mac pro + 50 inch plasma - will it work

[CAB]

Been debating the merits of getting a mac pro would the graphics card be sufficient to use the a 50 inch pioneer HD plasma as a screen

plan to use the combo for basic basic computer stuff and the management of photo's etc etc

thanks CB

[mmm-five]

Well, as long as you're screen can take the DVI connection from the Mac Pro you should be fine, as the Mac Pro's default card with output to 1080p (1920x1080) and the 30" Apple Cinema Display is natively 2560x1600.

[CAB]

thanks this is looking promising!!

ill have to look around the back of the screen to ensure the connections are appropriate. is it worth going with the best graphics card or will it make little or no difference??

thanks again - you are better off asking the questions here as opposed to the genius bar!!

CB

[Plotloss]

It will be fine, you're best off setting the Mac graphics output to the native res of the Plasma which depending on generation should be around 1366x768

Any graphics card will cope admirably with 2D work at this res.

[toohuge]

This should work fine, use the DVI connection with a converter to HDMI and you should see brilliant results. Check you manual if your display is a proper HD then the resolution that you should run is 1900x1200 for the best results on millions of colours.

[CAB]

mmm-five said:

Well, as long as you're screen can take the DVI connection from the Mac Pro you should be fine, as the Mac Pro's default card with output to 1080p (1920x1080) and the 30" Apple Cinema Display is natively 2560x1600.

The TV is a pioneer pdp 507xd
- hdmi slots
- dtv
- pc input .... analog RGB....

assuming you can convert DVI to RGB or HDMI (latter seems unlikely) would this seriuously compromise the pic' quality??

thanks CB

[Plotloss]

DVI and HDMI have the same picture information, DVI doesnt carry sound, HDMI does.

So you can go straight out of the DVI port on the Mac, straight into the HDMI port of the 507 using a DVI-HDMI cable which are freely available.

If you give the 507 anything other than its native resolution then it will scale it, to avoid scaling, use the native res of the set as the resolution on the mac.

[CAB]

Plotloss said:

DVI and HDMI have the same picture information, DVI doesnt carry sound, HDMI does.

So you can go straight out of the DVI port on the Mac, straight into the HDMI port of the 507 using a DVI-HDMI cable which are freely available.

If you give the 507 anything other than its native resolution then it will scale it, to avoid scaling, use the native res of the set as the resolution on the mac.

fantastic using this combination would it be possible to use the mac to record TV shows.....

CAB

[Plotloss]

Yes, as long as you have a TV tuner in the mac.

I dont do Macs but The Dude uses a mac mini for this exact purpose with a 50" Panny.

[ScuttleRX]

Using the VGA (pc input) might be the better option on your set, IIRC you cant select specific resolution using hdmi (ETA this is for tvs in general I believe, hdmi socket will only accept set standards, 576/720/1080 ), your tv looks to be 1365 x 768 according to a quick google.

Im not 100% on this but worth a double check, if you can feed your tv native res it will look a lot sharper. If this is the case you can get a DVI/VGA converter if no VGA output on the mac

Edited by ScuttleRX on Saturday 9th February 23:41

[toohuge]

You can use the VGA connector, i think that this screen is not fully HD (1900x1200) but runs at a different resolution. The only thing which you need to be careful of, in the latest version of the MAC OS system, you have to run the same resolutions for both screen outputs, so whatever you mac is set at then that is what will come from your video port. Ifi was in your position i would use the HDMI connection, as someone else has stated, the conversion is a straight adapter so no picture quality would be lost.

Let us know how it turns out.

[spants]

I am on leopard and this isn't true. My imac has a 1900x1200 resolution and the external has 1600x1200

regards
Tony