Brightness when plugged into a LCD projector

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Level 1

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Brightness when plugged into a LCD projector

How do I adjust the brightness of the image when projecting through a LCD projector? As soon as I connect (through DVI port) to a LCD projector (as a professional speaker, I connect to different LCD projectors almost on a daily basis) the Brightness adjuster in System Preferences-Displays disappears.

I've always blamed the poor LCD projectors until last week when I got the same problems with my Macbook Pro but not with someone else's Macbook (not a Pro). Their settings must have been higher than on mine. I even tried putting the brightness on my Macbook Pro to maximum before plugging in to the LCD projector, but this made no difference.

A resolution of 800x600 (stretched) always seems to be auto-selected by my Macbook but changing the resolution doesn't seem to make a difference

Hope someone can help - this is reflecting badly on Macs!

Thanks
James

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.6), 2.53 Intel Core 2, 8GB RAM

Posted on Jan 9, 2011 5:47 AM

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Answer 1

eww

Level 9

53,052 points

Jan 9, 2011 7:54 AM in response to jabulani4

The brightness adjustment on your MBP applies only to its built-in screen. Brightness on a projector will be adjusted either directly, by pressing a button on it, or less directly, by changing a brightness setting in the projector's menu system.

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Answer 2

Jan 9, 2011 10:56 AM in response to jabulani4

You might also try going to System Preferences/Displays, choose Color and choose a different display profile. (The projector is supposed to tell the mac which profile to use, but sometimes it doesn't quite work.) You might even choose calibrate and produce a new profile. Adjusting the "gamma" of the profile may brighten the image.

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Answer 3

jabulani4 Author

Level 1

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Jan 12, 2011 6:14 AM in response to eww

Thanks for your help but I suspect this is not the problem. As I said, when I plugged my MBP into a LCD projector the other day, the image was very dark. But when I plugged in someone else's Macbook, the image was much brighter - without the need to adjust anything on the LDC projector.

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Answer 4

jabulani4 Author

Level 1

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Jan 12, 2011 6:17 AM in response to Richard.Taylor

Thanks Richard, I will try that next time I get the same problem.
PS You don't work for Northumberland CC do you?!

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