New LG 38UC99-W compatibility with Macbook Pro?

[OVERTASK]

Yeah....if I want 5K, I guess I'll have to go with Dell like I said and use 2 ports. Silly Apple and LG didn't think of this so they could market this display to older MBPs. IMHO....

I think it was likely intentional, seems like a messy solution having two USB-C cables with adapters or have one with a splitter.

 

[DrtyHarry]

4K only I'm afraid, max res for DP 1.2 (single steam)

This won't help?

http://www.apple.com/shop/product/MMEL2AM/A/thunderbolt-3-usb-c-to-thunderbolt-2-adapter
[doublepost=1477968190][/doublepost]

I think it was likely intentional, seems like a messy solution having two USB-C cables with adapters or have one with a splitter.

I know many running the 5K Dell on 2015 MBPs with no problems...

 

[JTToft]

This won't help?

http://www.apple.com/shop/product/MMEL2AM/A/thunderbolt-3-usb-c-to-thunderbolt-2-adapter

- That's the option that might allow you to drive it at 4K. 5K is impossible until a dual to single adaptor comes out, if it does.

 

[2commakid]

Hey Harry - Just a quick post to say thanks for the info here, my screen just arrived (lovin' it!) works fine with HDMI albeit a bit laggy with a connection to my MBP 2015 (MRP 2016 arriving end Nov ) so I just ordered the cable you suggested on Amazon which i'll be here tomorrow. Screen is awesome so far tho!

 

[3587]

Hey Harry - Just a quick post to say thanks for the info here, my screen just arrived (lovin' it!) works fine with HDMI albeit a bit laggy with a connection to my MBP 2015 (MRP 2016 arriving end Nov ) so I just ordered the cable you suggested on Amazon which i'll be here tomorrow. Screen is awesome so far tho!

How much did you pay and where did you get it? Extend the warranty? What monitor did you use previously?

 

[3587]

For those still interested in the LG 38" i just got one:

Now waiting for the MBR to go with it.

I ordered mine two days ago from Amazon/LG. No idea when it will ship. Still waiting on the 2016 MacBook Pro as well.

Have any photos of it with multiple windows/pages open?

 

[3587]

Alright... Just hooked up my LG 38UC99 to my 2016 MacBook Pro 15"... I ordered what I thought to be the right cable for 75Hz, but it did not work... So, I plugged it in via USB-C. Coming from an iMac 5K, the text on this monitor is pretty darn bad I have a LOT more space to work with, but it just isn't pixel perfect. Thoughts? I believe I have it setup correctly.

 

[3587]

My BestBuy never had any of the older 4K displays or the 5K Dell for me to look at. But I know what you are talking about and looking for. With the 21:9 I can work with a full spread newspaper open and have open more than enough palettes than I need to work with. I use InDesign a lot and the 21:9 is much friendlier for me to work with. The 5K does show images a lot nicer.....but there really isn't much to take full advantage with the 5K yet. I was able to see the Dell and the 21:9.....Going with the 21:9. It would nice to see a 5K in a 21:9. And the 21:9 makes working in FCP sooooooooo much easier. For me anyhow....


Harry

I have the 38UC99 connected via USB-C to my '16 MBP... Is this the best connection? I love how wide it is, but the text just isn't as sharp as it was on the iMac 5K, obviously.

 

[symphara]

I read a lot of great things about this display....I'm not a gamer, I'm a photographer and do a good amount of video editing and the display is said to have color of sRGB at over 99%. I have been torn for a while if I should grab one of these large 21:9 displays or get a 27" Dell 5K. I was going to get the 5K from Dell because the 21:9 displays were not even 4K until just as of recent. And now that the price of that display is far less than half from when it was first released...seamed like the way to go. And as a photographer/retoucher...I'm not so crazy about the curved display. Other guys in my line of work said it's something that I can more or less get used to. I still have about 2 weeks to decide if I should stick with this monster display, or spend a few hundred less and get the much smaller 27" 5K Dell...now that would have to run with both Thunderbolt ports....and Apple has said it is supported. This LG is brand new and even though I have seen images of it running on OSX...I had to be sure. Both Apple and LG said it would work....but I did get some confusing and conflicting info from both. I think I have it all sorted out though.

Now, I ran into some trouble trying to find out if this display could work with my new Macbook Pro. And after doing a ton of research and speaking to both Apple and LG...it looks like it can in fact work. However, there is not a Thunderbolt 2 connection to the display and I will have to use the HDMI. However, this display is rated to hit 60Hz. The specs of the HDMI on my machine say that refresh rate is 3840x2160 at 30 Hz....or 4096x2160 at 24 Hz refresh rate (and no mirroring at that rate). So I can get 4K, but I wouldn't be able to hit that high of a refresh rate. The solution, a DisplayPort 1.2 to HDMI 2.0 Active Adapter that can hit 4K at 60Hz as well as supporting RGB up to 12 bpc, YCbCr 4:4:4.

