G4 Tips on Connecting to an External Monitor?

I recently purchased a Samsung 23" monitor for my iBook G4. Although the image isn't bad, it's not as good as the notebook screen. Is there any way to make it better?

The highest native resolution on your iBook G4 is 1024x768.

So I think you're stuck with that... sorry

Regards

wkb3 said:

I recently purchased a Samsung 23" monitor for my iBook G4. Although the image isn't bad, it's not as good as the notebook screen. Is there any way to make it better?

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If by "not as good" as your iBook you mean the quality is not as good...as "Sur3mac" mentioned, your iBook's external monitor abilities are "mirroring" only...so you can only mirror the resolution that is on your iBook (1024 x 768).

A 23" monitor is a pretty good size display...and as you may know, LCD monitors have a "native" resolution where they look their best.

Your 23" display is probably a "widescreen" format monitor (16:9), and probably has a native resolution of 1680x1050, 1920 x 1080, or 1920 x 1200.

So forcing it to run at 1024 x 768 (a 4:3 format) will stretch things horizontally...and cause the text & graphics to not be as sharp as it would be at it's "native" resolution.

Hope this helps,

- Nick

I thought I had read somewhere that a patch could be downloaded to help the image. Still, it's better than looking at a 12" screen when I don't have to. Thanks!

Pigoo3 - will downsizing to a 19" make a difference?

wkb3 said:

I thought I had read somewhere that a patch could be downloaded to help the image. Still, it's better than looking at a 12" screen when I don't have to. Thanks!

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I don't know what specific iBook model you have...but give this link a read...specifically looking at the "2nd display support" section.

Apple iBook G4/1.0 12-Inch (Early 2004 - Op) Specs (iBook G4 - Early 2004 - M9426LL/A) @ EveryMac.com

There's an additional link there you may want to check out.

- Nick

wkb3 said:

Pigoo3 - will downsizing to a 19" make a difference?

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You would have to find an external LCD monitor that:

1. Is a 4:3 aspect ratio monitor (more "square-shaped")...rather than the widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio monitor (more rectangular shaped).

2. Insure that the monitors "native" resolution is 1024 x 768. This would most likely be a 17" monitor...but I guess there may be some 19" monitors out there that could be 1024 x 768 as well.

Hope this helps,

- Nick

Edit: I just checked a couple websites...and it looks like you would actually have to "down-grade" to a 15" monitor to get a native resolution of 1024 x 768 for an external monitor. And a couple websites I went to didn't even sell 15" monitors anymore. Macmall.com had a couple.

Will do. Thanks!