Apple 27" LED Cinema Display

These don't have physical buttons. They have touch sensitive brightness and power buttons behind the clear plastic. The only thing that used to work was WinACD:
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...3oGwDA&usg=AFQjCNEaRTJF673ahlP-sYkd09g9B2p9qw

That project seems dead, and only works for 32 bit Windows.

It is like this one here:
http://www.buymytronics.com/Apple-Display/Apple/Apple-Cinema-Display-HD-Acrylic-23in

Here's my info:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?>
<ArrayOfHidDeviceInfo xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
<HidDeviceInfo>
<Path>\\?\hid#vid_05ac&amp;pid_9218#9&amp;16f4c69f&amp;0&amp;0000#{4d1e55b2-f16f-11cf-88cb-001111000030}</Path>
<ProductString>Studio Display</ProductString>
<ManufacturerString>&#1033;</ManufacturerString>
<HidAttributes>
<Size>12</Size>
<VendorID>1452</VendorID>
<ProductID>37400</ProductID>
<VersionNumber>270</VersionNumber>
</HidAttributes>
<HidCaps>
<Usage>1</Usage>
<UsagePage>128</UsagePage>
<InputReportByteLength>3</InputReportByteLength>
<OutputReportByteLength>0</OutputReportByteLength>
<FeatureReportByteLength>258</FeatureReportByteLength>
<Reserved>
<unsignedShort>0</unsignedShort>
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</Reserved>
<NumberLinkCollectionNodes>1</NumberLinkCollectionNodes>
<NumberInputButtonCaps>0</NumberInputButtonCaps>
<NumberInputValueCaps>1</NumberInputValueCaps>
<NumberInputDataIndices>1</NumberInputDataIndices>
<NumberOutputButtonCaps>0</NumberOutputButtonCaps>
<NumberOutputValueCaps>0</NumberOutputValueCaps>
<NumberOutputDataIndices>0</NumberOutputDataIndices>
<NumberFeatureButtonCaps>0</NumberFeatureButtonCaps>
<NumberFeatureValueCaps>4</NumberFeatureValueCaps>
<NumberFeatureDataIndices>4</NumberFeatureDataIndices>
</HidCaps>
<FeatureValueCaps>
<HidValueCaps>
<UsagePage>128</UsagePage>
<ReportID>2</ReportID>
<IsAlias>false</IsAlias>
<BitField>258</BitField>
<LinkCollection>0</LinkCollection>
<LinkUsage>1</LinkUsage>
<LinkUsagePage>128</LinkUsagePage>
<IsRange>false</IsRange>
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<IsAbsolute>true</IsAbsolute>
<HasNull>false</HasNull>
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<UsagePage>130</UsagePage>
<ReportID>16</ReportID>
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<LinkCollection>0</LinkCollection>
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<ReportID>16</ReportID>
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<HidValueCaps>
<UsagePage>130</UsagePage>
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</HidDeviceInfo>
</ArrayOfHidDeviceInfo>

Thanks!
 
So the touch sensitive brightness and power buttons behind the clear plastic don't work?
 
Anyway... it looks simmilar to the 24" LED so it should not be a problem....
But it won't have auto brightness (just like the 24" LED")
 
zork40 said:
That's right. You can touch them and they glow, but they actually do nothing.
Click to expand...

There are some input caps in the HID information.
I can give it a shot but it is going to be hard to get the buttons to work since i don't own the display.
 
Thanks, I appreciate it. I accidentally ran something that knocked the brightness down and made it very dark. I spent about 3 hours trying to get it brighter. I finally had to boot up an ancient 32 bit XP laptop to run WinACD to kick it back up.

If you need me to test anything, I'd be happy to.
 
Sky15 said:
Yea, that's the thing, I need another two.
Click to expand...

If you do upgrade i would recommend getting the 7970 lightning just in case you decide to go eyefinity. You will have 4 native mini-dp ports and the price has gone down quite a bit since initial release. The only other 7970 with that many mini-dp ports is the HIS 7970 TURBO X which I have not seen on sale.
 
zork40 said:
Thanks, I appreciate it. I accidentally ran something that knocked the brightness down and made it very dark. I spent about 3 hours trying to get it brighter. I finally had to boot up an ancient 32 bit XP laptop to run WinACD to kick it back up.

If you need me to test anything, I'd be happy to.
Click to expand...

