Poor resolution when plugged into 1080p 32" TV

Hello,

I confirm the same issue. An HDMI to HDMI connection, and also HDMI to DVI to DVI to HDMI connection, between a Mac Mini 2012 and a Samsung Monitor (SyncMaster SA550) looks terrible, far below usable.

I ordered a MDP to VGA cable as a working around. I hope it works.

It is a shame Apple releases a product with such widespread deffect. What happened? Do they only have cinema or thunderbolt displays in their labs? A Mac Mini was supposed to work with ANY keyboard, mouse or monitor ... so the false propaganda says.

update:

MDP VGA cable did not work. the quality improved a bit but overall the problem persisted.

In my case neither the HDMI port nor the MDP VGA cable reproduced light grays:

http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/white.php

Anything above 200 showed as white. Since the text antialiasing needs these light grays to somooth fonts, the quality of the text was simply terrible.

The situation of the HDMI port was so bad that did not recognized my monitor properly. The resolution was 1080p and not showed as 1900x1080. The OS did not offer a custom color profile for the monitor either.

Returned mine. Another Mac only when they get rid of this Intel rubbish in their entry line. Going back to windows for a while.

I had a similar experience, when I first switched from using DVI to HDMI on my HP 2311x display. Everything went from being sharp using DVI, to fuzzy and jagged using HDMI. I read this thread and followed several suggestions.

Here's what worked for me:

MacBook Air (mid-2012, OS 10.8.2, Intel HD Graphics 4000, 512 MB) using a Newer Technology Mini DisplayPort to HDMI Adapter to connect to an HP 2311x LED 23-inch monitor.

1. Using the On-Screen Display of the HP 2311x, I changed these two default values:

a. Main Menu --> Image Control --> Custom Scaling --> Overscan --> Off

b. Main Menu --> Image Control --> Dynamic Contrast Ratio --> Off

2. Then I used OS X's System Preferences --> Displays to make two more adjustments:

a. Underscan slider: leave it Off

b. Color tab: chose the HP 2311 Profile and chose "Calibrate…"

After calibrating the profile to my liking and saving it, I'm very pleased now with the HDMI output. I think that other posts have forgotten to mention this extra step of calibrating the display's profile to your liking.

My two cents: I returned 3 Mac minis core i7 2,3 because all three showed the low quality issue over an HDMI-HDMI connection. I also had a 1 h telephone support call and two unit test in an Apple Store with two different geniuses. None of them where aware of the problem.

This same problem is found in other Mac laptops with Intel HD 4000 graphics. So, if there isn't a solution yet, I fear there will be never a working patch. So, I'm planning to:

A) wait for a new revision of the Mac mini models ( maybe one year from now)

B) spend a huge amount of money for an iMac which is not user serviceable and has a monitor with glossy finish (not ideal for my working environment).

C) wait for a new Mac Pro (and hope there will be a decent model for under $2000)

D) buy a cheaper PC with a dedicated graphics card.

I'm afraid only the last option makes some sense for my budget...

I'd like to add to this thread once again, and in reply to vcdiaz, whom I believe is on the same page as I am, and that is that with the correct adaptors, you can fool the mini in to giving you the correct resolutions and picture quality required. I can't vouch for this in all circumstances or suggest why it only works with this solution, but it remains that this solution worked for me, and vcdiaz.

It is:

MDP -> DVI adaptor which is then coupled to a DVI -> HDMI adaptor(or cable), which is then connected to your TV.

This worked on a HiSense 50-inch (or thereabouts) LCD TV and gives a picture of perfect quality without buggerising about with the sharpness settings on the TV.

Suck it and see!

Ok my 2 cents, i have a new mac mini, 2.3 core i5 2 gig of ram. i am running a Samsung 32" 1080p. It has (3) hdmi ports on the rear, no DVI ports. However the HDMI port has a slash then says DVI. HDMI 1/DVI the other (2) HDMI ports just say HDMI no slash DVI.......Guess what on HDMI 1 /DVI picture is 1080p laser sharp. On the other (2) ports i get the horriable text deal.

Additional info is this, on my PC with a $400 video card, the exact same thing happens!!! ***?? I to went in store and had them un hook the appke tv that was on a sony 40", they could not get the the text to be clear in the **** store.

Has apple confirmed that the going from the MDP to DVI to HDMI will get me the clear text i want?

Update: The more I used it I realized the above fix really didn't work. I futzed around with settings for a couple of days and came to the conclusion that HDMI to HDMI was never going to get a decent picture on my Samsung. Luckily my monitor had a DVI port. I ordered a Mini Display x DVI cable for $11 and it works perfect. I asked the people at the Apple Store when I purchased my Mini if HDMI to HDMI would work as well as DVI and they said yes. Go figure.

Hey Everyone,

Just got an RCA 24" HD 1080 Monitor. Amazing Angle viewing. The best I have seen other that apple. It is Back Lit LED and has great blacks... But the Viewing angles were what sold me. AWSOME.

But... When I plugged it into my Mac Mini (Duo Core with HDMI) the text looked terrible. I spent all day on the research... read these threads etc. and then I came upon a completely different fix... At least for this RCA.

