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MacBook (White) and 30" Cinema Display

D

dave12345

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 19, 2008
216
0
Hey - I'm trying to set up a MacBook (White) and 30" Cinema Display - I'm using an Apple mini DVI to DVI adaptor.

The max resolution I can set the macbook to run at is 1280 X 800 and the Cinema display looks all blocky and not good - I know the macbook is not capable of running the 30" displays native resolution of 2560 X 1600 but I thought DVI could go up to 1600 X 1200 ?

I installed the 30" cinema display software / drivers - Is there anything else I can do in Tiger to increase the maximum external display resolution?



Thanks for ant help...
 
Single-Link DVI can't support 2560x1600. Mainly because there isn't enough bandwidth in a link to support that much data. You need a Dual-Link connection - which the MacBook (white/black) doesn't support.
The new Aluminium MacBooks, however, support it through the mini DisplayPort connector.

It SHOULD however allow you to set it to a higher resolution IF you don't set it to mirror the displays. Tell it to extend the displays in the Displays.prefPane and it'll let you go higher (up to 1680x1050). Text won't look good, though.

Edit just to make things more clear: When you mirror the displays, the maximum resolution you'll be able to use is the lowest resolution of all your monitors - hence your original MacBook's resolution (1280x800). If you extend, these limitations are broken :)
 
oh sweet - will give it a go - just tried in clamshell mode so far and the highest available res is 1280 X 800
 
clamshell SHOULD let you go higher than 1280x800 as well.... I used to do it on my old WhiteBook and my Dell 20".
 
OK - I tried extended and clamshell modes - the max res I can goto is 1280 X 800...

Any other ideas to try people ?


I don't think dual-link and single link are compatible somehow...


Cheers
 
Yeah, get a new monitor or macbook because you only have access to the other resolutions if you have a dual link capable macbook. Single link DVI only allows 1280x800 res on the 30 inchers. Silly I know but that's how they made them.
 
is it really because the macbook?

Hi,
i've updated a mac pro from 10.4.11 to 10.5.6
Before updating, i could set high resolutions on the cinema 30 display.
However, after the update, the highest res i can get is the same 1200 x 800.

How do i solve this?

thanks.
 
I thought there would be a driver to solve this - i can only get 1200 X 800 on 10.4
 
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