light colors are gone for Mac Mini (late 2012)

DLDante wrote:

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).

Well, Im using a HDMI -> DVI adapter, and I still have blown highlights. So putting an adapter between the mini and your monitor doesn't necessarily help I'm afraid 😟

Really? We found that using a DVI monitor produced a decent result when plugged into the HDMI port on the Mini. It didn't look spectacular, but it was an off-brand monitor so I wasn't sure if it was the Mini or the monitor. Either way it looked signifcantly better than the straight HDMI cable. Unfortunately I can't test this at home because my monitor is HDMI only and I don't want to buy another to make up for Apple's deficiencies.

A temporary fix is to use the third-party app Gamma Control. A few folks have already mentioned this but I'll add my voice as well and say that it works great. Simply set the "White" settings from 1.00 to 0.80 and your monitor will look much more like it should. The main hassle with this app is that you'll have to launch it every time you turn on the computer. I set it as an app that automatically launches at startup but I still need to click on it to apply the settings. It's annoying to have to do this on a brand new $800 computer, but at least it makes it usable while I wait for Apple to fix the problem.

Others have recommended playing with the gamma settings when using the Display Calibrator in expert mode, so that might be another option for you. I tried this for at least an hour and could never produce acceptable results. Things looked better but still looked bad overall. But maybe I just suck at it because others have said it worked great for them. This would be the ideal solution since you can just save the profile and it'll be set forever.

Image is blown out on both MiniDP to HDMI and HDMI to HDMI on my 2012 Mac Mini. Neither port will display a decent image. This 2012 Mac Mini is one of Apple's worst quality products for a long time.

koyeung wrote:

In my case:

(My monitor is HDMI only)

Bad colors:

HDMI -> Display

HDMI -> Apple DVI adaptor -> DVI_HDMI adapter -> Display

TB -> third party mdp to HDMI adaptor -> Display

Good colors:

TB -> Apple DVI adaptor -> DVI_HDMI adapter -> Display

my dvi_hdmi adapter is a very cheap one (HKD 30)

REALLY useful info, thanks! Will try this tonight and report back:

Good colors:

TB -> Apple DVI adaptor -> DVI_HDMI adapter -> Display

koyeung wrote:

Good colors:

TB -> Apple DVI adaptor -> DVI_HDMI adapter -> Display

my dvi_hdmi adapter is a very cheap one (HKD 30)

I just tried this setup and it kind of worked. The colors are no longer out of whack but the text gets all fuzzy.

ncalliari wrote:

koyeung wrote:

In my case:

(My monitor is HDMI only)

Bad colors:

HDMI -> Display

HDMI -> Apple DVI adaptor -> DVI_HDMI adapter -> Display

TB -> third party mdp to HDMI adaptor -> Display

Good colors:

TB -> Apple DVI adaptor -> DVI_HDMI adapter -> Display

my dvi_hdmi adapter is a very cheap one (HKD 30)

REALLY useful info, thanks! Will try this tonight and report back:

Good colors:

TB -> Apple DVI adaptor -> DVI_HDMI adapter -> Display

This WORKS! 😮

Having removed one memory module to prevent the Intel HD4000 screen blanking bug, and used this adapter combo to workaround the blown out color through HDMI, I FINALLY have a working Mac mini 2012.

Pretty ridiculous really.

See here for the Intel bug:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4472316?start=300&tstart=0

This issue has been fixed in 10.8.3 Build 12D38 (Pre-Release) released on December 5th.

I can now use HDMI without blown out colors.

The black screen blanking issue remains however and will likely only be fixed by a firmware update: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4472316?start=300&tstart=0 https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4472316?start=300&tstart=0

Intel has acknowledged that there are issues with the HDMI driver implementation on the 2012 mini HD4000. They are working with Apple on a fix. Sounds like this may have made it into the 10.8.3 beta builds.

Well, I'm using the latest 10.8.3 developer build and it certainly hasn't made it into this build. Screen still blanks for 3 seconds on a regular basis. Definitely not fixed.

As stated above however, blown out colours over HDMI have been fixed.

Glad to hear 10.8.3 fixes the color problem. So, was that an update to the graphics drivers, then? How long before 10.8.3 is available to the general public?

There was a firmware udpate released to address the screen blanking:

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1616

That is indeed good to hear. Apple's EFI update fixed the blanking problem (so far), but not the color issue. I'd hoped they were related.

But as long as 10.8.3 fixes the light color problem, we will be happy campers. Everything else about the 2012 Mac mini is pretty darn sweet.

Hdmi to hdmi the contrast/ brightness are blown up.

I checked with my friends early 2012 model and works fine on my setup up but the currently model with hd4000 is still ******** after the firmware update

MacMini 2012 2.5 i5. OSX 10.8.2.

Problem with MDP to VGA with Samsung SyncMaster 2223NW.

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 MacMini 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 thought MacMIni is there to make people switch from pc to mac without needing to buy a new monitor etc. Well it doesn't seem it works out like that...

By the way my 2012 macbook air has the same problem with the very same monitor used as second monitor.

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!

I agree! What sold me on the mini was this quote on the apple site:

It’s easy to connect Mac mini to the biggest screen in the house — your HDTV — courtesy of a built-in HDMI port. All it takes is one HDMI cable to start enjoying movies and TV shows from iTunes, surfing the web, and flipping through your photo library, all in brilliant HD. There’s also a handy control that lets you adjust the output on Mac mini to fill even the biggest HDTV screen.

This has really NOT been the case, very disappointing and frustrating.