Thursday, July 01, 2010

Cinema Display

I got a new Computer monitor today. Previously, I was using an Apple Sony Trinitron 20" CRT. I believe it was the biggest dedicated color CRT monitor Apple ever sold. The resolution and image quality on it are really good and the brightness of the CRT allows for a good picture even in a Sun drenched room.  The only real draw back to this monitor is that it weighs probably 60 or 70 pounds and takes up several cubic feet of space. I can manhandle it around by myself but you really need two people to safely schlep it around. I once placed it on a perch nearly shoulder high. I would never attempt that feat alone again.

I have now come into possession of the original model, Apple 22" flat panel Cinema Display. I believe this model first came out as many as 7 or 8 years ago but I don't think this one is that old, maybe 5 or 6 at the most. While it was sold, it was Apple's top of the line professional video monitor. The brightness is probably a little faded but there are no dead pixels and once you adjust expectations away from the superior brightness of the CRT, it is an excellent monitor. The biggest change is that the Cinema Display is shorter vertically and longer laterally, so you get a real wide screen effect, even though the actual area of the display probably is about the same as the older CRT.

My blog site looks very spacious on it, comparatively.

Somebody just didn't think it was worthwhile trying to resell this monitor. It has a funny input that feeds in the power, audio and video through one plug. It might have required some fancy adapting to make it work with a newer computer. Luckily, my computer is about as old as this model display and has a native connection. Lucky boy. I'm sure they could have got a hundred for it. My gain. I love free stuff.

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