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Also black levels on the iMac plain suck I have an asus bluray and tried a few in windows and it just doesn't look that good and really never will! I love my iMac but I'll use my 60" pioneer kuro for movies!

You're kinda stating the obvious, even the best LCD in the world would suck if compared to the black levels of a Kuro (one of the best, if not THE BEST, plasma around).

No real movie-nerd uses LCD technology for movies.....
 
You're kinda stating the obvious, even the best LCD in the world would suck if compared to the black levels of a Kuro (one of the best, if not THE BEST, plasma around).

No real movie-nerd uses LCD technology for movies.....

it's just drives me nuts when people want to use a scaler on the imac! :)
 
Dr bott or kanex plus a scaler equals a 32 pioneer plasma in price and that will smoke iMac for gaming period!

Sorry but there is no 32 inch pioneer plasma.. there is an 32inch kuro lcd and i if i have to decide for lcd i prefer the led samsung..

the imac is very decent for an lcd.. it use h-ips (same panel as the dell u2711 which get excellent review by cnet)

but yes kuro plastma would beat anything but come on.. the smaller they have is the 50" for $4,500
 
no one with a clue spends money on a scaler on a 27" anything period!

why not? the imac is already excellent price for what they offer.. some of us want all in one.. and i agree that 720p does not look that different than 1080p in small displays but even the 720p would look much better with scaler.. because imac doesn't have built in scaler
 
why not? the imac is already excellent price for what they offer.. some of us want all in one.. and i agree that 720p does not look that different than 1080p in small displays but even the 720p would look much better with scaler.. because imac doesn't have built in scaler
27" was cool back in the early 90's for a screen size that's why.
you want to invest money on a scaler for a 27" screen that would be absurd!
(this is only my opinion and i would rather donate money to my local charity than by a scaler for it)

i have 3 tv's one is a 50" 720p panny in my game room one is a 50" 1080p panny in my bedroom and one is a 60" pioneer signature elite in my living room. the 720p and the 1080p from 10 feet are basically identical except the black levels are better on the newer 1080p model. this is on a 50" set. not a 27" imac. my 60 pioneer was calibrated my eliab alvarez de la campa from avical and he's been doing my sets since the early 90's. i would say i probably know a little more than you about this topic so let's leave it at that.
 
You're kinda stating the obvious, even the best LCD in the world would suck if compared to the black levels of a Kuro (one of the best, if not THE BEST, plasma around).

No real movie-nerd uses LCD technology for movies.....

The BEST!!!!
 
27" was cool back in the early 90's for a screen size that's why.
you want to invest money on a scaler for a 27" screen that would be absurd!
(this is only my opinion and i would rather donate money to my local charity than by a scaler for it)

i have 3 tv's one is a 50" 720p panny in my game room one is a 50" 1080p panny in my bedroom and one is a 60" pioneer signature elite in my living room. the 720p and the 1080p from 10 feet are basically identical except the black levels are better on the newer 1080p model. this is on a 50" set. not a 27" imac. my 60 pioneer was calibrated my eliab alvarez de la campa from avical and he's been doing my sets since the early 90's. i would say i probably know a little more than you about this topic so let's leave it at that.

so what? are you trying to show off?

we already explain why an scaler will work.. because the imac doesn't have one.. the only thing that it does is to double the pixels size.. with no antialaising.. and btw.. dell monitors have excellent black levels and also can be calibrate thats why most video editors, photo editors use ips panels (not plasma).. but i agree plasma is great to watch movies..

i doubt you know a little more than me just because you have a lot of tv's.. i doubt someone that doesn't know there is no 32" plasma in the whole world.. so lets leave it at that.
 
so what? are you trying to show off?


i doubt you know a little more than me just because you have a lot of tv's.. i doubt someone that doesn't know there is no 32" plasma in the whole world.. so lets leave it at that.

I show my pioneer off to everyone that comes over!

My first plasma was a Sony 32 for a year many many years ago, although production has ceased panny, pioneer, and others all made 32"!

Plain and simple lcds suck compared to plasma

plasma sucks compared to oled but at over 2k for a 13" it's still crazy expensive

my pioneer kuro hooked up to my htpc is a site to behold maybe that's why I don't understand the desire to sink money into such a small screen !
 
Sorry but there is no 32 inch pioneer plasma.. there is an 32inch kuro lcd and i if i have to decide for lcd i prefer the led samsung..

the imac is very decent for an lcd.. it use h-ips (same panel as the dell u2711 which get excellent review by cnet)

but yes kuro plastma would beat anything but come on.. the smaller they have is the 50" for $4,500

the pioneer plasmas pop up on videogon all the time sorry not to clear that up!

