apple cinema display 24 lcd panel free sample

Same issue here today. First the smell of burning electronics, than the screen died. USB and power adapter are still working, but no video. I will have to go to an Apple authorized technician to get it repaired ASAP.

What really disappoints me is that I bought it from ebay 3 weeks ago. It was used and without warranty. My previous display was a 23" Cinema Display which run perfect for more than 3 years and was also used before and without warranty. It seems for me that recently there is something wrong with Apple quality. I hope for a cheap repair. Else, I"ll go with a Dell.

Your Apple Thunderbolt Display comes with 90 days of free telephone support and a one-year limited warranty. Purchase the AppleCare Protection Plan to extend your service and support to three years from your display’s purchase date. Only the AppleCare Protection Plan provides you with direct telephone support from Apple technical experts and the assurance that repairs will be handled by Apple-authorized technicians using genuine Apple parts. For more information, visit Apple support or call 800-823-2775.

That being said, no one seems to be able to get ANY of the older Apple Cinema Displays to work on the new M1 Macs. These same displays with the appropriate adapter work on the previous INTEL versions of Macs, but not on the new M1 Macs.

I"ve seen a video where someone is using an HDMI to USB-C connection to a Mac Book Pro M1, but so far no examples of the Mini DisplayPort to USB-C working at all.

So for those following this thread, assume that the older Apple Cinema Displays are incompatible with the M1 Macs until proven otherwise. So far all evidence says they are incompatible, even though the current Apple documentation says it should be compatible.

The Apple Cinema Display is a line of flat-panel computer monitors developed and sold by Apple Inc. between 1999 and 2011. It was initially sold alongside the older line of Studio Displays, but eventually replaced them. Apple offered 20, 22, 23, 24, 27 and 30-inch sizes, with the last model being a 27-inch size with LED backlighting.

There have been three designs for the Cinema Display, one featuring polycarbonate plastic and two featuring anodized aluminum. The first displays were designed to match the colorful plastic of the Power Mac G3 and later the Power Mac G4, while the second revisions were designed to match the aluminum aesthetics of the Power Mac G5 and PowerBook G4. The last available design matched the unibody laptops released in October 2008.

The Apple Cinema Display name was retired in July 2011 with the introduction of the Apple Thunderbolt Display, and the Cinema Display models were no longer offered on the Apple Store website as of August 2014.

The first model—the 22-inch Apple Cinema Display—was introduced in September 1999 alongside the Power Mac G4 and used DVI for video input. It was enclosed in a high-density plastic frame with an easel-style stand and had a display resolution of 1600×1024.

It was eventually replaced by a 20-inch model on January 28, 2003, that sported a widescreen display with up to 1680×1050 resolution and a brightness of 230 cd/m2.

The 20" Cinema Display was updated again June 28, 2004 to match the aluminum design of the new Cinema HD Display. It retained the 1680x1050 resolution of the previous model but saw its brightness increased to 250 cd/m2, and was introduced at a $1,299 USD price point.

The 23-inch model, dubbed the "Cinema HD Display," was introduced on March 20, 2002, and supported full 1:1 1080p playback on a 1920x1200 pixel display.

On June 28, 2004, Apple introduced a redesigned line of Cinema Displays, along with a new 30-inch model that, like the 23-inch model, carried the "Cinema HD Display" name. The new models had an anodized aluminum enclosure that matched Apple"s high-end lines of professional products. An alternative stand or a wall mount could be used with a VESA mount adapter kit that was sold separately. Though the display enclosures had not been redesigned for a long period of time, several "silent" improvements were made to the brightness levels and contrast ratios.

Due to the high resolution (2560×1600), the 30-inch model requires a graphics card that supports dual-link DVI. When the monitor was released, no Macintosh models were sold with a dual-link DVI port. A Power Mac G5 with the new Nvidia GeForce 6800 Ultra DDL graphics card was initially required to run the display at full resolution.

