Mac Studio and old Cinema Displays

[EugW]

I got Studio M1 Max today and the effect is exactly the same as on my MacBook - ACD 30" works ACD 23" does not. Tomorrow I expect to receive the adapter from BENFEI

Mac Studio and old Cinema Displays

I hooked up my 23” using this DVI-to-USBC adapter. Easy peasy. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0768RFQ83/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s01

forums.macrumors.com

and if it does not work I will try Club 3D.

A big disappointment is that the ACD 30" does not always wake up from sleep. Has anyone had this problem? Maybe an active USB hub is the solution? I suspect it's a matter of that extra USB power supply....

Plug the USB cable from the monitor directly into your Mac Studio. Do not use any hub.

Doing so may also reduce the chance of brightness control issues from the keyboard.

 

[retlif]

Yep.

 

[retlif]

BENFEI unfortunately does not work.

Ok. I mean, it does work, I can see my desktop but the picture is terrible: flickering, afterimages, a purple stripe on the screen, etc.

The adapter from Club 3D is coming tomorrow.

 

[retlif]

Well, Club 3D (CAC-1510-A) worked as expected. The monitors work flawlessly and also wake up from sleep.

From ally my tests it seems that this is the only 100% compatible solution. I will see how it looks in the long run.

 

[retlif]

Sos, two weeks later.... ACD 30" with CAC-1510-A generally works good but... there is "blue snow"!

Flickering Problem with CAC-1510-A and Apple Cinema Display 30 | Club 3D Insights

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insights.club-3d.com

 

[sparkie7]

I have used the Club3D adapter to connect a 30” Cinema HD display and a Mac Studio (and other modern Macs) and it is the only thing between the display and the Mac. It replaces the Apple dual link adapter.

Is this the one (below link) that you bought?

Club3D CAC-1510-A USB Type C to Dual Link DVI-D Cable Adapter Support 3840x2160@30hz, 2560x1600@60Hz HDCP Off for Apple Cinema Displays M/F

USB C to DVI-D Dualink adapter without HDCP Support for certain Apple Cinema monitors without HDCP The USB Type C to Dual Link DVI or Single Link DVI Adapter is the easiest solution for connecting your USB Type C source device featuring DisplayPort Alternate Mode to a DVI enabled Monitor or Proje...

www.amazon.com

 

[AlteMac]

Is this the one (below link) that you bought?

Club3D CAC-1510-A USB Type C to Dual Link DVI-D Cable Adapter Support 3840x2160@30hz, 2560x1600@60Hz HDCP Off for Apple Cinema Displays M/F

USB C to DVI-D Dualink adapter without HDCP Support for certain Apple Cinema monitors without HDCP The USB Type C to Dual Link DVI or Single Link DVI Adapter is the easiest solution for connecting your USB Type C source device featuring DisplayPort Alternate Mode to a DVI enabled Monitor or Proje...

www.amazon.com

That's the one I have used with two different Mac Minis and a Mac Studio. All worked just fine.

 

[sparkie7]

That's the one I have used with two different Mac Minis and a Mac Studio. All worked just fine.

Did you use it on a 30” ACD? Did it have any flickering issues, did it wake from sleep ok on the Mac Studio and does the brightness controls show up

 

[alaskanime]

The only adapter I have tried that worked consistently with M1 Mini and ACD 30" (2008) the Club CAC1510A with HDCP off. I got mine on Amazon. After you set resolution to the native 2560 x 1600 the first time it keeps it there. Other adapters I tried would drop the signal if the display was off and needed to be reconnected everytime the system wakes up, a real PITA. (I am assuming this will work from a Studio but have not tried it).


View attachment 1980037View attachment 1980038is

I made an account just to come here and thank you all for the great information here. I ordered this after another more expensive adapter didn't work for our circa 2000 22" Cinema Display we wanted to connect to the new M2 Mac Studio my husband just got, and this little device worked flawlessly right out of the box. It gives me and him both great joy to be able to get more use of these old displays.

 

[howdytom]

I can sleep the computer and display, it would wake up, but it fail to properly kick up the 30" display most of the time, strangely, if upon short sleep, e.g. an hour or so, the display would wake up fine. However, if it is an overnight sleep, most of the time, it won't wake up fine. I have to power reset the display to get the display wakeup properly. As a result, I installed the power cable to the display with an easy to access on/off switch to work around the problem.

Did you find a solution for the sleep issue?

I am experience the exact same issue with the 23-inch Apple Cinema Display and the Club 3D adapter CAC-1510-A. When I get back from a 20-30 minutes break, the Apple Cinema display is recognised just fine. However, when I am away for 1-2 hours and both displays are in Lock Screen, the Apple Cinema Display remains black, but still shows up as secondary monitor

 

[tochigno]

Hi guys! Sorry for resurrecting the thread I'm in the same boat now, Mac Studio M2 Ultra and a 30" Cinema Display. I have bought the active HDCP version of the 3D Club adaptor (I have verified that my Cinema Display has HDCP support) but now I have to decide what's the best solution for my case: my display is 3,5 meters from the Mac Studio so I have two chances:

- one DVI-D Male > DVI-D Female long cable to attach to 30" Cinema Display DVI-D connector (and then the 3D Club adaptor attached to it and to a USB-C port of the Mac Studio)
- 3D Club adaptor directly attached to the DVI-D connector of the Cinema Display and then a 3 meters USB-C male > USB-C female adaptor to connect to Mac Studio

What do you think is the best workaround? Thanks!

