Mac Mini HDMI output gives bad resolution on external 1920x1200 external monitor

Juliator wrote:

I'm experiencing the very same issue you had with your monitor. Mine is a different brand (Westinghouse24" L2410NM), but the issue is the same...Basically,I connect my brand new Mac Mini to my 24" monitor, and it results in a fuzzy and grainy image, with washed-out colors, and text so blurry it's difficult to read. I'm sure you are familiar with what I describe.

Did you ever get this resolved? I have the same problem with the same monitor connected to my 13" MBP (Feb'11) via MiniDisplayport to HDMI adapter. My screen looks like pixelated (as if anti-aliasing was off with fonts) and sharpness is turned way up, except I have the monitor set to "0". Audio works fine.

The recent EFI updates and Thunderbolt software updates haven't helped.

I think this all boils down to Apple looking at HDMI output not being used for a "monitor" ( something you will sit in front of and need to be able to read text on all day ) something about the way they are generating the signal is making some TVs "manipulate" the image, which mangles things at the pixel level.

I have seen some reference to changing settings on the TV for sharpness and other "image enhancement" settings, which makes perfect sense. If the TV isn't "massaging" the image it should look just as it should coming out of the computer which is a 1920x1080 60Hz screen image, shift that size by one pixel and it's going to be distorted since that isn't what is being displayed.

After messing with my TV settings for hours, apparently some have a "dot for dot" setting that sounds like it removes ALL processing of an HDMI image that seems to work. I was able to get it pretty good by taking down my sharpness and turning off some other smoothing options, but it's not acceptable to me for use while writing code sitting 3 feet from the screen.

I purchased an Apple "Mini DisplayPort to VGA adaptor" apple part number MB572Z/A and used the VGA input on my TV, which works almost perfectly, I can make out every pixel on the screen.

I'm not sure if the HDMI to VGA would work as well, and I have not tested it.

Part of it I'm thinking is the overscan adjustment in display settings, if you fiddle with that you can see the size of the image changing which means that the display needs to "process" them to make them display at that size, and I think the image quality issues are a side effect of that.

Also if you look at the display information under "about this mac" under "more informatio" under "Graphics/Displays" when using HDMI it has a setting called "Television:" and it's set to Yes.... this means that it knows it's a TV and can be sending out the image in a way that confuses some TVs, but the other implication is that they could actually fix it if they wanted to spend the time to give some more adjustments to increase the chances of it working with a random TV model.

It's interesting that it now knows exactly what adapter I'm using and that there is firmware on it....

VGA is an analog standard and I was wondering if the thunderbolt spec included analog outputs on it, I'm guessing it doesn't and that the adapter has some hardware that is taking the displayport output and making it analog....... but I'm not sure and I haven't taken the time to look at the specs.

Having said all that I am having some odd problems, the pixels are clear over most of the screen width, but in some parts a little fuzzy, I can adjust this on my TV to make them clear in most areas, but I seem to have a cloudy zone that I can't get rid of. But I can deal with that.

I'm also having a random screen wobble that comes and goes, everything will just shift a bit to the left and right through a cyclical pattern for about 15 seconds, then settle out, I suspect this is some type of variance in the analog timing for the VGA signal, could be the adaptor..... I'm going to work on that with Appls support and see if I can swap it out and get some improvement there.

Hope this helps somebody, and hopefully Apple will warn people that the HDMI may not give them "monitor" level quality, but would be fine for using it to display movies and such on a TV in pretty much all cases, maybe that is the design goal.

Message was edited by: kevinKl4 - fixed a typo

Summary: Connect both the HDMI and a miniDVI to VGA adaptor to the same monitor, choose Mirroring, and see if that fixes things.

Maybe this will help...I was going nuts like everyone else dealing with this issue over HDMI on my MacMini i5 2.3GHz connecting to a Vizio M320vt that I just bought...before this, I was using a VGA/USB switch to connect the Mini and a DualG5 to the same Samsung monitor...however, when I tried connecting to the Vizio RGB/VGA using the same set up, I couldn't see the 1920 X 1080 as an option on either Mac, and when using a 1280 X 768 setting on the Mini that worked just fine, switching to the DualG5 just wasn't cutting it and I'd end up with only the Mini connecting properly and the DualG5 being reported as "invalid format".