All Power Mac G5, PowerBook G4 15 or 17 inch and Mac Pro Mid 2006 to Mid 2010 models are capable of supporting it without the use of any adapters. Discrete MacBook Pros are also capable of driving the 30-inch display, while all Macs released after October 2008 require an additional adapter. The 30-inch Cinema Display was introduced together with the GeForce 6800, which supports two DVI-DL ports. ATI"s aftermarket AGP X800 Mac Edition also supports dual-link DVI, but has only one port. The Radeon 9600 Mac/PC was another aftermarket graphics card that supported dual-link DVI and was also compatible with older AGP-based Power Macs.

If a computer with a single-link DVI port (such as a Mac laptop with a mini-DVI connector) is connected to the 30-inch display, it will only run at 1280×800, even if the computer is capable of supporting 1920×1200 over a single-link connection.

On October 14, 2008, the 20-inch Cinema Display and the 23-inch Cinema HD Display were replaced with a 24-inch model made with aluminum and glass, reflecting the appearances of the latest iMac, MacBook Pro and unibody MacBook designs. The display features a built-in iSight camera, microphone and dual speaker system. A MagSafe cable runs from the back of the display for charging notebooks. It is the first Cinema Display to use LED backlighting and Mini DisplayPort for video input; however, the LED backlighting is edge-lit as opposed to the fully back-lit CCFL of the previous models, resulting in a lower brightness cd/m2 output. This display is only officially compatible with Macs that have the Mini DisplayPort connector. A third-party converter must be used in order to use this display with older Macs. Furthermore, many newer Apple users with newer MacBooks that solely have USB-C ports have been continuously perplexed by the fact that their Apple-branded Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) to Thunderbolt 2 adapters do not transmit a signal to their LED Cinema displays. Many users have mistakenly presumed their new MacBooks were incompatible with their older displays, when in fact an ordinary generic USB-C to Mini DisplayPort adapter will successfully transmit the same signal; This is due to a small internal difference in the newer Thunderbolt 2 and the older Mini DisplayPort standards.

With the introduction of LED panels, the matte, anti-glare screen panels were retired, except for the 30" Cinema Display. Apple had already moved away from matte screens in its line of iMac desktop computers on August 7, 2007. Apple had not offered any equipment with a matte, anti-glare screen after the 15" non-Retina MacBook Pro was discontinued in October 2013 until the introduction of the Pro Display XDR in 2019. This had been a cause for concern among users who wanted matte screens for their area of work, particularly graphic designers, photographers and users who extensively view their screens.ease-of-use.

On July 26, 2010, the 24-inch LED Cinema Display and the 30-inch Cinema HD Display were replaced by a 27-inch model that supports up to 2560×1440 resolution. This model was sold for $999 USD.

On August 7, 2006 the Aluminium Cinema displays had a silent upgrade that boosted the brightness and contrast ratios to 300/400 cd/m2 and 700:1. The last Cinema displays are still desirable to professionals being the last anti-glare displays made by Apple (until the Pro Display XDR) and having a true IPS 8-bit (no dithering) fully back-lit panel and slightly higher brightness than that of the newer Apple Thunderbolt displays, which have a reflective glossy screen and an edge-lit panel. These displays (including the LED Cinema 24”) are the last Apple desktop monitors made in 16:10 aspect ratio that is also used on MacBook Pros and provides more vertical work space.

iMac, minus an inch or so of thickness and the few inches below the iMac’s screen. It’s a bright and glossy-screened LCD that has some very appealing features, but a very limited list of supported Macs.

23-inch models, marked the end of Apple’s use of its proprietary Apple Display Connector (ADC) in favor of the industry-standard DVI connection. The new LED Cinema Display introduces quite a few new technologies to Apple’s display lineup, the most controversial of which is a connector that at this point appears unique to Apple, the Mini DisplayPort (Mini DisplayPort is based on

MacBook Air. Apple has said that all future Mac products will include Mini DisplayPort support, and converting cables and boxes may be in the offing. But in the meantime, this new monitor has a very limited audience.

Other new features include an LED backlight that is mercury-free, warms up faster, and may last longer than the CCFL backlights found in most LCD monitors. A single three-headed cable is permanently attached to the display, providing power to your laptop via a universal MagSafe power plug, video signal through the Mini DisplayPort, and a three-port USB 2.0 hub.

