NEC PA271W-BK with 2012 Mac Mini anyone?

[7enderbender]

Hi there again,

So before pulling the trigger on my new Mini I actually went today and looked at new monitors. I'll probably want a 27" wide gamut screen so I had narrowed it down to the Dell, the HP and one of the NECs. The Dell looked much worse in the store than I had anticipated - I understand now what people mean by the distracting "sparkle" of their antiglare coating. Yikes. The HP looked way better but I know that it's color specs are not as good.
So, at that point I'm actually willing to spend a bit more and get a NEC again. Had very good experiences with those before. Problem now is that it doesn't come with an HDMI port. Man, I don't remember times when buying a new computer turned out to be so tedious. Anyway, is anyone using this combo, Mac Mini with NEC PA271W-BK? I guess I could use the adapter that comes with the Mini and connect it to the mini display input from the TB output. But that also means that I can't connect ever any other TB device, right?
So what other options are there without spending God know what else and/or degrading quality?

 

[scottyd1119]

I've had that monitor for a year now and recently bought a mini. It is a very nice monitor and has been excellent at matching prints with the display. Really happy with it. I use a nec mini display to display cable to connect to it using the tb port. I would think the hdmi to dvi would work fine too. I bought the version with the spectra view included and I would highly recommend that if you do any photography work and need calibration. Even if you already have a calibrator the software is excellent by itself and worth the extra cost. If you have any other questions about it I would be more than happy to answer them

 

[7enderbender]

I've had that monitor for a year now and recently bought a mini. It is a very nice monitor and has been excellent at matching prints with the display. Really happy with it. I use a nec mini display to display cable to connect to it using the tb port. I would think the hdmi to dvi would work fine too. I bought the version with the spectra view included and I would highly recommend that if you do any photography work and need calibration. Even if you already have a calibrator the software is excellent by itself and worth the extra cost. If you have any other questions about it I would be more than happy to answer them

Thanks a lot. So maybe I should just go with it. Still trying to find out if the DEll I was looking at in the store was an older version since - supposedly - they have reduced the antiglare coating issue. Notwithstanding, I'd prefer the NEC just based on past experience.

So can you explain again how you connect it to get the full resolution and which cables (and for about how much) I need here? I was on the Apple site chat earlier today and the linked me to some $99 cable that got very sketchy looking reviews. Doesn't sound right. And I think my original thought about connecting it via the HDMI out on the Mini is probably not realistic since it doesn't seem to support the 2560x1440 resolution.

As far as calibration goes: I read somewhere that my Colormunki Display is compatible with the Spectra View software. If not the x-rite stuff seems to work OK as well. Thanks again.

 

[scottyd1119]

I would have to double check that the resolution is the same as when it was connected to my MBP but I'm pretty sure it was full resolution. I'm out of town until wed so unfortunately can't confirm that for you. I bought the cable directly through nec for 29 if my memory serves me correctly. The spectra view software will work with most calibrators I have a spyder 3 that works with it as well although the one that comes with it is far superior to it. If you don't get the BK-SV model you will have to still purchase the spectra view software and again if memory serves me correctly is pretty much the same as the kit but look into that. I purchased mine through BHphotovideo which was the cheapest at the time. Great place to buy things from, quick service and fast shipping. I can get a lot of thing next day after ordering it with just ups ground to Connecticut.

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One other thing as long as you get a tb device with two ports and connect the mini display to the second port it should work fine that the video signal is passed through. I don't have anyway of testing this but from my understanding of what I've read this is how it's supposed to work

 

[blanka]

As far as calibration goes: I read somewhere that my Colormunki Display is compatible with the Spectra View software. If not the x-rite stuff seems to work OK as well. Thanks again.

Keep the colormunki in the box. The NEC is so perfect calibrated in the factory, you can only mess things up.
Pick either the precalibrated sRGB or the AdobeRGB preset, and pick the same profile in OSX as display profile. Turn on auto-brightness and just use it.

 

[Mr. Retrofire]

The Dell looked much worse in the store than I had anticipated - I understand now what people mean by the distracting "sparkle" of their antiglare coating. Yikes.

Newer Dell displays have a much better AR coating.

 

[thekev]

Keep the colormunki in the box. The NEC is so perfect calibrated in the factory, you can only mess things up.
Pick either the precalibrated sRGB or the AdobeRGB preset, and pick the same profile in OSX as display profile. Turn on auto-brightness and just use it.

They publish spectraview. That's the only thing I would use for it. With measurements for primaries representing max saturation per color, older versions had the option to use factory measurements. All displays drift over time, and the NECs do support a certain range of targets. I wouldn't trust any sRGB target out of the box on an Adobe RGB display without testing, but the native one should be decent. It depends on the OP's requirements. I would stay away from auto-brightness of any kind if dealing with anything where color matters. It's better to keep the work area consistent in lighting and find a good setting based on that. The possible issue with the Colormunki display + spectraview would be that I'm not sure X-rite ever allowed the use of their SDK for the colormunki version. It works with the i1 display pro, which is mostly identical hardware.

 

[Mojo1]

Two NEC Questions...

The NEC is so perfect calibrated in the factory, you can only mess things up.Pick either the precalibrated sRGB or the AdobeRGB preset, and pick the same profile in OSX as display profile.

Where do you select the pre-calibrated presets?

And since there are a number of long-time NEC owners here, I'm hoping that you can save me the trouble of calling NEC tomorrow...

I have an NEC2490WUXi2 connected via an Apple DVI to Mini DP adapter. When it wakes from sleep the display does not turn-on instantly. Instead, I see a blue screen with a small NEC display setting window. Then the display goes black, then it comes on and looks like one would expect it to...

The same thing happens when I use it with my 13" MBP. I thought that it occurred because I was using it with a portable Mac but it is the same with my Mac Mini.

Is this normal behavior? I think that I need to select another setting via the NEC menu but I don't know which one to change.