors or a hand plane are decent "heirloom" items. Potentially you can retire with the same one you started with, or pass them down. Electric drills start to lean toward consumable. Battery tech changes over the years and they do wear out in non-fixable ways. Screen and computer tech advances so fast that 5 years is a "goo…

Regarding ridiculously-expensive Apple heirloom tools: Go to eBay right now, and buy any Activation-Locked Apple device. It's OK, I'll wait.

=== ====

OK, now: try to use it to do something. Anything. Something as simple as write a NOTEPAD note, or play one song from iTunes.

=== ====

Nope! You are surely getting screenfulls of information telling you, this Apple device has been locked and only the original owner can unlock it.

I suppose this is to prevent people from stealing Apple devices and reselling them to pawn shops or on eBay and Craigslist, and it must be working. All thieves everywhere must know by now, don't even bother to try to steal an Apple device or a Tesla car, for as soon as you do it gets bricked from all the satellites in space.

=== ====

I'm writing this because I bought a nine year old iPad on eBay and have spent the last two weeks trying to get through to AL-SUPPORT Activation Lock support at Apple, asking them to unlock it. And of course they don't care, I am not the original owner of the device, and unless I am, it is as useless as a digital brick. Battery life, screen quality, beautiful craftsmanship of the item itself, nothing matters. It just sits there telling me I'm practically a criminal for even owning this device.

No matter that the original owner gave up on it long ago, when even the simplest apps like YouTube and Gmail stopped working on it, by design, intentional planned-obsolescence coming down from Apple themselves. With the iOS getting relentlessly updated every year, all the apps get forcibly recompiled and anything old just doesn't work any more at all.

They don't care about this device any more. It was just a real-world dongle they used to get information from and about the original owner, information they've got stored in their giant database in the Cloud. They don't really care about me at all.

I imagine the universe is now littered with these devices, an Oort Cloud of them completely surrounding the planet, mentally bricked by annual iOS updates and physically bricked by Activation Locks, I'm a criminal for owning one, and were I to bring it to an Apple store to complain, they would have no useful help for me at all, "Buy a new one!" they'll tell me, "that's our company policy!"

=== ====

Who is causing the problem here --- me, or Apple?

Re: The state of external retina displays

#199

Post by Dave_Rosenthal »

urthor wrote: post #73

> Ridiculous Option: Apple Pro Display XDR I'll admit, a monitor that costs more than my first car is beyond affordable for 99% of the population. But saying that, many of the people reading this are pulling truly exotic salaries right now. After devoting untold hours to reaching the top of their profession. Let's say you're a professional earning $300k plus in software. You're often working 100% remote, using your m…

Obviously no one should bankrupt themselves spending more than they can afford on a monitor, but I agree completely with the sentiment of the parent.

In early high school I scrimped and saved and purchased a NEC 3FG flat CRT (13 inches I think) and I was so glad I spent the money—-much sharper, bigger, and better that what I had before.

In late college it was the same story for a used 21” Sony CRT. The thing weighed an absolute ton but it was awesome. Crisp 1600x1200 at 85hz. I lugged it way too many places—-coding in friend’s basements and playing games.

As a young engineer, Apple released their first 1920x1200 24” LCD at $3500. I remember telling a coworker it was a bit too much for me but at $2k it would be a no-brainer. A year (or something) later I remember him telling me that Apple had just dropped the price to $2k. I ordered one the same day.

And, yes, today, I have a Cinema Display XDR.

I have never regretted spending money on monitors. The total number of hours of use that I get out of them (say 6 hours a day for 6 years ~= 13,000 hours) makes them one of the easiest things to justify spending money on.

Re: The state of external retina displays

#200

Post by greedo »

Eric_WVGG wrote: post #134

My utterly unrealistic dream is: now that the first batch of 5k iMacs is approaching “old age,” some business would start selling kits than had the tools and instructions necessary to gut old iMacs, and a new controller board that would convert the remaining screens to basic DisplayPort displays. At $300 and around $500 for an old iMac on eBay, this could be somehow both more economical and likely more reliable than…

The 27" 5K iMacs suffer from image retention as they get older. I'm typing this on a Late 2014, and the retention has started to become annoying.
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