Mini display port to HDMI problem

Hi all,

I've been encountering similar problems with my early 2011 Macbook Pro (2.2 GHz Core i7) with Lion 10.7.3. Here's what I've found out so far.

I have connected my MBP to Sony's speaker system, that is connected to my Sony Bravia TV. I'm using using mini display port (Thunderbolt) to HDMI -connector (not Apples own product) to connect the MBP to the speaker system. This has been working perfectly until I rearranged some of my cabeling. After this I keep having trouble using my TV as an external monitor. The speaker system informs that something has been connected to it as it gives a warning how an external sound device has overruled the sound system. This happened also when my configuration was working, so the speaker system definetly detects the MBP and there is nothing wrong with my cabels. I have tried the ALT-CMD-R-P and the SHIFT-CTRL-ALT-POWER resets but these seems to have no effect to remove the problem.

Last night I read about how some users had success by shutting down Wi-Fi, so I did the same. I made sure that my MBP was not connected to my TV, then I shut down my MBP's Wi-Fi transmitter and then I connected the cable to the mini display port. After I clicked detect displays, my laptop gave the blue flickering and supprisingly the TV was showing my desktop. Weird how Wi-Fi could affect to the Thunderbolt, but hey... it's solved - or so I though.

Today I removed the cable to change my laptops position. After reconnecting it, the problem reappeared, the Mac does not recognise my TV as an external device. Detect monitor -button does nothing and while writing this I don't get that blue screen flickering and neither sound or video is being transferred to the TV. The only effects I can notice after inserting the cable are that the mouse cursor flickers once and that my sound system still gives the same notification how it's system has been overridden. I tried the same trick that worked yesterday with no luck.

I really would like to look at the log of that Thunderbolt device. Does anyone know if that is stored in the Console, or how to get access to it, if the log even exists?

Update to my previous post.

I connected the MDP/Thunderbolt->HDMI-cable directly to my Sony Bravia TV and after 10 seconds of waiting, the Detect Displays button reacted by sharing my screen to the TV. Then I disconnected the cable, reconnected it back to my Sony sound system that has been also been connected to my TV at all times. Again, after 10 seconds of waiting, the Detect Display button reacted giving the blue flicker and now the external TV/monitor is working again. I tested this couple of times and I Detect Displayes was working every time.

I really cannot say anything for sure what was wrong and what fixed my configuration. But I suspect that the Mac creates some sort of device profile of the last external device that was connected to the Mac. And if this profile corrupts or stops working you need to reset it and create a new profile by connecting another device to your Mac.

Like I said, I have no proof of this and it's more like a hunch what happened with my system. If you are experiencing this problem (not the mirroring-thing, that's a user mistake) please try and report if this gave any results for you.

Right. Forget what I said previously. Seems my Mini Display Port connector is indeed busted. After I got my picture transferred to my TV, I still had trouble getting audio working. My Console gave strange messages like:

kernel: Sound assertion ""Graphics vendor supplied 'av-signal-type' property indicates a DVI device with audio capabilities has been attached but cannot be supported."" failed in AppleHDAController at line 2445 goto handler

kernel: IOHIDSystem cursor update overdue. Resending.

kernel: Sound assertion "0 == mAvAssociationStruct.avHeadAssociationStruct[index].functionGroupID" failed in AppleHDAController at line 1500 goto handler

kernel: Sound assertion "0 == mAvAssociationStruct.avHeadAssociationStruct[index].pinComplexID" failed in AppleHDAController at line 1501 goto handler

Then I started twisting my connectors cable and sound came back on and vanished again. Clearly, the connector has had enough - and so have I with these lousy cables. Apple, please update the iTV to steam picture and audio wirelesly so that I can toss these cables away. Sigh.

JanRL wrote:

Right. Forget what I said previously. Seems my Mini Display Port connector is indeed busted. After I got my picture transferred to my TV, I still had trouble getting audio working. My Console gave strange messages like:

blah

Then I started twisting my connectors cable and sound came back on and vanished again. Clearly, the connector has had enough - and so have I with these lousy cables. Apple, please update the iTV to steam picture and audio wirelesly so that I can toss these cables away. Sigh.

There are several options to stream HDTV wirelessly already, Google it.

To add

Also tried everything until finally bought a new hdmi adapter.

The old Moshi adapter was indeed dead - everything works fine now with new adapter (Moshi again).

Funny thing was that during troubleshooting I tried an alternative monitor on my existing cable setup and it worked.

Needless to say I assumed the hdmi port on the original display to be dead and sent it in for repairs. 2 weeks later they found no fault.

