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Q: MBP Retina: Poor image quality from hdmi output

Picked up my new MBP Retina yesterday, and as expected, the display is beautiful.

 

Hooking it up to my two 24'' monitors (both Dell ST2420L) was another story. Colors are badly washed out and fonts look jagged.

 

I've run the gammut of display settings, and feel pretty confident that's not the issue. I am however open to suggestions.

 

For a good description of the issue, check out this thread over on the Macbook Air forum: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4080525?start=0&tstart=0 They seem to be experiencing the same thing with the newer MBA's.

 

One monitor is hooked up via the onboard hdmi port, and the other is hooked up via a mini display to hdmi cable. Both are apple brand cables.

 

I had an older 2008 Macbook and used the mini display to hdmi cable without this problem.

 

Headed out to pick up a mini display to dvi adapter to see if that fixes the problem. Will update.

MacBook Pro with Retina display

Posted on Jul 19, 2012 8:52 AM

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Q: MBP Retina: Poor image quality from hdmi output

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  • by DMAD,

    DMAD DMAD Jan 16, 2014 5:13 PM in response to DMAD
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 16, 2014 5:13 PM in response to DMAD

    hold on... I think it worked... The resolution is not as good as it is on the MBP but better and sharper...

     

    thanks

  • by nhterry,

    nhterry nhterry Jan 16, 2014 6:52 PM in response to Alex Rumyankov
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 16, 2014 6:52 PM in response to Alex Rumyankov
  • by acdvorak,

    acdvorak acdvorak Mar 1, 2014 9:23 AM in response to Imperyal
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 1, 2014 9:23 AM in response to Imperyal

    Imperyal's solution worked for me on a Samsung 32" UN32EH5000F LED TV.  I tried everything else you can imagine, including all the other suggestions listed in this thread, but nothing else worked - not even the DCI to HDMI adapter.  But never in a million years would I have thought to rename the HDMI input source to "PC".  Genius!

  • by Ellis Z,

    Ellis Z Ellis Z Apr 28, 2014 10:29 PM in response to nhterry
    Level 2 (260 points)
    Apr 28, 2014 10:29 PM in response to nhterry

    Thank you!  This was a GREAT help.  I am using a Dell U2410 with two inputs (DVI for a Thinkpad and HDMI for a MBP Retina).  The MBP's output was embarassingly bad on the same display.  This fixes it and gets it back to where it's supposed to be.  Quite disappointed that Apple hasn't provided a patch for this.

     

    Thank you to all of you that helped us get this working.

  • by Scott Litman1,

    Scott Litman1 Scott Litman1 Nov 11, 2014 8:19 AM in response to CEGmac
    Level 1 (29 points)
    Nov 11, 2014 8:19 AM in response to CEGmac

    MacBook Pro 15" running OS X Yosemite with a Samsung SyncMaster P2770HD and running into the same problem.

     

    If I connect via HDMI, the image looks completely fuzzy as everyone else has experienced.

     

    If I connect via an old school VGA Connector and Mini DisplayPort connector, the picture quality is just fine.

     

    I tried the patch and that unfortunately didn't resolve things.  I then went into the Samsung Monitor and changed the name of HDMI to "PC" as suggested and it was magically fixed. 

     

    So great to get suggestions like that from these forums.

     

    Incredibly disappointing that an issue that is so pervasive and has been around so long has not been solved yet by Apple.  

  • by Pathway88,

    Pathway88 Pathway88 Nov 19, 2014 5:44 AM in response to Imperyal
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 19, 2014 5:44 AM in response to Imperyal

    I have a Philips Full HD with MBP, HDMI- Mini DP. Quality appalling. Went into TV settings, HDMI mode and change from Video to PC and big improvement (still not as good as i was hoping from a HD TV, but shouldn't be getting headaches from the jagged type).

  • by Pathway88,

    Pathway88 Pathway88 Nov 19, 2014 6:13 AM in response to Pathway88
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 19, 2014 6:13 AM in response to Pathway88

    I also changed the format from 16:9 to point to point. Maybe have also helped slightly

  • by fedort,

    fedort fedort Dec 13, 2014 6:58 PM in response to ehartye
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 13, 2014 6:58 PM in response to ehartye

    I know this is a pretty old thread, but I just had the same issue with an HP monitor. The picture was absolute crap using HDMI.

