Mini to DVI Input on DLP TV

Yes, a common but unfortunate problem that rear projection televisons, no matter the technology, overscan the image to make sure the video border is guaranteed to be beyond the physical edge of the screen. This creates big problems when connecting a computer where you expect to see all the pixels, even those at the extreme edge.

Most DLP televisions that I am aware of do not have a user setting to control the amount of overscan. I believe this applies to the Mitsubishi model you have mentioned as well. Unless there is a service setting for overscan inside the TV, the fix will have to come from the computer side.

I am pretty sure that if you make a connection to a televsion using S-video (requires an adapter sold by Apple in the case of the mini), you will then have control of overscan by means of a simple yes/no flag within Display Preferences. Better still, if you install ATI Displays 4.5.6 you will have a more granular level of control of overscan, but again, only over an S-video connection. ATI Displays does have a provision for adjusting overscan on DVI attached displays, but only for "some" graphics cards, and the mini doesn't seem to be one of them.

As far as finding a solution in other third party software, I am not optimistic. There are at least two good programs that allow you to set custom timings, but as far as I know, neither one of them allows you to control overscan on a digital display. Some people will say that altering what are called "porch" timings during video blanking will allow you to control the amount of overscan. While I agree that altering porches will have that affect on an analog, magnetically deflected system as in the case of a traditional TV, they do not work in the same manner for a digital device that is clocked. I'm not calling people liars that have claimed success using this technique, but I think those that have had success have just been lucky.

I realize I'm not offering a solution, or even hope for one. The best I can say is stay away from rear projection TVs if you aim to use them much with a computer connection, unless perhaps the TV is the second head and the primary head is a computer montior.

So a couple more points to your questions; VGA vs. DVI won't really make a difference. If possible, I'd get a set with DVI/HDMI over VGA. True Plasma and LCD won't have this issue because they can do one-for-one pixel mapping and don't have any pixels under the bezel.

I jumped over to the AVS Forum to look into this a bit more. Apparently Samsung DLP sets have anticipated that a computer connection requires all the pixels be shown on the screen and so some (all?) of their sets have a "Wide PC" mode to accomplish this. I notice the set you were looking at from Mitsubishi has a lot of formats available...Stretch, Stretch Plus, Narrow, Standard, HD Expand, Expand and Zoom. Did you try them all? Perhaps one of them will keep the whole Mac desktop on the screen.

I am still skeptical that the picture would look that good. It would seem to me that, in the case of the Samsung's PC mode, scaling would be taking place, similar to changing the screen resolution on an LCD monitor. It usually results in bluriness. But I don't have first hand experience with it. Hopefully someone that actually owns a DLP and a Mac will chime in on this thread and offer their input.

I should say that for iTunes video, the resolution is so low I don't think the concern for how perfect is the image will matter much. iTunes videos are pretty low res AFAIK.

Kevin,

What did you find out? I too want to show iPhoto slideshows on whatever TV I end up with. Let us know what you found...please.

Just to post what I ended up with.

It has been a couple months now. I have a Westinghouse 37" HDTV LCD TV (Best Buy, Cruthfield, etc). The TV has a video port (DB15) and a DVI port. I connect my PowerBook to the DVI port on the TV. I receive a crisp and beautiful picture for displaying iPhoto and whatever is on the PowerBook screen. It is like having a HUGE display on the PowerBook.

I do not have HDTV (through Cable TV or Satellite) and don't think I plan to for a few years. However, this setup is REALLY nice. The TV was rated well on CNET. The pricing is excellent too!!

Hope this helps someone out there.


G4 MDD Dual 1Gig Mac OS X (10.3.9)

I've got a DLP and Mini (core duo) set up. Samsung 50" with the "Wide PC" option. Unfortunately, Tom's guess is right -- Wide PC results in a little blurriness (not visible at all in photos or iTunes video; slightly noticable with text) and Wide TV (the alternative setting) results in losing most of the menu bar. The TV is interpolating. It's far from a disaster but, if I were watching a DVD (or, better yet, true 720 source material), I might take the trouble to reset the TV to Wide TV and then switch back to Wide PC when done. More tellingly, I haven't actually switched the setting when showing slide shows -- you really can't tell in photos.

In brief, if you want to get maximum screen real estate, the Samsung "Wide PC" option is fine. However, if you need dot-for-dot clarity, Wide PC won't do (and Wide TV means you lose much of the menu bar and perhaps the dock).

MiniDuo; iBook G4; iMacG3 Mac OS X (10.4.5)