Watching TV / playing game consoles on an Apple Cinema, possible?

Watching TV / playing game consoles on an Apple Cinema, possible?

Hey all,

I’m new to the boards obviously. I was in the mall the other day and absolutely fell in love with the 30” apple cinema display. I love the resolution, the style, the size is perfect ect…

The only question I have about it is would I be able to use it as a tv as well? Could I play game consoles such as an PlayStation 2 or Xbox at the same quality I would on a normal HDTV? Could I connect some sort of HDTV tuner to it (I’ve seen some HDTV tuners with DVI out?) and use it to watch my cable company's HDTV packages?

I really would like to get this monitor if it would replace my current TV setup as well as my computer monitors. Any information would be really helpful.

Well, I don't live in the US, but I'll go out on a limb here.

From what I can see on the Apple site, it only has DVI and firewire inputs. So if you could find something with the appropriate DVI output, you could technically connect it. However, I'm not sure those resolutions are true HD (or at least the resolutions that HD TV kit outputs, but I'm not 100% on that one). As for playing games, I'll say no, unless again the console has a DVI output. I'm sure you could get all sorts of fancy converters, but you'd be better just buying a proper LCD TV.

The Cinema display is meant for connecting a computer to, not for watching TV I guess

chuckalicious said:

Well, I don't live in the US, but I'll go out on a limb here.

From what I can see on the Apple site, it only has DVI and firewire inputs. So if you could find something with the appropriate DVI output, you could technically connect it. However, I'm not sure those resolutions are true HD (or at least the resolutions that HD TV kit outputs, but I'm not 100% on that one). As for playing games, I'll say no, unless again the console has a DVI output. I'm sure you could get all sorts of fancy converters, but you'd be better just buying a proper LCD TV.

The Cinema display is meant for connecting a computer to, not for watching TV I guess

Click to expand...

The thing is apple cinema says it require "Dual Dvi", I don't know if there are any tuner boxes with Dual Dvi out there. The best idea i've had in the way of how to do is to buy a cable tv tuner box with a component out and get a component in video capture card, then rig the cable box and game systems up though a switch box. It seems like there has to be a more "intended" way to get other equipment working on it, 30" and 2500 dollars+tax is way to big and way to much for a dedicated computer monitor.

You might want to look at Gefen's HD-Mate at www.gefen.com . Was announced at Mac Expo and is supposed to do what you want. Except their current models only drive the 23" Cinema Display.

ashden said:

You might want to look at Gefen's HD-Mate at www.gefen.com . Was announced at Mac Expo and is supposed to do what you want. Except their current models only drive the 23" Cinema Display.

Click to expand...

awesome, it seems there is one with 30" support stated for a release as well!