LG told me that it was VITAL to use a high speed/quality HDMI cable. Just to be safe, I'll probably grab a monster cable that can transmit 27Gps. Apple told me that I can use the Active Adapter that they sell at the Apple Store made by Belkin. WRONG! I read several reviews on the product and not one person who purchased it was able to get 4K/60Hz. This specific question is actually posted on the Apple Store for this product yet it has never been answered (since 2015). I did some digging and found 3 adapters that should work. I read reviews on all of them...and most of them did work for Mac, some were hit or miss on a PC.

So, in order to get this 4K 21:9 display working with my new MacBook Pro (with AMD Radeon R9 M370X card), I need to get one of these Active Adapters and a high quality HDMI cord. I'm not sure if anyone really cares, but I will go ahead and post the 3 units that I found that should work since it took me forever to find all this info. Perhaps there is someone else looking at this display and wondering if it will work with the MacBook Pro. Oh...but before I go on, the display is said to go on sale in about 2 weeks time from now. B&H Photo has them listed for $1499 but they do give you a $200 gift card...and if you live outside of NY, it's tax free and so is shipping....so figure the display runs $1300 at the end of the day with the promo.


The brands of the converters are as follows:

Uptab
Club3D
Accell

After having read scattered reviews, I decided to go with the Uptab model found here...
http://www.uptab.com/minidisplayport-thunderbolt-to-hdmi-4kat60hz-adapter-cable-gold-plated.html

It can be found on eBay and on Amazon as well. The Club3D can also be found on Amazon as well. All three are said to do the same thing, the more current and recent reviews I read that were more specific to the MacBook Pro were from Uptab, so I decided to go with them. If it doesn't work for whatever reason, I will simply return it and try one of the others. The Uptab seems to promote a bit more to Mac users. Some of the reviews I read about the Club3D were not that great....but I also read some improvements have been made to it. I did read that those using the Uptab confirmed 4K @60hz and 4:4:4: .

B&H is taking pre-orders or you can get an alert as soon as they are available. To be honest...I was going to just grab the 5K Dell. There isn't much out there in 5K other than my high resolution digital camera, so I really can't do much with 5K RIGHT NOW...so I hope I am making a right move here with this display. I would love to hear opinions. This thing was just announced the other day. I saw images of the display working in OSX...so I had assumed it should work with my computer...but needed to be sure. If I do end up with this display, I will post back how the Uptab adapter worked and if I was able to get 4K @60Hz via my HDMI. Do you think these 21:9 displays are worth getting over a smaller 27" Dell 5K display? I was going to get the Dell 5K but now that they make a 21:9 in 4K....I'm really tempted. Watching a movie on this thing must be insane!

Hope this info helps someone else...if I missed anything, PLEASE correct me. If you think I'm making a mistake getting this display, PLEASE tell me why. I think having such a long timeline when rendering/editing video in FCP will be awesome. There sure is a lot of real estate on this thing, and in 3840 x 1600....I can't see why not? I may just start playing some games just to see my jaw drop. THANKS!


-Harry

According to Dell, "Dell PremierColor delivers factory-tuned 99% AdobeRGB and 100% sRGB coverage, impressive grayscale tracking and a color calibration factory report certifying that colors are true-to-life and accurate with an extremely small deltaE of less than 2."

So if you're a photographer that might be nice.

I have the Dell 5k and I really like it. It works perfectly in 4k too, there's no bluriness. You need dual-DP for 5k and single-DP for 4k. It has three DP ports (two normal, one mini). There's no other possibility for input, so with a Macbook you need the appropriate adaptors.

The super wide one looks amazing, I'd definitely get that for gaming. Not sure about anything else.

 

[mickliq]

I currently have a 13" MBPr late 2013 connected to 2 TB displays chained together via TB. With my Late 2016 MBPr arriving today, my original thought was just to continue using this setup by using a TB/Displayport to USB-C adapter (which I purchased at the same time). The only downside is that apparently I need to run separate power to the MBPr 2016 because the old split Magsafe AC/DP ran power through the Magsafe and apparently there's no power through the DP that can power the MBPr 2016 (boooo!). I'll have to buy 2 more USB-C AC adapters (one at home and one at work, keeping the one that comes the MBPr in my bag for travel) which is C$180, or I can "upgrade" to a 38UC99 which I assume will power the MBPr 2016 through USB-C on a single cable.

