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agaskew

macrumors 6502
Dec 3, 2009
416
253
Yeah I'm sure the 2013 rMBP won't have an issue, it has Thunderbolt 2. I'm just concerned about the 2012 since it does not. If the 2013 iMac can drive it, I am hopeful though.

Same here, I have the same rMBP so am trying to find out if it can drive this monitor OK or not. There is a user post on a forum here that says yes, its OK.
 

mashinhead

macrumors 68030
Oct 7, 2003
2,979
951
These are both currently on sale at adorama and b&h for 899. B&H offers no tax and free shipping but I think this only lasts a couple more days. I just placed my order.
 

Thares

Cancelled
Feb 25, 2011
253
81
Same here, I have the same rMBP so am trying to find out if it can drive this monitor OK or not. There is a user post on a forum here that says yes, its OK.

Well, the question is easily answered. You can run the display with your 2012 rMBP. But it's limited to 30 Hz.
 

Drecca

macrumors 6502
Aug 30, 2010
252
66
does it serve as a usb hub for the laptop?

I.e : can i leave my external drive, mouse in the monitor's USB ports and they'll be seen just fine when i connect my rMBP to it?
 

FrozenDarkness

macrumors 68000
Mar 21, 2009
1,762
998
does it serve as a usb hub for the laptop?

I.e : can i leave my external drive, mouse in the monitor's USB ports and they'll be seen just fine when i connect my rMBP to it?

ya, i think you need a usb connection though. unfortunately, no other company seems to be able to do what apple has done which is make thunderbolt only monitors
 

unfragile

macrumors regular
Jul 20, 2013
204
0
Has anyone here calibrated the monitor using the LG software and hardware LUT?

I have tried with Spyder3, but as I have the monitor connected by Thunderbolt to my Mac Pro 2013, it doesn't work. It keep asking to connect the USB to the Mac Pro (i've done it and didn't work either). The USB ports are working just fine with the thunderbolt cable connected.
 

N19h7m4r3

macrumors 65816
Dec 15, 2012
1,191
8
I have tried with Spyder3, but as I have the monitor connected by Thunderbolt to my Mac Pro 2013, it doesn't work. It keep asking to connect the USB to the Mac Pro (i've done it and didn't work either). The USB ports are working just fine with the thunderbolt cable connected.

Hmm, have you tried using the HDMI to the MP to see if it works then?
 

SVTmaniac

macrumors 6502
Jan 30, 2013
427
854
Just ordered mine from newegg.com Can't wait to try this bad boy out! It is replacing my 27" Apple Thunderbolt display since they failed to put USB 3.0 in it.
 
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wildblue2030

macrumors newbie
Jun 22, 2014
3
0
Thunderbolt passes USB to Mac Mini

Actually, it's uncertain what this monitor does over Thunderbolt. If you look at the pictures, it not only has a bunch of USB ports on the back, but it's got a USB 3.0 input. So, does it require a USB cable running from the computer to the monitor for its USB hub to work, or does it run off Thunderbolt with a built-in PCIe to USB host controller? Perhaps the USB 3.0 input is for when/if you're running the display off plain old DisplayPort and not Thunderbolt.

So, details are presently unknown.

I still think the monitor is gorgeous.

Just hooked LG 34UM95 up to a Mac Mini Late 2012 via Thunderbolt, and the USB hub works without any other connections (other than power).
 

SVTmaniac

macrumors 6502
Jan 30, 2013
427
854
Just hooked LG 34UM95 up to a Mac Mini Late 2012 via Thunderbolt, and the USB hub works without any other connections (other than power).

Thank you for clarifying that. Still waiting for mine to get here. One review I saw online said you had to attach an additional USB cable but I think that's only if you're using DP or HDMI and want the USB connections. I'm gonna try to daisy chain my Thunderbolt display off of it for tons of workspace.
 

