Mac Mini to HDTV problem

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flwolf

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 13, 2003
Messages
403
I hooked my Intel Mac Mini up to my HDTV using the DVI to HDMI cable that I bought from the Apple Store. The picture I get is fine but it does not take up the entire screen. I have a wide, black border on all four sides of the screen. If I use my tv’s stretch feature, it stretches too far. If I go into the display settings and select Overscan, it also stretches the images too far and the top of bottom of the image is cut off.

This happens no matter if I am booted into OS X or if I am using Boot Camp. Any suggestions on how I can get the image to fill the entire screen?

Thanks.
 
Sounds like you're picking the wrong resolution for your TV.
 
It's a 720p tv. I set it at 1280x720.

There is another 720 resolution that is much lower but the picture looks horrible if I use it.
 
The only resolution options I have to select from are:

640x480
720x480
800x600
1024x576
1280x720
1920x1080

I get the black bars on all 4 sides with all but the very highest one and it gets clipped off on all 4 sides. Using the tv's own stretch mode doesn't help.

Any other suggestions?
 
Found the manual and it says its native resolution is 1280x720. The Mac Mini is set to that resolution but I still get the 4 bars. /sigh
 
Been trying to do that but everything I try ends up with a blank screen after reboot.
 
does your tv have a dot-to-dot mapping? I see it on mine and I use it. I'm just throwing this out there and hope you might get lucky.

Good luck!
 
does your tv have a VGA port? On my old ViewSonic TV that cleared up the resolution output issues I had when sending a signal from my iMac.
 
the res might be 768. I had that issue with my samsung. nvidia had some fix for it in windows but I havent hooked the mac to the sammy yet. I'll try when I get home. I am curious
 
It doesn't have a VGA port. The manual says the resolution is 1280x720. It does not have dot to dot mapping.

This is so annoying. It is the TV's fault or the computer?
 
Id say a bit of both. I dont use Mac myself because "It just works" seldom, like in this case, work to 100%. Overscan/Underscan is a common problem with Nvidia cards (and for ATI for that matter but they provide a satisfying solution). There are usually two ways to solve this:

1. Change the scaling in the Nvidia controlpanel (I assume you still have one in OS X). Let the tv scale or even better would be the "do not scale" option if you send a pixel-to-pixel- resolution, ie 1280x720 to a 1280x720 panel.

2. I have a small program that add overscan correction to Nvidia graphiccards. Works great for Windows. I haven't found a better solution yet. It doesn't work with dual monitors, which took me some time to figure out, but you can correct it with one monitor at the time and it stays like that. Downside in this case would be that you have to use Windows. Hope it helps tho!

http://fileserver2003.no-ip.org/OverscanUtils.zip
 
What kind of TV do you have? Brand, LCD/DLP/RPTV, etc?

What (if any) refresh rate is set on the mini?

Does your TV do 1080i? Try using 1920x1080 interlaced resolution on the mac. (1920x540 actual)
 
Not sure why Nvidia is being mentioned since the Mini doesn't use Nvidia chips.

The TV is a Toshiba 50" DLP that does a max of 720p. I have the choice of using 1920x1200 and the tv downscales it but I get the same result. Refresh rate is at 60 and is not changeable.
 
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