New Mac Mini, Not so new LCD HDTV Monitor, no mac support

Question

Level 1

9 points

New Mac Mini, Not so new LCD HDTV Monitor, no mac support

I have been attempting to set up a Mac Mini with a Maxent LCD 26" HD TV I can't get either the RGB or DVI-D input to accept signal. I have purchased DisplayConfigX and SwitchResX_X. Maybe they could work, but I can't get a signal to stay on long enough to change the settings as listed in other posts. I have tried booting in safe mode as DisplayConfigX instructions suggest. But still only am able to see the screen until gear starts spinning with apple logo, resolution changes spontaneously to one that I suppose is unsupported and I get the unsupported display and a beautiful blank blue screen. I tried manually inputting the resolutions the monitor manual lists, while connected with an lcd pc monitor. But I can't get the Maxent LCD TV monitor to stay on. It appears that if I could get the Mac Mini to send this resolution signal to the Maxent I would be able to delete any unneeded settings and that would be it.
Perhaps Tom Fussy can help me.I have been at this for over two weeks now. So I have become super frustrated. Of course Maxentusa.com offers no Mac support. But state that if Mac mini is supposed to work with PC that it should work with my Mac Mini. My LCD TV is about 6 months old I could still return it for maybe a Sharp Aquos, if that $300 dollar more TV would work. I am happy with the Maxent otherwise. Keeping it, and having it work with Mac Mini Is my choice. Of course Apple offers no support for the Maxent monitor and directed me here. This is my first discussion group post. School me if I have not followed the rules completely.

Posted on Oct 31, 2005 3:44 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Tom Fussy

Level 3

540 points

Nov 2, 2005 2:15 AM in response to Paul Cooper5

A guy named GreGorGy posted a link to an interesting program that may be of help to you. I tired it and it worked as advertised on my system. What it does is, upon rebooting your mini, it forces 640x480 to be the active resolution. That is a really low resolution, but at least it can be a starting point and you will have some kind of screen to work with and perhaps move forward from there.

You may have to start out by connectiong your mini to the LCD PC monitor you mention to install and get this software running. But if you get that far, and then can get 640 x 480 to display on your Maxent, report back here and then we can discuss how to move forward from this humble starting point.

Reply

Answer 2

Tom Fussy

Level 3

540 points

Nov 2, 2005 2:16 AM in response to Tom Fussy

Oops. Forgot to include the link to the 640 x 480 thread...

Jennifer Ferre, "640 x 480", 08:39am Oct 5, 2005 CDT

Reply

Answer 3

Paul Cooper5 Author

Level 1

9 points

Nov 2, 2005 11:48 AM in response to Tom Fussy

Will do Tom & post back. Mahalo (thanks)

Reply

Answer 4

Paul Cooper5 Author

Level 1

9 points

Nov 9, 2005 6:31 PM in response to Tom Fussy

Thanks tried to download its a zip file that will not work, aren't zip files for pc only?

Reply

Answer 5

GreGorGy

Level 2

340 points

Nov 10, 2005 12:03 AM in response to Paul Cooper5

OS X uses ZIP - just double-click and it should expand. In fact, it should've just done so after the download.

Shout if you have more problems - I am sure I have stuffit on one of these machines somewhere...

Reply

Answer 6

Paul Cooper5 Author

Level 1

9 points

Dec 1, 2005 8:19 PM in response to Tom Fussy

I only worked on the LCD once I plugged in the Maxent settings revert back to 800x600 for a moment and then back to 640x480, then unsupported pops up with solid blue screen. Egads! If I can somehow get the mac mini to stop sending out the default settings. It seems like it could work. Also I still have DisplayConfigX and SystemRes on the mac mini. I changed all settings ( at least, I believe I did)to only allow 640x480 (thats how I got the LCD PC to only boot to 640x480.) So perhaps I don't have it installed properly. Screen, upon booting, displays a system error and asks if I want to fix or deal with it later. I choose to deal with later. Also the idea of having to manually close the setto640 application, never came up. Sorry I am so obtuse. But it seems like I am missing a few screws with this one. Thanks again for any help.

Reply

Answer 7

Paul Cooper5 Author

Level 1

9 points

Dec 2, 2005 5:51 PM in response to GreGorGy

Thanks Setto did finally work. Sometimes not to stable. But I have gotten the settings to export. So back to Tom Fussy

Mac Mini 1.42 g, superdrive, ATI 9200 Mac OS X (10.4.2)

Reply

Answer 8

Paul Cooper5 Author

Level 1

9 points

Dec 2, 2005 5:56 PM in response to Tom Fussy

I was able to get the settings for Maxent using Gregory's software to force 640x480. Here are my settings
DDC block generated by SwitchRes X for display
MX-26X3

