Mac mini (late 2012) - Status of display issues / YCbCr color space?

Question

Level 1

10 points

Mac mini (late 2012) - Status of display issues / YCbCr color space?

I'm interested in buying a Mac mini but still holding off because of all the display issues.

While the "video blinking out" issue seems to have been resolved with a firmware update I'm still not sure what to make of the "washed out colors/crushed whites" problem: Does this just occur on machines that are connected via HDMI directly (no adapter, just HDMI-HDMI) to a TV or monitor where Intel's HD4000 "thinks" HDMI equals output to a TV and thus is forcing the YCbCr color space on it (see also this discussion)?

Or do people using adapters (HDMI-DVI) or Mini DisplayPort have this problem too?

If HDMI-DVI connections work fine then I wouldn't bother waiting for OS X 10.8.3 (with a possible fix) but since I plan on doing photo editing this issue still concerns me.

Any feedback appreciated - thanks!

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.6.8), Core Duo 2GHz/2GB/250GB (2006)

Posted on Mar 4, 2013 3:15 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Mar 4, 2013 7:38 AM in response to Benedikt

The "washed out colors/crushed whites" issue is an improper white point calibration. It's extremely annoying, but the white point can be adjusted a number of ways. The easiest way is to use a "dimming" application that allows the white point to be adjusted on the fly with a simple GUI. Here are two I've tried that both do the job very well and are free in the Mac App Store:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/midnight/id430191668?mt=12

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/shady/id496549812?mt=12

I use an HDMI->HDMI connection. I haven't experimented to see if other connection methods also transmit this problem, but since it's a white point issue I would imagine they do.

Hopefully 10.8.3 will be out soon and will correct this issue.

Reply

Answer 2

Benedikt Author

Level 1

10 points

Mar 5, 2013 2:20 AM in response to John Hammer1

Thanks for your answer, John.

I'm not sure though if it has something to do with white point calibration, because some people report no problems when using different connections (Mini DisplayPort for example). So in this case I think it must have something todo with Mac OS forcing the wrong profile/color space on to the monitor depending on the connection. Also this thread suggests that there might be a problem with the wrong color space.

If you don't have the option to check the HDMI-DVI connection another way might be to check your monitor input via the monitor's hardware buttons. Some monitors show if the color space is set to RGB or YCbCr.

Reply

Answer 3

Benedikt Author

Level 1

10 points

Mar 8, 2013 1:19 AM in response to Benedikt

FYI I received my Mac mini yesterday. I am using the HDMI-DVI adapter to connect to my old Samsung SyncMaster 244T and the monitor output is fine, absolutely no crushed-whites, fuzzy text, etc. My guess is that OS X does recognize certain monitors as TVs via HDMI-only connection and applies the wrong profile/color space. Hopefully 10.8.3 will fix that.

Reply