Apple 23 Cinema or Plasma?

[waterbouy]

I am considering a new machine and perifieral purchase (currently: Wallstreet G3) and I am considering a new iBook. Since I am not doing any digital video or gaming, it should suit my needs and be very portable.

I will be doing a bit of graphics work - thanks for the basic G4 - so I am trying to decide what to do ablout a display at home. Initially, the 23" Cinema seemed the greatest option, but some have said that for a little more, I could get a plasma display that is larger.

I would like to use the display as a monitor primarily, but will also use it to watch DVD's.

Any suggestions?

[edesignuk]

A plasma screen IS NOT for use as a monitor, you'd need to get a hi-res one (most of which aren't) and sit well back for it to be usable, and it'd still drive you nutz! 23" cinema, you can't go wrong.

[dongmin]

Originally posted by waterbouy
I am considering a new machine and perifieral purchase (currently: Wallstreet G3) and I am considering a new iBook. Since I am not doing any digital video or gaming, it should suit my needs and be very portable.

I will be doing a bit of graphics work - thanks for the basic G4 - so I am trying to decide what to do ablout a display at home. Initially, the 23" Cinema seemed the greatest option, but some have said that for a little more, I could get a plasma display that is larger.

I would like to use the display as a monitor primarily, but will also use it to watch DVD's.

Any suggestions?

Are you serious? I hope you're joking b/c buying a consumer laptop ($1100-1500) and a 23" inch monitor costing your $2000 that you'll only use a part of the time seem completely ridiculous to me. Not only that, the iBook can't even drive the 23" monitor beyond the iBook's 1028x768 native resolution (yeah it's possible with a hack, I know).

Wouldnt' you be better off getting a 15" PowerBook ($2000) and the 20" display ($1300)? At minimum, you need to get the 12" Powerbook ($1600) if you want to drive the larger monitors.

[mymemory]

Plasmas are not monitors, I second that. The pixel density is not the same and it will drive you crazy if you start to read things all over a huge screen.

Just think about this, why creating a Plasma screen with the pixel density of a computer monitor if less of the 1% of the market is gonna use it for that end?

Of course you can run DVDs and Powerooint presentations but no writing in Macrumors yet.

[mstecker]

One of my macs is a 1U rackmount iMac (in a case made by Marathon) in my living room. It's sole purpose in life is to talk to the plasma display.

I have a pretty high def display, as far as plasmas go, with a native resolution of 1080x1080. It looks very nice at 1024x78.

But... let me qualify by what it means to "look nice". It's nowhere near the clarity and sharpness of a real LCD monitor.

I use it to watch streaming video, occasionally play a game, and as an iTunes jukebox at parties. It's great for that. I'd NEVER want to use it as my only monitor, though. While it is fine for occasional use, I find that it strains my eyes to read small text or to anything extremely complicated with it.

All of that being said, it's an amazing sight to see Panther on a 42" monitor.

Matthew