Adjust brightness Apple Cinema HD display

[PapaPiccolino]

Hi everyone.

I have a MacPro 5.1 running High Sierra with all updates. I am trying to use my old Apple Cinema HD display 23 inch. This is one of the models from circa 2002, clear perspex case with ADC connector. I own an Apple DVI to ADC adapter, so I can connect the monitor and it works perfectly, except for 1 problem - I can't adjust the brightness.The USB cable of the display is plugged in to the computer, and I have zapped PRAM, but no dice. I can't see any way to adjust the brightness. Neither the power button on the right on the display, nor the display preferences shortcut button on the left, work. You press them and they do nothing. The keyboard shortcuts don't work. This problem also exists on an older Mac Pro running El Capitan. So I have a nice display with non-adjustable brightness.

If anyone has any idea how to get adjustable brightness, I would be most appreciative.

Thanking you in advance.

 

[jbarley]

Just a thought, but have you tried any of the many 3rd part apps use to control screen brightness.
Many if not most of them are free also,

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[PapaPiccolino]

hi jbarley. Thanks for that reply. I appreciate your time.

I was dimly aware of those apps, but avoided them until now. A few minutes ago, I downloaded the first one on that list, simply called Brightness. It seems ok, but I don't think it actually adjusts the display brightness in the true sense of the word. I think it simply applies a filter of some sort over the display. It might have to do, because I don't think there are any "proper" alternatives.

There is an Apple support page that specifically references this issue, which I just found. It states :

You cannot adjust the brightness of some older Apple displays. In OS X 10.10 and later, the Brightness slider may no longer appear in the Display pane of Displays preferences.

Change your Mac display’s brightness

On your Mac, change your display’s brightness manually or automatically.

support.apple.com

This is the sort of behaviour from Apple that really gives me the poops. It would take one of their minions a day or two of coding (maximum) to enable brightness control in these displays, yet they just arbitrarily drop this support for what appears to me to be no good reason. These are not 3rd party displays, they are genuine Apple product, and they are very nice, top quality displays, a lot better than most current monitors costing several hundred dollars. You can connect the display, you can use it, you can change the resolution, you can create and edit display profiles, but you can't adjust the brightness ? Huh ? Why ?

Apologies if I've taken this opportunity to whinge.

Thanks again.

 

[PapaPiccolino]

Sorry, if I could also add - my computer is set up in a room with a fair amount of natural light. I can work without artificial lighting for large portions of the day. As you could appreciate, natural light varies day to day and throughout each day, and this affects the visibility of the display, so having the ability to adjust brightness would be ideal. Having no adjustable brightness does not make the display unusable, but there are many times when such a bog standard, ordinary feature would be useful.

I don't have options for setting up anywhere else.