Put up at beta that can detect the 23" display. It can not change the brightness yet but the display should be detected... And it might show some popup messages when you press the buttons on the display. Please report if it does or does not show any messages.
(ill add brightness control if it is detected correctly)

http://code.holstschumacher.dk/publicfiles/downloads/Brightness Controller 1.2.0.BETA1 Setup.exe
 
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OK, I installed it. When I run it, I get an error that says:
WOHA: An unexpected error caused Brightness Controller to crash. Please copy the following error details and report the bug.
System.Windows.Markup.XamlParseException: The invocation of the constructor on type 'BrightnessController.MainWindow' that matches the specified binding constraints threw an exception. ---> System.NotImplementedException: The method or operation is not implemented.
at BrightnessController.Displays.CinemaDisplayHD23.GetAutoBrightness()
at BrightnessController.Displays.DisplayBase.Initialize()
at BrightnessController.DisplayManager.UpdateDisplayList()
at BrightnessController.MainWindow..ctor()
--- End of inner exception stack trace ---
at System.Windows.Markup.WpfXamlLoader.Load(XamlReader xamlReader, IXamlObjectWriterFactory writerFactory, Boolean skipJournaledProperties, Object rootObject, XamlObjectWriterSettings settings, Uri baseUri)
at System.Windows.Markup.WpfXamlLoader.LoadBaml(XamlReader xamlReader, Boolean skipJournaledProperties, Object rootObject, XamlAccessLevel accessLevel, Uri baseUri)
at System.Windows.Markup.XamlReader.LoadBaml(Stream stream, ParserContext parserContext, Object parent, Boolean closeStream)
at System.Windows.Application.LoadBamlStreamWithSyncInfo(Stream stream, ParserContext pc)
at System.Windows.Application.DoStartup()
at System.Windows.Application.<.ctor>b__1(Object unused)
at System.Windows.Threading.ExceptionWrapper.InternalRealCall(Delegate callback, Object args, Int32 numArgs)
at MS.Internal.Threading.ExceptionFilterHelper.TryCatchWhen(Object source, Delegate method, Object args, Int32 numArgs, Delegate catchHandler)
at System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.WrappedInvoke(Delegate callback, Object args, Int32 numArgs, Delegate catchHandler)
at System.Windows.Threading.DispatcherOperation.InvokeImpl()
at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.runTryCode(Object userData)
at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.RuntimeHelpers.ExecuteCodeWithGuaranteedCleanup(TryCode code, CleanupCode backoutCode, Object userData)
at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state, Boolean ignoreSyncCtx)
at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state)
at System.Windows.Threading.DispatcherOperation.Invoke()
at System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.ProcessQueue()
at System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.WndProcHook(IntPtr hwnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam, Boolean& handled)
at MS.Win32.HwndWrapper.WndProc(IntPtr hwnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam, Boolean& handled)
at MS.Win32.HwndSubclass.DispatcherCallbackOperation(Object o)
at System.Windows.Threading.ExceptionWrapper.InternalRealCall(Delegate callback, Object args, Int32 numArgs)
at MS.Internal.Threading.ExceptionFilterHelper.TryCatchWhen(Object source, Delegate method, Object args, Int32 numArgs, Delegate catchHandler)
at System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.WrappedInvoke(Delegate callback, Object args, Int32 numArgs, Delegate catchHandler)
at System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.InvokeImpl(DispatcherPriority priority, TimeSpan timeout, Delegate method, Object args, Int32 numArgs)
at MS.Win32.HwndSubclass.SubclassWndProc(IntPtr hwnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam)
at MS.Win32.UnsafeNativeMethods.DispatchMessage(MSG& msg)
at System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.PushFrameImpl(DispatcherFrame frame)
at System.Windows.Application.RunInternal(Window window)
at BrightnessController.App.Main()
Click to expand...
 
Cool. I think you just found the bug that has been killing brightness controller with 24" models.... (it just closed without any error in previous versions.)

Anyway. I fixed the binding error for the missing auto brightness so try beta2.
http://code.holstschumacher.dk/publicfiles/downloads/Brightness Controller 1.2.1.BETA2 Setup.exe

I still just want you to test if it detects the display and if it says anything if you press the soft keys. (it won't change the brightness yet.)
 
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I just tried it. No errors. It opens to the dimmer slider. When I touch the buttons on the monitor, it doesn't generate any messages from the app.
 
all apple prooducst are crap. even the new iphone 5. i wouldnt trust their monitors either, my opnion.
 
Well sure. There are better monitors.
My eizo at work is a lot better but then again it looks like it was designed by a 3 year old on meth and costs allmost 2x more than a 27" ACD.
My ACD is without a doubt the best monitor i have ever had at home and i am verry happy with it.
 
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Just curious, is anyone using this on a PC... with a "hackintosh" partition ;) ?

