light colors are gone for Mac Mini (late 2012)

I had the same problem using a new Mac mini 6,1 and an HDMI cable (HDMI out at the Mac mini and HDMI in at the monitor as well as DisplayPort out at the Mac mini and HDMI in at the monitor). I called the Apple support and they sent me a new Mac mini because they thought my graphics ports were defect. It wasn't. The second Mac mini had the same issue.

This is how I worked around the problem: I bought a DVI cable and connected the display using the HDMI->DVI adaptor. All colors are fine now.

To be true: This behaviour is what I would expect from 2nd hand hardware and Microsoft systems but not from Apple. But times do change it seems...

I've got the same problem! Light colours seem "burned out", it's difficult to explain, but it looks like in your original post.

Tried my Mini late 2012 on a different monitor - same problem.

Tried my Mini late 2012 with a DVI-cable instead of straight HDMI - same problem.

Also, I've tried to calibrate my monitor countless times now, but it just doesn't get right..

This clearly is a HW-issue!

The issue from what I am reading up in the Intel forums is that the HDMI thinks your monitor is a TV and it switches into Limited RGB mode where the colors are clamped between 16-235 range. Playing with the gamma controls might help the colors visually, but it can't compensate for the missing color ranges the HDMI port isn't sending.

I've switched to using a mDp->VGA and I can clearly see the difference in color range compared to the HDMI output. The gray gradients on the windows are very smooth and the font aliasing for LCDs setting works as normal.

From multiple reports, it seems that the HDMI->DVI connector seems to be okay, so that would imply that the HDMI is actually capable of outputting the full range of colors. I'm hoping for a driver fix.

Thanks soundx.

Same problem here. Mac Mini Late 2012, HDMI to Sharp Aquos. I noticed that highlights were blown out on the first video I watched. I was only able to partially compensate for the issue by calibrating the display profile and the TV settings.

So annoying! What/where's the fix?

I purchased a new monitor about a month ago, a LG M2382D, works perfectly with Windows 7 with HDMI > HDMI. This monitor only has 2x HDMI and 1x VGA.

I connected my old HP L2045w DVI monitor via supplied HDMI > DVI adapter and it created the correct colour profile L2045w for the monitor and the colours look normal (compared to HDMI). I reconnect my LG and no profile is created and it defaults to HD709-A with over exposed whites.

knight011, this is great news! So it the issue is a bug in the way Apple is interpreting color profiles then. Maybe someone else who can install Windows can verify this?

soundx, it looks like a software colour profiles bug which you describe. The Windows 7 machine I was talking about is my old windows desktop, which I used with my LG monitor via HDMI until I got the Mini.

All the other testing with the connections HDMI > DVI (HP L2045w DVI monitor - correct colour profile detected and selected) and HDMI > HDMI (LG monitor - incorrect colour profile detected) I did with the Mini with OSX 10.8.2. I have no Windows OS on the Mini yet.

It looks like to me the custom Mountain Lion version for the Mini is not reading the monitors' EDID info correctly when connecting via HDMI > HDMI. But works if connecting via the supplied HDMI > DVI adapter. Most likely culprit is the display/HDMI driver/firmware.

There are very similar issues (flickering, colours washed out) being reported and described on intel forums where people are running Windows OS and connecting via HDMI with Intel 4000 graphics. Looks to be a Intel 4000HD firmware/driver issue.

Well, it doesn't work correctly with the supplied HDMI->DVI adapter for me. Im running that adapter now, hooked up to a brand new HP ZR2440w, and I still have washed out light colours aswell as occasional black flickering and the color noise.

I guess I'll add my voice to the group of folks having HDMI issues. I just received my 2012 mini today and it looks terrible via HDMI. I'm seeing all of the same ugliness described in this thread. I've been using the same monitor and HDMI cable with my 2011 mini and it works flawlessly. I even switched back to the 2011 after trying the 2012 just to be sure I wasn't going crazy. Sure enough, the problem is the 2012 mini and not the monitor or cable.

I have a Genius appointment tomorrow but I don't have high hopes for a solution judging from everything I've been reading this evening 😟.

I've got the same problems. Got my Mac mini yesterday and freaked out about the white colors (HDMI to HDMI). Now I've connected the Mini over HDMI to DVI to my 23" Samsung LED and it looks like, that this will temporary fix the problem.

Same problem with my new Mac mini 2012, HDMI-DVI , and Thunderbolt-HDMI in a Samsung LED monitor , seems to be a problem with the gamma, maybe a Color Sync profile fix or something

I have a macbook air 2012 with the same problem if you search around everyone has the issue, mac mini, macbook, and macbook air. All the same problem with hdmi .

In my case its a 13inch macbook air 2012 , connected with a thunderbolt to hdmi adapter from Moshi (sold by apple) connected to an apple hdmi cable (brand new from apple) to my LG LED TV (which is brand new, and should support 1080p)

If i raise the resolution the colors are washed out and fonts are blurry! Its very sad indeed with no fix in sight

The latest updates from apple for graphics did not fix anything

So after spending a combined total of 3 hours at the Genius Bar over the course of two days we found that the Mac Mini simply hates when you use HDMI on the monitor but not necessarily on the Mini itself. When using the HDMI output on the monitor we saw the overblown whites regardless of how we tried to configure the connection to the Mini. When using a Thunderbolt display or using DVI on the monitor the picture looked fine even when using the HDMI port on the Mini with an adapter. So there's something about using the HDMI port on the monitor that doesn't jive with the Mini (or really the Intel HD4000 since it seems to happen to all of the newer Macs).

Just to prove it wasn't a fluke the manager authorized that we open two brand new Minis and we found the same exact issue with all three (the one I brought in and the two that they cracked open at the store).

Overall this Mac Mini has been a nightmare. Aside from the HDMI issue the migration assistant completely ignores two separate Time Machine backups from my 2011 Mini. Also it seems that the Mini can't upgrade to 10.8.2., which locked me out of iPhoto since it requires that update to run the latest version. They ultimately had to replace my machine entirely and warn me against upgrading iPhoto until the 10.8.2 update is available for the 2012 Mini. There also seems to be an issue with the Mini randomly ignoring my Logitech wireless keyboard and mouse when waking from sleep, which causes me to have to unplug and re-plug the USB receiver in order to re-establish the connection.

The telephone and in-person customer service has been great but they ultimately couldn't provide a real fix to any of these issues aside from giving me a new computer and telling me to use it differently. I'm really disappointed with the quality of this 2012 Mini.