Horrible colors on external monitor using macbook air(2012) with mini dp to hdmi

I have expend 10000 hours trying to calibrate my monitor. The result was something that looked like acceptable, but then when I try to work, I figured there where lots of color shades that dissapeared, not good, so afterall Calibration = imposible to calibrate. I plugged the HDMI to DVI back, and everything looked acceptable again.

As some one commented, I am recommending all my friends not to buy an Apple computers at this moment.

Well, i tried a DVI to HDMI adapter and it was even worse!

So i purchased another thunderbolt/displayport to hdmi, and its exactly the same, still horrible colors and fuzzy text if i set the resoultion above 1360 x 768.

=( its a shame , i have an expensive 1080p LED tv

I don't know if it's been said here in this thread already (can't read 23 pages, but it's been said elsewhere), and it isn't true for everyone here, but for you it might well be true:

Many HDMI inputs on TVs are expecting video, not data, resulting in awkward image quality when connecting a Mac.

Check the manual of your TV: Which HDMI input, if any, is for data? If none, or if in doubt and a DVI input is present, use that, and avoid adapters if somehow possible.

E.g., LG has many TVs on offer where the HDMIs are all for video, not data...

@ohh2aah

Today I bougt a MacBook Air 2012 / 1,8 GHz Dual- Core Intel Core i5 / 4 GB for my mother – and it works perfectly with the same HDMI cable!

This is the FIRST time someone on this forum (to my knowledge) has has the same cable (and monitor?) work/not work with a mid-2012 MBA (with HD4000 graphics). Can you please double-check and confirm this as this points to a HARDWARE fault in the early releases of mid-2012 MBA's.

This might explain the reluctance/difficulty of a fix, though it doesn't explain why win7 in Bootcamp can drive an HDMI display properly (something I haven't personally verified, though many others in this thread have).

I'm using the following

2012 Macbook air 13 inch

Moshi thunderbolt to hdmi adapter

Apple Hdmi cable

TV LG 26LS3510 26inch LG LED tv (less than 2 months old)

Resolution on 1360 x768 looks great, but anything higher looks terrible no matter how much i calibrate. Text is blurry and unreadable.

I have set both HDMI on my tv to PC (if its set on tv, then it looks worse)

I tried a thunderbolt to dvi, but it didnt help and seemed worse

I'm wondering if its because its an LED tv thats the problem?

@nicholasjfromca

Sorry for my delayed reply. It was the same cable but on a different monitor (BenQ, I don't know the model). Because we don't live together I couldn't get her MBA to my place or bring my monitor to her.

But I connected my MBA to her monitor using the same cable – and it worked! Mountain Lion recognizes the correct resolution (optimal for monitor) and colors. It seems to me that some monitors have difficulties to "talk" properly with the OS over HDMI (like mine).

AwwYeahh wrote:

TV LG 26LS3510 26inch LG LED tv (less than 2 months old)

Resolution on 1360 x768 looks great, but anything higher looks terrible no matter how much i calibrate. Text is blurry and unreadable.

Aaaah, finally a TV that accepts data signals - and on all its HDMI inputs!

However, the manual (see Downloads on the linked page) states clearly on page 29: "In PC mode, there may be noise associated with the resolution, vertical pattern, contrast or brightness. If noise is present, change the PC output to another resolution, change the refresh rate to another rate or adjust the brightness and contrast on the PICTURE menu until the picture is clear."

So, 1360x768 is probably the best you can get on this unit. Don't be sad, it's not the only "Full HD" TV where PC/Mac signals look awkward in its native resolution.

Hey guys,

I came across this thread this morning after experiencing the same problem as most of you are having, and I believe I've found a solution.

I have a MacBook Air 2012 hooked up to an external LG IPS235. I bought this for design work, and when I connected it via HDMI I found that the color was so bad that was not going to be an option. The monitor was displaying a very washed out effect, in which subtle shades of grey were indistinguishable, or some greys wouldn't even appear on the screen.

