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User profile for user: btron
btron Author
User level: Level 1
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Mac mini is not playing nice with my Westinghouse LVM-42w2

Hi Everyone,

Let me break down what has been going on over the past day or so. I have my Mac Mini G4 1.25 hooked up via DIV to my 42" Westinghouse (LVM-42w2 - this is a 1080P LCD). The TV flashes signal out of range or warns me about not having a signal.

I am remoted into the machine and have been playing with different resolutions. I have SwitchResX installed and I am able to push a 1080i signal to the set. Although I prefer to push 1080p if possible... I can live with 1080i if it worked properly.

When the mini is at any resolution, even 1024x768 and I open front row I noticed that about every 45 seconds or so the TV complains about the mini disconnecting.

SO my questions are:

1) How do I set this mac mini up to push 1080P in SwitchResX? I have read all about keeping the Pixel Clock below 135Mhz - but I have yet to figure out the proper settings to do so... decent examples would be great.

2) Once the machine is set to run at 1080P, why is front row causing the mini to lose connection with the tv? From my observations I have only noticed this issue in front row... If I play a video full screen in QuickTime I don't have any issues. I do, however, see crazy jagged colors occasionally with VLC in full screen.


Thanks in advance.

Mac Mini G4 1.25Ghz, Mac OS X (10.5.1), 1GB ram

Posted on Dec 14, 2007 3:14 PM

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User profile for user: BSteely
BSteely
User level: Level 5
7,643 points

Posted on Dec 16, 2007 10:54 PM

With SwitchRes X, you can let it fill in all the blanks according to pre-set formulas. If, when building a custom timing, you click on the "Use simplified settings:" check box and then select "CVT-RB" from the associated pop-up menu, all you need type in is "1920" for Horizontal Active and "1080" for Vertical Active and "60" Hz for Vertical Scan rate. SRX will fill in all the other numbers. The dot clock will come down to 138.5 MHz when you do this. That's not quite the magic figure of 135 MHz, but it's close enough that it will probably work. If not, you can uncheck "Use simplified settings" and then edit the horizontal front porch, sync and back porch to shave off time (do this in 8 pixel increments) until the pixel clock reaches 135 MHz.

Hopefully all the other strangeness you are seeing relates to the pixel clock issue and all the problems will go away once you have a working 1080p timing.
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User profile for user: BSteely
BSteely
User level: Level 5
7,643 points

Dec 16, 2007 10:54 PM in response to btron

With SwitchRes X, you can let it fill in all the blanks according to pre-set formulas. If, when building a custom timing, you click on the "Use simplified settings:" check box and then select "CVT-RB" from the associated pop-up menu, all you need type in is "1920" for Horizontal Active and "1080" for Vertical Active and "60" Hz for Vertical Scan rate. SRX will fill in all the other numbers. The dot clock will come down to 138.5 MHz when you do this. That's not quite the magic figure of 135 MHz, but it's close enough that it will probably work. If not, you can uncheck "Use simplified settings" and then edit the horizontal front porch, sync and back porch to shave off time (do this in 8 pixel increments) until the pixel clock reaches 135 MHz.

Hopefully all the other strangeness you are seeing relates to the pixel clock issue and all the problems will go away once you have a working 1080p timing.
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User profile for user: ispytodd
ispytodd
User level: Level 1
5 points

Dec 20, 2007 11:11 AM in response to btron

Interesting. I have the same TV (LVM-42w2) and I jsut hooked up my intel mini to it. I'll post the autodetected settings that displayresx give me regarding the westinghouse. Out video cards may be different, but the displays are the same.

By default I get 1080p. Im having a problem where the screen is shifted off to the right about 1 inch leaving a black band on the right side. A bit annoying as I cant see the apple menu.

fyi here is a good switchresx tutorial i found.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=751713

-t
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Mac mini is not playing nice with my Westinghouse LVM-42w2

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