I picked my 60 up for 2300 under retail on there as well !!!
 
ordered my drobott for 27 imac at the weekend £88 shipped to uk from - polarshop of off ebay market place. extremely happy cant wait for item to come

just to update everyone the drbott came for my 27" imac yesterday got it all plugged in through my ps3 slim line model, i am absolutely thrilled with it. it looks better than my 1080i max inout tv which is a little outdated i admit.

the quality on the only game worth playing COD MW2 is brill, dont sit too close as you will see scaling in effect, but i sit a sensible distance away id say a metre or so and the picture looks brill nice bright and clear no lag sound comes through perfect.

i also watched a blue ray at 720p (i am legend) again no sound lag quality picture, it must be the quality of the monitors build that gives it a decent picture even at 720p

thanks

mike
 
just to update everyone the drbott came for my 27" imac yesterday got it all plugged in through my ps3 slim line model, i am absolutely thrilled with it. it looks better than my 1080i max inout tv which is a little outdated i admit.

the quality on the only game worth playing COD MW2 is brill, dont sit too close as you will see scaling in effect, but i sit a sensible distance away id say a metre or so and the picture looks brill nice bright and clear no lag sound comes through perfect.

i also watched a blue ray at 720p (i am legend) again no sound lag quality picture, it must be the quality of the monitors build that gives it a decent picture even at 720p

thanks

mike

You spelled BFBC2 wrong. ;)

Yah, playing XBOX on the iMac is better than playing on even my 42 1080p TV! Even w/o the surround sound system. I actually think it doubles my gaming performance!

For blu ray, there are solutions that allow one to use a USB BDROM drive. One is called http://www.makemkv.com/

However, they do plan to start charging for it, so get in while the gettin's good.
 
only thing is how do i hook up all my music videos etc to my ps3 through ethernet? then is there something needed to find the ps3/imac 27?
 
Here is what an Atlona rep told me.

"Atlona will have a unit that will convert HDMI/DVI to Mini Display Port and scale to 1080p resolution. The model name is AT-HD620 and will be available mid April,2010. This will be the ideal unit for converting HDMI to Mini Display Port. Hope this helps.

Regards, Apolo"

I'm going to wait for this.
 
Sorry if this has been asked before, it was really hard to search for the words "turn on". Anyway, just wondering if under the target display mode, does the iMac go to sleep or some power saving mode? I want to connect my PS3 up to the iMac as the display but don't want the actual computer to be running at the same time, is this possible?
 
Sorry if this has been asked before, it was really hard to search for the words "turn on". Anyway, just wondering if under the target display mode, does the iMac go to sleep or some power saving mode? I want to connect my PS3 up to the iMac as the display but don't want the actual computer to be running at the same time, is this possible?

OS X is always running. It's actually quite good. It means I can start some video conversion and then go and play my console while the iMac cranks away at the job.

Why don't you want OS X to be running when playing PS3?
 
OS X is always running. It's actually quite good. It means I can start some video conversion and then go and play my console while the iMac cranks away at the job.

Why don't you want OS X to be running when playing PS3?

Just seems inefficient that's all, save some power :p since the computer will probably just be idling for me. Not a big deal I guess, but would be nice.
 
Just seems inefficient that's all, save some power :p since the computer will probably just be idling for me. Not a big deal I guess, but would be nice.

well i leave mine on at the log in screen then power up the ps3, that way its not doing much number cruncing whilst the ps3s on :)
 
Okay, I'm trying to piece a few things together here, some of which are related to the iMac Mini-DisplayPort-out thingumy, and I'll start with the questions I think I know the answers to (so that they can be confirmed, and it might be of some help to others):
1) Can the 27" iMac also function as a display for the current gen of consoles (primarily Xbox and PS3, at this stage)? Yes

2) Does the Machine need to be powered on to do so? Yes, OS X has to be running (I'm gonna assume that means that you can't be running Windows in Boot Camp when you want to do this).

And now to the ones that I don't know:

3) Is there audio included in the signal (I believe that recent DisplayPort updates have enabled this, but I can't tell whether this particular version works with it).

4) Is the switchover hardware or software controlled? i.e. Is it done my a key-press, or does the incoming signal simply override the default iMac input to the display? It would be handy to be able to switch between them at the touch of a key.

5) I know that the iMac has TOSLINK optical support, but is there also a way of getting it out in a coax form? I have a pair of Astro A40s, with the associated Mixamp, which has both inputs, but the optical is kinda reserved for the Xbox.


For those of you that can be bothered, the setup that I am theorising is:
iMac running an assortment of OSes (Snow Leopard, Windows 7, and an XP for work, when I need it), connected to my MixAmp via it's coax, with my 360 connected to the iMac via the DiplayPort (Advanced HDMI > Mini DisplayPort), and to the Mixamp via the optical.

Now, I'm not exactly experienced in the Mac World, so can any of you see a problem with this?
 
