Mac Mini doesn't like Philips 32PF9830

Question

Mac Mini doesn't like Philips 32PF9830

Hi all,

I have a problem when connecting my Mac-Mini with the Philips LCD-TV via the DVI. I only get a blank screen, what ever I try.

Here is my history:

I bought a DVI-D (Dual Link, 3m = 10inch?) cable and connected it to the 9830. Immediatley I saw the Mac-Os desktop, but the image was flickering (it looked like a wrong frequency) So I changed the resolution to 1920 x 1080 60Hz. I got an Black screen. Then I rebooted the Mac and I saw the grey Startup screen (the apple with an circle) and then again a black screen. This was also the last time I saw an Image coming from the Mac Mini via the DVI output.

Then I switched to a VGA cable and connected the VGA Cable via 2 DVI-VGA adpaters to the 9830 this only works if I boot the mac without the VGA cable connected and then after the reboot is finished connect the cable to the Mac. What I then see is a 800 x 600 VGA resolution. If i then switch to another resolution I receive again a black screen.

The Mac Mini DVI output is working because I have verified it by connecting it to another LCD display.
I also verified the Philips DVI Input, by connecting it to a PC with DVI video-card also working fine (I experienced a bad image at 1980 x1080 too).

I also tried an DVI-I cable (Single Link, 1,8m) but no improvement. I played around with Switchres x and displayconfigx. Nothing really worked.

I use VNC, so I can easily switch the res at my MAC from my Laptop. I see that when I'm switch the input at my TV the Mac recognizes that there is a LCD display and switches automatically over to a 1280 x 740 resolution (I see this in the VNC screen) but the TV still stays black.

MacOS and Switchres and displayconfigx are detecting the LCD TV correctly. I get only those resolutions displayed in the System settings that are specified by Philips for this TV.

I really don't know what to check else .Every thing works fine but a MAC - Philips connection simply doesn't work.

Here is the DDC file, If anyone can have a look at this or maybe have another suggestion, that would be great.

BTW: It took me so long to convince my wife to buy a Mac Mini for the living room. Now it looks like my wife was all the time right. I hate loosing against my wife !

DDC block generated by SwitchRes X for display
Philips FTV

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F
-----------------------------------------------------
0 | 00 FF FF FF FF FF FF 00 41 0C 00 00 01 01 01 01
1 | 00 00 01 03 80 40 24 78 0A E6 92 A3 54 4A 99 26
2 | 0F 4A 4C 21 08 00 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01
3 | 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 1D 80 D0 72 1C 16 20 10 2C
4 | 25 80 80 68 21 00 00 9E 01 1D 80 18 71 1C 16 20
5 | 58 2C 25 00 80 68 21 00 00 9E 00 00 00 FC 00 50
6 | 68 69 6C 69 70 73 20 46 54 56 0A 20 00 00 00 FD
7 | 00 30 3E 0F 32 09 00 0A 20 20 20 20 20 20 01 E3

-----------------------------------------------------
Valid DDC block: checksum passed

EDID Version........1.3
Manufacturer........PHL
Product Code........0 (0000) (0000)
Serial Number.......16843009

Manufactured........Week 0 of year 1990
Max H Size..........64 cm
Max V Size..........36 cm
Gamma...............2.20

DPMS Supported Features:
------------------------

Display type:
-------------
RGB color display

Input signal & sync:
--------------------
Digital

Color info:
------------
Red x = 0.640 Green x = 0.290 Blue x = 0.150 White x = 0.289
Red y = 0.330 Green y = 0.600 Blue y = 0.060 White y = 0.299

Established Timings:
--------------------
800 x 600 @ 60Hz
640 x 480 @ 60Hz
1024 x 768 @ 60Hz

Manufacturer Reserved Timings:
------------------------------

Standard Timing Identification:
-------------------------------

Monitor Description blocks:
---------------------------
Descriptor #0 is Timing definition:
Mode = 1920 x 540 @ 50Hz
H. Active...............1920 pixels
H. Blanking.............720 pixels
V. Active...............540 lines
V. Blanking.............22 lines
HSync Offset............528 pixels
HSync Pulse Width.......44 pixels
VSync Offset............2 lines
VSync Pulse Width.......5 lines
Pixel Clock.............74.25MHz
Horizontal freq.........28.12kHz
Vertical freq...........50.04Hz
H Image Size............640mm
V Image Size............360mm
H Border................0 pixels
V Border................0 lines
Interlaced
Sync: Digital separate with
* Positive vertical polarity
* Positive horizontal polarity

Descriptor #1 is Timing definition:
Mode = 1920 x 540 @ 60Hz
H. Active...............1920 pixels
H. Blanking.............280 pixels
V. Active...............540 lines
V. Blanking.............22 lines
HSync Offset............88 pixels
HSync Pulse Width.......44 pixels
VSync Offset............2 lines
VSync Pulse Width.......5 lines
Pixel Clock.............74.25MHz
Horizontal freq.........33.75kHz
Vertical freq...........60.05Hz
H Image Size............640mm
V Image Size............360mm
H Border................0 pixels
V Border................0 lines
Interlaced
Sync: Digital separate with
* Positive vertical polarity
* Positive horizontal polarity

Descriptor #2 is Monitor name:
Philips FTV
Descriptor #3 is Monitor limits:
Horizontal frequency range.......15-50 kHz
Vertical frequency range.........48-62 Hz
Maximum bandwidth unspecified

Mac Mini Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Mac Mini, Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Posted on Feb 9, 2006 4:48 PM

Reply

Answer 1

BSteely

Level 5

7,643 points

Feb 11, 2006 8:55 AM in response to StilLSchweiger

I have a question about your comment, "I also verfied the Philips DVI input, by connecting to a PC with DVI video-card also working fine." In that case, is there anyway to recover the details of the timing from the PC when it is working fine? If that can't be done through the OS iteself, I think there is a program called Powerstrip for the PC that would do this.