Go to Menu/Setup/Video Style/ From here you can choose Graphic or Video. When you choose Graphic all the problems go away and the clarity is absolutely supurb! Best monitor/tv/dvd combo for the money.

Hey Everyone,

Just got an RCA 24" HD 1080 Monitor. Amazing Angle viewing. The best I have seen other that apple. It is Back Lit LED and has great blacks... But the Viewing angles were what sold me. AWSOME.

But... When I plugged it into my Mac Mini (Duo Core with HDMI) the text looked terrible. I spent all day on the research... read these threads etc. and then I came upon a completely different fix... At least for this RCA.

Go to Menu/Setup/Video Style/ From here you can choose Graphic or Video. When you choose Graphic all the problems go away and the clarity is absolutely supurb! Best monitor/tv/dvd combo for the money.

Hey Everyone,

Just got an RCA 24" HD 1080 Monitor. Amazing Angle viewing. The best I have seen other that apple. It is Back Lit LED and has great blacks... But the Viewing angles were what sold me. AWSOME.

But... When I plugged it into my Mac Mini (Duo Core with HDMI) the text looked terrible. I spent all day on the research... read these threads etc. and then I came upon a completely different fix... At least for this RCA.

Go to Menu/Setup/Video Style/ From here you can choose Graphic or Video. When you choose Graphic all the problems go away and the clarity is absolutely supurb! Best monitor/tv/dvd combo for the money.

Frustration levels are high on this, but I wanted a Mini. Bought a unit and a MDP to HDMI connector on 12/24. Unhappy Christmas.

Gross disaster on graphics. HDMI to HDMI was crap. Rocketfish MDP to HDMI was the same. Both made the Andromeda Galaxy background look nice, but any icons or text looked like something from the 1980's for resolution/crispness f'n joke. I wanted to cry.

Returned to Best Buy and exchanged for another unit. Also spent another $90 or so for a Thunderbolt to DVI adapter (Rocketfish) and a Rocketfish DVI to HDMI cable. That was the Festivus miracle combo.

Blew another $35 on an Insignia 2.1 cheap set of speakers - my Dynex TV/monitor is fooled on an HDMI connection for audio transmission, so I just plugged into the back of the mini headphone connection for audio independent of the monitor input.

Everything is now crisp and I am happy again. Great value for a machine, but boy, you need to experiment for making it all work.

Can't agree more with everyone's frustration on this issue. Most of all, I'm dissappointed that Apple pretends to be unaware that there is an issue with the HDMI. I've called support 3 different times and they always seem shocked that someone might be experiencing issues with the Mac Mini picture quality. One quick google search shows plenty of frustration out there.

I'm waiting for a mini display to VGA adapter that will hopefully help as an interim measure until Apple puts out an update to fix this.

Got my very first Mac Mini today and I have it hooked up to my BenQ 24" monitor which luckily had a DVI, VGA and HDMI output.. (Very awesome monitor btw)

My PC is using the DVI slot so I naturally have the HDMI plugged into the Mac but as other people have posted, I get strange picture quality. I work a lot with computers hence why I noticed right away. Strange thing is that when I use the HDMI - DVI adapter it's perfect..

HDMI should never be used for any sort of computing but I hope it'll be sorted.. I'm going to test it with my large LG flatscreen tomorrow to see how it looks.. It wont be as much as a problem with the large TV as that's for pictures and movies.

I have a Samsung 32" TV I just connected my new "late" 2012 Mac mini directly with HDMI and ended up with a decent picture but horrible text. The picture didn't fit perfectly in the screen size as well (I was unable to see the menu bar at top of screen). I read a few forums and many are having this issue. After fussing with a few TV adjustments and playing with resolution and no resolution I reset the TV settings back to default to start from scratch.

I ended up going into the TV's input source menu and decided to edit the name of the HDMI 1 input that the mini was connected to. It was just blank and when you go to edit the name a drop down menu allows you to choose many devices and one of them was "PC". Once I chose "PC" as the input for this source the picture AND text were Perfect! I guess it modifies the TV to correclty provide the right picture based on the source device that you choose. The Samsung TV model# I have is UN32ES6500 and I did upgrade the TV firmware version from 001017 to 001025 during my troubleshooting process... in case that step makes a difference. The OSX version is 10.8.2.... Hope this helps.

This worked perfectly for me. Just connected a 2007 Mac Mini to a 32" Samsung TV (UE33EH5000), using a direct DVI to HDMI cable. The Mac selected 1080p automatically but it looked absolutely dreadful; blurred text, horrible anti-aliasing, jagged edges, the lot. Barely usable.

I googled the problem, found this thread and followed T Bone 68's advice above - leave everything as it is, BUT select a name for the HDMI input (from the Samsung menu) and pick "PC" (or, DVI PC, it makes no difference). Boom, the picture looks crisp and amazing. It really is as simple as that (and what dreadful UI from Samsung; choosing the name suggests a terminology/labelling preference, it shouldn't affect the visual appearance of the input).

Thanks for the advice, T Bone, you really helped me out here. God bless the Internet!