Apple Studio Display & Cube for YouTube?

[ohsnaphappy]

I just bought my dream desk from Restoration Hardware. Ever since I was a little boy I've dreamed of having a G4 cube on my desk. So I'm buying one. Even if I just use it as a paper weight - I'm getting one! Also getting the Johny Ive Soundsticks with bluetooth.

But here's my question. Would the Apple Studio Display that comes with the Cube be a good display (by today's standards) for watching YouTube? I'm sure it doesn't support 1080P content on YouTube.

The reason I ask, I edit photos on a 27" iMac and watch YouTube content, DishNet App, etc, on my iPad. So my thought is to buy a Cube and use that beauty to watch internet content with.

My other idea is to buy a small 1080P TV and just use my current gen Apple TV. Probably a lot smarter right?

But either way I'm buying a Cube and putting it on my desk

 

[Intell]

I think the Cube's original screen was the 15" Studio Display. Those, along with the other acrylic displays of that era, are still good screens. The 20" and 23" screens are of the best quality and would be the best for watching HD media. But the screen isn't going to be the limitation. For YouTube, a stock Cube will struggle. HD YouTube will be near unwatchable. You could upgrade the Cube's CPU, but the G4 upgrade costs more than the Cube itself.

 

[ohsnaphappy]

Ok, it sounds like for my purposes, picking up an "Apple look-alike" 1080P TV would be best option. Or at least something that looks aluminum.

I found lots of great Cinema Displays on eBay, but they all use the mini display port and the Apple TV is HDMI. I know there are mini display port to HDMI adapters, but won't I lose quality?

Still getting a Cube, it will just be art on my desk

 

[Intell]

Are you going to be connecting the 1080p screen to the Cube? If you are, don't get an aluminimum looking one. The Cube'd main material is acrylic.

 

[mike457]

Congratulations! I also have a Cube on my desk, largely for sentimental reasons (it was my first Mac), though I still use it. Mine, thanks to a couple of easy upgrades, will play sd Youtube videos using Mactubes; it does choke on hd, though.

1) Replace the standard Rage 128 video card with an ATI 7500. The 7500 supports Quartz Extreme. I have the 20" display, and the 128 does not support the 20".
2) Install Leopard. Although it is a little slower than Tiger, the trade-offs in terms of capability make it worth while.

This one's a little more ambitious, but I couldn't resist. I replaced the default hard drive with an ssd. It makes the Cube perfectly silent and reduces heat. You'll discover how noisy all other computers are.

Check out Cubeowner for additional help and advice.

 

[Cox Orange]

If it is just for the looks and you do not care for the PowerPC tech, I saw someone putting an Intel Mac Mini in a cube housing, so that you could only see the mac mini ports at the rear. I will try to find the pictures/link later.

I second going to cubeowner.com or cubeuser and getting more info there, graphics wise. Although youtube playback does not have something to do with graphics, people here at macrumors with G5s with the same processor claimed that they could play HD-content after upgrading to Nvidia 7800GT (which is not possible in the cube.), but display-wise it might not hurt to ask for the differences of the graphics cards (some flashable PC cards, ATIs can even be flashed with a Mac on "blind") available for the cube.

 

[wrinkster22]

What if you found a broken one and gutted it. Put in an apple tv inside the cube (Remember how the internals pull out?) The run an HDMI cable to a monitor