 

[PaulD-UK]

@tochigno "...then a 3 meters USB-C male > USB-C female adaptor to connect to Mac Studio"

USB cables capable of carrying video of 3 metres length are at about the limit unless they the highest quality.
Also there may be a problem with a USB-C female extender cable, you would have to make sure it can carry the video signal properly.

It might be better to have a longer Dual-channel DVI-D cable, but that may not be easily sourced.

 

[tochigno]

Thanks Paul! I thought the same about the USB-C extra lenght, so I'll go with the DVI-D instead

 

[rostasi]

Studio Ultra M2 to a 30" Cinema Display (non-HDCP)

First, I tried TWO of the Club3D CAC-1510-A USB Type C to Dual Link DVI-D Cable Adapters and they both gave me crazy patterns on the screen. Then, I bought basically the same kinda thing, but from StarTech and the monitor was much clearer, but there were some fuzzy and busy lines in the black areas of the screen.

Next, I bought an Apple A1306 Mini DisplayPort Dual-Link DVI Adapter Connector Cable off eBay. I plugged it in and YEA! it worked ... until you did something very screen-busy while working (ex: opening a window to full size), then it would go black and no pushing of keyboard keys would bring it back. You had to unplug it from the back of the Studio Ultra M2 and plug it back in - until it went out again: it could be seconds ... or hours later. I, later, discovered that I had a brand new A1306 in my closet and tried that. YES! It worked ... but for how long? After three days, I was feeling very confident! Last night (3+ days), it went out and (un)plugging no longer makes a difference. What was weird was that when I went back to the other A1306 nothing worked thru that one either and the unplugging trick failed on that one too. Since it was in my closet, I have to figure that something blew that made my monitor not want to talk to ANY A1306.

My next thought was that the monitor was toast (even tho there's a green "on" light). Really bummed out.

THEN, I plugged the monitor back into my old Mac Tower five minutes later and it came up like it's always worked before, so... there's something going on that I can't use this monitor with any new Mac (maybe a laptop, but I've never owned one). So, I'm caught between buying a new monitor or keeping this one and hooking it up to the StarTech dongle and living with the bit of visual noise in the black areas. Just for the hell of it, I went back to the Club3D to see if it would work and, nope, it still gives all kinds of crazy graphic noise on the screen.

 

[EugW]

@rostasi

The older non-HDCP 30" Cinema HD Displays behave differently with these adapters than the newer ones. The newer HDCP models seem to work better with those third party dual-link DVI adapters IIRC.

 

[rostasi]

@rostasi

The older non-HDCP 30" Cinema HD Displays behave differently with these adapters than the newer ones. The newer HDCP models seem to work better with those third party dual-link DVI adapters IIRC.

When I was researching the Studios, I specifically bought the M2 version because I was seeing videos of people having great luck with M1s and M2s coupled with the 30". Did they have the newer, post 2007, displays? I don't know, but I wanted the latest that would work with it. I saw an M3 laptop add even an extra dongle and figured that M4s would just add even more dongles, so I went with this M2 last December. Little did I know how much constant frustration I'd have being able to use this expensive machine. This afternoon, I have another StarTech adapter coming. If it shows the noise it had on the first adapter, I'll either have to live with it or start deciding on glossy or "nano" screen on the smaller Studio Display.

 

[EugW]

When I was researching the Studios, I specifically bought the M2 version because I was seeing videos of people having great luck with M1s and M2s coupled with the 30". Did they have the newer, post 2007, displays? I don't know, but I wanted the latest that would work with it. I saw an M3 laptop add even an extra dongle and figured that M4s would just add even more dongles, so I went with this M2 last December. Little did I know how much constant frustration I'd have being able to use this expensive machine. This afternoon, I have another StarTech adapter coming. If it shows the noise it had on the first adapter, I'll either have to live with it or start deciding on glossy or "nano" screen on the smaller Studio Display.

Yeah, maybe had they post 2007 versions, but I'm not sure. Anyhow, I've long since retired my 30" Apple Cinema HD Display.

I'm currently using a matte 28.2" Huawei 4K+ display (listed in my signature), but I will likely upgrade to a 32" 6K display this year. Both Asus and LG are releasing 6K displays this year. The Asus will be somewhat budget friendly at US$1199 (Thunderbolt 4, no IPS Black), and the LG will be higher end (nicer design, Thunderbolt 5, IPS Black). Acer will also be releasing a USB-C 32" 5K monitor this year too.