Help with LED Cinema Display

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Level 1

4 points

Help with LED Cinema Display

I recently ordered a refurbished 27" LED Cinema Display through Apple to replace an old non-apple monitor and am pumped to get it! I've been researching a question I have within the apple support communiities and on other websites but keep getting conflicting answers and was hoping someone would be able to help me out.

I'll be using the display with my 15" MacBook Pro (Mid 2012) which will be no problem as I can just use the mini displayport. My question relates to my work computer which is a pc. I need to be able to use the monitor at certain times with the pc and have been researching trying to figure out a solution and keep getting different answers. The pc has HDMI, VGA, and USB ports. The pc also has both a NVidia NVS 5200M and Intel integrated graphisc 4000 card. Can I simply use an HDMI cable and the mini displayport to HDMI adapter? Or am I going to need something like the Kanex XD HDMI to mini displayport converter?

I guess the third option would be neither and I'd be back to the drawing board! Any input would be much appreciated as I've been trying to figure this out and just can't get an answer, which I guess makes sense as it all depends on what you are using.

OS X Mountain Lion (10.8)

Posted on Mar 18, 2014 9:53 PM

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Answer 1

turbostar

Level 4

2,941 points

Mar 18, 2014 10:00 PM in response to jhissa13

I don't know about the Kanex adapter, but HDMI is limited to 1920x so you would not get full 2560x support on the ACD.

I don't think you can create something out of nothing, i.e. make HDMI magically support more resolution but maybe I'm wrong or that's the entire purpose for the Kanex stuff.

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Answer 2

Mar 18, 2014 11:49 PM in response to jhissa13

The Kanex adapter

<http://www.kanexlive.com/xd>

will run the 27" display at 720p (1280 x 720).

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Answer 3

jhissa13 Author

Level 1

4 points

Mar 19, 2014 6:52 PM in response to Malcolm J. Rayfield

Thanks for the help, I'm ordering this!

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Answer 4

turbostar

Level 4

2,941 points

Mar 19, 2014 8:41 PM in response to jhissa13

you did see that this device will severly crimp the resolution on your monitor? as long as you'll be able to work at that resolution? i know for me, that would be a deal breaker.

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Answer 5

jhissa13 Author

Level 1

4 points

Mar 19, 2014 8:51 PM in response to turbostar

That would be when I'm working on the display with just the pc correct? I apologize but can you expand on this? Ultimately if I understand correctly, the full resolution of the display is 2560x1440, which I'd be able to utilize with my macbook, but when working on my pc, the resolution would be limited to 1280x720? Do I have any other options on the PC to maximize the resolution (through VGA, USB, HDMI, or a combination)? I'm assuming no based on your other post. Will it affect the performance of the display when using my macbook (meaning using the display at a lower resolution when using with the pc)? Thanks for the help turbostar, like I mentioned I'm frustrated because I'm trying to figure out a solution to using the display with both and its been difficult.

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Answer 6

turbostar

Level 4

2,941 points

Mar 19, 2014 9:34 PM in response to jhissa13

understandable, i tried using an atlona dp 400 something when i was trying to support 3 27s on a single Mac Pro GPU. that device also limited one panel in Windows to 720p which blows up everything so ridiculously big i found it distracing for work, but if your pc use is minimal, then it might be something that you can work through.

the only solution i see if you need to use a pc is to put a GPU in your pc that has a mini-displayport or displayport plug. then you could use the monitor at its native resoution.

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Answer 7

jhissa13 Author

Level 1

4 points

Mar 20, 2014 7:46 PM in response to turbostar

turbostar, i was actually doing some research on something else and stumbled across this thing called a ConnectPro 4-Port DVI KVM Switch UD-14+KIT1F. I have no idea if this will fix the resolution issue but any chance I could use the HDMI cable to this device, then this device to the display, with an adapter converting the minidisplay port into here?

Sorry, just figured I'd ask since I came across this. And don't worry, I'm done looking into this further! Thanks again for the input.

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Answer 8

turbostar

Level 4

2,941 points

Mar 20, 2014 8:36 PM in response to jhissa13

i don't think so since hdmi will still limit you to 1920x plus for that price, you could afford a GPU with a mDP port

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