Looking at the new 15" and 17" iMacs, I was left wondering if widescreen was all that great? Sure, for DVDs it may be great, but what other benefits does it offer over the normal 15" display?
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Does widescreen really matter?
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More room? Room is good, especially when you can view two letter size documents side by side on that gorgeous 17-inch.
its the package,wide screen,better video chip,faster cpu by 25%, this would be the one i go in hock for! i mean credit card or whatever.
Absolutely, I can run Reason and ProTools/Logic on the same screen and see all of it at once, plus mixing from any audio package becomes less problematic when you can see the arrange page and the mixer at the same time.
...and yes, DVD's look great on a 17" PowerBook.
i'd love a widescreen monitor. When you're designing for the web, it means you can have a 1:1 pixel ratio in photoshop/illustrator/dreamweaver and your palettes without any annoying overlapping. I should imagine its the same for designing for print.
On a 23" cinema display, you can have two A4 pages side by side with readable text AND palettes - you could never achieve that on a 4:3 unless it was damn huge.
On a 23" cinema display, you can have two A4 pages side by side with readable text AND palettes - you could never achieve that on a 4:3 unless it was damn huge.
YES
YES, there is a HUGE difference between the 14 and 17 LCD. Check it out for yourself, thats the best way to find out. Go to an apple store, or best buy, and use the 2 different screens side by side. It is amazing how much more productive you can be with all those extra pixles.
--Waluigi
YES, there is a HUGE difference between the 14 and 17 LCD. Check it out for yourself, thats the best way to find out. Go to an apple store, or best buy, and use the 2 different screens side by side. It is amazing how much more productive you can be with all those extra pixles.
--Waluigi
Originally posted by WinterMute
Absolutely, I can run Reason and ProTools/Logic on the same screen and see all of it at once, plus mixing from any audio package becomes less problematic when you can see the arrange page and the mixer at the same time.
...and yes, DVD's look great on a 17" PowerBook.
Odd, I'd think widescreens would be bad for Reason. With the aspect ratio being what it is and the fact that Reason runs vertically only for the rack and you can't separate a single rack into multiple racks, I'd figure anything that gives a "taller" screen to be better. I, personally, run my screen in Portrait instead of Landscape when using Reason to get as much viewable area as possible.
I'd take higher resoultion over widescreen anyday (more desktop space verses bigger pixels spread horizontally.) Only advantage I can see clearly for widescreen is DVD playback looks more like cinema and DV editing (and adding DV effects) because you need a project window that runs the frames horizontally (coupled with the fact that each frame is also cut to a wider aspect.)
my humble opinion as always...
If you've got a monster rack running I totally agree, but I tend to use it for the grain-table synth, the sampler (with ProTools) and the drum sytem, plus the FX, everything else comes form Logic or as audio from ProTools, so the rack is never really long. Plus you can remove the sequencer and hide it behind the rack for bit more room.
Reason in portrait mode would be cool, but not on a PowerBook.
my beef with the 15 incher is every single one i have seen in person doesn't have a clean screen. i don't mean dirty, i mean crisp... the letters tend to blotch together and make it look very un-mac like...
but on the other hand, all of the 17's i've seen have been nothing but drop dead gorgeous...
matt
but on the other hand, all of the 17's i've seen have been nothing but drop dead gorgeous...
matt
Re: Does widescreen really matter? (on iMac)
In addition, the 17" iMac has a faster processor and has a better video board in it. Also, the 15" is only a Combo Drive, the 17" has the Super Drive in it.
Overall I feel the 17" is worth the extra money. The question is, do you feel that it is worth it? I find having a screen with more resolution helps with what I work on. You may not need it, depending on what you're running. The other thing to remember is how long are you going to be keeping the system. The longer you plan on keeping it, the more you should think about spending more on it now.
Okay to answer the original question, the 15" is 1024 by 768 and the 17" is 1440 by 900. So you get more resolution in both directions. Apart from the resolution, the 17" screen is a better screen overall.
In addition, the 17" iMac has a faster processor and has a better video board in it. Also, the 15" is only a Combo Drive, the 17" has the Super Drive in it.
Overall I feel the 17" is worth the extra money. The question is, do you feel that it is worth it? I find having a screen with more resolution helps with what I work on. You may not need it, depending on what you're running. The other thing to remember is how long are you going to be keeping the system. The longer you plan on keeping it, the more you should think about spending more on it now.
Originally posted by WinterMute
If you've got a monster rack running I totally agree, but I tend to use it for the grain-table synth, the sampler (with ProTools) and the drum sytem, plus the FX, everything else comes form Logic or as audio from ProTools, so the rack is never really long. Plus you can remove the sequencer and hide it behind the rack for bit more room.
Reason in portrait mode would be cool, but not on a PowerBook.
WinterMute,
Just thought you'd get a kick out of this... I use my laptop (IBM) in portrait mode to run a Reason rack off to the side. ATI video cards on PCs have this ability and since the IBM folds flat and has a flat edge, it can sit on its side with no issue. At 1050X1400, I get a pretty good virtual rack and I network it to my MDD (plus ReWire) and the laptop also spans to a second monitor (project monitor.) Gives me quite a lot of space to play with in my little project studio. (Plus the MDD is also run dual headed; one to a small broadcast monitor)
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About the 17" vs 15" PB screens... the 17" does seem cleaner and brighter (plus Expose looks cool on it), however, I've seen a lot of "pink" ghosting on the 17" screens (I asked an Apple store employee once and he told me they had to take two off of display after it started showing up) I'm wondering if the weight of the screen. plus the hinge, is putting undue stress on the inverter(ribbon) cable... It usually starts at the top of the screen and is really apparent on white or light coloured screens.
I'm sure 17"PB owners could comment...
I used to read pdf's off my Ti book on its side, but that sounds really cool.
The 17" screen is excellent, it shows no ghosting at all in any colour, and the hinge is still very nicely balanced too.
The 17" screen is excellent, it shows no ghosting at all in any colour, and the hinge is still very nicely balanced too.