Apple Releases Sixth Studio Display 17 Firmware Beta

[gugy]

So I'm not sure how yours has survived with "great colors" of heavy use, or maybe you just haven't seen a more modern LED backlit display or god forbid an OLED next to it for comparison.

Yep, maybe I'm lucky but mine has been pretty consistent. I'm not comparing the ACD with the newer displays. Obviously, it's a two decade old tech and outdated. I'm just saying still a workhorse with an incredible shelf life. This is the main reason I look at the XDR with envy, if I can get solid 10 year performance, that would be fantastic, but I am still not convinced to pay $7k (nano/stand) for it.

 

[loby]

Has anyone on the beta noticed any differences with the monitor and it's usage? Sometimes it is reported to fix bugs, but any noticeable bugs or fixes?

Security issues understandable (of course and firmware is welcomed to deal with the issues), but anyone "notice" real time user differences after applying the firmware?

 

[Royksöpp]

Mine still works pretty good on 15.5. Then again, I’m still on Monterey which has been solid.

 

[idontbyte]

Haven't had a single issue with mine yet, it's been working flawlessly since purchase on intel / apple silicon and also my AMD PC. Have applied all the firmware updates but no differences that I can spot, I guess because it's running a fully fledged OS inside the monitor that they have to apply all the relevant security updates despite it being a monitor 😂

 

[wegster]

What this monitor needs is a better webcam, and it's clear by now that no software update can provide that.

Is this still the case?

I'm been somewhat considering adding an Apple display in vertical position alongside my UW primary screen, but it's kind of $$, not impressed to hear things 'still not solid' although I probably wouldn't even be able to use it in portrait mode unless I could rotate the webcam via software.

 

[zach-coleman]

Is this still the case?

I'm been somewhat considering adding an Apple display in vertical position alongside my UW primary screen, but it's kind of $$, not impressed to hear things 'still not solid' although I probably wouldn't even be able to use it in portrait mode unless I could rotate the webcam via software.

I find the camera to be completely fine. I keep center stage on. It doesn’t look amazing blown up on a 27” 5K screen, but to anyone else on a 4K or lower panel, which is the norm, they won’t notice anything amiss. It’s not a beautiful flawless camera but it’s extremely over hated.

 

[erikkfi]

Is this still the case?

I'm been somewhat considering adding an Apple display in vertical position alongside my UW primary screen, but it's kind of $$, not impressed to hear things 'still not solid' although I probably wouldn't even be able to use it in portrait mode unless I could rotate the webcam via software.

The webcam is absolutely atrocious. I use Camo Studio and an old iPhone mounted on top of the display.

 

[Hank001]

Yep, maybe I'm lucky but mine has been pretty consistent. I'm not comparing the ACD with the newer displays. Obviously, it's a two decade old tech and outdated. I'm just saying still a workhorse with an incredible shelf life. This is the main reason I look at the XDR with envy, if I can get solid 10 year performance, that would be fantastic, but I am still not convinced to pay $7k (nano/stand) for it.

Another happy ACD 30" usr here. Since 2010, and still no color degrading or anything. Only the brightness side buttons don't work anymore. Other than that, a truly great monitor.

And I fully agree on the $7k standpoint.

 

[foliovision]

I've had an ACD 30" at work since 2005, and it has yellowed significantly over time. It's the nature of CCFL backlight. I've also had the same thing happen to Dell & Samsung 30" monitors of the same vintage, same 2560x1600 resolution, this is in a printing shop environment.

Depends on the production batch, depends on how hard you drove it (keeping backlight up high wears the lamp out much earlier). I have two HP LP3065 (functionally an Apple Cinema Display 30" but with generic dual DVI connectors and multiple inputs). One still has wonderful colours (I calibrate so I'm not comparing out of the box but calibrated screens) and on the other the backlight has faded and it's difficult to get a clean calibration.

In terms of resolution, the 30" size at 2560 x 1600 (great vertical space) is a fairly fine dot-pitch. Yes, Retina looks better but going home to switch to Retina from office on HP LP3065 is not jarring at all. At one point, I believe I did change the method of anti-aliasing on the command line (running Monterrey 12.6.x on an M1 Max MBP).

These new Apple monitors with so many interdependent pieces and processors are for wankers. It just means that when anything on your display fails six months out of warranty it will be "uneconomical" to repair. Stay away from LG as well. LG uses low quality wiring and low quality capacitors to shorten the life of their monitors. LG management must think that consumers will replace their LG monitors more often with more LG monitors. Never again – great outsides, good panels but rubbish durability.

