MBP Retina: Poor image quality from hdmi output

I installed dual boot Win8 on my MBP retina and the original 16:9 monitor looked beautiful and sharp in Windows. Running Win8 through Parallels looked the same as the Mac OS (crappy). As suspected, it would seem the hardware is fine, just bad drivers.

Re: the sleep issue; my mouse and keyboard are connected to the same USB hub. The mouse (Logitech MX Revolution) will wake the Mac, but I have to unplug and then plug-back-in the keyboard to get it working.

Re: the comment about the Apple store geniuses... I took my Mac + monitor in and they also had the balls to tell me that my eyes were so used to the retina display that I must be imaging things. Lost all faith in them being able to help me any further.

APPLE: please give Microsoft a call and ask if you can borrow the video output drivers. My eyes need it!

I had this exact problem using a Mac Mini with an LG monitor (Mac text looks blurrier/blockier than PC text on the same monitor.). Based on other this and other threads, I fixed it by switching from the HDMI cable to a VGA cable (using the Mini DisplayPort to VGA adapter). (I would like to try the DVI next.) For some reason, when using HDMI with this and other monitors, the Mac interprets the display as a Television (About This Mac...More Info...System Report...Graphics/Displays and it will say Television: Yes). I don't know how to turn that off but this adversely affects the rendering of text.

I have called the apple support hotline, they said it is not a known issue to them

hope it is a sign that they'll fix it in the coming updates

I continue to be amazed by Apple's behaviour about this issue. This discussion and countless other discussions in this forum and numerous other forums, have reported this OS defect for the better part of a year. Maybe longer!

Despite countless complaints, Apple always responds with "We haven't heard anything about this." And they suggest it will be fixed soon in a coming update.

Meanwhile, months and months pass, and Apple users are stuck with dysfunctional products. I drew the line when Apple support suggested I replace my current dual external monitors with a pair of Apple's new Thunderbolt displays. Of course, they couldn't offer any discount on them, nor any credit for my current displays (that happen to work perfectly well with PCs and Windows XP and 8 running in Fusion). I returned a new 15" retina MacBook Pro and gave up on Mountain Lion OSX. The products are not ready for launch.

Apple's actions are very discouraging to professional users who need to be able to rely on Apple products and its OSX. This current debacle is reminiscient of the Microsoft's painful missteps with Vista. Apple, please find a way to remedy this mess. Soon!

Its been months since my last post and still no news about driver updates. This is really sad to see given the incredible opportunity Apple has and, frankly speaking, they blew it. The laptop, the display and the UI are all stellar (so far as I can tell) but the lack of support is appalling.

Given this experience, I'll probably wait until Lenovo comes out with their own "retina display" and go back to using Linux. At least that way, I know there's a user group out there making regular updates and worst case I can always rummage under-the-hood and build my own solution.

I am using a Samsung S29B970 27" @ 2560 x 1440 with a MBPr and I am really dissapointed with the way fonts are displayed. I am also dissapointed in the way it seems that Apple is dealing with this obviously wide spread issue.

It is a real bummer to buy something this expensive and be this satisfied with the product only to realize that it simply cannot handle external monitors properly (except for Apples own of course). It really drags everything else down since everything I do is displayed on the Samsung monitor.

same here, agree with you 100%, IS ANYONE FROM APPLE READING THESE POSTS?

tradinghumble wrote:

, IS ANYONE FROM APPLE READING THESE POSTS?

NO, this is an Apple user site, we are just like you, (except for the shouting)

I'm ready to return my Retina because of this unaddressed issue. Has anyone tried this? Technically it is a software issue, but since it is with the OS I would hope it would be covered under the year warranty? I'm still using bootcamp and Windows to run nearly all my software, so I'm ready just to get a really tricket out PC laptop for the money I dumped into this...at least I can natively use my external display.

Perhaps in 10.8.3.....

Perhaps...

Apple is being very disapointing. Using an HDMI port that doesn't work and the customer service trying to look like they don't know anything?

Well, it's a good lesson to learn how this company is. We can also learn that the reviews of the apple products in the internet are just copy-paste from the apple website... no one spotted this issue and also no-one is talking openly about it.

Pretty disgusting experience...

Just chiming in to say I am in the same situation. I was using a 2008 MacBook running Snow Leopard with a 27" Samsung HD external monitor and it was beautiful. Bought a 15" MBP retina, and with the HDMI to HDMI connection, the external Samsung is terrible compared to how it looked with the MacBook. Very frustrating; I don't understand why this isn't a priority for Apple to fix it.

CEGmac, thanks for chiming in. Maybe I have to use the words #justinbieber here just so the number of posts and visits will increase, perhaps then Apple will notice us users who paid over $2,500US for a laptop which cannot be used with external monitors....

Good one, it may work.

On Friday i receive a MacBook Pro Retina 2.7/16/768. I use it with a Thunderbolt Display and all is OK. Today i connect it to my Panasonic Plasma thru The HDMI conector and.... All OK, 1920x1080p, idem like my MacMini thats live with The Plasma. No frozen, beautiful, perfect. The S.O. Is OSX 10.8.2 and i always use the discrete card (N650). I don't know id there are a new MBPr revision, but in my machine the HDMI works perfect.

Are You there Apple?, what happens?