Anyone have thoughts on the screen real estate and display quality of the 38UC99 vs. 2 side-by-side 27" TB displays?

 

[3587]

I currently have a 13" MBPr late 2013 connected to 2 TB displays chained together via TB. With my Late 2016 MBPr arriving today, my original thought was just to continue using this setup by using a TB/Displayport to USB-C adapter (which I purchased at the same time). The only downside is that apparently I need to run separate power to the MBPr 2016 because the old split Magsafe AC/DP ran power through the Magsafe and apparently there's no power through the DP that can power the MBPr 2016 (boooo!). I'll have to buy 2 more USB-C AC adapters (one at home and one at work, keeping the one that comes the MBPr in my bag for travel) which is C$180, or I can "upgrade" to a 38UC99 which I assume will power the MBPr 2016 through USB-C on a single cable.

Anyone have thoughts on the screen real estate and display quality of the 38UC99 vs. 2 side-by-side 27" TB displays?

Hello,

I have the 2016 MacBook Pro 15" and the LG 38UC99. I'm using the USB-C to USB-C connection. It powers the MacBook Pro as well as pushing the image to this gigantic monitor. In addition, the 38UC99 has two USB ports on the back... Through this one USB-C connection, I now have access to those two USB ports. It works pretty slick!

EDIT - Initially I thought this was charging the MBP, but the battery kept dying, so it DOES NOT charge your MBP, especially when using this gigantic monitor.

 

[fisherman188]

Yeah....if I want 5K, I guess I'll have to go with Dell like I said and use 2 ports. Silly Apple and LG didn't think of this so they could market this display to older MBPs. IMHO....

I'm sure they thought of it but what they actually want to do is market you a 5k display plus a new 2016 MacBook Pro! They are all about forcing upgrades.

 

[Yoshimura]

Hello,

I have the 2016 MacBook Pro 15" and the LG 38UC99. I'm using the USB-C to USB-C connection. It powers the MacBook Pro as well as pushing the image to this gigantic monitor. In addition, the 38UC99 has two USB ports on the back... Through this one USB-C connection, I now have access to those two USB ports. It works pretty slick!

Regarding the use of the included USB-C cable...

Resolution is 3840 x 1600 @ 60Hz?
Charging power is 60W?
USB speed is 2.0 or 3.0?
Sound can be sent to the monitor?

Also, can you please tell me its height at the lowest height adjustment?

Many thanks!!!!!

 

[3587]

Regarding the use of the included USB-C cable...

Resolution is 3840 x 1600 @ 60Hz? - Yes
Charging power is 60W? - Not sure, but it does charge the MBP 15"
USB speed is 2.0 or 3.0? - Not sure, how would I find out?
Sound can be sent to the monitor? - Yes - I've hooked up Bose speakers to this screen, reduces amount of connections I need to the MBP.

Also, can you please tell me its height at the lowest height adjustment? - I'll try and measure today, but the bottom of the monitor sits about an inch or two off the desk, maybe.

Many thanks!!!!!

 

[sevimli]

Apple now says this....

With OS X Yosemite v10.10.3 and later, most single-stream 4K (3840x2160) displays are supported at 60Hz operation on the following Mac computers:

• MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2015)
• MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014)
• Mac Pro (Late 2013)
• iMac (27-inch, Late 2013) and later
• MacBook Air (Early 2015)

Does this mean I can just simply connect a Thunderbolt cable to this display and get 4K @ 60Hz? If I'm reading this correctly, I don't need to use an HDMI?
[doublepost=1474018367][/doublepost]And this article says that both the air and pro can support 4k @ 60hz and that apples specs are wrong. So I am thinking I can connect this display to my pro with just one Thunderbolt cable?
[doublepost=1474018400][/doublepost]http://arstechnica.com/apple/2015/03/yes-the-2015-macbook-air-supports-4k-displays-at-60hz/

I have the 34inch of LG, with tb 2.0 ports, and it works at 60hz with my 2013 MBP.

 

[Yoshimura]

Regarding the use of the included USB-C cable...

Resolution is 3840 x 1600 @ 60Hz? - Yes
Charging power is 60W? - Not sure, but it does charge the MBP 15"
USB speed is 2.0 or 3.0? - Not sure, how would I find out?
Sound can be sent to the monitor? - Yes - I've hooked up Bose speakers to this screen, reduces amount of connections I need to the MBP.

Also, can you please tell me its height at the lowest height adjustment? - I'll try and measure today, but the bottom of the monitor sits about an inch or two off the desk, maybe.

