TomHoward Posted April 25, 2012 Share Posted April 25, 2012 Morning all I'm after recommendations for a projector to pair with a current 27" imac, which has a resolution of 2560x1440. This sounds a bit of a pig - I'd hope to use display clone (it's a teacher's machine for a Music Tech classroom) as opposed to extended desktop. Am I right in thinking that the mac will be able to re-scale this display down for the second resolution, whilst still running at native on the local display? Otherwise do we need a native 2560x1440 projector? That sounds very expensive. Any advise or recommendations welcome - at the moment we've got a budget of £750 for the projector in the costings, but this is only an estimate at this stage. Thanks in advance Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterT Posted April 25, 2012 Share Posted April 25, 2012 The mac will probably scale it's own screen down to match the projector so the clone display will work. It's what ours usually do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Steve Posted April 25, 2012 Share Posted April 25, 2012 Our iMacs all scale to whatever you set the projector to under mirroring. The key is that you set the "VGA Display" resolution first ie, the projector. You won't need any sort of special projector to connect to your Mac. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomHoward Posted April 25, 2012 Author Share Posted April 25, 2012 That's a pity - I thought it would re-scale the external display as opposed to having to reduce the primary resolution. I'll keep looking - and whether there is a projector that will take a larger resolution and scale down internally to its native - anything that will let us keep something worthwhile on the local screen. Another possibility we are looking at is a big LCD/Plasma TV - something 47"+ - I'll look into the resolutions of these as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shez Posted April 25, 2012 Share Posted April 25, 2012 Most projectors will scale down resolutions a little above their native but the quality is never all that great. Scaling from 2560x1440 down to WXGA or something similarly budget projector friendly will lose so much information that it hardly seems worth it. I suspect you'll struggle to find any display device of significant size that will do a good job with a resolution that high for a sensible price. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Riley Posted April 25, 2012 Share Posted April 25, 2012 I just had a quick look on projectorpoint and for £750 ex vat you could just about get a 2000 lumen 1080p native projector. It would then be quite easy to set the Imac screen to 1920 x 1080 (which is still pretty high res) and mirror it that way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lite_lad Posted April 26, 2012 Share Posted April 26, 2012 Out of interest if your happy for the audience to see a lower resolution on the output then why does it matter so much to keep the high resolution on the monitor as it seems a little pointless to me? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomHoward Posted April 27, 2012 Author Share Posted April 27, 2012 It's because the iMac used for demos may have to double up as a teaching station as well, so it'll be a pain if we then have to swap the resolutions between every demo and using it as a stand-alone unit. I'll do some experiments with an external monitor and see if it will return to native resolution when the monitor is removed. Just to add as well that the £750 is ex VAT - looking though I can get a 50" LCD/Plasma TV for less than £600 inc vat at 1080p. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Baldwin Posted April 27, 2012 Share Posted April 27, 2012 In the past, I've had PCs with graphics drivers which cope with desktops bigger than the display device resolution by panning the display around the desktop when necessary (to follow the mouse). Can Macs be configured to behave in the same way?If this is to allow a teacher to explain the use of the package, then presumably it's desired that students are looking at whatever the teacher is pointing at (with the mouse)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete McCrea Posted April 27, 2012 Share Posted April 27, 2012 Mac's will usually default to the onboard screens native resolution when the external display is removed. When there is an external display connected, you'll get the option to Mirror the display, or run it in an extended mode. In both of these you'll get the option to set the resolution to one that works for you. The iMac's display is above 2k resolution (2048x1080), and I'm not aware of any reasonably priced 2K resolution projectors, so as the others have suggested, possibly the best route is a fullHD machine and then run the iMac at 1920x1080 for the projected demos. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomHoward Posted April 27, 2012 Author Share Posted April 27, 2012 Thanks guys. I think that the 1920x1080 resolution is what we will go with for demos, but it's possible I'll weigh up a 50-60" Plasma/LCD as well as a projector - we'll only be displaying to 10-12 people so it may be more compact and neater looking, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mac.calder Posted April 28, 2012 Share Posted April 28, 2012 A plasma is no different to a projector as far as the iMac is concerned. If you want to set up both, get a Distribution Amplifier. If you are using VGA, make sure it is capable of 1920x1080. If using DVI, most DVI splitters will be fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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