While Apple weren’t the first to invent high-DPI displays or to put them into consumer electronics, they did popularize them fairly effectively with the Retina displays in the early 2010s and made a huge number of them in the following years. The computers they’re attached to are getting up there in age, though, and although these displays are still functional it isn’t quite as straightforward to use them outside of their Apple-approved use. [David] demonstrates one way of getting this done by turning a 5k iMac into an external monitor.
The first attempt at getting a usable monitor from the old iMac was something called a Luna Display, but this didn’t have a satisfying latency. Instead, [David] turned to replacing the LCD driver board with a model called the R1811. This one had a number of problems including uneven backlighting, so he tried a second, less expensive board called the T18. This one only has 8-bit color instead of the 10-bit supported by the R1811 but [David] couldn’t personally tell the difference, and since it solved the other issues with the R1811 he went with this one. After mounting the new driver board and routing all of the wires, he also replaced the webcam with an external Logitech model and upgraded the speakers as well.
Even when counting the costs for both driver boards, the bill for this conversion comes in well under the cost of a new monitor of comparable quality from Apple, a company less concerned about innovation these days than overcharging their (admittedly willing) customers. For just a bit of effort, though, these older iMacs and other similar Apple machines with 5k displays can be repurposed to something relatively modern and still usable. Others have done similar projects and funded the upgrades by selling off the old parts.
“admittedly willing” Not all people buy Apple products are doing it “willingly”.
Apple does some pretty shitty marketing tricks that put a lot of pressure on people to buy their product over others. This is particularly true for younger folks. Some Apple advertising is effective promoting bullying of children if they don’t have an iPhone. Particularly leveraging messaging system incompatibilities to alienate kids with non-Apple devices.
If you live in an economically disadvantaged country (like I do in Belarus) then having an iPhone is actually alienating and makes you a prime target for after-school beating for having rich parents. That’s how things work outside of America.
My kid not having an iPhone has kept them out of toxic middle school group chats and the fallout.
Now, on topic, LCDs are tricky buggers, and driving them is no joke, trust me, and especially these high resolution, high refresh units. DSC compression, anybody? Not fun, but totally doable with enough documentation. Good luck getting it though.
Oh! I’ve dine this same exact thing about a year ago!
The 5k iMac is one hell of a screen!
My hardware couldn’t quite drive it the best for gaming, but i was able to witness Warframe captura mode in glorious 5k HDR at like 5 fps to take some pictures with.
I also hooked up the speakers with a crossover board ao the tweeter/mid and woofer are not mixed together.
Also hooked up the imac power button to my board.
Also also, connected a PSU internally so i could reuse the stock power cable.
Mine I just changed the RTC battery for the exact same one (important, because where it is located it is rather hot), installed a slim and fast Linux on it, and it is no still in everyday use for audio production. Stable as a rock, splendid picture.
Why driver board are so expensive when res > 2k ?
And why are they reserved for such or such model ?