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F
-----------------------------------------------------
0 | 00 FF FF FF FF FF FF 00 34 38 35 08 06 44 00 00
1 | 0C 0F 01 03 0F 3A 20 78 88 00 0D 00 00 00 00 00
2 | 00 47 4A BD CE 00 31 59 45 59 61 59 81 80 81 C0
3 | D1 C0 01 01 01 01 FF 1D 56 EA 50 00 20 30 46 28
4 | 55 00 40 44 21 00 00 18 8C 0A D0 8A 20 E0 2D 10
5 | 10 3E 96 00 40 44 21 00 00 18 00 00 00 FD 00 3C
6 | 55 1F 45 0B 00 0A 20 20 20 20 20 20 00 00 00 FC
7 | 00 4D 58 2D 32 36 58 33 0A 20 20 20 20 20 00 2D

-----------------------------------------------------
Valid DDC block: checksum passed

EDID Version........1.3
Manufacturer........MAX
Product Code........13576 (3508) (0835)
Serial Number.......17414

Manufactured........Week 12 of year 2005
Max H Size..........58 cm
Max V Size..........32 cm
Gamma...............2.20

DPMS Supported Features:
------------------------
Standby

Display type:
-------------
RGB color display

Input signal & sync:
--------------------
Analog input with: 0.700V / 0.300V
Serration Vsync
Sync on green
Separate Sync
Composite Sync

Color info:
------------
Red x = 0.000 Green x = 0.000 Blue x = 0.000 White x = 0.280
Red y = 0.000 Green y = 0.000 Blue y = 0.000 White y = 0.290

Established Timings:
--------------------
800 x 600 @ 60Hz
640 x 480 @ 75Hz
640 x 480 @ 72Hz
640 x 480 @ 67Hz
640 x 480 @ 60Hz
720 x 400 @ 70Hz
1024 x 768 @ 75Hz
1024 x 768 @ 70Hz
1024 x 768 @ 60Hz
800 x 600 @ 75Hz
800 x 600 @ 72Hz

Manufacturer Reserved Timings:
------------------------------

Standard Timing Identification:
-------------------------------
#0: 640 x 480 @ 85Hz (3159)
#1: 800 x 600 @ 85Hz (4559)
#2: 1024 x 768 @ 85Hz (6159)
#3: -768 x -614 @ 60Hz (FFFF8180)
#4: -768 x -432 @ 60Hz (FFFF81C0)
#5: -128 x -72 @ 60Hz (FFFFD1C0)

Monitor Description blocks:
---------------------------
Descriptor #0 is Timing definition:
Mode = 1366 x 768 @ 60Hz
H. Active...............1366 pixels
H. Blanking.............234 pixels
V. Active...............768 lines
V. Blanking.............32 lines
HSync Offset............70 pixels
HSync Pulse Width.......40 pixels
VSync Offset............5 lines
VSync Pulse Width.......5 lines
Pixel Clock.............76.79MHz
Horizontal freq.........47.99kHz
Vertical freq...........59.99Hz
H Image Size............576mm
V Image Size............324mm
H Border................0 pixels
V Border................0 lines
Non-Interlaced
Sync: Digital separate with
* Negative vertical polarity
* Negative horizontal polarity

Descriptor #1 is Timing definition:
Mode = 720 x 480 @ 60Hz
H. Active...............720 pixels
H. Blanking.............138 pixels
V. Active...............480 lines
V. Blanking.............45 lines
HSync Offset............16 pixels
HSync Pulse Width.......62 pixels
VSync Offset............9 lines
VSync Pulse Width.......6 lines
Pixel Clock.............27.00MHz
Horizontal freq.........31.47kHz
Vertical freq...........59.94Hz
H Image Size............576mm
V Image Size............324mm
H Border................0 pixels
V Border................0 lines
Non-Interlaced
Sync: Digital separate with
* Negative vertical polarity
* Negative horizontal polarity

Descriptor #2 is Monitor limits:
Horizontal frequency range.......31-69 kHz
Vertical frequency range.........60-85 Hz
Maximum bandwidth unspecified

Descriptor #3 is Monitor name:
MX-26X3

Mac Mini 1.42 g, superdrive, ATI 9200 Mac OS X (10.4.2)

Reply

Answer 9

Paul Cooper5 Author

Level 1

9 points

Dec 5, 2005 3:43 PM in response to Paul Cooper5

Tom Fussy:
I have the settings from the RGB connection. Do I need to also get the settings while hooked up with the DVI port if I want to view Mac Mini in Digital? At this point I am not using the HDTV setup so I would like to use the DVI connection for the best images from my Mac. But also I have been so frustrated that just getting a stable image seems good too.
Thanks again.

Reply

Answer 10

Tom Fussy

Level 3

540 points

Dec 5, 2005 4:58 PM in response to Paul Cooper5

You could hook up DVI and dump the DDC data to a file, but you don't need to. It might be interesting to see what exactly Maxent put in there, but it isn't necessary to do so.

