Jerky picture with Mac Mini - HDMI - Plasma TV (Panasonic)

I suggest to drop the HDMI and Use Miniport To VGA

works for me

i have Mac Mini 2011 conected to 42" LCD Full HD but subrisly the image is Burrly v. Burrly you can see a pictuer but cant read a text (safari

sorry i meant blurry image

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3307191?answerId=16203284022#16203284022

^^^^^ The thread and firmware update listed above is irrelevant to the situation.

The OP listed he as an earlier version Mini, running 10.6.8, The thread refrenced above is a 2011 mini running 10.7.1

When you hooked up to the display using HDMI, did you use the mini DVI adapter on your Mini?

I have the same model mini, running 10.6.8 also, and I have similar issues.

See my troubleshooting here:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3329063?answerId=16217405022#16217405022

Darn, I was hoping you were using the same MiniDVI to DVI.

So, that means you have a Mid 2010 Computer I think

Is this your machine:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4214

Although you aren't on the same connection that my computer is (Mini DVI to DVI) it is still a digital connection to the computer.

Have you tried the Analog connection to see if the issues go away?

As someone else previously stated:

I suggest to drop the HDMI and Use Miniport To VGA

works for me

Jerkiness with playback of video is often down to a mis-match of frame-rates.

There are three main frame-rates used in movies - I will round up the numbers for simplicity. They are 24 fps (progressive), 50 fps (interlaced), and 60 fps (interlaced). Some TVs can do all three frame-rates, some cannot. However even if the TV can do all three, that is no guarantee that your computer can. In particular Macs often need a lot of manual tweeking to be able to do 24 fps.

If your video is for example 24 fps, and your TV is set to 50 fps, then at best even with doubling the amount of time each frame is shown 2 x 24 = 48 and does not make an easy match to 50 fps. As a result this mis-match means either an individual frame has to be shown longer than others, or a frame has to be thrown away. Either can result in the perception of a jerkiness of the image.

If you are able to open the video file in QuickTime Player 7, you can press Command-I for Info to get an indication of its frame-rate. You could also use the free Media Inspector application see http://mediainspector.massanti.com/

If at all possible you need to set your computer and TV to a frame-rate that matches the video you are playing.

TVs are supposed to send a list of their capabilities (frame-rates and resolutions) to a device over the video cable using the EDID standard.See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended_display_identification_data unfortunately many TVs especially Sony's are very bad at doing this.

SwitchResX for Mac can in some cases allow manually creating settings to get round this, see http://www.madrau.com/indexSRX4.html

In theory converting 24 fps progressive to 60 fps interlaced (or vice versa) should be a bit easier, this process is either called Telecine conversion or Inverse-Telecine conversion for the opposite direction. Unfortunately even many commercial DVDs have errors in the 'pattern' (order) of frames that results in it going wrong. Often this is due to stupid production houses editing video after the telecine pattern has been set, thus breaking the sequence. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecine

This isn't my thread, and I don't intend to thread-jack, but hopefully this is a contribution instead.

On my compter with a similar issue, My media is a MPEG-4, playing at 29.97 fps, and my monitor is 60hz

I changed resolutions, but didn't find a resolution that displays at 30 hz.

And it skips like mad

Breakwater wrote:

This isn't my thread, and I don't intend to thread-jack, but hopefully this is a contribution instead.

On my compter with a similar issue, My media is a MPEG-4, playing at 29.97 fps, and my monitor is 60hz

I changed resolutions, but didn't find a resolution that displays at 30 hz.

And it skips like mad

Setting your monitor to 60Hz is the logical choice since that is as near counts it is 2 x 29.97. As standard Mac OS X does not show precise frame-rates like 29.97 it might be of interest to read this article. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frame_rate

60 fps interlaced is in reality 60 x 1000/1001 = 59.94 fps in other words 2 x 29.97 because it is interlaced

24 fps progressive is in reality 24 x 1000/1001 = 23.976 fps (as this is progressive it is not x 2)

A lot of products will describe the setting as merely being 24 fps or 60 fps but are merely for simplicity describing it as so but still using the correct exact setting. Some products do both the exact setting and the rounded up setting. Unfortunately it appears Apple only do the rounded up speed which is actually different (slightly) to the real speed.

Even so, I would normally expect a 30 fps (i.e. 60Hz) setting in your case to give a good result.

Some video cards are also better at this than others. With a better video card and using SwitchResX it is sometimes possible even in Mac OS X to define a setting that would be in your case 59.94 fps interlaced. See http://www.madrau.com/whatis/whatis.html you can try it free of charge for 10 days.

Note: If you do choose to experiment with SwitchResX I strongly advise you first turn on Screen Sharing. This will then allow you to control your computer from another Mac incase you mess up the video settings and can no longer see anything on the screen.

Thanks for your suggestions.

Personally, I'm not into changing settings manually, with the potential to mess something up. especially if it's in a trail version of some program that will end up costing money.

There's no reason that OEM Apple Hardware and OEM Apple software should'nt be able to make this work.

I am having the same problems.

Hooked up my Mac Mini to my entire HD system. Routed the HDMI through my Onkyo Amplifier to my 60" LG tv. This way I get surround sound, and I can watch movies using the Mini...

First of all the Mini won't give me any video options in HDMI above 30Hz. I need 60 for the LG in North America.

Why won't it provide that option?

Setting this up has been the worst Apple Experience ever. Wouldn't see the w/l keyboard or mouse. Wouldn't find them when it went to sleep. etc. etc. Now video looks like something from a stuttering 35mm projector.