HP and strangely enough Dell have been our most reliable monitor suppliers over the year (nothing wrong with Eizo either but Eizo is expensive enough we've only had a few of them). With HP and Dell, we're not buying their budget monitors but their pro level lines with good finishing and longer warranties (historically IPS as colours are more accurate and viewing angles allow collaboration).

 

[robfoll]

Never read the comments! 💩

 

[PhoenixAnhart]

It cost him $3300. Outdated or not, he is going to try and get his money's worth from it!

18 years bro. That’s nuts. I wouldn’t tolerate having a non-retina display, not in 2018 and certainly not in 2023. If he’s actually a “pro” he wouldn’t be using a 20 year old monitor.

 

[zorinlynx]

Has anyone on the beta noticed any differences with the monitor and it's usage? Sometimes it is reported to fix bugs, but any noticeable bugs or fixes?

Security issues understandable (of course and firmware is welcomed to deal with the issues), but anyone "notice" real time user differences after applying the firmware?

I've not noticed anything myself, so I stopped installing these updates until the final release comes out later this year. My Studio Display is working perfectly right now.

I figure with every firmware update there's a chance, however small, of something going wrong and bricking the display. Given there's no visible improvement, it makes sense to just wait until what will likely be the final release "for a while".

 

[aibo]

18 years bro. That’s nuts. I wouldn’t tolerate having a non-retina display, not in 2018 and certainly not in 2023. If he’s actually a “pro” he wouldn’t be using a 20 year old monitor.

Maybe ignorance is bliss. Even 4K looks awful after working with 5K. Imagine going from a 2560x1600 experience to anything made in the last decade, you'd be ruined.

 

[zorinlynx]

Maybe ignorance is bliss. Even 4K looks awful after working with 5K. Imagine going from a 2560x1600 experience to anything made in the last decade, you'd be ruined.

Apple chose 5K specifically because you CAN'T see pixels at normal viewing distance. With 4K you can, just barely. 5K makes the pixels vanish.

It's too bad the rest of the industry settled on 4K and didn't follow Apple's lead. The result is that 5K panels are low volume and thus expensive, when if the whole industry had standardized on 5K, they'd be cheap and widely available.

My advice to people is if you haven't used 5K yet, and are thus unspoiled, just stick with 4K unless you're prepared to spend the money. Once you go 5K you don't go back.

 

[HiVolt]

Depends on the production batch, depends on how hard you drove it (keeping backlight up high wears the lamp out much earlier). I have two HP LP3065 (functionally an Apple Cinema Display 30" but with generic dual DVI connectors and multiple inputs). One still has wonderful colours (I calibrate so I'm not comparing out of the box but calibrated screens) and on the other the backlight has faded and it's difficult to get a clean calibration.

In terms of resolution, the 30" size at 2560 x 1600 (great vertical space) is a fairly fine dot-pitch. Yes, Retina looks better but going home to switch to Retina from office on HP LP3065 is not jarring at all. At one point, I believe I did change the method of anti-aliasing on the command line (running Monterrey 12.6.x on an M1 Max MBP).

These new Apple monitors with so many interdependent pieces and processors are for wankers. It just means that when anything on your display fails six months out of warranty it will be "uneconomical" to repair. Stay away from LG as well. LG uses low quality wiring and low quality capacitors to shorten the life of their monitors. LG management must think that consumers will replace their LG monitors more often with more LG monitors. Never again – great outsides, good panels but rubbish durability.

HP and strangely enough Dell have been our most reliable monitor suppliers over the year (nothing wrong with Eizo either but Eizo is expensive enough we've only had a few of them). With HP and Dell, we're not buying their budget monitors but their pro level lines with good finishing and longer warranties (historically IPS as colours are more accurate and viewing angles allow collaboration).

Yeah I've loved the 30" 2560x1600 monitors, I've had the Apple, Dell & Samsung variants. All were pretty much identical in terms of picture quality, then Dell came out with the -HC variant with better color gamut. I also calibrate, as I said i used them in a printing shop environment. It was a challenge at first to find PC video cards with Dual link DVI in the mid 2000's as it was somewhat of a specialty thing back then. for the Mac I first used the Apple 30" on a G5 then on several Mac Pro's.

Then later I got the Dell U3014 or something that was LED backlit, and with native displayport among other inputs. It was much, much better. Still works to this day.

