Output to an HDMI TV

Question

Level 1

85 points

Output to an HDMI TV

Hello everyone,

I am wanting to connect my MacBook (Intel Core2 Duo 2Ghz) to my TV, a Pioneer PDP-434HDE (the actual box that all TV inputs are connected is the Pioneer PDP-R04E).

I have an Apple mini-DVI to DVI adapter, connected to a DVI-HDMI cable, which in turn is connected to the HDMI input of the PDP-R04E. The TV shows no image (just as if nothing was connected to the input) and the MacBook does not acknowledge the display; the Display System Preferences pane does not show it and it is not in the Displays menu bar item. The system profiler shows the 'Display Connector' as having 'No display connected'.

The thing is that I know what it should look like. The PDP-R04E also has a VGA input. I have an Apple mini-DVI to VGA adapter, which is connected to the PDP-R04E using a normal VGA cable. This works exactly as expected, with the PDP-R04E showing up in the Display System Preferences pane on its own window as well as being listed in the Displays menu bar item. The system profiler shows the PDP-R04E along with its technical details.

I am 100% sure the HDMI port on the TV is working as I can connect my DVD player and TV tuner to it okay. I am 100% sure that the mini-DVI port on the MacBook is working since I can use it to connect to the VGA input of the TV. The cable components have each been replaced at the Apple store several times, and I am fairly sure that they are not the source of the issue.

I desperately want to connect via HDMI because for reasons best known to themselves Pioneer put the VGA port at the front of the box (which is most unwieldy) while the HDMI port is sensibly at the back.

I have read through other people's DVI to HDMI issues and they are all lucky in that they are able to actually have their display recognised by the MacBook! So unfortunately they have been no help with my problem.

Any advice or tips would be gratefully received.

iMac 20" Core 2 Duo 2.16GHz; MacBook Core 2 Duo 2GHz; PowerBook 15" G4 1.5GHz, Mac OS X (10.5.2)

Posted on Apr 27, 2008 8:07 AM

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Answer 1

Apr 27, 2008 9:22 AM in response to Zak Saurin

All I can tell you is what I experience. I connect as follows:
Macbook==> mini-DVI to DVI adapter ==> DVI to HDMI cable ==> Yamaha RX-V663 receiver HDMI in ==> HDMI cable out ==>Panasonic plasma
Once everything is on and the receiver properly switched to the right input and so on, my MacBook has no problem "seeing" the Panasonic and a panel for it shows up in Display Preferences along with the built-in "Color LCD".

If things get out of whack, and sometimes they do, it's because the Mac is detecting the RX-V663 as the display device and this will show up also in Display Preferences. The Mac sets a low resolution in this case and the image may not appear on the monitor. This may be what's going on in your case. Check Display Preferences and check video settings (ie. Are they different than the default?).

For me, the mismatch is easily cured by telling the Mac to "Detect Displays". This is the first menu choice on the menubar if you enable the "Show displays in menubar" in display preferences. The Mac will generally reconfigure as it finds the path all the way to the monitor. Unplugging and re-inserting the video adapter will accomplish the same thing.

If these don't work, the problem could be your Pioneer gear. On my Yamaha, specific inputs can be assigned to a specific menu choice. For instance "DVD" could be set up to accept component video from one of the component inputs and optical audio from one of the optical inputs. Or you could choose video over HDMI and audio over coaxial digital. There are any options, and the defaults are not always perfect for what you need to do. Maybe your Pioneer has something similar, and you just need to tell it what to do.

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Answer 2

BSteely

Level 5

7,643 points

Apr 27, 2008 9:27 PM in response to Zak Saurin

Adding a couple of comments of my own to what Wayne has said; just because it has been confirmed that analog VGA is coming out of the MB's video port does not mean that DVI is also working. They are completely seperate circuits that just happen to share a connector. Furthermore, the Apple Mini DVI to DVI adapter could be the culprit. Until you have plugged in another DVI or HDMI display to the MB and get a working picture using the same cables, you can't be sure that the port, adapter or cables are all OK.

The Pioneer TV may lack having a plug and display driver, or DDC data channel, associated with it's HDMI ports. This type of thing is critical to a Mac but doesn't matter at all to the devices you reference, namely a DVD player and a TV tuner. Those devices will blindly output a video signal and format regardless of knowing anything about the attached display. A Mac will only output video when it properly detects a display. So it's possible there is no P and D driver (EDID data) backing the HDMI port on the plasma. Although I think it more likely there is a bad adapter or cable. Good luck.

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Answer 3

chasan

Level 1

10 points

Apr 28, 2008 8:56 AM in response to Zak Saurin

Maybe your DVI to HDMI cable isn't compatible with the Apple mini-DVI to DVI adapter. As far I know, the Apple adapter has a DVI-D (Dual Link, Digital only) connector, so I guess that you need a DVI-D to HDMI cable, otherwise I won't work.

Or since your TV's HDMI input has HDCP copy protection, I think you can't send high resolution video signals from your MacBook to the TV. Try lowering the resolution of your display.

More information at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDCP

I'm investigating how to connect my MacBook (MB404) to a Samsung LCD LNR238W TV. Seems that the best way (ie. trouble-free) is using the mini-DVI to VGA adapter.

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Answer 4

Apr 29, 2008 8:38 AM in response to chasan

chasan wrote:
Or since your TV's HDMI input has HDCP copy protection, I think you can't send high resolution video signals from your MacBook to the TV. Try lowering the resolution of your display.

The HDMI input of my Panny respects HDCP, and this is no problem. Good thought about the type of DVI cable; they're not all the same.

Don't give up on DVI or HDMI connection - the results are amazing.

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Answer 5

The Looby

Level 4

1,285 points

Apr 30, 2008 6:48 PM in response to chasan

chasan wrote:

As far I know, the Apple adapter has a DVI-D (Dual Link, Digital only) connector

The Apple adaptor is single-link DVI-D. It will accept a dual-link DVI-D connector,
but the pins/wires for the second link won't be connected to anything. A mini-DVI
port can't support dual-link DVI -- the connector doesn't have enough pins.

That's not a problem, the second link of a dual-link DVI is used only for display
resolutions well above 1080p HDTV. A dual-link cable works fine for single-link
connections.

Looby

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Answer 6

paton

Level 2

255 points

May 1, 2008 1:24 PM in response to Zak Saurin

mine connects ok i have the 436 panel and use dvi-hdmi.

the only thing is the picture size. too big (the picture is too big for the screen) with de-interlace on, on the mac and too small (a black frame around the image in the screen) with it off,

the quality is super though

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Answer 7

Zak Saurin Author

Level 1

85 points

May 12, 2008 7:27 AM in response to BSteely

Thanks everyone for your input here.

I have since tried connecting the same MacBook using the same MiniDVI - DVI adapater and the same DVI to HDMI lead to another (more recent) TV. This works precisely as expected.

It would appear that BSteely's suggestion that the Pioneer lacks appropriate software to connect to the MacBook is the most likely reason. I can think of no other reason why the MacBook doesn't connect but other devices do. This idea is further supported by the fact that Paton's (newer) Pioneer panel works okay. I guess they only later figured out that people would be connecting computers to the HDMI port.

I will see if Pioneer do a firmware upgrade and if successful I will post back to let everyone know.

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