I was looking at this last year and recently it appears that Mountain Lion is more compatible than ever with good gaming hardware: Ivy Bridge CPUs, GTX 600 series, even a Thunderbolt motherboard:

http://tonymacx86.blogspot.be/2012/08/building-customac-buyers-guide-2012.html


That's one fancy way of controlling the brightness :p


PS: was really debating about the Thunderbolt monitor but I'm not rich so I don't have the luxury of experimenting. AnandTech's review of TB was very interesting. My understanding is that you are tied to the Lucid MVP software, should it not work with a game for some reason, you would not be able to take advantage of the GPU.

Another interesting consideration ... if I buy a motherboard with a DisplayPort or MiniDP, then I would be able to connect the ACD and boot into the OS thanks to the Ivy Bridge CPU's HD 4000 graphics I presume... I don't expect the GPU to fail but I suppose that's not bad to have.
 
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I have to check but I thought hd4000 only supported up to 1080? Otherwise it should work as you said.
 
faB said:
Just curious, is anyone using this on a PC... with a "hackintosh" partition ;) ?

I was looking at this last year and recently it appears that Mountain Lion is more compatible than ever with good gaming hardware: Ivy Bridge CPUs, GTX 600 series, even a Thunderbolt motherboard:

http://tonymacx86.blogspot.be/2012/08/building-customac-buyers-guide-2012.html


That's one fancy way of controlling the brightness :p


PS: was really debating about the Thunderbolt monitor but I'm not rich so I don't have the luxury of experimenting. AnandTech's review of TB was very interesting. My understanding is that you are tied to the Lucid MVP software, should it not work with a game for some reason, you would not be able to take advantage of the GPU.

Another interesting consideration ... if I buy a motherboard with a DisplayPort or MiniDP, then I would be able to connect the ACD and boot into the OS thanks to the Ivy Bridge CPU's HD 4000 graphics I presume... I don't expect the GPU to fail but I suppose that's not bad to have.
Click to expand...
The "old" LED Cinema display will work just fine for a hackintosh.
But i have no idea if the Thunderbolt monitor will work if you build a hackintosh.
 
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Does anyone here have a ACD for two years or more? Is it durable?

I'm pretty bummed about my iMac right now. It probably only has a problem with the heat sensor, which makes the fan rev up erratically .. much more often lately... and I understand it's not Apple's fault all harware can have faults... but this has been really grating on me, besides other small things.. to make me want to sell this iMac and build a PC again.

However I really love the screen and I'm a bit torn about spending 999 € with Apple again. Is it really worth it? Is this the screen that will last me for the next five years? Is it really reliable ? Because I don't know about you, but for us in Europe there's only been a bit of legal wrangle lately in Italy but for the most part the warranty is one year unless you're willing to pursue Apple with consumer association.. which very few people do AFAIK.

Also though I don't mean to derail from the thread, because I really want to get an ACD, is there ANYTHING at all really at lower price ranges that looks remotely as good as this?

That's the main issue for me. A friend bought a 900 € screen from Dell I think, IPS 27 inch and all that and I thought it looked crap, *personally*. Really strong anti-glare coating, it felt like looking at an image throuhg some kind of grid, and very dark colours. So with ACD at least I know what I'm getting into... I just don't know if it's a very durable monitor.
 
faB said:
Does anyone here have a ACD for two years or more? Is it durable?

I'm pretty bummed about my iMac right now. It probably only has a problem with the heat sensor, which makes the fan rev up erratically .. much more often lately... and I understand it's not Apple's fault all harware can have faults... but this has been really grating on me, besides other small things.. to make me want to sell this iMac and build a PC again.

However I really love the screen and I'm a bit torn about spending 999 &#8364; with Apple again. Is it really worth it? Is this the screen that will last me for the next five years? Is it really reliable ? Because I don't know about you, but for us in Europe there's only been a bit of legal wrangle lately in Italy but for the most part the warranty is one year unless you're willing to pursue Apple with consumer association.. which very few people do AFAIK.

Also though I don't mean to derail from the thread, because I really want to get an ACD, is there ANYTHING at all really at lower price ranges that looks remotely as good as this?

That's the main issue for me. A friend bought a 900 &#8364; screen from Dell I think, IPS 27 inch and all that and I thought it looked crap, *personally*. Really strong anti-glare coating, it felt like looking at an image throuhg some kind of grid, and very dark colours. So with ACD at least I know what I'm getting into... I just don't know if it's a very durable monitor.
Click to expand...
Can't you just use your iMac as a monitor for your PC?