I've not had any HP screens, except cheapies that sometimes came bundled with a PC, but for the work machines I've been using Dell UltraSharp's since the early 2000's, also have had several at home. Can't beat the value and performance.

 

[zorinlynx]

These new Apple monitors with so many interdependent pieces and processors are for wankers. It just means that when anything on your display fails six months out of warranty it will be "uneconomical" to repair. Stay away from LG as well. LG uses low quality wiring and low quality capacitors to shorten the life of their monitors. LG management must think that consumers will replace their LG monitors more often with more LG monitors. Never again – great outsides, good panels but rubbish durability.

Wanker here.

My ASD has been one of the most reliable and least problematic monitors I've ever had. Dealing with Dell and Samsung monitors in the past has been such a pain. Power saving modes that don't work quite right, really crappy factory calibration, OSD user interface that is slow and laggy and annoying to use...

The ASD just works. Plug it in, boom, image. Adjusts brightness with ambient light. Perfect color calibration out of the box. I can't say I've had a better monitor experience on any platform than the ASD.

Yeah, it's expensive, and that's annoying. But it feels worth the money to me. I also have a Dell 4K monitor I use with my Windows machine; it works pretty well too but really suffers from the irritating OSD interface I just mentioned. Also it took a LOT of tweaking to get the image to look good without banding or weird color artifacts. I wish every monitor had the amazing experience I have with the ASD.

 

[foliovision]

Yeah, it's expensive, and that's annoying. But it feels worth the money to me. I also have a Dell 4K monitor I use with my Windows machine; it works pretty well too but really suffers from the irritating OSD interface I just mentioned. Also it took a LOT of tweaking to get the image to look good without banding or weird color artifacts. I wish every monitor had the amazing experience I have with the ASD.

The problem is not that the ASD a bad monitor. It's that there's so many points of failure. Since Apple repairs are mostly expensive or impossible these days that could mean a very short monitor life. I like to buy good monitors and keep them for a long time.

I do hope your ASD has a long life.

To avoid too much fiddling with screen settings, I use software from JibApps called Display. It allows one to set up a custom night mode to avoid tinkering with OSD buttons every time. Burns the backlight out a little faster (I keep my backlights at about 75 for daylight calibration, my space is bright) but does mean no reaching around the back of the monitor to change brightness and lower the blue point.

It's more complicated to use but Lunar app allows a user to change brightness in better modern (last seven years or so) non-Apple monitors. Giving it another go to save monitor backlights. Oh, I'd stopped using Lunar to avoid screen flicker from PWM at lower brightness levels. I've just hand checked the flicker on my HP U32 and Z32 and it's okay at my normal nighttime brightness (64 and 44 respectively).

Highly recommend the technically minded give Lunar a try as it's shareware to start (there's a few advanced features which require a license but they don't affect basic manually set brightness).

 

[crazyjorgito]

Any news on when the new update for the ASD will be released?

Thanks!!

 

[loby]

It was released today. Firmware is available ONLY if you update to macOS Sonoma.

I noticed that while plugged into my MacBook Pro 2021 with the lid closed and in sleep mode, it actually now powers down, so the MacBook is not warm when it has been off for awhile. Big plus. It comes on also fast when opening the lid.

Something that looks like it was fixed. Maybe also I updated to macOS Sonoma and that might have helped too today.

 

[wegster]

It was released today. Firmware is available ONLY if you update to macOS Sonoma.

I noticed that while plugged into my MacBook Pro 2021 with the lid closed and in sleep mode, it actually now powers down, so the MacBook is not warm when it has been off for awhile. Big plus. It comes on also fast when opening the lid.

Something that looks like it was fixed. Maybe also I updated to macOS Sonoma and that might have helped too today.

Is the camera still less than ideal/any change?

 

[loby]

Is the camera still less than ideal/any change?

Camera seems ok…It was never meant to “wow” anyone anyway. The camera is not 1080p, so what are people expecting? You can only go so far with a 720p camera as far as it’s hardware.

It looks fine to me, but Apple should have put a 1080p camera into the display as per the display’s price but they wanted to max out profits on it. That’s another thread argument.

The monitor was by default a little too bass-y when it came out, but it might have been my ears or taste, but the speakers seems a little more evened out now as far as the frequencies ranges. Again, might just be my opinion.

Firmware update seems to make wake from sleep faster. It instantly awakes without a delay using my MacBook Pro 2021