     

    To fix it I had to turn off underscan on the monitor, mine was set to auto, and then turn off underscan in the system preference in Yosemite (slider under Display settings).

     

    Now the picture looks great.

  • by DYEW1TNESS,

    DYEW1TNESS DYEW1TNESS Dec 28, 2014 3:36 PM in response to ehartye
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 28, 2014 3:36 PM in response to ehartye

    Did anyone get this sorted yet?

     

    Im running my late 2013 MBP 15" Retina i7 to my LG 32" LED Smart TV via HDMI. The image quality isn't great and doesn't look as good as it should.

    Any help appreciated.

     

    Chris

  • by bomolete,

    bomolete bomolete Jan 12, 2015 2:21 PM in response to DYEW1TNESS
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 12, 2015 2:21 PM in response to DYEW1TNESS

    I had the same issue where the MacBook Pro  HDMI output on an HP 2509m monitor looked blurry. I read the suggestions of renaming the HDMI source in the monitor to "PC" unfortunately the monitor model I have doesn't allow me to do that.

     

    I ended up buying an HDMI to DVI cable (20$) and connected the MacBook Pro to the DVI source on the monitor. The quality of the image is now good.

  • by Czubi,

    Czubi Czubi Feb 1, 2015 1:31 PM in response to bomolete
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 1, 2015 1:31 PM in response to bomolete

    Dear apple colleagues,

     

    I have the same problem.

    I'm connecting my mbp 15 retina via hdmi to my aoc lcd monitor (230LM00025).

    Colour and contrast is okay, but the text is horrible. That was even better on my old TFT with my Windows Notebook.

     

    I'm running the newest OSX.

     

    Could somebody help me?

  • by jkptd,

    jkptd jkptd May 2, 2015 4:44 PM in response to DMAD
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 2, 2015 4:44 PM in response to DMAD

    Thanks to all previous posters because you helped me resolve my problem.

    I don`t use an external monitor but an AOC LE24H037 TV with HDMI input, as a second monitor for my MBP.

    Here is my humble contribution:

    Walk through the settings of your TV/Monitor.

    See if it accepts YPbPR input and select that option

    On your MBP turn Underscan to 0.

    It worked for me and now I have crystal clear output.

  • by Lee Jon Chapman,

    Lee Jon Chapman Lee Jon Chapman Jul 26, 2015 3:48 AM in response to ehartye
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 26, 2015 3:48 AM in response to ehartye

    I know this is a *slightly* old post, but I found it via Google. I have a rMBP with a Samsung TV. Long story short, if you have a Samsung TV, click SOURCES, the select the input as "PC". Bang, works a treat.

  • by The IT Reverend,

    The IT Reverend The IT Reverend Sep 16, 2015 2:13 PM in response to ehartye
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 16, 2015 2:13 PM in response to ehartye

    Hey Guys I think I have found a solution.

     

    I don't have a retina display but share your problem nonetheless. Macbook Pro 2013 running an external Samsung TV monitor vis HDMI which previously looked awful now is perfect using this:

     

    https://www.elgato.com/en/thunderbolt/thunderbolt-2-dock

     

    It cost me $220 which is an expense¡ve solution BUT it DID work. Perfectly. I can see significant improvement. Perfect screen image, with no blurr. Colours are gorgeous.

     

    I think the problem is the built in apple graphics hardware so I took a wild guess that since this claims to offer up to 4K support that it would upgrade the existing graphic output. Effectively you are employing an external graphics card and getting a rather nifty dock to boot It did. Perfectly.

  • by aavrio,

    aavrio aavrio Jan 11, 2016 2:30 AM in response to Lee Jon Chapman
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 11, 2016 2:30 AM in response to Lee Jon Chapman

    Thank you for your post Lee, it solved the problem for me, too.

    I still find it astonishing though that changing the name of the device on your TV can change the quality of the image…

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