The new display also includes an iSight camera and microphone, and what Apple says is a 2.1 stereo speaker system which includes two speakers on the bottom of the display and a third, rear facing speaker on the back of the display that bounces the sound off of the stand and back towards the user. The sound quality of the display’s integrated speakers is much better than the speakers built into the MacBooks, but sounds tinny and lacking in bass when compared to the iMac’s built-in speakers.

The screen specifications are fairly standard for a 24-inch LCD, with 320 nits of brightness, a 1000:1 contrast ratio, 178 degree viewing angle, and 14ms average response time. The glossy screen can help give depth to images onscreen, but it can also be very distracting to some. If you are sensitive to glare, be warned that this display is very glossy, turning into something of a black mirror when powered off.

We connected the display to a 2.53GHz MacBook Pro with 4GB RAM, running OS X 10.5.5 and an Nvidia GeForce 9600M GT graphics enabled. We note the performance of the display at its default, out-of-the-box settings and then calibrate it to 6500K and a gamma of 2.2 using an Eye-One Display II or a bundled colorimeter, if provided. A panel of Macworld editors viewed a number of on-screen test images and rated each display as either Superior, Very Good, Good, Fair, or Poor in regards to color, text, and viewing angle performance as compared to a sampling of similar displays.

We looked at numerous different test files on the LED Cinema Display and found that it had an excellent viewing angle, with little or no color shift when viewed from virtually any vantage point. Gradients appeared smooth, and text was sharp and legible even at very small point sizes. Except for the very extreme edges and corners, color uniformity was excellent across the screen. I wasn’t able to find dead or stuck pixels on the screen.

When viewing a full black screen, there appeared to be some minor light leakage from the bottom of the screen, keeping the display from looking as dark as LaCie’s

324. The display was a little overly bright and cool, with whites having a subtle bluish hue. The LED Cinema Display benefited from calibration with our Eye-One Display 2, which measured the display’s default color temperature at 6700K.

I have two pet peeves with the LED Cinema Display (and Apple displays in general), and they both have to do with customization. First, the stand only allows you to tilt the display. I can live without rotating and swiveling, but I do think that height adjustment is a key feature—who wants to shove books, reams of paper, or inelegant risers underneath a $899 display?

My second beef has to do with adjusting the screen settings. The display has no buttons on it, but a brightness slider is available from your Mac keyboard. Changing anything else requires squinting your way through the calibration process in System Preferences > Displays .

The LED Cinema Display represents many firsts for Apple: the company’s first LED backlit stand-alone display, the first external display designed specifically for Apple laptops, and the first Apple monitor to sport the new Mini DisplayPort connection. Its lack of compatibility with other Macs and its lack of customization settings are disappointing, but it’s a good fit for its limited target audience. The LED Cinema Display is bright, environmentally conscious, and looks great next to a new MacBook.

The Apple  24 inch LED Cinema display  and the Apple thunderbolt display have been a  source of frustration for many people.   They flickers, go black, the screens gets garbage on them, the fans turn on and off.   After reading lots of forums and trying various things I have practically completely eliminated all the flickering on my  24 inch LED Cinema display,  here is how.

It’s  had a problem with flickering ever since I first got it back in 2009.  It started off that once a day or so it just went black for five seconds.   At other times  the  screen is completely filled with gobbledygook  until I sleep the display and restart it.   At other times the screen just flickers black for a fraction of a second,  but all the fans  in the screen power down and then power up again.  Apple have released various ‘fixes’  to the problem over the years which have never fully resolved  the problem. Phone calls to Apple support were of no use after the first year because they just claimed it was a hardware problem and ‘out of warranty.’  The flickering got extremely bad recently with ‘El Capitan’   and the flickering also got worse when I connected a Pegasus Thunderbolt hard drive.

It’s not just the Apple LED Cinema display that has been affected. Even Apple’s latest ‘stunning’ Thunderbolt Displays have problems too.  The Apple help forums are riddled with complaints…

But if you already have one, here are a few things that might help.Run  the display directly from your Mac Mini,  do not daisy chain it with a hard drive such as the Pegasus Promise.  Daisy chaining definitely caused more problems.