wildblue2030

macrumors newbie
Jun 22, 2014
3
0
LG 34UM95 connected to Mac Mini Late 2012

After scouring the various forums (Ars Technica has quite a bit of good info here:
http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=1241859 ), and after a week waiting for Amazon to get stock, I finally bit the bullet and purchased the LG 34UM95 at Fry's Electronics. It is now connected to my Late 2012 Mac Mini using a Thunderbolt cable. Here are some notes:
1. I switched from a 23-inch 4-year old Samsung LED HD monitor. I have a pair of these Samsung PX2370s that I have used as dual and single monitors.
2. Initially, I simply unplugged the Samsung's HDMI cable and plugged in the LG via Thunderbolt cable without shutting down the Mac Mini. That wasn't a good idea. Only the top 4/5ths of the LG displayed properly; the bottom 1/5th was trying to scan but would not resolve properly. Restarting the Mac Mini fixed the problem.
3. The Thunderbolt cable is passing sound through to the monitor, and the speakers do work, but the speakers are not adjustable from the Mac (keyboard or control panel). The Sound control panel indicates that the sound output device is 34UM95, but that it is "Type: DisplayPort", and that "The selected device has no output controls". The volume can only be adjusted from the joystick at the bottom of the monitor. The sound is tinny with no bass, but that does not surprise me with built-in monitor speakers.
4. The Display control panel indicates that the display is running at 50 Hertz at 3440 x 1440 resolution, and you could also select 30 Hertz, but there is no option to run at 60 Hertz, even though I am connected via Thunderbolt. Switching to 2560 x 1080 changes the refresh rate to 60 Hertz, and there are no other options (the refresh rate is dimmed). The final available resolution is 2048 x 858 which only allows a 50 Hertz refresh rate. This seems very strange to me. Why would the lower resolution only be available in a lower refresh rate than a higher resolution, and why wouldn't the refresh rate be selectable. Savvier Mac geeks feel free to weigh in.
5. I am curious as to why I'm not getting 60Hz out of the Thunderbolt connection, so I checked System Profiler. As others have noticed, the Graphics/Displays panel of System Profiler is showing "Connection Type: DisplayPort" and "Television: Yes". It may be that my Late 2012 Mac Mini is somehow not able to push 60Hz, or that for some reason, despite the Thunderbolt connection, it is actually treating this as a DisplayPort connection and only allowing 50Hz, but the LG literature says it should push 60Hz even through DisplayPort. I have not found a resolution to this issue, yet, but the 50Hz refresh rate is okay for my use.
6. Despite the above, I am not having the issues described by user "tstm" here: http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=1241859 . That user indicates that "OSX identifies this display as a television, and thus gives crappy color signal out. At least some gradients looked really poor. Some quick googling got me this handy bit of information on how to enable RGB mode and using it I got the colors to display as they should." User tstm was getting 60Hz out of a rMBP, but had to force RGB Mode (see here: http://www.ireckon.net/2013/03/forc...ix-the-picture-quality-of-an-external-monitor ) because his rig was running in the YCbCr color space. I checked the ColorSync profile for my rig, and it is in the RGB color space, and the colors look good right out of the box with my rig.
7. The next step for me is to try calibrating the monitor with my ColorMunki, but that'll have to wait until I get some better ambient light.
8. One final note: Like many Mac users, I do not have an optical drive, and LG does not have software associated with this monitor on their website. Apparently that is a common complaint with LG. I may try to have someone create a disk image for me so I can install the software.

Hope that is helpful to anyone considering running this monitor from a Mac Mini. It works and looks great, but you may not be able to get 60Hz, even with Thunderbolt. If anyone has a fix for the refresh rate, please post a reply!
 
Last edited:

SVTmaniac

macrumors 6502
Jan 30, 2013
427
854
After scouring the various forums (Ars Technica has quite a bit of good info here:
http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=1241859 ), and after a week waiting for Amazon to get stock, I finally bit the bullet and purchased the LG 34UM95 at Fry's Electronics. It is now connected to my Late 2012 Mac Mini using a Thunderbolt cable. Here are some notes:
1. I switched from a 23-inch 4-year old Samsung LED HD monitor. I have a pair of these Samsung PX2370s that I have used as dual and single monitors.
2. Initially, I simply unplugged the Samsung's HDMI cable and plugged in the LG via Thunderbolt cable without shutting down the Mac Mini. That wasn't a good idea. Only the top 4/5ths of the LG displayed properly; the bottom 1/5th was trying to scan but would not resolve properly. Restarting the Mac Mini fixed the problem.
3. The Thunderbolt cable is passing sound through to the monitor, and the speakers do work, but the speakers are not adjustable from the Mac (keyboard or control panel). The Sound control panel indicates that the sound output device is 34UM95, but that it is "Type: DisplayPort", and that "The selected device has no output controls". The volume can only be adjusted from the joystick at the bottom of the monitor. The sound is tinny with no bass, but that does not surprise me with built-in monitor speakers.
4. The Display control panel indicates that the display is running at 50 Hertz at 3440 x 1440 resolution, and you could also select 30 Hertz, but there is no option to run at 60 Hertz, even though I am connected via Thunderbolt. Switching to 2560 x 1080 changes the refresh rate to 60 Hertz, and there are no other options (the refresh rate is dimmed). The final available resolution is 2048 x 858 which only allows a 50 Hertz refresh rate. This seems very strange to me. Why would the lower resolution only be available in a lower refresh rate than a higher resolution, and why wouldn't the refresh rate be selectable. Savvier Mac geeks feel free to weigh in.
5. I am curious as to why I'm not getting 60Hz out of the Thunderbolt connection, so I checked System Profiler. As others have noticed, the Graphics/Displays panel of System Profiler is showing "Connection Type: DisplayPort" and "Television: Yes". It may be that my Late 2012 Mac Mini is somehow not able to push 60Hz, or that for some reason, despite the Thunderbolt connection, it is actually treating this as a DisplayPort connection and only allowing 50Hz, but the LG literature says it should push 60Hz even through DisplayPort. I have not found a resolution to this issue, yet, but the 50Hz refresh rate is okay for my use.
6. Despite the above, I am not having the issues described by user "tstm" here: http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=1241859 . That user indicates that "OSX identifies this display as a television, and thus gives crappy color signal out. At least some gradients looked really poor. Some quick googling got me this handy bit of information on how to enable RGB mode and using it I got the colors to display as they should." User tstm was getting 60Hz out of a rMBP, but had to force RGB Mode (see here: http://www.ireckon.net/2013/03/forc...ix-the-picture-quality-of-an-external-monitor ) because his rig was running in the YCbCr color space. I checked the ColorSync profile for my rig, and it is in the RGB color space, and the colors look good right out of the box with my rig.
7. The next step for me is to try calibrating the monitor with my ColorMunki, but that'll have to wait until I get some better ambient light.
8. One final note: Like many Mac users, I do not have an optical drive, and LG does not have software associated with this monitor on their website. Apparently that is a common complaint with LG. I may try to have someone create a disk image for me so I can install the software.