By the way my ACD is 2 years old and still AWSOME :)
 
Nah, the iMac is too bulky to use as a monitor. Fine if you keep using the iMac, but otherwise probably better value to resell it. At least with an ACD display there are less avenues for hardware problems. On this iMac there is a problem with the heat sensor, which makes the fan rev up now and then making a lot of noise. This problem can also happen at boot, so presumably it can also happen while using it as a monitor. I'm better off getting rid of it while its under AppleCare, and get a stand alone display.
 
I'm in a similar boat...

Do I wait for the iMac to be updated in a couple months and buy one of those as my main rig or buy a ACD and build a hackintosh? I really like the slimmer design of the ACD and I want to do some gaming.
 
Well...
I just hope Apple will make a 27 Retina Display some day :) now that would be truely awsome :)
 
gensplejs said:
Well...
I just hope Apple will make a 27 Retina Display some day :) now that would be truely awsome :)
Click to expand...

And perfectly pointless at typical viewing distances. Phones and tablets are usually close to your face for viewing and benefit from higher pixel density....desktop panels not so much.
 
Yeah Retina on this 27 inch panel would be silly. For design and photographers perhaps? That would be a very very niche market.

I love that I can see individual pixels if squinting my eyes... in Photoshop I quite like that I can move the mouse a smidgeon, and finetune a selection by one pixel. But otherwise unless squinting or focusing on an area of the screen, the pixels are barely noticable.

@melomania

Do you have an iMac already? I wouldn't recommend one unless you are looking for an "all in one", and really interested in OS X (which you should really test drive before by lending a Macbook from a friend or colleague... because completely changing your OS is not at all trivial, there is quite a bit of learning no matter how pleasant the UI can be).

One word to sum up my iMac feelings of late: powerless. I am powerless to fix the machine if any part breaks. Sure, you can go to iFixit and learn to open it. If you're a die hard Apple fan that's definitely an option and it's possible to do your own repairs or replace the drives.. but it's one notch above putting together a typical ATX case. You can easily replace the DIMMs, they are accessible from a trap at the bottom of the screen.

The upgrade fees are ridiculous, so unless the next iMac refresh comes with built in SSDs in the base configuration, you'd want to get your own SSD and a Thunderbolt enclosure. There are very few affordable TB enclosures at the moment, one of which is mostly a hack, and looks crap next to your iMac. If you're rich, that's cool, you can get some slick aluminium TB racks for RAID SSDs from OWC.

With an external SSD on Thunderbolt the performance would be fine, and at least you can replace easily the SSD if it comes to fail. But now you have an external main drive sitting outside of the "all in one". Worth mentioning, installing Windows 7 via Bootcamp directly on the external SSD won't work. So you would need to install OS X and Windows 7 on the internal drive, and the clone the drive to the external SSD. You can search MacRumors forum there are some detailed posts. Or I think you may use "Chameleon", which is an open source multi boot solution (which looks really nice and apparently lets you customize all the graphics of the menu as well).

Gaming on the mobility card is not great, but not that bad. It's possible to overclock the mobility card with Afterburner,and there are tools to increase the fan speed like "MacFan" in Windows, or "SMC Fan Control" in OS X. Worth mentioning here, the fan logic is so bad, you actually want to manually increase fan for a gaming session because they pick up really slowly and your GPU can easily reach 85-90C on a demanding game. And that means the aluminium computer case sitting a short distance in front of you becomes really hot.

Another lovely thing with the iMac is that if you have a good batch, you will enjoy the ticking noise of the HDD all the time. After all there isn't a whole lot of space in there, and it's all contained a short distance in front of you.

To be fair other than the HDD ticking.. the machine is very quiet. For gaming I increase fans to 1500 RPM vs stock 1000, and the max is 3800.. so the increase is barely audible, and keeps the overclocked 4850M below or just around 80C depending on the game.

The HDD noise may not be noticable in the 2010 or 2011 models... make sure to check them out before buying one. When you are in a showroom you can't hear these things, it becomes very noticable when you're surfing the web in the evening when things are quiet.

I'm going back to a "PC" but for me it's not because of the price for upgrades: if you count the new motherboard (different socket/chipset) + new GPU + new CPU and sometimes new RAM every 2-3 years, it doesn't cost all that much more than buying the new iMac, after reselling the old one. That's if you're willing to pay for the form factor, and the gorgeous 27 inch screen.

However should it fail after the warranty runs out, you are powerless to replace the parts. There will be repair fees, and you will have to either trust the technicians with your harddrives or remove all personal information from them and logout all your browser sessions... If you return it for repair *before* the warranty runs out you are supposed to backup everything, because they may issue a complete replacement.

