Hi,
Thanks to all who responded to my query about using a 21" SGI/Sony
GDM-5411 monitor (looted from the corpse of an octane2) on a Mac Pro.
Here I summarize the salient points for those who might wish to
attempt the same thing:
1) Dave Schuller pointed out that the "Sun" cable style on the SGI
monitor is in fact a 13W3 connector. He also noted that many SGI
monitors used a different sync signal than those used on PCs
(specifically, sync on green).
2) James Vergis pointed to some sites that sell both adaptors that
would allow attaching a 13W3 cable to the Mac's DVI port, as well as
little (~ 80 USD) boxes that purport to convert different sync
protocols. This looks like it should work (but I haven't tried it).
3) With some chagrin I confess that when I crawled around the back
of the monitor, I discovered that the 13W3 cable was NOT, as I had
assumed, hardwired to the monitor, but is plugged into what looks
like a standard VGA port (in fact, there are two VGA ports on the
back). When I attached to the Mac using a VGA cable and the Apple-
supplied DVI-to-VGA adaptor, the monitor worked fine. I was able to
set the refresh rate to 120 Hz, and now ooh-ing and aah-ing in stereo.
4) Before I figured out part 3 about, I was looking about for
alternate monitors, and I discovered that New Egg seems to be running
low on ViewSonic G225f CRTs (one of the few remaining CRTs with a
sufficiently fast refresh rate for use with stereo applications).
They're down to "open box" versions, which suggests to me the well is
running dry, and a couple of other places were showing
"Availability: Call"...so if you're considering getting a CRT
monitor for stereo graphics applications, you might want to do it
sooner rather than later.
Cheers,
Pat
------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------
Patrick J. Loll, Ph. D. (215) 762-7706
Associate Professor FAX: (215) 762-4452
Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Director, Biochemistry Graduate Program
Drexel University College of Medicine
Room 10-102 New College Building
245 N. 15th St., Mailstop 497
Philadelphia, PA 19102-1192 USA
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