Try unplugging and plugging the thunderbolt connector or Apple display port connector,  sometimes the problem can be worse if the connect is not in tightly.

I have a 2009  LED Cinema Display, but if you have a newer thunderbolt display, try replacing the all in one cable with a  thunderbolt cable.  A lot of people have found out the problem was with the cable.  You’re probably better off trying to borrow a thunderbolt cable  or seeing if your local Apple store will lend you one because they are in excess of $50 each.

If  you are having really bad problems, make a corner of your screen a hot corner to put your display to sleep.  sometimes my computer is blinking so badly the screen goes crazy and I can’t see anything,  I can’t even see the menus to ‘ restart’  the computer.  But if I move my mouse to the ‘hot corner’  to sleep the display, and then wake the display up again sometimes the problem goes away.

Here I have activated the bottom left hot corner so that it puts the display to sleep. When things get really bad I can put the display to sleep with my mouse without having to see what’s happening on the screen. Then I can wake it up again with my spacebar and more often than not the problem has fixed itself temporarily.

Apple"s first major update to the Cinema Display line brings a much greener design and a raft of welcome feature updates, especially for MacBook owners. At the same time, a partial shift away from Apple"s mainstay professional crowd makes one wonder where the company is going and whether it hasn"t lost focus.

Despite being named after a movie theater, the Cinema Display was introduced in 1999 as a screen first and foremost for desktop-owning professionals; if you didn"t have a Power Mac using the then-new DVI standard, you were effectively locked out of ownership. It resembled a painter"s easel and had nothing but its video input for a connection, but its matte, undistorted, widescreen image was a boon for AV editors who needed both workspace and a more representative picture.

That all started to change in 2002, when the first DVI-equipped PowerBooks rolled out of Apple"s factories. While the graphics hardware inside portable Macs was still somewhat anemic for a full dual-display setup to work well, it meant that PowerBook owners could buy a Cinema Display and use it as a desktop replacement. By late 2003, even the 12-inch PowerBook could make the pure digital connection to a Cinema Display — albeit through a bundled dongle.

Combined with the front-facing ports of the Power Mac G5, these more advanced portables helped shape the first complete redesign of the Cinema Display introduced in June 2004. Aside from a thinner and more adjustable aluminum enclosure, which was ultimately a hint at the design of the iMac G5, its biggest additions were a pair each of FireWire 400 and USB ports that made it infinitely more useful for not just peripheral-laden desktop users but also PowerBook (and later MacBook) users who wanted a permanent hub for their peripherals. At the time, it was embraced as a strong example of Apple finally answering longstanding requests.

After that, however, Apple fell silent. Beyond a quiet panel update in late 2005 and periodic price cuts, the displays had largely remained the same and increasingly felt like relics (which the 20- and 30-inch displays still do, as of this writing). In the meantime, third-party displays became increasingly less expensive even at the high end, where quality has improved as well; while there have been arguments made in favor of Apple"s approach to color management, even Mac users have been known to joke in recent years that you bought a Cinema Display only to coordinate the fashion of your monitor with your computer. In some respects, the 24-inch iMac has been more suited to visual editing thanks to a significantly more modern LCD.

November of this year finally brought some relief through the LED Cinema Display, though this is the first instance in which a significant update to an Apple display hasn"t represented a complete remake of the entire form factor; as we"ll soon see, though, most of the real changes are on the inside.

By far the most obvious change is the black, glass-covered front, which is much bolder than it was in the past and clearly meant to give the impression of a seamless expanse rather than the conspicuous borders of the plastic and earlier aluminum models. It works and is useful for professionals who may previously have called out for black as a completely color-neutral backdrop for their work, but it has the unfortunate side effect of making the display slightly trickier to keep pristine; a careless grab at the edge is now likely to leave visible fingerprints, and dust is more conspicuous.

Most of the other visual touches are less noticeable but still pleasant to the eye. Although it"s really just the same sort of trompe l"oeil that Apple has been using to give the appearance of a thinner design on virtually all of its 2008 products, the tapered back leads to a Cinema Display that no longer feels "fat" or simple in construction, especially with seamless edges that give the impression of a one-piece design.