Okay, I'm trying to piece a few things together here, some of which are related to the iMac Mini-DisplayPort-out thingumy, and I'll start with the questions I think I know the answers to (so that they can be confirmed, and it might be of some help to others):
1) Can the 27" iMac also function as a display for the current gen of consoles (primarily Xbox and PS3, at this stage)? Yes

2) Does the Machine need to be powered on to do so? Yes, OS X has to be running (I'm gonna assume that means that you can't be running Windows in Boot Camp when you want to do this).

And now to the ones that I don't know:

3) Is there audio included in the signal (I believe that recent DisplayPort updates have enabled this, but I can't tell whether this particular version works with it).

4) Is the switchover hardware or software controlled? i.e. Is it done my a key-press, or does the incoming signal simply override the default iMac input to the display? It would be handy to be able to switch between them at the touch of a key.

5) I know that the iMac has TOSLINK optical support, but is there also a way of getting it out in a coax form? I have a pair of Astro A40s, with the associated Mixamp, which has both inputs, but the optical is kinda reserved for the Xbox.


For those of you that can be bothered, the setup that I am theorising is:
iMac running an assortment of OSes (Snow Leopard, Windows 7, and an XP for work, when I need it), connected to my MixAmp via it's coax, with my 360 connected to the iMac via the DiplayPort (Advanced HDMI > Mini DisplayPort), and to the Mixamp via the optical.

Now, I'm not exactly experienced in the Mac World, so can any of you see a problem with this?

I'm not sure how well this answers all the questions, but here's my setup and 2 cents.

3)yes, audio is included when using the dr. bott, but not all converters pass along audio. Audio will be carried through DP and HDMI, but not with DVI or other connection types.

4) the BEST feature so far of the imac's video input is that you can press command+F2 to switch between video sources (I check email/RSS while waiting for Xbox Live games to begin. super easy)

5) with my current setup, it should solve your issue, as the imac and xbox use the same audio output, which could go into your mixamp.

My setup:
I have the dr. bott plugged in to my 27, with my xbox 360 plugged into the dr. bott. Dr. bott does carry audio over the displayport, and will play out whatever your iMac's selected sound output is. Currently I have some old M-audio monitors that I'm using. Just a quality headphone to RCA splitter/converter (out of the imac's headphone port), with RCA to 1/4" TS adapters to input to the monitors.

I've also used a setup with my Mbox plugged in via USB, and the monitors plugged into the mbox. Mbox must be selected as the sound output in your osx system preferences, and it continues to use that even if it's displaying an alternate video source. Hope this helps, and I highly recommend the whole 27" imac/xbox360 setup. Love it.
 
Hey guys, I have a couple noob questions here... I'm wanting to order the Dr Bott to hook up my PS3 to my iMac... but looking at their site I see several different adapters and I'm not sure which is the right one for me. I have my speakers connected to my iMac through the headphone jack if that makes any difference.

2nd question is that I'm also considering the eyeTV250+, which would allow me to plug in any system, but it doesn't support HD. This iMac is the first HD screen I've owned, and I've never played games in HD so I don't really know what I'm missing yet... I just wondered what you guys thought about sacrificing HD for more system compatibility, or if there is another gadget out there I should look into.

Thanks in advance! :)

ps: I know I could probably find the answer in this thread but honestly don't feel like reading through 30 some pages for it. :/
 
Here is what an Atlona rep told me.

"Atlona will have a unit that will convert HDMI/DVI to Mini Display Port and scale to 1080p resolution. The model name is AT-HD620 and will be available mid April,2010. This will be the ideal unit for converting HDMI to Mini Display Port. Hope this helps.

Regards, Apolo"

I'm going to wait for this.

I think we should all wait for this. Maybe this is final solution for us?

The best solution for PS3?
 
I was thinking of buying a new iMac and hooking it up to my Verizon FiOS box through HDMI. Is this possible or do I have to wait for some kind of adapter?
 
Hi guys. I just got myself a PS3 and the DrBott adapter for iMac 27", but so far, I'm out of luck.

Out of the box, I get no DisplayPort input signal on the iMac. I've heard it might be caused by the PS3 trying to send a 1080p signal, but I haven't succeeded in forcing it to ignore anything above 720p. From what I understand, you have to go into the PS3's display settings, pick HDMI, and then uncheck the 1080 resolutions.

The trouble is, I don't have an HDMI TV (hence the need for DrBott), only an old TV with composite input. I can get low definition AV to display on that TV, but whenever I pick HDMI, the display goes blank (quite logical, actually), and since it finds no HDMI display at all, it eventually reverts to AV.

Forcing the PS3 to renegotiate its display by keeping the power button active until it beeps a second time didn't help either.

Is there any other solution than using a friend's HDMI TV as a display to force the PS3 parameters?
 
Anyone knows what the just released update fixed?

And if the 5870 from ATI now works togethre with the imac?
 
Hey.

Does the new firmware update, with makeing the iMac to external screen work now with a PS3? So you dont have to use DrBott? But instead just a HDMI to mindisplay port cable?

Thanks.

From Kehaan.
 
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