Possible to turn off an iMac display?

[gwon]

Without waiting for the power save options.

 

[matticus008]

Without waiting for the power save options.

You could just set your screen saver to "blank" and then use a hot corner to activate the screen saver. Then when you drag your mouse into that corner, it blanks your display. Is that all you're trying to do?

If you want the backlight off, you should be able to dim it all the way before doing this, and it should have about the same effect as turning off the display.

 

[DeSnousa]

Without waiting for the power save options.

What's wrong with the power save button? I do believe its the only way too 🙁

 

[mad jew]

If you want the backlight off, you should be able to dim it all the way before doing this, and it should have about the same effect as turning off the display.

I'm pretty sure that's only for laptops. 🙁

 

[DeSnousa]

I'm pretty sure that's only for laptops. 🙁

I still would not recommend doing that as it still keeps your monitor on, you just can't see it. Thus reducing quality and life span over time.

 

[matticus008]

I still would not recommend doing that as it still keeps your monitor on, you just can't see it. Thus reducing quality and life span over time.

Not true. It's the backlight that causes LCDs to wear out over time, and off is off when it comes to backlights. I could be mistaken, but I don't think the OP has disabled power save, but instead just wants to be able to have the screen turn off when s/he says so (like when going you're going to bed and don't want the glow). So there'd be no effective difference.

...You can't dim the display on an iMac? I did not know that.

 

[mad jew]

...You can't dim the display on an iMac? I did not know that.

Yeah it sucks but mine gets to the same point you'd get on a laptop just before it dimmed, so it's effectively still at about half brightness. 🙁

 

[matticus008]

Yeah it sucks but mine gets to the same point you'd get on a laptop just before it dimmed, so it's effectively still at about half brightness. 🙁

I guess that makes sense, now that I think about it. None of my desktop LCDs have ever been able to dim all the way down. In fact, I think my Dell is too bright even on the lowest setting for a dark room.

But yeah, I think that "sleep" from the Apple menu or "power off the display after x minutes" in power saving are really more than adequate features. You could even change one of the profiles to turn the display off after one minute, and leave another profile on whatever you would normally have, and then just switch profiles right before you leave the computer or right when you get back.

 

[gwon]

I just want to be able to turn off my monitor, I need all my background stuff to stay running.

If I set power save nice and low to turn off after 1 or 2 minutes, I get pissed off when it turns off instead of showing my screensaver during the day. But when I go to bed I don't want to have to either wait 15 minutes or screw about with the power settings every night.

It strikes me as strange that there's not a key combo to turn off the display.