This new shell is also more eco-friendly than in the past, as it scraps the plastic side fills of the sides and uses glass for the display cover. Apple also claims the screen is free of arsenic, brominated flame retardants, mercury, and polyvinyl chloride, though much of this is owed more to the LED backlighting than anything else.

Practically speaking, though, those who"ve had the opportunity to use the last-generation Cinema Display will feel right at home, for better or for worse. The "hanging" design isn"t the most flexible and leaves portrait rotation and elevation out of Apple"s display lineup. That said, we"ve never been especially uncomfortable with it in most conditions and still find benefits as well. It"s easy to adjust the viewing angle or to turn the display (stand and all) to the right direction, and the space opened up beneath the screen is a convenient place to stow a keyboard or the debris that frequently accumulates during office work.

Word has it that Apple isn"t using the same LCD panel for the LED Cinema Display as in the 24-inch iMac, and we"d tend to agree; we"ve heard it may be a Samsung panel instead of the iMac"s, which is virtually the same as for an NEC MultiSync display near-famous for its color accuracy.

Whatever the supplier may have done, the new stand-alone screen is still very close to the iMac in terms of day-to-day image quality. Colors still "pop," especially reds and blues; there"s no noticeable grain, and viewing angles are still very wide (178 degrees from any direction) without producing the color inversion or washouts. Unlike the makers of some newer 24-inch displays that use cheap TN (twisted nematic) panels, Apple has chosen the higher road and is still using either PVA (patterned vertical alignment) or the top-end IPS (in-plane switching) for its display technology, both of which are much more comfortable and suited to color-sensitive editing. We"re inclined to say IPS but will investigate further.

Significantly, Apple isn"t using dynamic lighting to inflate its contrast ratio; that"s unfortunate for gamers and movie viewers, but it"s not as much of an issue for editors who may want a more consistent image.

Of course, the LED backlight is touted as one of the distinguishing features, and many other hardware vendors will say it improves color uniformity by lighting the screen more evenly. In our experience, though, about the only visible benefit — and the only one Apple trumpets — is the instant-on lighting, which doesn"t exhibit the short warmup period you see with typical cold-cathode fluorescent backlights. If anything, the new Cinema Display is somewhat dimmer than the 24-inch iMac. Both are entirely bright enough, but the monitor-only unit often has to sit at two-thirds brightness or higher where the fluorescent iMac and the LED-lit MacBook are still very comfortable even at their lower settings. Either Apple has introduced more dramatic steppings to the brightness controls or else the LED isn"t as powerful as it could be, even if it"s perfectly fine for actual use.

With the use of a glass cover, though, Apple may have taken one of its biggest risks yet. The glass introduces a significant amount of gloss and, with it, reflections.

The impact of reflections is somewhat overstated by those most determined to avoid it; while you might notice at first, in everyday use with typical lighting conditions they"re not often noticeable. Even at the bezel, where the always-black surface can act as a dull mirror, reflections are seldom distracting. We"ve even heard of artists or video editors consciously opting for the glossy displays, as the switch away from matte can actually produce a truer representation of the final color output and prevent someone using Adobe Photoshop, Aperture, or a similar suite from instinctively oversaturating the image before it"s sent to the web or the printer.

Assuming conditions are ideal, that is. While in our testing the background was never really an issue, there are certain circumstances in which the gloss is unavoidable. Viewing a predominantly black website or other document in daylight will also let you view yourself, for example. And if you"re unfortunate enough to sit in front of bright spot lighting (chandeliers, fluorescent ceiling lights, and certain floor-standing lamps come to mind), it may be hard to escape the reflection short of moving the display itself.

As such, these experts have to either carefully manage their lighting conditions or else consider another display. It"s not a disaster, but it"s a hindrance that was never an issue with the previous generation. Most entertainment-minded users don"t object to matte screens, but many artists do object to gloss. The environmental tradeoff of glass just wasn"t entirely worthwhile here no matter how many in the broader public might like it.

Apple clearly sees at least the 24-inch model in its third-generation Cinema line as a chance to bring some of the iMac"s all-in-one design philosophy to desktops and to lid-closed operation for desktops, and it"s this which has pushed the company to make the unusual decision to include full audio and a webcam rather than reduce costs further still over the old 23-inch display.

