Mountain lion problems connecting to tv through receiver

Question

Mountain lion problems connecting to tv through receiver

Things start out fine - I power up the Mac Mini, it sees my Vizio TV through my Pioneer VSX 1022-K receiver no problem (HDMI all the way through).

I turn off the tv for a while, and come back and turn the TV back on.

I see one of four things:

Sometimes, it still works fine (but not very often).
"No signal" on the TV. Power off and on the TV and receiver in every combiniation ever, still no luck.
Blue screen, this is rare, but sometimes it's just a blue screen. I can't do anything though with a mouse or keyboard.
White noise. Again, I can't do a thing. This is also rare.

When 2-4 happens, I also lose the ability to VNC into the mac mini using Real VNC from Windows (it just stays at "connecting..."). In Mountain Lion, without this problem, I VNC right in in less than a second (after entering the PW, of course).

Sleep is disabled, screensaver is disabled. As I said, it's random; sometimes it's fine, other times it's broken.

The ONLY fix when this happens is to hard power off and turn it back on. Obviously not what I am wanting to do with my brand new mac mini. I am about to throw this thing against a wall, or maybe return it, lol.

With Lion, this did not happen (although I had plenty of other problems).

I do not think it has to do with sleeping, because sleeping is disabled... So what else could be the issue? I've heard EDID issues, but I have no clue where to begin to fix that.

APPLE - PLEASE FIX YOUR BUG AND HELP.

More people with this problem here: http://forums.plexapp.com/index.php/topic/44944-2011-mac-mini-on-mountain-lion-f reezing-when-attached-displays-are-power-cycled/

Thanks.

Posted on Aug 10, 2012 2:35 PM

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Answer 1

Creeper74

Level 2

366 points

Aug 10, 2012 7:49 PM in response to ShackrockScott

have you tried (for troubleshooting purposes) connecting the mini directly to your visio and recreating the problem? i have mine running through a 1021-K with no problem.

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Answer 2

Aug 10, 2012 7:52 PM in response to Creeper74

Are you using Mountain Lion or Lion? I didn't have this problem with Lion.

I just set the receiver to output 1080p at all times, let me see how that does for a day or 2... but next I guess I'll try hooking up to the TV directly. Problem is, I don't know how I'm going to get digital audio out of the mini without HDMI through the receiver...

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Answer 3

Creeper74

Level 2

366 points

Aug 10, 2012 11:59 PM in response to ShackrockScott

I upgraded to ML and didn't miss a beat. aren't you going HDMI from your mini to the Pioneer? Audio will run via HDMI to your TV as well. Good luck.

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Answer 4

Aug 11, 2012 6:30 AM in response to Creeper74

Mini to pioneer to Vizio (all HDMI).

The problem is, if I hook up Mini to Vizio, how do I get digital audio to the pioneer?

Further, than I have to resort to changing inputs on the TV again, a good thing about an AV receiver like the pioneer is that I can use THAT to control both video and audio at the same time...

Thanks.

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Answer 5

Creeper74

Level 2

366 points

Aug 11, 2012 12:08 PM in response to ShackrockScott

If your Vizio has audio return capability via HDMI, you could do it that way...although I'm not sure it would pass anything more than 2-channel stereo from the TV back to the receiver. It's not a feature that my TV is capable of, so I can't speak to its real-life application.

If your TV doesn't support ARC, you can buy a TOSlink cable to run digital audio from your mini to your receiver. Check monoprice for some good deals on those cables. I got one for less than five bucks.

It's a bit of a dance, but you would need to switch your audio output between HDMI (when you want the audio to come out of your TV) and TOSlink (when you want it to go to your receiver). There are applescripts that can automate this so that you just double-click a link and it performs the switch. I am running this exact setup in my house for the times when I want to watch a movie but everyone's asleep so I can't run my receiver.

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Answer 6

Aug 14, 2012 9:15 AM in response to ShackrockScott

same problem here. come on apple.

onkyo receiver

samsung tv

worked fine on lion.

even disconnects external hard drives

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Answer 7

Aug 17, 2012 2:33 AM in response to recipriversexcluson

Same problem here. Very frustrating! Hope that a fix will become available soon.

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Answer 8

Feb 27, 2013 4:21 PM in response to ShackrockScott

Same problem here. 10.8.2 -> Pioneer VSX-1325 -> Panasonic Plasma.

I dont have any of the weird video problems, but I do have the same issue with the computer not wanting to sleep or the screensaver not coming on.

I have determined the ultimate issue and apple simply needs to fix it.

The underlying issue is in how HDMI opperates with audio. HDMI audio is embedded in the video stream, so the OS must disable sleep as long as there is active audio. If the machine were to put the HDMI port to sleep (stop sending video) this would also stop sending audio. This is an acceptable issue and solution, but to completley prevent the screensaver from engaging is nonsense! The screensaver is active video that can still carry audio.

Apple where are you? Why have you not fixed this? It has been well over 6 months!

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Answer 9

Feb 27, 2013 11:01 PM in response to ShackrockScott

I have the same problem. Very frustrating.

TIP: My workarround is to disable the screensaver on my mac mini. Then just shut down plex after using. This works, but is not the way how I want it to work. If I forget plex to shut down, I have the same issue. Blue screen and the only remedy is to reset the power of my mac mini.

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Answer 10

Feb 28, 2013 12:08 PM in response to ShackrockScott

My current workaround is to avoid the mac from going to sleep. Therefore I just keep a torrent downloading, and keeping network activity going seems to keep the computer awake. However there have even been times where I logged in, closed the torrent down and the computer decides to go to sleep. Very strange, and still no fix.

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