Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Mini display port to HDMI problem

I have my aluminum Macbook perfectly wired up to my 32 inch RCA HDTV. Nothing will come up on the screen, I've tried detect display, I've tried restarting the computer, unplugging and plugging back in then detect display, turned the tv of and on, but nothing is working. I am currently running Snow Leopard, but when I was on Leopard this process of attaching the TV to the computer just took about 10 minutes of doing desultory processes that I've already described. Any suggestions on how to make it work the first time?

Early 2009 Aluminum Macbook, Mac OS X (10.6.1)

Posted on Sep 28, 2009 1:36 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Dec 3, 2009 7:56 AM

Up until two/three weeks ago, my minidisplay port to hdmi bought from monoprice worked perfectly with my samsung lcd tv ln40a450. Now, the TV no longer recognizes the signal. When the cable is plugged in to the macbook, the blue screen appears and disappears, but still nothing. Tried plugging, unplugging, restarting, turning tv on/off, in all various sequences, but nothing works. I did however find something very peculiar. I was previously using a 15' hmdi cable. When the problem started, I switched to another, shorter (6') hdmi cable, thinking it was the cable problem. That worked... for 3 days. Neither cable works anymore. Tested the cables with my PS3, no problems whatsoever. I will attempt to plug it in to my friend's Sony TV to see if that works and provide an update.
1,012 replies

Jan 5, 2013 9:27 PM in response to Ponponhead

I getting sick of apple its always you can do this but you cant do that I have a Dell xps from 2007 and I have no FU**in problem getting sound to work with a HDMI cable. I also have a FU**ing 2009 Mac Book that I can only get picture to work on the TV but no ******* sound smh but if I want sound I have to buy apple tv to get it wireless.

Jan 5, 2013 11:53 PM in response to Ponponhead

What is the problem?

i have macbook pro 13" Mid 2012, panasonic led full hd 3d tv, i bought hdmi cable from panasonic and thunderbolt to hdmi belkin, also a good cable.

i plugged hdmi to tv's hdmi port and than thunderbolt to hdmi, then to macbook, just the display started and was working just very fine. than i removed it for couple of days and now i pluggged in the cables back and no display. even sometimes its like macbook is trying to get the display as a blue screen came for some seconds but nothing happen.

I really hate this.

has anyone know any solution?

any help, anyboby?

thank you.

Jan 7, 2013 7:59 PM in response to aarjee

Would you think this would be the same set up for an imac? I have a mid 2011 27" imac with OSX Mt. Lion. I just bought a MDP to HDMI to put into the Thunderbolt port so that I can use my TV as a screen. I tried Apple TV but my internet is not always that great on wifi. My mac is hooked up to Ethernet cable. Thanks

Jan 7, 2013 8:22 PM in response to Momojs

Problems with HDMI are not usually with the cable but The handshake between the MacBook and the TV and the HDCP copy-protection protocol. There was a technical paper from the HDCP group pointing out that some developers of switches are making incorrect assumptions about the way to handle HDMI/HDCP standards. When you disconnect and reconnect it may cause problems with the HDMI handshake.

http://www.eetimes.com/design/communications-design/4013366/HDMI-DVI-HDCP-handsh ake-problems--how-to-avoid-them

HDMI is being pushed because of the copy protection. High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) is a form of Digital Rights Management (DRM) developed by Intel Corporation to control digital audio and video content as it travels across Digital Visual Interface (DVI) or High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) connections. The specification is proprietary, and creating an implementation of HDCP requires a license.

HDCP is licensed by Digital Content Protection, a subsidiary of Intel. In addition to paying fees, licensees agree to limit the capabilities of their products. For example, high-definition digital video content must be restricted to DVD quality on non-HDCP compliant video outputs when requested by the source. DVD-Audio content is restricted to DAT quality on non-HDCP digital audio outputs (analog audio outputs have no quality limits). Licensees cannot allow their devices to make copies of content, and must design their products in ways that effectively frustrate attempts to defeat the content protection requirements

Jan 7, 2013 9:01 PM in response to Benjamin Deming

Like many before me, I am having difficulty getting my MacBook to recognize my plasma TV as an external display. (Although the TV has internet connectivity, it won't play flash videos so I'd like to use my Mac for that.)


SPECS |

Macbook 2.1 w/Intel Core2Duo (bought 2006) w/MiniDVI port

Panasonic TC-P50ST50 w/3HDMI ports


CONNECTORS |

Apple MiniDVI to VGA connector

Ativa VGA cable w/2 male ends

Belkin Mini DisplayPort to HDTV cable


None of the cables are more than 2 months old. Regardless of which HDMI port I attempt to access, I can't get the MB to recognize an external display. (I have used an older, smaller LCD TV as an external display without issue.) Any help is greatly appreciated!

Jan 8, 2013 5:26 PM in response to dmjgkart

Ok.. I figured it out (after reading all f the 44 pages of solutions/non-solutions and complaints starting back to 2009 and trying some) It seems as though a simple fix was missing.... I did this and it works just fine...Here ya go!!!!!


You can see from my post 5 above ^ that I have a 27' imac. I used the Thunderbolt port on the back to a MDP to A HDMI to my 55" Vizio HD 1080p TV. It didn't work until...... I called my Boeing engineer son-in-law (who is a very part time mac person (but smart) and he had me go to...HERE IT IS STEP BY STEP!!!


Open SYSTEM PREFFERRENCES click DISPLAYS. A window opens that will say your mac on the top of the window (mine said- iMac). Then....click ARRANGEMENT (there will be 2 little blue screens inside--1 portrait and 1 landscape view) and check MIRROR DISPLAYS. Now a second window opens with the name of your other display (mine said- VZ55.....which is my TV) (the two little blue screens will now be overlapping) then go to DISPLAYS on same window and choose your RESOLUTION arrow pack on window to SYSTEM PREFFERRENCES click SOUND click on whatever your other display is (mine was VZ55....) choose your resolution (mine was 1080p) and ****POOF**** there it was.... my computer on my TV!!! WALLA!

Good Luck All! 😁

Jan 10, 2013 6:14 AM in response to Ponponhead

Hi guys.

Well I recently purchased Samsung Smart TV (7 series, 40') and couldnt wait to connect it to my iMac (27', i5 3.1, OS X ML, 1GB Radeon).

But like many of you here I experienced the same problem - after pluging in MDA and HDMI cable to both devices, all I got was a blue screen on Mac and "No signal" message on TV.


Wierd thing though is that Mac shows settings window for TV as display (even calls it Samsung), but I cant get anything happening on TV itself.


As I happen to have Bootcamp Windows instalation on Mac as well, decided to check if Windows will handle it (W7 home premium) to see if problem is mechanical or software.


The same issue happens in Windows - "No signal" message on TV, and Mac acting as if it is actually sending signal to the device.


So my conclusion is that it is connection part, or better said cables and HDMI protocols.

Though from this position I can't be sure if HDMI issue is on Samsung or on Apple side.


Still hopping that Apple gives maximum efforts and solves this issue, because in my opinion AirPlay mirroring is only suitable for home multimedia sharing & use.


So Apple - you REALLY DO HAVE A PROBLEM with this very important issue for your users because it doesnt simply JUST WORK. Please solve it as soon as you can.

Jan 10, 2013 11:15 AM in response to slow_oranges

Not sure if you saw my post! I am new to this forum! But...here it is...


Ok.. I figured it out (after reading all f the 44 pages of solutions/non-solutions and complaints starting back to 2009 and trying some) It seems as though a simple fix was missing.... I did this and it works just fine...Here ya go!!!!!


You can see from my post 5 above ^ that I have a 27' imac. I used the Thunderbolt port on the back to a MDP to A HDMI to my 55" Vizio HD 1080p TV. It didn't work until...... I called my Boeing engineer son-in-law (who is a very part time mac person (but smart) and he had me go to...HERE IT IS STEP BY STEP!!!


Open SYSTEM PREFFERRENCES click DISPLAYS. A window opens that will say your mac on the top of the window (mine said- iMac). Then....click ARRANGEMENT (there will be 2 little blue screens inside--1 portrait and 1 landscape view) and check MIRROR DISPLAYS. Now a second window opens with the name of your other display (mine said- VZ55.....which is my TV) (the two little blue screens will now be overlapping) then go to DISPLAYS on same window and choose your RESOLUTION arrow pack on window to SYSTEM PREFFERRENCES click SOUND click on whatever your other display is (mine was VZ55....) choose your resolution (mine was 1080p) and ****POOF**** there it was.... my computer on my TV!!! WALLA!

Good Luck All! 😁

Jan 12, 2013 10:23 AM in response to Ponponhead

Same problem(ish), no solution:

Macbook 6,1 OS X 10.6.8 ->

mdp to hdmi adapter -> HDMI cables ->

samsung hd 43"


i have no problem seeing tv from macbook. i get perfect picture right away for about 2 heartstopping seconds, then it goes to snow/static screen and/or flashes from snow to picture like in the Mutara Nebula. if apple or samsung has no fix, who has? am i going to have to learn how to program this stuff to use it??


has anyone had this specific error?


sorry to add more, hopefully it's the straw that breaks the camel's back (hint, hint, apple)

Jan 14, 2013 1:47 AM in response to Csound1

My gripe is that there is no buttons (or command line tools) to "force detect" and turn display's on / off like in Ubuntu. This means it's very difficult to diagnose the problem. It could be that some people have a broken adaptor, but since there is no software tool to diagnose hardware failures, there is no way people can distinguish between hardware and software failures.

Jan 14, 2013 7:13 AM in response to MacDoesntSupportExternalDisplay

MacDoesntSupportExternalDisplay wrote:


My gripe is that there is no buttons (or command line tools) to "force detect" and turn display's on / off like in Ubuntu. This means it's very difficult to diagnose the problem. It could be that some people have a broken adaptor, but since there is no software tool to diagnose hardware failures, there is no way people can distinguish between hardware and software failures.

Take it to the store.

Jan 17, 2013 2:46 PM in response to Niek7

I'm still having this issue and haven't come up with a solution...


First I purchased the adapter in BestBuy and it worked for 2 days then I got the no signal message,


Then I returned it and went to apple and bought a Moshi adapter, it worked for a little while and now I'm in the same boat again.


To me that sounds like the adapters are getting burnt out. I too have expensive wires, and have tried all different combinations of wires and adapters to no avail.


I'm really upset there are no apple responses on this...

Mini display port to HDMI problem

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.