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

I'm afraid we're going to need some more information to help.

What monitor?

Does the monitor have any "scaled" or pixel mapped" or "1:1 display" or similarly named setting?

What resolution does the Displays panel (in SysPrefs) say it's outputting?

What refresh rate?

Does it offer you "overscan" choices (probably not.)

Does it offer you 1920x1200 (hopefully yes!)

You don't want 1080 anything. Feeding a 1080 image to a 1920x1200 display is why the image is blurred.

Is 1920x1200 not offered to you by the mini?

What's the resulting pixel clock from using SRX? If it is above 165 MHz, it won't work. If it is above that level, use the "Use simplified settings" check box in SRX and select "CVT-RB" in the related pop-up. That should cause the pixel clock to fall to below 150 MHz.

Is that picture supposed to be helpful? You're not even putting in 1200 like you want.

What does System Preferences, Displays look like?

"Anyway I do not understand why HDMI-HDMI connection detects SAMSUNG as display and selects 1080i only."

It could be because Samsung only sends that resolution information from the EDID for the HDMI port. That's something else you can check using SRX. But I guess you don't need to now.

Hi tlaci60.

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. Not surprisingly, the resolution of this monitor is exactly the same as yours:1920x1200. Interesting…

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.

Anyway: I’m kind of desperate, because nothing seems to work .I have tried your suggestion, but it doesn't work for me. I tried other suggestions from other threads and forums... and nothing works either. I just get the same awful look,even though the Mac recognizes the monitor and applies the correct resolution(1920x1200). Nevertheless, it looks just horrible.

Any suggestions? Any ideas? I'm just losing my mind with this, and I already bought every adapter and cable combination I could think of.

Thank you

I was having a similar problem with a 24" Dell U2410 1900x1200 display connecting to a mid-2011 mac mini. The fonts were fuzzy and colors washed out. I was using HDMI to HDMI.

I changed the input to use the HDMI to DVI dongle on the mini and connected it via a DVI cable to the DVI input on the monitor and it is now working fine. The fonts are crisp and the colors look good. Not sure if this will help you as you say you have used a lot of cable/input combinations but it worked for me.