Nope, this is perfect. Everything you need to configure SwitchRes X is contained in the Descriptor #0 data. What you need to do now is, connect to the DVI port, get a useable screen like 800x600 or 640x480 to work with and then open SwitchRes X and create a custom timing using the following:

Pixel clock: 76.79 MHz
HActive: 1366 pixels
HFront porch: 70 pixels
HSync width: 40 pixels
HBack porch: 124 pixels
VActive: 768 lines
VFront porch: 5 lines
VSync width: 5 lines
VBack porch: 22 lines

Make sure both check boxes for positive sync are checked and make sure "Use simplified settings" is unchecked. Now click the OK button. You should see your new timing added to the list and under Availability is should say "After saving". Click the Apply button. Now the Availabilty status should change to "After reboot". After rebooting you should see the timing is now available under the Resolutions/Active settings for the SwitchRes window. You are now ready to test your resolution. Highlight it and click on the Apply button. If all went well, you should have the native resolution you desire over the DVI output. You need to click on the confirming message SwitchRes X will put up on the screen. If something went wrong, SwitchRes X should return you to the prevously used resolution in 15 seconds. Good luck.

Reply

Answer 11

Paul Cooper5 Author

Level 1

9 points

Dec 6, 2005 11:52 AM in response to Tom Fussy

Thanks Tom, But getting the DVI to hook up to the Mac Mini is the problem. Same as with RGB before installing the setto640 fix from GreGory. So will that setto640 work to allow me to change DVI settings? It may sound strange but I have to drive to the Maxent about 15 miles to test these settings with each suggestion. It is so helpful. I am trying to understand more about these posts, so that I may at least give you a 10+ rating for all of your help.
Thanks again. So you mentioned ReSwitchX and not DisplayconfigX should I trash DisplayconfigX?

Reply

Answer 12

Tom Fussy

Level 3

540 points

Dec 6, 2005 6:05 PM in response to Paul Cooper5

Yes, you are going to need to get some kind of a screen working from DVI, even if it is 640x480 to start with. Hopefully setto640 will work for you. Didn't realize you had to drive 15 miles everytime you need to try something new. That certainly complicates things. Good luck.

Reply

Answer 13

Tom Fussy

Level 3

540 points

Dec 7, 2005 5:54 AM in response to Paul Cooper5

Paul,

Understanding that you drive 15 miles for each test, I went back and reread the whole thread and hit on something I hadn't thought of before. I was working under the assumption that you were getting native resolution to work from the VGA connector but I realize that is not the case. It dawned on me that there may be a problem with the timing in Descriptor #0 with respect to the mini. Frame buffers as found in computers build timings using pixels as the basic building blocks. Many frame buffers, especially older ones, were further restricted in that the smallest building block they could use had to be a multiple of 8 pixels, so 8, 16, 24, 32, 40...etc. More modern frame buffers overcome this restriction to some extent, and I am sure the mini can work from building blocks of a 4 pixel minimum, thus 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 24...etc. What I notice however is that there are parameters in Descriptor #0 that require two pixel building blocks, namely HFront porch, which is 70 pixels, but far worse is the fact that 1366 itself is not divisible by 4. That means you may never be able to drive this display in native mode.

Below is another timing that satisfies the "divide by 4" rule of the GTF for you to try in case the first timing offered doesn't work:

Pixel clock: 76.79 MHz
HActive: 1364 pixels
HFront porch: 72 pixels
HSync width: 40 pixels
HBack porch: 124 pixels
VActive: 768 lines
VFront porch: 5 lines
VSync width: 5 lines
VBack porch: 22 lines

Alternately, you could try this:

Pixel clock: 76.79 MHz
HActive: 1368 pixels
HFront porch: 68 pixels
HSync width: 40 pixels
HBack porch: 124 pixels
VActive: 768 lines
VFront porch: 5 lines
VSync width: 5 lines
VBack porch: 22 lines

What I am unsure of is how the Maxent is going to handle the two less (or two extra) pixels of active video in the horizontal. It may try to stretch (or shrink) the image accordingly and I don't know if that is really going to upset the image quality or not.

Ideally the mini is going to be able to handle timings per "divide by 2" and 1366 as found in the original timing offered, the one based on data from the DDC, won't be a problem. But just in case, consider one of these other two timings as a back up plan. Cheers.

Reply

Answer 14

Paul Cooper5 Author

Level 1

9 points

Dec 10, 2005 1:18 AM in response to Tom Fussy

Tom,

It worked! The last settings although the screen displays 1366 x 768 when it boots. I am haven't stability issues. Screen reverts to blue when computer is idle. I have other settings that don't work. Not sure how to eliminate these as choices. Buy the way, the last settings, were the only settings that the Maxent accepted. So now I need to clean-up the mess. I have already moved the setto640 hack to the desktop, so it no longer forces 640 settings @ start-up.

Reply

Answer 15

Tom Fussy

Level 3

540 points

Dec 10, 2005 10:07 AM in response to Paul Cooper5

Excellent! Glad to hear. Paul, I noticed someting else about advice I gave that may help stability. I told you to check the boxes for positive sync within SW X. Now I notice, going back and looking at the end of Descriptor #0 in the DDC data file you posted, it clearly states that the Maxent wants negative sync, not positive. So go back into SW X and change to negative sync and hopefully stability will improve.

Reply