I read this thread and decided I'd go out and buy Mini DP>DVI adapter, as the it sounded like this would fix the issue. Hooked the external display up via DVI and found the colors to be better, but only marginally. It was still going to be unusable for my purposes.

I attempted recalibration of the monitor, but still found that I could not get the display looking even close to the standard I require. In despair, I decided to try a different route in calibrating the monitor. I decided to revert the monitor's color settings to default, then Using Mountain Lion's native calibration tool, set it to Expert Mode, then (and this was the most important part) IGNORE THE FIRST SCREEN which prompts the user to "First, set the contrast control to the highest setting" and "Set the brightness control using the image on the right as a guide". After this, calibrate the monitor as per usual following the steps.

The result for me was that this issue was fixed. My display is now producing colors and shades which are good enough to be used for my design work. It's not as nice as the color produced on the Air's display, but that's just because the external monitor isn't as high quality a screen.

Yes, I'm still using the DVI cable, because I couldn't be bothered recalibrating again. But I'm fairly certain this would have fixed the issue with the HDMI cable too, as the DVI cable only marginally improved the colours/contrast.

Hope this helps at least some of you!

Wishful thinking Narpstar, most people on this forum including me have tried every combination of expert calibration (whether ignoring the 'first set contrast' or not) and no luck. Apple need to fix this as same machine works fine with previous OS or if booted into Windows.

Hi Narpstar,

I have the same problem with a brand new macbook air 2012 and a LG IPS237 (so, very close to your config.).

I tried with another macbook air 2012, another hdmi cable but image was still awfull.

Extended calibration helped but it was still not acceptable.

I finally bought a minidisplayport->DVI and DVI->HDMI cable, do not forget to select a new color profile (the one provided by LG for example is fine). It's perfect now.

Good luck with this problem everybody (hope that Apple with fix that).

Interesting - my 2012 MBA has a "Display" profile on offer that has an almost identical name/icc identifier as your download zip file (mine ends with C5C1 and yours is C5C3, otherwise identical in name).

I will use Color Sync Utility to look at values of the profile to compare parameters.

I will try it when I get home, but would be interested to hear of others' experiences (good or bad...)

Message was edited by: EJW Tas)

Well I tried this with my macbook pro 13 inch (summer 2012) with a samsung LED monitor, and it seems that this macbook pro air profile did imporved the display, there can still be some improvements, but I think that's particular to my display rather than being a generic issue.

Regards,

Aniessh Sethh

I'm using macbook air 13.3mid 2012, graphics: Intel HD Graphics 4000 384mb and software is OS X 10.8.2 and I connected my mac to my TV (Samusng 40C650). I have the worst colors.. The display is so brigt, the blue is so blue, the red is so red, the green is so green. Overall, is it really bad. I switched from Windows to MAC a couple of months ago and I never had this problem on Windows. So the problem is not the TV I believe it is some configuration problem. I wish someone had a precise solution for the problem.. I tried to change the color profiles a couple of times but none worked. What will i do?

Mid 2012 MBA 13 inch, i5. OSX 10.8.2, latest updates.

Problem with MDP to VGA with my Samsung SyncMaster 2223NW external monitor.

Colours and contrast are horrible. Light shades are gone.

I use original Apple adapter. Also tried a different one.

Changing the color profile doesn't change very much. Neither in the Samsung settings, nor in the MBA color profile settings.

Nothing Apple Support advised was of any help. They tell me my monitor must be the problem. But it works perfectly well under Windows! So I think it's must be bad graphics software.

I guess it all adresses to the very same problem people in this thread experience with HDMI to HDMI, MDP to HDMI and HDMI to DVI.

I hope Apple will come up with a solution soon, because this is realy terrible to work with!

Same problem here...

Macbook Air 13" mid 2012

i7 8GB RAM HD4000.

With MiniDP to HDMI adapter, the colors are really washed out and you can not work under this condition. The "worst" news is that everything works perfectly with Windows. It 's amazing that Apple still has not solved the problem.