Philips 15PF5120 + Mac Mini

I have a Philips 15PF5120 LCD monitor that I'd like to use with my Mac Mini. The Mac Mini appears to me to have a DVI-I Dual Link output. The Philips monitor appears to have a DVI-I Dual Link Input. So, I plug the two together with a DVI-I Dual Link cable and I get nothing -- a black screen. The monitor has both a DVI and PC Input mode. Both mode's result in a black screen.

The monitor's manual has the following regarding resolution set-up:

1 - 640x480 VGA VESA 60 V Freq=59.940 H Freq=31.469
2 - 800x600 SVGA VESA 56 V Freq=56.250 H Freq=35.156
3 - 800x600 SVGA VESA 60 V Freq=60.317 H Freq=37.897
4 - 1024x768 XGA VESA 60 V Freq=60.004 H Freq=48.363

It appears that when I'm in the TV's PC Mode, I have access to change the V & H Freq. So, here's how tested each of these settings:
- I connect my mac mini to a monitor that works
- I change the mac mini's resolution to one above
- I unplug the DVI cable from the old monitor
- I plug the DVI cable into the Philips TV
- I get a black screen on both the DVI and PC Mode inputs
- I use the TV's PC Mode settings to adjust the V& H Freq
- I still geta black screen.

Does anyone have any suggestions?
Has anyone had any success/experience with this monitor?

Mac Mini Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Posted on Aug 7, 2006 7:40 AM

22 replies

Nov 13, 2006 6:38 PM in response to ejbrennanjr

Image quality is great - recommend you use short hi quality VGA cables - i ordered 1 foot lengths from cablestogo.com - also you will need 1 male-male vga cable and 1 male - female. Let me know how it works out.

Nov 20, 2006 6:25 AM in response to ebudy555

I'm not sure why everyone is having so much trouble hooking their mini to a hd tv. I attached my 1.66 mini to my Dell 32 inch HD lcd tv with a dvi to hdmi cable and it works fine. I did not have to make any changes with the mini at all it recognized the 720p(768 x 1366) resolution right away and the display looks fantastic. I think someone posted that the mini will not work with 23 inch or larger moniter and that is incorrect. It will not work with the Apple 30inch since it requires dual link functionality and the mini does not support that. but it will work with any monitor that has a native resolution of up to 1,200 x 1,900 which is more than 720p or 1080 hd resolutions.

Mac Mini 1.66 Mac OS X (10.4.7) 60 gb hd, 2 gb ram, 250 gb ext drive, 5g ipod, 2g ipod

ejbrennanjr Author

Level 1

0 points

Nov 27, 2006 7:33 AM in response to djstix@mac.com

My situation is improved, but not yet fixed.

I bought the same amplifier as above and set-up the same cable connections. Now, when the mac mini starts up, I get a picture of the gray apple start-up screen. I never got this before. Unfortunately, as soon as it gets to the blue apple desktop, the monitor says that it does not support the resolution and that I should switch to 1024x768...but that's what I was already set to.

I downloaded SwitchResX, and started playing with the refresh rates. At one point, I saw the desktop and everything looked like it was fixed. But when I restarted, it was gone again and I could not get it back.

Any ideas? If you have SwitchResX on your mini can you send me the settings (v freq, h freq, b porch, f porch, etc...) that your current resolution is running?

Thanks.

jbakerpe

Level 1

0 points

Nov 29, 2006 7:20 PM in response to ejbrennanjr

I have had the same results trying to connect the Mac Mini to a Philips 15PF5120. I created a "dumb terminal" cable between the Mac Mini and the 15PF5120 and now get the Apple Logo. I do not believe that signal level is the issue since it works fine for the Logo and also in console mode. However, once the logo fades I get the same error message about needing to set the mini to 1024 x 768 ( which it supposedly is). My only guess is that the Mac Mini switches temporarily to some other resolution during the login process. Deleting display over- ride files and reseting the PRAM has not helped. Have you had any more success?

ejbrennanjr Author

Level 1

0 points

Nov 30, 2006 12:24 PM in response to jbakerpe

My situation is fixed! I think I can help you out with the problem you are having. If you are saying that you see the gray startup screen but then it goes black, follow theese instructions...

1) make sure you do a full os and firmware update using the apple update on the mac menu.
2) follow the instructions posted here...
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301345

NOTE: Be careful because these instructions take you into the underlying Linux environment. You'll need to know your user name at one point, so make sure you read all the instructions first and gather all the info you need prior to executing anything.

My guess is that you, like me, had the mac mini first attached to another monitor. I believe this info is somehow recorded and is the reason you are having the problem.

I'm surprised that you do not need the vga adapter that the other guy on this discussion recommended. I needed that because my TV was not even picking up the gray screen until I had that plugged in. Once I had that plugged in, I was getting only the gray screen. Then I followed these instructions and Presto! Good luck. I'd be interested in hearing how you are currently configured. What your cable set-up is?

Nov 30, 2006 6:55 PM in response to ejbrennanjr

The signal level could be borderline tolerance and may work ok on some mac minis with some displays

I am glad your problem is fixed, i had a similar issue on first power up so while the screen was blank afterthe gray apple logo i logged into mym mini remotely using Chicken of the VNC from my G5. I checked the resolution was OK and by the time i came downstairs the display was working. I surmise the mini needs a few minutes to detect the screen resolution

jbakerpe

Level 1

0 points

Dec 2, 2006 7:18 PM in response to ejbrennanjr

Thanks, I finally succeeded in getting it to work by temporarily using a standard computer monitor to set the mac mini to automatically login after a boot. This blows quickly through the login screen where the mac has the wrong resolution settings. The mac mini appears to insist on using 85 Hz for a refresh rate when displaying the login screen after a boot. Once logged in it starts using the value in set in the display preferences. I can then log out and successfully login as another user if needed. The cable adapter that I fabricated only connects the red, green, blue, vertical and horizontal sync signals through to the 15PF5120. I strapped the ID2 and ID0 pins to ground to signal to the mac that it was connected to a "dumb" color monitor with a fixed resoultion of 1024 x768 which was an older pre VESA DDC standard. I suspect that using a video splitter cable or video amplifier may have a similar effect of hiding the 15PF5120 from the mac and are less risky. Hopefully, someday I will find out how to get the mac mini to use 60Hz instead of 85 Hz for the vertical sync for the login screen after a boot. Thanks to all for the suggestions.

This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

Philips 15PF5120 + Mac Mini