MacBook Air resolution when connected to Apple TV, can I do it standalone?

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MacBook Air resolution when connected to Apple TV, can I do it standalone?

Hi there,

I just got a 13" MacBook air a few days ago after selling my 2010 13" MacBook Pro. So far, I'm beyond pleased with my purchase.

I do have one question though:

When I hook my computer up to Apple TV, it scales the resolution for "best with AirPlay" and mirrors the two displays. Personally, I'm all about tiny font and screen space, and I'm absolutely loving the resolution I get on the MBA when it's connected to AppleTV. Is there any way to get my machine to display this resolution when it's not connected to Apple TV? Obviously it can perform this task, but I feel like Apple might prevent me from being able to choose when this resolution kicks into effect. Perhaps a third party has an application of sorts that allows you to tweak your display?

Thanks in advance!

Cheers,

-Mak

MacBook Air (13-inch, Mid 2012), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Posted on Dec 8, 2012 5:39 PM

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Answer 1

arnamak Author

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Dec 8, 2012 8:11 PM in response to arnamak

Guys, I'm honestly shocked seemingly nobody on the internet has mentioned this. As someone who dabbles with coding, this is blowing my mind right now. Here are some examples for you.

The "before" shot, you can see my terminal window is set to 100x60, and when you click on this picture it'll display the resolution above your address bar or on the tab marker (1440x900, native MBA resolution)

As you can see, the terminal fills up the left side of my screen:

http://i.imgur.com/U6iPS.jpg

The "after" shot, when I connect to AppleTV. Same deal, you can tell that my terminal is unchanged because it still displays 100x60. However, you'll notice a significant increase in screen space. Also, at the top above your address bar once again, you'll see that the resolution of this screenshot is 1920x1080 (standard HDTV resolution, and that of AppleTV).

As you can see here, the resolution is drastically different, and as a programmer..it is a godsend on a 13" machine. This is in fact, higher resolution than you can get on the 13" retina model...on a Macbook Air

http://i.imgur.com/DNuz3.jpg

There has to be some information on this available to some of you, and there has to be a way to do this without being connected to AppleTV, the display of this computer can obviously handle it.

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