I’ve got a nearly 5 year old Titanium Powerbook G4. The only monitor connector on the back is a Serial port.
I can buy a connector that has male serial on one end and female DVI on the other end. That would allow me to physically connect my 23" Apple Cinema Display to the laptop.
Here’s the question. Does the video card in this laptop SUPPORT DVI? I suspect not, since the jack is a serial jack. I lurve my display and yet wish to sell my Mac Mini and use only the laptop for home/office and on the road. This could really put a crimp in that plan.
So. If I get the proper gendered adaptor, will my laptop “see” that connector and monitor or not?
I can’t really answer your question, but I would think the adaptor would do the necessary signal conversion so that the DVI cable can render the image to the monitor. I doubt there’s any video card incompatibility. But, I could be wrong.
I think we might be doing something like this at home (I’m on a trip and can’t check)-- we’re running a older-than-5-y.o. powerbook via strange adaptor (the circular jack, whatever it’s called, to ‘yellow wire’ AV adapter (that’s DVI, right? Yes, I’m very technical) to a television (broke the laptop’s screen, and too cheapass to replace as it’s just our music player now, really)). So if we can do it with a TV, I think anything’s possible.
This site will tell you a lot about what your computer is capable of. Based on what you said earlier, that should be what you have, but double-check that to make sure that’s right. According to that page, the maximum resolution you can drive on an external display is 1280x960 at millions of colors.
The adaptor does not convert the signal. External signal converters are relatively big, expensive, and probably completely unnecessary for anything newer than about 10 years old. DVI monitors also have VGA capability for backwards compatibility, and for troubleshooting. Most motherboards are capable of some rudimentary VGA output, and even the newest video cards all do too. If they didn’t have that capability, you wouldn’t be able to do anything with the computer until a full OS was loaded, which would be a bitch for people working on them.
All the adaptor does is get the plugs to fit. The monitor and video card can talk to each other just fine in VGA mode. You just don’t get as nice a picture, is all.
Are you calling it a ‘serial port’ because it’s shaped a little like that 9-pin D-connector that serial ports use? A regular VGA port has 15 pins in three rows.
According to that page, the Powerbook G4/500 has a VGA port that can drive a monitor with a maximum resolution of 1280 x 960. Your display may have a VGA port as well (my 23-inch BenQ with its 1920 x 1280 resolution does), and if it does, it will internally convert the VGA signal to display it.
All PowerBook models have a s-video output plus either a VGA or DVI output, depending on model. Here’s a page that will help you identify the ports on your book.
Looking at the specifications for the Cinema Displays, it seems you need to have a DVI output to drive it.
I just checked the back of my Y2K TiBook; it has a (standard) 15 pin VGA port which, at a casual glance, may look like a serial port. For that, just get a VGA-to-DVI adapter, as others have said. The “round connenctor” is an S-Video out for direct connection to TVs.
The Apple store guys say my video card cannot support it. Other Apple guru types say it can. For five bucks I can get the physical interface jack. Gonna try it. What could it hoit?
Oooh that looks great. But, does it addess the post above? Does it essentially “digitize” the analog graphics coming from my machine? My TiBook does have one PCM/CIA slot and while on the road the Broadband card lives in there but at the house, I don’t use that.
Would invest in this card, if I knew it would digitize the signal on the way out and feed to the Cinema Display. And, while I wouldn’t drop for a Trinitron, I’d surely keep an eye out for a second smaller Cinema Display. The 15" Apple displays aren’t too pricey on eBay. This set-up would let me sell the Mac Mini I’m using and go to just one machine.
The card doesn’t take an existing signal and digitize it. It’s an entire video card, and as such gives you the ability to run 3 monitors off of your TiBook. This video card supports DVI-D output, which is what your cinema display requires.
I can plug it into my elderly “WallStreet” PowerBook G3 1998 series, a computer that was being sold back when OSX, FireWire, USB, and digital video were all scarcely more than gleams in Steve Jobs’ eye, and hook a cinema display to it if I want to.
ETA: your second, or rather, third display needs to be VGA, whether Trinitron CRT or Envision flatscreen.
What if I ONLY want to use that device to solve this issue? Can’t I just plug it into the TiBook and then plug the Cinema display in? I don’t really have to use 3 displays, do I?
( I feel that this is a stupid question, but from reading the posts, it sounds as though I HAVE to use 3. Hmmm. )
You don’t have to, but it would be a cool benefit. Looks like you’ll have to buy the card to use that particular display since it’s DVI only, but you don’t have to use your native VGA port if you don’t want to or don’t have a compatible display.
Again, that is correct. You don’t even need to use the built-in TFT screen if you don’t want to. You can have the computer use ONLY the external Cinema Display.
No, no. Let’s not be hasty. I’ve been mulling over the productivity and work-flow benefits of using multiple screens.
After making some preliminary drawings, I think I’ve come up with a physical layout that can best suit my needs. It may be more than I wanted to spend, but I think that in the end, the increased sales and ergonomic nature of the design will prove to be worth the considerable cost and effort.
Initially, I will get this interesting device and just hook it up to the Cinema Display. That, coupled with the TiBook’s TFT, is more than enough acreage. If I need to, I know I can throw in another monitor.
