DELL flat panel display monitors incompatible with iBook?

[lucylab]

We just purchased an iBook G4 12" for my daughter (high school). It is our first Apple product (we have a house full of Windows machines all networked + my work Thinkpad).So far, I really like the iBook (and so does my daughter!).

She needs an external monitor for home use. I'm considering several options, including a Dell 17" flat panel display, which DELL lists as being "PC only". When I called DELL to explore this, the answer I got was (a) it is a "driver thing" and (b) if I hook it up to a MAC machine the performance of the flat panel display will be inferior.

OK MAC experts, is that really true? Can I use the DELL flat panel without any performance sacrifice or other issues?

Thanks.

 

[vniow]

OK MAC experts, is that really true? Can I use the DELL flat panel without any performance sacrifice or other issues?

Thanks.

The quality will be the same as if you were hooking it up to a PC with a VGA output. The whole drivers thing is crap.

However since the iBook only supports mirroring natively, you'll be stuck with 1024x768 unless you want to apply a patch (search the boards or Google) which would enable higher resolutions.

 

[lucylab]

Thanks

Thanks.

The "driver thing" seem odd to me.

I did find the 3rd party software to enable adjusting the resolution on the monitor to something other than mirroring the iBook.

 

[WillMak]

that's pretty messed up for Dell support to lie to your face like that. I have a 19 inch "PC only" LCD that works fine with my ibook. I have the span hack as well and it work perfectly. Your daughter will have fun watching movies and typing up papers with two screens!

 

[Chundles]

We just purchased an iBook G4 12" for my daughter (high school). It is our first Apple product (we have a house full of Windows machines all networked + my work Thinkpad).So far, I really like the iBook (and so does my daughter!).

She needs an external monitor for home use. I'm considering several options, including a Dell 17" flat panel display, which DELL lists as being "PC only". When I called DELL to explore this, the answer I got was (a) it is a "driver thing" and (b) if I hook it up to a MAC machine the performance of the flat panel display will be inferior.

OK MAC experts, is that really true? Can I use the DELL flat panel without any performance sacrifice or other issues?

Thanks.

Search for "Screen Spanning Doctor" install and run it, it'll solve your problems.

And it's Mac, not MAC. A Mac is a short name for a Macintosh computer, a MAC is an acronym for Media Access Control which is a hardware address that is used to uniquely identify each node of a network.

I don't mean to sound patronising but hey, learning is half the battle..... GI JOOOEEEE!!!

 

[admiraldennis]

I don't know why Dell would lie to you, but any VGA monitor will work with your iBook, including Dell's great line of flat panels.