The LED Cinema Display uses the iMac"s trick of piping sound through the bottom and bouncing it towards you. Surprisingly, though, it"s actually a 2.1-channel setup with a dedicated internal subwoofer instead of the iMac"s 2.0-only design. For internal speakers, they"re much more appealing than those on the iMac or for most any other display saddled with often significantly underpowered stereo speakers meant only to satisfy office workers who just need enough to hear voice chats.

The system does a surprisingly good job of producing clear, warm-sounding audio: treble is very distinct (albeit not stellar) and bass isn"t lost in the mid-range as it might be otherwise. There are many users who could depend entirely on the Cinema Display"s speakers for entertainment, and they"re arguably better than many $50-70 external speakers that can"t get at least this basic audio range down pat.

Those expecting an audiophile-grade sound system will be disappointed, however, though it"s not necessarily something Apple can avoid. Due to the small space and the absence of close contact between the subwoofer and your desk, the bass won"t have the punch of a full 2.1 system with a subwoofer close to an appropriate surface. There"s also a slightly hollow-feeling sound that reminds you the sound is being pushed out of an aluminum casing and not a perfectly designed wooden shell. Thankfully, serious listeners can automatically override the built-in speakers by plugging speakers or headphones into an attached Mac"s audio-out jack, though this also leaves a significant portion of the display"s value wasted.

Less kind words can be said about the reduced expansion options. Further rubbing salt in the wound from the 13-inch MacBook"s abandonment of FireWire, Apple has also scrapped the two FireWire 400 ports found on older Cinema Displays. This is admittedly not the gravest concern — how many owners actually plugged video cameras or audio breakout boxes into their LCDs? — but it also comes at the expense of expansion, as technical reasons dictate that the three USB ports are now the sum total of the display"s expansion. It"s evident that the base MacBook and the MacBook Air were primary concerns in the design process, and we can"t entirely blame Apple for wanting extra space for that iPhone or still photo camera, but it"s a step back.

The refocusing of the Cinema Display as a notebook dock becomes obvious with the built-in MagSafe adapter, which is there solely to charge MacBooks. It"s arguably the one feature of the LED Cinema Display that simply can"t be replicated by other displays, and it"s a tremendous benefit for frequent road warriors; you can now leave your MacBook"s power brick in a bag and off the floor whenever you"re in front of the larger screen, saving you just a minute or two of time but a whole lot of clutter.

What might surprise most is the absence of a power button. Keeping with Steve Jobs" seeming fear of buttons, the new display reacts automatically. Plug a powered device (even a sleeping MacBook) into the DisplayPort jack, and it turns on; remove the cable, and it turns off. There"s a certain wonderful simplicity to this, but it also limits your choices for when the display will activate. You can"t turn the display off with the computer still running, and nor does the button serve to put both the display and the computer to sleep at the same time. It also makes unplugging peripherals difficult when a connected system is asleep, as there"s no way to elegantly do that without first waking the computer and the display at the same time.

Some might also be disappointed with the absence of dedicated brightness or speaker volume controls. We don"t see it as much of a problem given Apple"s Mac and peripheral lineup for the past year. Any of these have keys to adjust both brightness and volume themselves, while Mac OS X also has software controls. It could be a hassle with non-Apple keyboards, however.

Like with the MacBook, the redesigned display marks Apple"s first venture into using DisplayPort for video input. From a performance standpoint, it"s functionally equivalent to dual-link DVI but adds two-way signaling; it"s hard to tell if Apple is using this newfound interaction at all, but it has the potential for future uses.

The particular implementation doesn"t adhere to the official standard; Apple is instead using its own variant, dubbed Mini DisplayPort. This design is actually very convenient and makes for a far smaller, screw-free connection than even full DisplayPort. However, it also locks the display out of any non-Apple computer at present, and only the current MacBook range at that (other Macs are coming soon). There are no existing adapters to convert full DisplayPort, DVI or HDMI to use the display, so those hoping to use older Macs or non-Mac hardware will simply have to wait until if and when peripherals make the link possible.

