20" Apple Monitor or 32" TV? for mac mini?

crcr2003 · #1 September 19th, 2005, 05:53 AM

hi! guys, i just bought a mac mini (1.47GHz, 80gb, 512mb) and i intend to buy it a 20" cinema display monitor ($800); right now i m still using it with an old monitor. The point is i just read u can connect a big screen TV and use it as a monitor, then the question...

is this a good idea? if i spend a bit more than the 20" Apple Monitor and i buy me a 32" Sony Wega HDTV ($1000), will it work as good as the Cinema display? I am newbie and some posts say doing this will eat all the CPU power but others say things will look and work as nice as on smaller screen Cinema Display Monitor? So whats the truth? it works or it doesnt work well to combine these two?. The quality on the Tv Screen of Safari, Word, etc, will be ok? I saw this 32" Sony TV on a store with discount and the tv is huge, gorgeous, the quality of the image is awesome, and i cant deny that the idea, i can sit on my sofa using a wireless keyboard and having such a huge screen drives me insane, it is great!

When i google for "connect tv to your mac mini", i got so much examples of gorgeous home theater centers people are building with a mac mini, a huge tv and great speakers. but really, is everything as good and simple as it looks?

here is the information from mac, but to me, this description (the supported resolution, etc) is in chinese, i dont understand it. http://www.apple.com/macmini/graphics.html

So is it a good idea and everything will look ok on the Tv?

**fryke** · #2 September 19th, 2005, 06:36 AM

The resolution of the TV will probably be 1024*768 (skewed, too!), so no, it won't make a good computer display. I'd spend the 200 USD on a TV card of some sort, so you can use the 20" display as a TV, too.

symphonix · #3 September 19th, 2005, 09:30 AM

Quote:

...TV card of some sort...

Fryke, he's talking about the Mac mini. And as for the display choice, I'd go with the Wega if you intend to use the Mac mini primarily as a movies, games and music machine, and the 20" Apple display if you intend to use it for anything more.

Lt Major Burns · #4 September 19th, 2005, 03:32 PM

the resolution for the sony 32" lcd's is something like 1386x768 (compared to the 1680x1050 for the 20") or something, so it'll look alright, better than a standard 15" monitor anyway. plus it'll be huge, so will look good regardless.

i just fixed someones Power G5 - she had it attached to a poor 15" display set to 800x600....

crcr2003 · #5 September 20th, 2005, 10:48 PM

i just found a better deal, a dell hdtv 26" tv, the resolution is 1280 x 768, will it also applications like safari, imovie hd, etc look great? u guys say movies no problem but applications like imovie will be working n looking very nice on this tv resolution too?

cos i m a newbie heres the tv i want to connect to this 1.42GHZ / 80Gb mini, 80GBs, http://www1.us.dell.com/content/prod...=19&l=en&s=dhs

thanks guys! i m really thankful!!!

lurk · #6 September 21st, 2005, 10:48 AM

The thing to keep in mind is that TV pixels and Monitor pixels are different. So even if they have the same resolution they will not look the same. Basically TV pixels are round and less defined (more fuzzy) than monitor pixels. They are specialized for what they do so text will look better on a monitor then TV in almost all cases.

One case where you can really see this is if you compare a HD LCD TV against another HDTV in the store. The edges of images on the LCD are that little bit harsher.

The most important thing though is just that you are happy with what you get. We are arguing relative merits and whatever you get it will be better than the old SamTrom monitor my wife used to have. It would be really good if you could just hook the computer up to the TV and see what you get. Is the picture tolerable for you and your uses?

quiksan · #7 September 21st, 2005, 12:31 PM

yeah, don't get a normal, CRT TV as your display. I'd only consider a TV if it was a High Definition LCD or something like that. The HD resolution capability is the only chance you've got of getting the proper display resolution to maximize your computer's output. (plus it's more likely to have a DVI input...)

otherwise just get a nice, large LCD, and add a viewsonic tv box externally, so you can do a 2 in 1.
here's the type of viewsonic solution I referred to

Tony Milman · #8 September 21st, 2005, 12:55 PM

For what it is worth, I just bought an Apple 20inch hooked up to my Powerbook G4 1.33. It is superb and using an Elgato £99 Eye Tv for DTT I get great digital TV and a personal video recorder thrown in.