How do I force a resolution on a second monitor

I've connected a Samsung Syncmaster TV to my MacBook Pro through the miini display port via an HDMI adapter. The issue is that it can support up to 1920x1080 (this can easily be forced on a windows 7 laptop when connected the same way) but the option is not present on the options menu.

com.Apple.boot.plist does have the ability to force resolutions but I can't find a resource that explains how to specify which display it applies to.

How would I go about forcing the resolution on the TV through the above or otherwise. (SwitchResX has already been tried with no effect).

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.2)

Posted on Jan 5, 2012 7:46 PM

20 replies

Stroame Author

Level 1

0 points

Jan 6, 2012 6:38 PM in response to eww

its quite blurrey, when an window is expanded to maximum size it goes outside the bounds of what is displayed.

Csound1

Level 9

60,063 points

Jan 6, 2012 6:39 PM in response to eww

eww wrote:

What do you get if you select 1080i?

Hi eww, as I am sure you know, 1080i is 1920x1080

eww

Level 9

53,052 points

Jan 6, 2012 6:50 PM in response to Csound1

Exactly.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1080i

Stroame, you may need to make an overscan adjustment to fit the image on your screen and eliminate the blurriness. I haven't tried to use a TV set as a monitor, so I can't tell you exactly how or where to make that adjustment.

Stroame Author

Level 1

0 points

Jan 6, 2012 6:58 PM in response to eww

Thanks, ill look into it - after looking again i have 1080p as an option, identical results to 1080i though.

Csound1

Level 9

60,063 points

Jan 6, 2012 7:10 PM in response to Stroame

Stroame wrote:

Thanks, ill look into it - after looking again i have 1080p as an option, identical results to 1080i though.

That is a sign that an overscan adjustment is required, you may find it on the TV and it appears in the Mac display panel when a TV resolution (720, 1080 etc) is selected.

This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

How do I force a resolution on a second monitor