Happy to see everythiong working though - was getting windows flashbacks there for a minute...

cheers

I seem to be having the same issue as everyone... I had been using the MDP HDMI adapter with my 32" Samsung for about 1 1/2 years without issue, but about 2 weeks ago I bought a 55" LG and from that moment I started having problems. I managed to make it work a few times here and there, but now the laptop doesn't recognize either TV. I was thinking it was the adapter, but after reading I am now confused: some say it is the operating system and others say is a faulty MDP connector... which one is it? Has anyone seriously gotten any response or fix from Apple directly??? PLEASE HELP

My advice would be not to bother with any resets, software updates until you determined that the adapter, cable or monitor is not at fault. My adapter did the same - worked on and off for bit and then finally died.

a really mad guy from syria....

i can't believe what's hapenning....do u know how hard it is to buy a mac in syria...how expensive to buy a tv...and yet so hard to buy this f**** cable....i really waited for like 1 month to get this cable....and when i get it it's not working....again..a macbook pro with 15 inch bla bla bla on samsung bla bla bla NOT WORKING!

ps:a friend of mine who has really a ****** laptop on WINDOWS just plugged the cable in and everything went awesome with a second....why is this hapenning...it seems my only solution to work with my laptop on the screen is now to buy the new apple tv...again so hard to get it...i have to wait another month to get it and pay like 100$ plus its prize to get...

AREN'T WE HUMAN TOO??

FIX IT!!!!!!

When you initially plug the cable in, for me on a 2011 macbook air it works straight away, although it doesn't appear to. i didnt realise you just have to drag the windows across to the TV instead of the same window showing up on both screens.

alternatively, you go into system preferences and displays and you tick the "mirror displays" box which means that the same picture will be shown on both the laptop screen and the tv screen. it worked fine for me, just took some fiddling. goodluck guys!

Hey Guys

I have a similar problem!

Originally I used a mini display port from my macbook pro 13" to my 42" Panasonic and then it stopped working.

I then decided to change it buy another one from the Apple Store which cost me ~50USD. Once I plug it in all i get is my screen saver without my desktop icons. I then go to itunes and nothing comes up - Please help!

This was an issue I had before my 1year warrenty expired and they said there was no issue. However, I think all they did was see the screen saver and think everything was ok.

What should I do ? Please help!

My adapter works perfectly on my flat mate's 32" Panasonic TV, yet does not work on my own toshiba TV? My flatmates works perfectly on both tellys. I have determined that it is not the mac book (as it works on one TV with all 4 of our HDMI Cables, It's not the cables as they all work and it's not either TV as they both work on my flatmate's mac. It's very frustrating as I have bought 3 different types of cable. The strange thing is they used to work on the TV and then stopped suddenly. Only thing i can think is that my flatmate uses lion and i don't?

Any suggestions?

Apple.....if your reading please sort it out 🙂

Thanks all

I just got an hdmi adapter for my my MacBook, with mini-dv connector. I get a signal, but picture quality is quite poor. Image does not fill the tv screen fully under any settings.

I switched from VGA (the tv accepts VGA in). VGA gave me much better picture.

Could it be the hdmi adapter? I got a cheap one on eBay. Can they differ in picture quality?

Chuck Kalish wrote:

I just got an hdmi adapter for my my MacBook, with mini-dv connector. I get a signal, but picture quality is quite poor. Image does not fill the tv screen fully under any settings.

I switched from VGA (the tv accepts VGA in). VGA gave me much better picture.

Could it be the hdmi adapter? I got a cheap one on eBay. Can they differ in picture quality?

Yes, buy the Moshi, from Apple.

I am trying to connect my Macbook Pro to my SHARP 70" Aquos with a Rocketfish RF-AP305 Mini DisplayPort to HDMI adapter. This has previously worked many times for me. Now I am not getting a picture or sound. The odd thing is that I've gone the mirror display route and when I change something, say the refresh rate, the TV registers it so the signal is getting through. I've restarted it in safe mode and got a few flickers, something about "Receiving auto control signal (now)..." on the TV but in the end it comes up black.

Macbook Pro 15" Mid 2010 Version 10.7.4

Any ideas?

2 Things which I've found - WHICH WORKED!.... MACBOOK PRO 15inch Early 2011.

1. Unfortunately for Apple, I rebooted into Bootcamp with my cheap £8 cable and it worked perfectly.

2. Back in OS X. Make sure that if you have a program that can switch between the discreet and integrated graphics, that integrated is OFF!!! It does work. Using it now.

I tried all the plugin / unplug, different hdmi ports etc.... nothing, changed to discreet graphics (not integrated!!) works every time....