Many thanks!!!!!

You can check charging power and USB speed in System Information (About This Mac, System Report...).

Thanks again!

 

[RyanC1384]

Hi Everyone, Happy Thanksgiving!

I've narrowed it down to purchasing this LG 38UC99-W monitor to work as my desktop setup with the new Macbook pro 15", but I'm concerned with the same question that was originally asked on this thread.

Could you help me answer whether or not the NEW 2016 Macbook Pro 15" edition will work via USB-C with this monitor at 60-75hz? I'm hearing that it will not, but wanted to see if anyone had actually tried it?

Do we need to buy this adapter, mentioned on the thread to get this to work optimally?

In addition, I use a Dell Latitude e7270 for work, will that machine work with this monitor? Will it work at 60hz?

What should I be concerned with, if anything? Thanks everyone!

 

[3587]

Hi Everyone, Happy Thanksgiving!

I've narrowed it down to purchasing this LG 38UC99-W monitor to work as my desktop setup with the new Macbook pro 15", but I'm concerned with the same question that was originally asked on this thread.

Could you help me answer whether or not the NEW 2016 Macbook Pro 15" edition will work via USB-C with this monitor at 60-75hz? I'm hearing that it will not, but wanted to see if anyone had actually tried it?

Do we need to buy this adapter, mentioned on the thread to get this to work optimally?

In addition, I use a Dell Latitude e7270 for work, will that machine work with this monitor? Will it work at 60hz?

What should I be concerned with, if anything? Thanks everyone!

I have this display and I'm returning it... Two things... The text is difficult to read, just not sharp... Very low PPI. I'm going with two 5K's instead. Second, it does not charge the 15" while you're using the screen... Kills the battery fast! It's going back.

 

[RyanC1384]

I have this display and I'm returning it... Two things... The text is difficult to read, just not sharp... Very low PPI. I'm going with two 5K's instead. Second, it does not charge the 15" while you're using the screen... Kills the battery fast! It's going back.

Thanks! Can I ask how you're connecting and the refresh rate you're using? I've read that the direct USB-C to USB-C connection has diminishing returns for the new Macbook, but hoping for a work around. Do you use the displayport adapter referenced in my comment?

Have you seen any improvement by changing the scaling?

 

[Yoshimura]

I've read that the direct USB-C to USB-C connection has diminishing returns for the new Macbook, but hoping for a work around.

Since an adapter still need to be connected using USB-C, how could this be possible?

 

[3587]

Thanks! Can I ask how you're connecting and the refresh rate you're using? I've read that the direct USB-C to USB-C connection has diminishing returns for the new Macbook, but hoping for a work around. Do you use the displayport adapter referenced in my comment?

Have you seen any improvement by changing the scaling?

Connected via USB-C. Unable to tell refresh rate, but it connected at its highest setting.
No improvement changing scaling. It's just not the monitor for me. If you've ever used an iMac 5K, you'd understand.

 

[Yoshimura]

Connected via USB-C. Unable to tell refresh rate, but it connected at its highest setting.
No improvement changing scaling. It's just not the monitor for me. If you've ever used an iMac 5K, you'd understand.

What is the highest resolution when using scaling? 3440x1440?

 

[RyanC1384]

Connected via USB-C. Unable to tell refresh rate, but it connected at its highest setting.
No improvement changing scaling. It's just not the monitor for me. If you've ever used an iMac 5K, you'd understand.

I haven't, I'm using a couple crummy Dell 24" screens that aren't even HD with VGA and DVI connectors. That's why I'm updating bigly here. Moving from being a Windows man my entire life to the new Macbook Pro 2016 version and debating on an ultrawide screen or 2 27" monitors. I'm really wanting to make the 34 or 38 inch ultra wide work, but it sounds like the new Macbook is just not going to work with these options as well as the LG 27" that they've built for it.

 

[Yoshimura]

debating on an ultrawide screen or 2 27" monitors.

You should consider two 24" 16:10 instead of two 27" 16:9.

24" 16:10 have about the same height has 27" 16:9 but with a more manageable width.

Dual Dell U2415 would be a pretty nice setup.

 

[kingjames1970]

Hello,

I have the 2016 MacBook Pro 15" and the LG 38UC99. I'm using the USB-C to USB-C connection. It powers the MacBook Pro as well as pushing the image to this gigantic monitor. In addition, the 38UC99 has two USB ports on the back... Through this one USB-C connection, I now have access to those two USB ports. It works pretty slick!

Can I ask what you use it for? Thinking about this but worried about sharpness and colour, I'm a designer and love the idea of having lots of windows open. How is the colour and does the curve worry you at all?