Apple doesn't offer something between the laptops and Mac Pro, so you end up having to buy the "high end" iMac to get a decent GPU for gaming, no matter if you are fine with the 21 inch panel, or if you don't need the extra storage, or quad core CPU.

If you have the money go for it, enjoy it.

I wouldn't have it any different. It was a good experience. Working on a Mac opened my mind, made me appreciate good design...

But since I learned I can build a "custom mac".. that's the end for me. Hopefully it will work out fine in Mountain Lion with great compatibility. If not, I will use Linux Mint for a nice Bash terminal and a nice windowed VIM which is the most important for my own development environment.
 
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Well I most certainly want a Retina 27"! I sit a few feet away from my ACD27" and at 2560x1440, yes, I can immediately tell the difference between my monitor and the vastly superior iPhone 4 with regards to pixel density.
 
Did anyone order pricey hardware, and in particular the Apple Cinema Display, from Amazon?

I saw it as much as 99 € cheaper compared to Apple store here in Belgium. At one point it was even stocked by Amazon, rather than a third party.

I'm thinking perhaps they would be less fussy about replacing within 30 days if I have a dead pixel or some other minor fault like yellow tints.

What do you think? Would you buy an ACD from Amazon or Apple Store?
 
faB said:
Did anyone order pricey hardware, and in particular the Apple Cinema Display, from Amazon?

I saw it as much as 99 € cheaper compared to Apple store here in Belgium. At one point it was even stocked by Amazon, rather than a third party.

I'm thinking perhaps they would be less fussy about replacing within 30 days if I have a dead pixel or some other minor fault like yellow tints.

What do you think? Would you buy an ACD from Amazon or Apple Store?
Click to expand...




I bought from Amazon...very happy with them.
 
urapnes said:
I bought from Amazon...very happy with them.
Click to expand...
Hehe.... I got mine from a friend. He had it for a few weeks but he was sitting too close to it and it gave him headaches after 10-12 hour gaming sessions :)
So i traded him my old 24" HP Screen and 1000DKK (135€) for it :)
The 27" ACD cost him 7799 DKK (1046€) when he got it from Apple :)

And yes... Apple products are priced insane in denmark.
 
Just purchased an Apple 27" Cinema Display, and am very happy with it so far, but I've experienced two instances of a possibly severe problem. I have the display hooked up to a GTX 680, with a Female-Female mini-DP connector, plus a 3 foot Male-Male mini-DP to DP connector. On two separate occasions, I've noticed some weird signal noise on the display, as well as some popping sound from the speaking (also probably noise). Unplugging my connectors, and re-plugging them back in corrected the issue both times, but I'm not sure if that was because the display shut off and turned back on, or the connector was slightly loose, leading to some signal interference. I had this display plugged in directly to a MBP for a few days, and didn't have any issues during that time. Anyone have any similar problems?

On a side note, while the speakers are decent quality, the bass sometimes seems a little off. Am I just expecting too much from built in speakers (planning on getting some stand alone speakers anyway)?
 
orangeblue said:
Just purchased an Apple 27" Cinema Display, and am very happy with it so far, but I've experienced two instances of a possibly severe problem. I have the display hooked up to a GTX 680, with a Female-Female mini-DP connector, plus a 3 foot Male-Male mini-DP to DP connector. On two separate occasions, I've noticed some weird signal noise on the display, as well as some popping sound from the speaking (also probably noise). Unplugging my connectors, and re-plugging them back in corrected the issue both times, but I'm not sure if that was because the display shut off and turned back on, or the connector was slightly loose, leading to some signal interference. I had this display plugged in directly to a MBP for a few days, and didn't have any issues during that time. Anyone have any similar problems?

On a side note, while the speakers are decent quality, the bass sometimes seems a little off. Am I just expecting too much from built in speakers (planning on getting some stand alone speakers anyway)?
Click to expand...

The speakers suck horribly but I expected that, instead I use klipsch 2.1 speakers that work pretty well or my steelseries siberia headphones. Also I bought my screen off craigslist for $850 with the 3 year apple care warranty.
 
rumartinez89 said:
The speakers suck horribly but I expected that, instead I use klipsch 2.1 speakers that work pretty well or my steelseries siberia headphones. Also I bought my screen off craigslist for $850 with the 3 year apple care warranty.
Click to expand...
Relative to what?
Sure they suck compared to dedicated speakers. But on the other hand they are a lot better than anything i have ever seen built in to any other PC monitor.
 
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