No arrangement tab in my Display Preferences! Help!

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Level 1

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No arrangement tab in my Display Preferences! Help!

I have a rocketfish Mini DisplayPort to DVI adapter hooked up to an Apple DVI to video adapter, hooked up to an S-cable & Video Cable to the TV. When I hook everything up, the macbook screen momentarily turns blue but then the desktop comes back on. I tried the Detect Displays button under Display Preferences but nothing happened.

Everyone has been saying to "click the arrangement tab and then mirroring option under display preferences"... but that option isn't available!

Any help would be much appreciated!

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.1)

Posted on May 28, 2012 8:09 PM

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Answer 1

softwater

Level 5

5,556 points

May 28, 2012 9:14 PM in response to aipod

Have you checked the compatibility charts?

Have a look here, particulary no.5:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3382#3

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Answer 2

X423424X

Level 6

14,265 points

May 28, 2012 9:43 PM in response to aipod

aipod wrote:

I have a rocketfish Mini DisplayPort to DVI adapter hooked up to an Apple DVI to video adapter, hooked up to an S-cable & Video Cable to the TV.

Can you explain that a bit more?

What model MBP do you have? Or more to the point, what kind of video out does it have? Mini-displayport? DVI? And what do you mean "hooked up to an S-cable & Video Cable"? What's an S-cable (surely not a s-video cable)?

Assuming your TV supports HDMI and your MBP has a mini-displayport then you need a mini-displayport to HDMI adapter (or cable). If DVI then a DVI to HDMI adapter. If your MBP is "old enough" you need to pass audio separately via the stereo headphone jack to the TV.

Note that audo is not passed through a DVI connection.

There are USB to HDMI adpaters to pass audio and video.

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Answer 3

aipod Author

Level 1

0 points

May 29, 2012 7:52 PM in response to X423424X

Thanks for your reply!!

I have a MBP 13" early 2011: this is what my manual says:

DVI output using Mini DisplayPort to DVI Adapter (optional)
VGA output using Mini DisplayPort to VGA Adapter (optional)
Dual-link DVI output using Mini DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI Adapter supports 30-inch Apple Cinema HD Display (optional)
HDMI audio and video output using a third-party Mini DisplayPort to HDMI Adapter

And yes, an s-video cable. (Is that bad?) I managed to hook up my dad's laptop with the S-video cable and it worked fine. (His laptop has an s-video output port). But with these cords something doesn't want to work. The person at Future Shop told me it should work.. :/

My TV has no HDMI port. This is similar to what my TV looks like in the back:

The following two images are basically what I'm using to connect to the macbook.

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Answer 4

Llessur999

Level 4

1,214 points

May 29, 2012 8:13 PM in response to aipod

> I have a rocketfish Mini DisplayPort to DVI adapter hooked up to an Apple DVI to video adapter,

> hooked up to an S-cable & Video Cable to the TV.

I don't this this is causing your complete lack of picture, but do not connect both the S-video jack and the composite video jack. They both transmit video signals. Pick one or the other. S-video is a far cry from HDMI, VGA, or component video but is better than composite video. It is worth trying in case connecting both is zapping the signal strength.

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Answer 5

X423424X

Level 6

14,265 points

May 29, 2012 9:37 PM in response to Llessur999

Ok, I think I understand now.

Your early 2011 13" MBP8,1 has a thundebolt port (according to MacTracker) which for this application is interchangeable with a mini-displayport.

So you are chaining adapters; mDP --> DVI --> S-video. Chaining is always problematic. I look at it is there may be "something lost in the translation". 😉

You might be better off with the following:

Mini DisplayPort to Composite Video and S-Video Converter with LED for HDTV DVD

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Answer 6

aipod Author

Level 1

0 points

Jun 1, 2012 10:37 AM in response to X423424X

Oh, awesome! Thanks so much for your help! I'll give this a try and let you know how it goes! 🙂

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