Connect to HDTV

There is not, because the video portion of HDMI IS DVI. HDMI is just DVI but with a different connector that can also carry audio and control signals.

Anyone notice the top menu bars are cropped when playing on an external hi-def TV?

Use the Monster Cable linked to previously to connect to a Toslink 'optical in' on your receiver from the 'optical out' mini-plug on your MBP. My Denon lets me assign the optical inputs using a video menu, so now you have sound going in and just have to select the source (by whatever means your receiver uses).

Now that you've got sound, you want a picture! Use a DVI to HDMI cable or a DVI to DVI cable with a DVI to HDMI adapter. Plug into your receiver. If you're like me, you have all audio and video going through the receiver with a single 'monitor output' going to the HDMI (or, on some TVs, DVI) input on your TV - all your 'switching' is done at the receiver instead of multiple inputs on the TV. Just make sure that the DVI-DVI or DVI-HDMI cable that you get matches the DVI out port on your MBP.

You might be able to find both cables at a local Best Buy or you may want to call Crutchfield and they may have the cables you need in stock or may be able to tell you which Monster cables you need...

...and although Monster has almost taken over the market there are other manufacturers but they're becoming more difficult to find... just don't buy the $200 'reference' cables to connect your computer to your TV!!! In fact...

...if you don't have all sorts of DVI cables just lying about, you might want to save some bucks and buy Apple's $19 Apple DVI to Video Adapter that allows you to just use a single composite or s-video cable.

20" 2GHz Intel Core Duo iMac 2Gb RAM 250Gb, G4 Dual 1 GHz PM & 12" 867 MHz PB, Mac OS X (10.4.6) 2 MacBook Pro Intel Core Duo 2 Gb RAM 100Gb 7200 RPM HD

Does your receiver have a menu so that you can assign the optical inputs to various devices? My optical in ports have to be configured and only then can I select the choice of which optical in to use (DVD, digital cable, computer, etc.) You do want your sound processed through your receiver, don't you? The DVI to HDMI cable does NOT carry the audio signal - only the video - to your TV.

Mine don't get cropped on my 32" 16:9 high-def LCD TV (1366 x 720 or something like that).

The effect would be different on different types of "HDTV" monitors. I won't touch plasma - it took me years to overcome my "CRT only" rule and, even now, with true 1080p HDTV projection LCD, where the heck am I going to get a 1080p signal? Not from my MPB!

Hi,

I have a MBP and have recently acquired a new LCD HDTV with 1920 x 1080i resolution. So I bought a DVI-D to HDMI cable to connect them together. (this one: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0009PTHM8/202-3137109-2987051?v=glance&n=560 798)

I have connected the two up, and set the screen resolution on the MBP to 1920 x 1080i (60 hertz). However, I was extremely surprised to see that the desktop did not fill the screen and the quality was not as good on the MBP display. Any thoughts? I was expecting it to be as clear as the MBP display just with a higher resolution.

Any thoughts??? Surely DVI to HDMI is as good as the cable can be!! Any settings need altering? Drivers need downloading??

I tried to get 1920x1080 output fron my 17" MBP. It is connected by DVI-D to the DVI port of an LCD 37" BenQ HDTV that has 1920x1080 screen. The Display System Pref recognize it as an external display of a max 1368x780. Even mirroring does not put 1680x1050 pixels on the TV. Is it a limitation of the Mac Software in the Display System Pref?

The BenQ 3750 can output 1920x1080 when a Sony HDR-HC1 HD camcorder is connected to it at the components ports.

1080i HD video content is 1920 x 1080 pixels, so this is the maximum amount of pixels most HD displays need to have.

Then there is the factor that these displays are designed to be looked at across the room, not up close. So the pixels blend in together more because most people start losing the ability to see sharply the further they get from something.

Because computer monitors are looked at up close the diagonal size is smaller and the pixel resolution is higher.

For instance I have 2560 x 1600 on 30"

For the Apple 23" it's 1920 x 1200 and so on.

Also you can see the computer is displaying more information, there is 120 more rows of pixels on the 23", than the HD TV can display.

So what happens is stretching and cropping occurs and one gets a distorted image. Type all looks weird and lines are not straight.

The only way to get a clear image is to match the two as close as possible, what the computer outputs and the HD monitor. The result is the HD monitor has to shrink in size to about a 17" diag with full 1920 x 1080 pixels.

Now when people go buy these massive HD TV's, they buy them at like 30-40-50-60 inches diagonally, but the pixel resolution remains the same at 1920 x 1080, so you get, you guessed it, HUGE pixels, which doesn't look all that great up close and somewhat ok from across the room.

When I play a DVD movie on my 30", DVD player scales up the image to fill the screen and it's distorted because, well, DVD's don't have the full 1920 x 1080 (or even 2560 x 1600) data needed to give the clarity.

Now BlueRay DVD's are coming which will give more information, to 1080p (1920 x 1080) but still some scaling up will be needed to fill my 30" screen resolution regardless.

Computer monitors are a different creature than TV monitors, different purposes, it would be nice if the both were the same. But unfortunatly there is enough problems getting the industry to upgrade to HD from the lousy 600 x 400 pixels of NTSC.