I would think in that case you could use the details of the working timing on the PC to enter into SwitchRes X or DisplayConfigX and you should get the same result from the mini.

Reply

Answer 2

BSteely

Level 5

7,643 points

Feb 12, 2006 10:34 PM in response to StilLSchweiger

I spent some time this weekend experimenting with interlaced video timings using a mini. I didn't have much success. I have an LCD TV that can work from 1080p but also from 1080i. When the mini is attached I have always used 1080p. Just as an experiment I tried both SwitchRes X and DisplayConfigX over both VGA and DVI ports on the mini trying to get 1080i to work. In no case did I get a reasonable image on the TV. I am begining to wonder if a mini supports interlaced sync out the VGA or DVI ports. Perhaps someone else knows the answer to that question.

I notice the two Standard Timings listed from your monitor's EDID are both 1080i timings. Other than that it looks like it only handles 640x480, 800x600 and 1024x768. You may be stuck with those three timings if you can't get interlace working.

Reply

Answer 3

Feb 13, 2006 2:10 AM in response to BSteely

Hi Tom, (you already pretty famous in the Mac Community)

thx for having a look into my message.

I thought that if it is running with the PC out-of-the box, then it should also run with the MAC-mini out-of-the box and I don't have to mess around with any timing setting. But as I understand you. The timing settings could be different with the MAc and with the PC. Even if there are these standard resoltuions (e.g. 800x600). Right ?

So I'll try powerstrip to get the timing settings. Thx for the hint.

Regards Renato

Reply

Answer 4

Feb 13, 2006 2:47 AM in response to BSteely

Hi Tom,

I'm little bit confused about the DDC

here is the spec for the 32PF9830
PC
640 x 480 60 Hz
800 x 600 60 Hz
1024 x 768 60 Hz

Video
640 x 480i 1 Fh
640 x 480p 2 Fh
720 x 576i 1 Fh
720 x 576p 2 Fh
1280 x 720p 3 Fh
1920 x 1080i 2 Fh

All of these formats appear when I go into the MAC Monitor settings. So it looks like the Mac is detecting the right formats DDC.

But only VGA resolutions appear DDC format under standard timimngs.
640 x 480 60 Hz
800 x 600 60 Hz
1024 x 768 60 Hz

Shouldn't here also appear the video formats ? How does the Mac detects the other formats, if they are not in the DDC ?

You wrote:
"Other than that it looks like it only handles 640x480, 800x600 and 1024x768. You may be stuck with those three timings if you can't get interlace working. "

Ok, But shouldn't I try to get the progressive modes working? (s.a. supported video modes for the 32PF 9830) e.g 720p or the 576p. this is what the mac mini is naturally supporting, too. Am I on the wrong track ?

There some new experience I made during weekend.
I bought a shorter SVGA cable (2m) and with this cable the SVGA modes a working all three pretty fine.

Maybe the question is whether I need a short DVI-D cable. Because the Mac-Mini is already verylow with the outpu-voltage of the video-out with longer cable could cause a much lower video-signal, maybe already below the VGA spec.

What are your experinces with the cables ?

Thx, renato

Reply

Answer 5

BSteely

Level 5

7,643 points

Feb 13, 2006 11:02 PM in response to StilLSchweiger

Concerning "Shouldn't here also appear the video formats ? How does the Mac detects the other formats, if they are not in the DDC ?"

Those are standard video timings and they pre-exist inside Mac OS, though I don't know exactly which file contains them. Honestly I don't know how the Mac can know which video timings your TV can work from because DDC is not supported over video connections like S-Video and Composite Video as far as I am aware. Perhaps when you previously made a DVI connection and the EDID was read, the information about supported ranges in Descriptor #3 (near the bottom of the EDID file) was matched to the pre-existing video timings inside Mac OS and only those which matched up to your TV are presented in Display Preferences. I am just guessing.

I doubt cable length is giving problems. True the mini has poor drive out the VGA port but I have not heard the same of the DVI port. I use an inexpensive 3m DVI cable with my mini and TV it works without issue.

One other thing you might want to try since you are seeing video timings which you would like to access when making a DVI or VGA connection...as far as I know, if you boot a Mac and hold down Command-Opt-A-V keys all together while the Mac starts up, this will force the Mac to treat the attached display as an AV display. In that case the video timings you see may become available under Display Preferences even though you are making a "PC" connection (VGA or DVI) and not a video connection. I am not sure this will work but it is worth a try.

Reply