After trying all the suggestions here and elsewhere for our HDMI problems, just by chance, I reconnected the miniDVI to VGA so that both the VGA AND HDMI (as 1080p) were connected to the Vizio at the same time and I turned on Mirroring...having both connected at the same time seems to have fixed my problems...now I can see the crappy HDMI 1920 X 1080 output of the MacMini, but now I can see (and choose) a perfect 1920 X 1080 RGB/VGA output of the MacMini AND the DualG5 can see and choose the 1920 X 1080 output too! Weird...but wonderful!

Had the same issues.

I simply could NOT work out why the image was so grainy and fonts pixelated. Turns out that the sharpen default on my Samsung 22" full HD LED LCD was set to factory default of 50%. Changed it to 5% and GORGEOUS!!!!!!!

My Samsung is model is series 5 UA22D5010. It is white and clear perspex. My Mac setting is 1080p NTSC 60 HHZ with underscan to fit menu bar. All is simply superb now. Hope this small tip helps!

My computer is i5 Mac Mini 2011 model. HDMI output.

I just messed around with my HDTV monitor 24" and my MacMini AGAIN... After reading many suggestions, I checked the connections being used from the tv to MacMini. I discovered I had BOTH the HDMI cables AND the Apple Mini DVI to VGA cables connected... No wonder the display which defaulted to the HDMI, was so lousy, very blurry, etc. SO.. I shut everything down, removed the HDMI cables, then the sequence of turning everything on is critical (I believe): First turn on monitor, then turn on MacMini (which had previously been SHUT DOWN). This gives the Mac the ability to recognize the resolution and settings. Now it is 93.87% improved!!! lol

Don't just look at the Mini. Take a look at the menu in your TV / Monitor. Usually (this goes for Samsung Monitors) it'll have some setting 'PC/AV Mode', which by default (on Samsung panels at least) is set to AV for HDMI connections... meaning that stuff like PAL/NTSC (and other things) suddenly influence the screen size, causing all sorts of problems, like overscan / underscan issues. You'll recognize when it's in TV mode, because the screen is then way to bright to be used as a personal computer when using a HDMI cable, and it's fine when you were using a DVI cable just a moment ago...

For Samsung monitor users: Set the screen mode to PC (OSD 'menu' -> setup & reset -> PC/AV Mode) and your problems will be solved. For TV users: many modern TV's that support 1080p 1:1 ('perfect') pixel mapping also have a per connection (HDMI1, HDM2, etc.) setting like this in their respective menus (my Sony Bravia does at least). The Mac Mini works fine on both, only because of this setting. Just my two cents.

For Philips HDTV users.my parents had a relatively old LCD Philips HDTV. Older LCDs will only give pseudo-sharp image when sharpness is set to -0- even if it is 1, it gets really bad, not crisp at all. But the limit on the LCD versions are still not the most crisp. I have the same model, same screen size of TV at home but it is only the LED version, there is no problem on that one, I get the Windows-like-crisp image. It is not about the mac mini I suppose as most BootCampers get crisp display on Windows, there may be a fix on the HDMI issue on 10.7.3 maybe as many other users are not able to get sound via HDMI this time. I was about to sell mine but at least for Philips LED versions there is no problem. With the LCD i used four different cables, so switching between different cables is just a waste of money if you have such plans for a solution.

I reckon I've found a solution to this - or at least I managed to resolve the issue you're all describing at my end; a new 2011 MacMini driving HDMI to a TV with a shocking picture quality (text with white halos, stark contrast, etc). This (unfavourably) compared to a Core 2 Duo Mini which had perfect picture quality.

So after trying

HDMI out -> TV = poor

Mini DisplayPort -> HDMI = poor

Mini DisplayPort -> VGA = great picture quality at a low res, but after clicking 'detect displays', avail res's changed and the picture took on a very purple hue...?!

The TV didn't have a DVI connector, so I couldn't try that path.

