27" Thunderbolt display does not have good detail.

Question

27" Thunderbolt display does not have good detail.

I am using it with a 17" MBP with Thunderbolt Port and am mirroring the display to the Thunderbolt Display. I have tried the various resolution options in the display setup with 1920 x 1080 being the best option. But the Thunderbolt Display looks pixelated, and not nearly as crisp as the display on the MacBook Pro.

Am I doing something wrong? Is there a way to get the Thunderbolt Display to look more detailed?

Additional info:

Running version 10.6.8

2.2 Ghz Intel i7

AMD Radeon HD6750M

Thank you for any and all help.

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.7)

Posted on Jan 20, 2013 9:26 PM

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Answer 1

Jan 20, 2013 9:46 PM in response to timothyfromlakewood

Try running at the native TB Diplay resolution of 2560 x 1440 - looks great from my MBP.

Clinton

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Answer 2

Jan 20, 2013 9:59 PM in response to clintonfrombirmingham

I tried that first. But that setting compresses the image on the left and right sides, distorting the image. I bought this display to help with my photo editing. So any distortion is not acceptable.

For example, my desktop image is a picture of my motorcycle. On my MBP the wheels look round, as they should. When I select the native TB Display of 2560 x 1440 it compesses the sides in and the wheels look oval, not round like they should.

When you have yours set to the native display does it use the whole TB screen? At the native display on mine, about one inch of the display is black on both the left and right side. Is that normal?

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Answer 3

Jan 20, 2013 10:17 PM in response to timothyfromlakewood

When you have yours set to the native display does it use the whole TB screen?

Yes, it does. The WHOLE screen. As to your desktop photo being 'warped' that may just be because the image is having to be stretched to fill the whole screen - adjusting the image ratio may fix that.

However, you should not be getting distorted images in any applications using 2560 x 1440. I run a lot of the Adobe CS6 packages, and a good number of other apps concurrently and have never had a problem with screen distortion at the native res. You might want to pack up your whole kit and take it into a local Apple Store if you're getting any back bars or screen distortion using the native resolution.

Clinton

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Answer 4

Jan 20, 2013 10:43 PM in response to timothyfromlakewood

Turn off mirroring or close the lid.

<http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3131>

You can't mirror displays of different resolutions and have both show images of full resolution.

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Answer 5

Jan 20, 2013 11:12 PM in response to Malcolm J. Rayfield

Well, it looks like the only way to turn off mirroring is to close the lid, but since I do not have an external keyboard and mouse it goes into sleep mode.

Is there a way to use the TB Display without mirroring or going into clamshell mode?

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Answer 6

Jan 20, 2013 11:23 PM in response to timothyfromlakewood

Go to the "Arrangement" tab of "Displays" system preference, uncheck "Mirror Displays", drag the pictures of the displays to match their actual positions, then drag the menu bar to the picture of the other display.

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Answer 7

Jan 20, 2013 11:22 PM in response to Malcolm J. Rayfield

Excellent Malcom, that did it!

Thank you.

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