Hope that is helpful to anyone considering running this monitor from a Mac Mini. It works and looks great, but you may not be able to get 60Hz, even with Thunderbolt. If anyone has a fix for the refresh rate, please post a reply!

You're refresh rate problem may have something to do with the fact you have an HDMI monitor hooked up as well. I don't think the Mini can handle the LG and another monitor at the same time. The HD4000 just doesn't have the horsepower to do it. Also what Thunderbolt cable did you buy to use with it? Was it an Apple cable or a third party cable?

I'll be connecting mine to a Late 2013 15" rMBP with the 750m graphics card so it should have no issues pushing the display. I'm curious to see how it will handle all three displays at once, the built in Retina display, my 27" Thunderbolt display and the 34" LG all at the same time.
 

wildblue2030

macrumors newbie
Jun 22, 2014
3
0
You're refresh rate problem may have something to do with the fact you have an HDMI monitor hooked up as well. I don't think the Mini can handle the LG and another monitor at the same time. The HD4000 just doesn't have the horsepower to do it. Also what Thunderbolt cable did you buy to use with it? Was it an Apple cable or a third party cable?

I disconnected the HDMI monitor from the Mac Mini before I tried the LG. During my testing there were only the Thunderbolt and Power cables connected. And yes, it is a genuine Apple Thunderbolt cable.

This is the first time I've ever used anything Thunderbolt, so I am not sure, but it seems pretty suspicious that both System Profiler and the Sound control panel say that my connection type is "DisplayPort". I'd be interested if anyone else has this issue, and if so, whether there might be a Terminal command to fix it.
 

SVTmaniac

macrumors 6502
Jan 30, 2013
427
854
I disconnected the HDMI monitor from the Mac Mini before I tried the LG. During my testing there were only the Thunderbolt and Power cables connected. And yes, it is a genuine Apple Thunderbolt cable.

This is the first time I've ever used anything Thunderbolt, so I am not sure, but it seems pretty suspicious that both System Profiler and the Sound control panel say that my connection type is "DisplayPort". I'd be interested if anyone else has this issue, and if so, whether there might be a Terminal command to fix it.

Hmm not sure why it would detect it as a Display port device and not a thunderbolt. The only Thunderbolt device I have is the Apple Thunderbolt display and that works perfectly on both my late 2012 Mini and my rMBP. I'll let you know if I encounter any issues with the LG when I get it. I'm no expert, but maybe do a PRAM reset? I know that resets some display things.
 

SVTmaniac

macrumors 6502
Jan 30, 2013
427
854
According to Apple, the Mini can support up to 2560x1600 over the Thunderbolt connection. So it's likely that you've hit a hardware limitation for 60hz at 3440x1440.

From Apples specifications on video support for the Mini

- Thunderbolt port with support for up to 2560-by-1600 resolution
 

mashinhead

macrumors 68030
Oct 7, 2003
2,979
951
Just received mine. Image looks better with TB over HDMI

But it seems that I can't use it with the macbook closed? Is anyone else having this issue or am I doing something wrong?
 

AlexVc

macrumors newbie
Jul 13, 2014
5
0
I purchased 34UM95 in Frys for 999$ + tax. Display looks very nice with some limitations. Backlight bleed is noticeable in the left bottom part. In other forums was mentioned that this is widespread issue with this display. I returned the unit and hope to get Rev. 2 later.

On the positive side:

Display worked without issues at full resolution with rMBP mid 2013 and rMBP late 2013 via Thunderbolt.
Out of curiosity I plugged the display in white MacBook Core2Duo http://support.apple.com/kb/SP584 . This machine do not have Thunderbolt, only mini display port. When connected with mini display port to display port cable display worked without issues at full resolution with 60Hz. It was quite surprising as this machine is ancient.
 
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