But in contrast to the at times notorious Apple Display Connector, Mini DisplayPort should at least have broader industry support. The company has recently started offering free licenses to hardware and software makers and may ultimately get backing from rival notebook and video card designers looking to put video outputs into very small spaces.

Some have already railed against Apple"s use of DisplayPort as buckling to pressure from overly protective movie studios, as users have already encountered problems with being locked out of movies on external displays that don"t support anti-piracy encryption using High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection, or HDCP. To some extent, that"s true; Apple wasn"t technically required to use DisplayPort and could have insisted on keeping DVI and left purchased iTunes videos with no extra protection. The company was recently forced to patch QuickTime to loosen its restrictions, which until then were actually harsher than what the studios usually demand.

Nonetheless, it"s important to separate the technology from the content, and DisplayPort is still a move in the right direction. The LED Cinema Display won"t have problems playing any HDCP-encrypted videos, whether they come from the iTunes Store or not. And while movie studios have often been fairly open with standard-definition videos, many of these been less than generous with HD playback rights regardless of the platform. Apple has influence in online movie rentals and sales, but it can"t force studios to offer content without HDCP limits or control what happens with Blu-ray videos (should Apple ever adopt Blu-ray movie playback). DisplayPort at least lets Apple continue to offer support for playback on external displays no matter how the battle over copy protection pans out.

Deciding what to rate Apple"s latest display has been particularly difficult precisely because its value is entirely dependent on your choice of hardware and your lifestyle.

As an external display for a MacBook, or for most users of future desktop Macs, the display is excellent. It produces a vivid picture and could easily be called a lifesaver for Mac portable owners tired of tripping over AC adapters or plugging in several cables each time they revisit their desks. Apple"s design is quick to set up and easy to use.

But for everyone else, the situation quickly complicates itself. In the time-honored tradition of next-generation Apple hardware, the LED Cinema Display alienates not just older Macs but even systems that technically handle DisplayPort but haven"t used Apple"s format. It"s entirely likely that at least this 24-inch model won"t leave the store without a MacBook following at the same time. That"s no doubt what Apple would like, but it also sacrifices sales to users of any platform who might be in between system upgrades.

And of course, certain professionals or especially demanding home users simply won"t want the display at all due to the gloss. Again, it"s not terrible, but to exclude a significant portion of Apple"s bread-and-butter pro market from considering an ideally-sized display is effectively throwing money away. Even if a future 30-inch display goes with a matte cover, those prospective buyers aren"t likely to be upsold to the bigger offering — they"ll buy elsewhere instead.

There"s also the matter of priorities. A Cinema Display with speakers, a webcam and MagSafe isn"t necessarily what people want. Without having a component pricing chart, it"s impossible to say just how much Apple could have saved by stripping these features. However, in a fiercely competitive market for computer displays, dropping the price to $799 could potentially have picked up owners who wanted the least expensive color-accurate display possible.

As such, AppleInsider"s rating shouldn"t be used as an absolute gauge of quality, but rather a median point to help you know what to expect. If you"re Apple"s target user, you"ll probably love it and may well rate it half a star higher or more. If you don"t need the extras or you don"t like the tradeoffs, the display could be strictly average or mediocre. It also won"t appeal to buyers who are willing to exchange some image quality for a lower price tag.

From a purely technical standpoint, we like it. The picture is vivid, the sound is great for the class, and the design is both eye-catching and at times handy. We just hope that more Macs and Windows PCs can recognize Mini DisplayPort and that Apple doesn"t end up sacrificing a large chunk of its display sales to high-end customers in the name of those few mainstream buyers who can spend the money Apple would like.

The 24-inch glossy, widescreen display with 1920 x 1200 pixel resolution uses LED-backlit technology to provide instant full-screen brightness and great power efficiency.

Plug in three simple connectors on one cable the new industry-standard Mini DisplayPort, MagSafe, and USB and suddenly you have more room to work and play, power for your notebook, and access to peripherals. The built-in iSight camera, microphone, and speaker system let you video chat or listen to your music whether your MacBook is open or closed.

This model uses a Mini DisplayPort interface and consequently is compatible with all Mini DisplayPort-equipped MacBook, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Air models

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