Just before throwing in the towel, I though I'd try coupling the MiniDisplayPort/T'bolt -> DVI adaptor with the 3rd party DVI -> HDMI adaptor we had connected to the previous MacMini.

To my great surprise and relief, this solution works! It makes sense too - the Mini now thinks it's connected to DVI and shows the full range of resolutions it previously showed with the previous Mini, rather than the TV-only res's it displays over HDMI.

SO, MiniDisplayPort to DVI, then DVI to HDMI and hopefully, champagne and caviar!

Hi

I have mini server (mid 2011) and a Samsung TA24550. I have tried hdmi-hdmi (minimising sharpness helps) and dvi to hdmi. Neither solution is good. Belkin minidisplay port to hdmi in thunderbolt soved the problem to me.

Thanks a lot.

rgds

Pentti

Hey,

I've faced the same issue, exacly same: HDMI-HDMI, Mac mini & 245T. It would be great if you have any result on your investigation. HDMI -> DVI works fine for me but I'm looking for solution for HDMI-HDMI connection.

Thank you.

My MacMini i5 & Vizio 1920x1080 LED TV update to this is...

Still the same problem with pixelated HDMI->HDMI...

Reduced/changed all settings on LED TV (sharpness, noise reduction, etc) with no effect on pixelation...

Still looks good with RocketFish (RF-AP307) Mini DisplayPort to VGA adaptor...but recently my VGA connection went down...

Had to replace, but my RocketFish MiniDP to VGA works just fine (it lasted 6 months...recent lightning strikes/power outages may have killed it)...

Apple MiniDP to VGA would only connect at 800x600 and no higher...

RocketFish MiniDP to HDMI (thought I'd try that to see if HDMI->HDMI was the problem) gives me same pixelation as direct HDMI connection.

For what it is worth, I had trouble with grainy output on my retina MacBook Pro running Mountain Lion and a Dell U2410. The solution I found was to adjust the monitor's "Sharpness" setting. With Apple's mini-DisplayPort to DVI adapter it is looks best at a sharpness setting of 40-50 (50 is the default). With a mini-DisplayPort to DisplayPort cable, it looks horribly grainy at the default sharpness setting. Decreacing the sharpness to 0 gave the best result, though honestly, I think it might look better if it were less sharp still.

The other thing that was interesting is that the monitor seemed to have trouble holding on to the sharpness setting. I turned the monitor off an on and when it came back, it looked grainy again. When I checked the sharpness setting, it said it was set to 0, but when I had to bump it up and take it back down again to make it take again.

Hi there guys,

I have had the same issue.. Brand new Mac mini with new Philips 239C. Anyhoo, also tried all different cables and settings and nothing worked. Text still looked blurry, then I came across a post and this has helped so much! Unfortunately I don't have the link, but all you need to do:

- Open a terminal

- Type in:

For medium font smoothing:

defaults -currentHost write -globalDomain AppleFontSmoothing -int 2

killall Finder

- Restart applications

Replace the 2 in the command with 1 for slight and 3 for hard smoothing.

This made a world of difference to the blurry text. Hope it helps!

Regards,

When I originally had this problem with my mid-2011 Mini and an HP 2311x, I didn't have time to do a lot of troubleshooting, so I went with the DVI solution, using a DVI cable, the Apple DVI<->HDMI adapter, and the DVI port on the monitor. That worked perfectly, so I left it alone.

However, I recently did some more reading and checked the settings on the monitor, and discovered that the problem was all related to the OVERSCAN setting being set to AUTO or ON. Once I turned overscan off, the problem was fixed. The monitor now works perfectly with HDMI<->HDMI and the factory defaults save but that one. No need to adjust the sharpness or anything, it was all related to overscan.

On the HP 2311x or other HP monitors, follow these menus:

Image Control -> Custom Scaling -> Overscan -> Off

Same solution here - hdmi to hdmi (on latest late 2012 mac mini) is fuzzy. From Mini - HDMI/DVI converter, DVI/HDMI cable to HP 2159m monitor. All clear!

With HDMI only, I tried messing with "resizing" the overscan. Never a satisfying solution.

I tried the latest solution on this thread, turning OFF overscan on my HP monitor - but the monitor won't allow me to access that option.