Apple display walls
Considering the great job Apple has done with its display line and their mastery at keeping the Powerbook screen edges so slim, I wonder why Apple is not proposing Cinema Displays with very extra thin edges, so that we could assemble "walls" with, say, 4 or 6 displays. Imagine:
- A 4 17" Studio Displays would cost you $2800 and give you a work area of 2560X2048
- A 6 17" Studio Displays would cost you $4200 and give you a work area of 3840X2048
- A 4 20" gorgeous Cinema displays would cost you $5200 and give you 3360X2100
- I prefer not to mention a 4 23" configuration as you are all going to call me nut.
Still, if they were designed so well as to fit perfectly with minimum space between them, I would go for them and forget the G4 issue.
Just a thought I wanted to share between designers
- A 4 17" Studio Displays would cost you $2800 and give you a work area of 2560X2048
- A 6 17" Studio Displays would cost you $4200 and give you a work area of 3840X2048
- A 4 20" gorgeous Cinema displays would cost you $5200 and give you 3360X2100
- I prefer not to mention a 4 23" configuration as you are all going to call me nut.
Still, if they were designed so well as to fit perfectly with minimum space between them, I would go for them and forget the G4 issue.
Just a thought I wanted to share between designers
Comments
Wouldn't have to be walls. Various stand extensions could be made available to have the two upper displays stand above the lower ones while still occupying a minimum of desk space.
It would also create some additional margin for Apple from those serious "money is no object" professionals.
4000 X 3000? Actually, that would be a studio aspect ratio, but why not?
Here is an explanation of the Px/$ ratio and how it is more intereting to combine small displays than big ones.
17" Studio display = 1310720 px / $ 700 you get 1872 Pixels per dollar
20" Cinema display = 1764000 px / $ 1300 = 1360 Px/$
23" Cinema display = 2304000 px / $ 2000 = 1152 Px/$
It's somewhat disorienting when moving from one monitor to another if there's no space between them, because the pointer crosses the gap instantly. The smaller the gap, the more intuitive it is. And Apple is all about being intuitive.
However, Apple is also about ergonomics and functionality. The added border certainly make the current displays much more sturdy with it's added weight.
I wonder how flimsy a 23" LCD can be without fear of it tipping over.
<strong>The problem is the price of such a display and the fact that it is not ready to exist. Plus imagine that you get it and there is dead pixel in the middle. I'd rather replace one 17" display than the whole thing.
Here is an explanation of the Px/$ ratio and how it is more intereting to combine small displays than big ones.
17" Studio display = 1310720 px / $ 700 you get 1872 Pixels per dollar
20" Cinema display = 1764000 px / $ 1300 = 1360 Px/$
23" Cinema display = 2304000 px / $ 2000 = 1152 Px/$</strong><hr></blockquote>
your missing the point. if there is one dead pixel you replace that panel and that panel only. you don't replace the entire wall.
I don't think professionals need a wall this big though 4x 23 inch displays are friggin huge...for this i think you should invest in high definition digital projectors they are alot more mobile.
That's too darned cool. I now have a goal to get four monitor stacked 2 x 2 and do this. that would rock!!
You can, however, use 17" studio displays on a PCI video card. Again, though, you'd need lots of DVI-ADC adapters. I say just avoid Apple's displays because of their stupid proprietary connection, and get a nice digital Samsung or something along those lines.
Some folks in this thread seem to be missing the point. I believe you are talking about using 4 or more normal monitors, but arranged in a square, to simulate one large monitor. This shouldn't require any special graphics cards (just several).
I like this idea, and have thought about it before. The only way I've found to do this currently is to use mulitple projectors. That way you can stack them with no gap at all! You may have issues getting the pixels to line up perfectly for the whole width/height, though.
Another issue would be that the menu bar and dock wouldn't spread, they would still only be on one monitor, right? (I haven't used mulitple monitors in X, so correct me if wrong here.)
[ 02-25-2003: Message edited by: Transcendental Octothorpe ]</p>
I also think having lots of monitors would be cool! A friend of mine wanted to add a couple video cards to his PowerMac 6500/G3 so he could do 3D rendering with front, side, top, and 3/4 view all on their own monitors. He hasn't gotten around to it but it's certainly doable. To stack CRTs on top of each other, you could use a couple of these table things I've seen... you bolt them on top of the monitor and it makes it into a shelf. You could put another monitor on top.
They use a number of projectors running off as many synched computers (Macs AFAIK and no trivial task).
Problem is the compositing and cutting of the film in AE or FC or what ever they use since the image on screen is also a very wide and low aspect. For his work I'm sure he would love a setup with more screens beside each other but working as one, but then again I don't think there are too many users like him around.
They make a new film for each show BTW so it's costing Renault a pretty packet each time :-)
Kroehl
[ 02-26-2003: Message edited by: Alpha Mac ]</p>
The ADC to DVI adaptor and power supply is down to $99 by the way.
<strong>They have a VERY wide aspect screen - like a long ribbon many meters long and several meters tall.
They use a number of projectors running off as many synched computers (Macs AFAIK and no trivial task).
Problem is the compositing and cutting of the film in AE or FC or what ever they use since the image on screen is also a very wide and low aspect. For his work I'm sure he would love a setup with more screens beside each other but working as one, but then again I don't think there are too many users like him around.
</strong><hr></blockquote>
I just finished a project exactly like this, and when I saw AlphaMac's rendition of a thin-frame multi-monitor setup above...damn, that would have been perfect. As it was, I was creating/compositing/loading 1080i HD footage on two side-by-side 1600x1200 monitors with close to 3 inches of frame separating the two screens. Horrible.
The final product was similarly projected onto a massive screen from 3 synched DVDs...off PC.
from <a href="http://www.9xmedia.com/Pages/Products.html"; target="_blank">http://www.9xmedia.com/Pages/Products.html</a>;
:cool: