I have a 2008 Mac Pro 3,1
specs:
2 x 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
24 GB RAM
ATI Radeon HD 5770 graphics card
OSX 10.9.5
I'm wondering the best way to plug in my LCD TV (HDMI) to my Mac Pro? I have a little MINI-DVI to HDMI adapter that I use at the moment but it rescales my Apple Cinema Display and I'm not too fond of the rescaling.
Is there some sort of interface that one can use with my graphics card?
Or perhaps a second video card?
Mac Pro
Your post is not clear what you mean by rescaling - as already indicated by Illaass. Here are three possible things you are referring to.
Resolution
I believe the genuine original Apple Mac version of the ATI Radeon HD 5770 came with a DVI connector and two Mini Displayport connectors.
Therefore the best way to connect to a HDMI based TV is via a Mini Displayport to HDMI adapter.
However - a standard cheap Mini Displayport to HDMI adapter only supports a maximum resolution of 1920x1200 pixels which means it also supports 1920x1080. It does not adequately support 4K resolution. To do 4K resolution properly you would need a more expensive active adapter like this.
https://www.club-3d.com/en/detail/2339/mini_displayport_1.2_to_hdmi_2.0_active_adapter/
This would give you a full 4K at 60fps resolution if the video card can do 4K resolution. In the case of the HD 5770 it is too old and feeble a card and does not support 4K.
Under/Overscanning
In days gone by when dinosaurs ruled the earth and TVs used a CRT tube as the display, it was necessary for the TV image to under or overscan the actual display size. This can still happen even with a modern LCD TV when connected to a computer.
This Apple article discusses this and how to adjust this setting.
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT202763
Retina Display
If you have a high resolution display e.g. a 4K display and have the text and menus displayed at 'normal' size they will be so small as to be hard to read. Apple have implemented a special HiDPI capability so that these screen elements i.e. text, dialog boxes, menus, etc. are drawn larger so as to be readable but photos and videos still benefit from the extra resolution. Even the text etc benefits by having smoother edges. This is part of what Apple call a 'retina' display.
This happens as standard on the iMac and MacBook Pro built-in screens and with some well known 4K third party displays but it is also possible to enable this for other 4K displays.
Since your video card is not capable of 4K I think this issue would not apply to you.
As you have a 'classic' Mac Pro it is possible for you to get a better replacement video card. Sadly Apple have conspired to make the choice of such cards far more complex than it needed to be.
Your post is not clear what you mean by rescaling - as already indicated by Illaass. Here are three possible things you are referring to.
Resolution
I believe the genuine original Apple Mac version of the ATI Radeon HD 5770 came with a DVI connector and two Mini Displayport connectors.
Therefore the best way to connect to a HDMI based TV is via a Mini Displayport to HDMI adapter.
However - a standard cheap Mini Displayport to HDMI adapter only supports a maximum resolution of 1920x1200 pixels which means it also supports 1920x1080. It does not adequately support 4K resolution. To do 4K resolution properly you would need a more expensive active adapter like this.
https://www.club-3d.com/en/detail/2339/mini_displayport_1.2_to_hdmi_2.0_active_adapter/
This would give you a full 4K at 60fps resolution if the video card can do 4K resolution. In the case of the HD 5770 it is too old and feeble a card and does not support 4K.
Under/Overscanning
In days gone by when dinosaurs ruled the earth and TVs used a CRT tube as the display, it was necessary for the TV image to under or overscan the actual display size. This can still happen even with a modern LCD TV when connected to a computer.
This Apple article discusses this and how to adjust this setting.
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT202763
Retina Display
If you have a high resolution display e.g. a 4K display and have the text and menus displayed at 'normal' size they will be so small as to be hard to read. Apple have implemented a special HiDPI capability so that these screen elements i.e. text, dialog boxes, menus, etc. are drawn larger so as to be readable but photos and videos still benefit from the extra resolution. Even the text etc benefits by having smoother edges. This is part of what Apple call a 'retina' display.
This happens as standard on the iMac and MacBook Pro built-in screens and with some well known 4K third party displays but it is also possible to enable this for other 4K displays.
Since your video card is not capable of 4K I think this issue would not apply to you.
As you have a 'classic' Mac Pro it is possible for you to get a better replacement video card. Sadly Apple have conspired to make the choice of such cards far more complex than it needed to be.
The behaviour you are describing seems to be what is generally called 'mirroring' whereby both the screens show the same image. If the screens are different resolutions they will use the lowest common denominator as the resolution. Similarly if they are different aspect ratios they will adopt the one best suited for both.
From your description and logic it would be the case that the TV has an aspect ratio of 16:9 and likely a resolution of 1920x1080. The Apple Cinema Display will however almost certainly have an aspect ratio of 16:10. This means the Apple Cinema Display might have a small black border top and bottom. Alternatively the TV's 16:9 ratio image will be 'stretched' to fit the taller ratio of the Apple Cinema Display i.e. stretched to 16:10.
For Screen Sharing this causes a bug I reported to Apple a long time ago which they have not responded to and I believe still not fixed. (Although you are also using a much older version of the Mac operating system so would be exposed to this bug even if by some miracle it is finally fixed.)
Because the two screens are different resolutions Apple have failed to use a calculation to compensate for this and as you find the cursor is not where your end thinks when you click.
If you use 'spanning mode' instead of 'mirroring' then the two displays will show different images and be combined in to one large virtual display. (Apple call spanning mode - extended desktop.)
See - https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT202351
Perhaps I used the wrong term with "re-scaling".
When I plug in my TV and use it as a second monitor, my Cinema Display turn on and off and the ratio seems to be different.
It seems to match the ratio of the TV .... which means that the windows and Finder and all apps are now what it looks like stretched horizontally.
If I log into Screen Share from a laptop to my Mac Pro to control my apps, when I use the mouse pointer to click on an item, the pointer will be on the actual item on my screen sharing window but when I look at my Mac Pro, the mouse isn't at the same location ... its about an inch or so off.
So the Mac Pro is shrinking vertically and stretching horizontally the items on the screen and if I login with Screen Sharing, the mouse pointer location isn't accurate.
I hope I'm describing myself correctly.
Just what do you mean by rescaling?
What is the native resolution of the monitor?
What is the resolution of the displayed screen? That can be changed in Display Preferences. In Display Preferences click on the circle next ro scaled to see more resolutions. You can also see more options by depressing the Option key and click on scaled.
Do you have any black borders on the screen?
Best way to add LCD TV?
