External Display poor quality

[davejuen]

Hi, I do not use forums often so I hope this is the right place. I just purchased a new M1 Mac mini. Very excited for the performance and graphic performance. I set it up and I have it connected via HDMI to my 43" insignia Fire TV.

However, the display is of poor quality and many of the icons and windows look very pixelated. In my Mac system preferences it lists the tv device with a strange device name. And then it won't let me control either brightness or screen resolution size?

I'm a little disappointed and don't know where to start to troubleshoot. The HDMI cable is generic Best Buy purchase. Do I need a higher quality HDMI cable? I also have a USB/Thunderbolt port should I connect via that instead? Is there a driver I can download for the TV settings? I played with all the display settings on the television but it still looks pixelated.

If anyone else has experienced this issue and knows a good place for me to start that would be greatly appreciated. Thank you - Dave

 

[phoenix-mac-user]

You definitely want to make sure you are using a high speed cable. I am running mine via USB-C to DisplayPort. I would consider buying a USB-C to HDMI cable. I have read people have been having problems with 4K through the HDMI port.

Something like this

uni USB C to HDMI Cable for Home Office 6ft (4K@60Hz), USB Type C to HDMI Cable, Thunderbolt 4/3 Compatible with iPhone 15 Pro/Max, MacBook Pro/Air 2023, iPad Pro, Surface Book 2, Galaxy S23

Fully immerse yourself in 4K Ultra HD within your entertainment space. Just plug in and hit play. Extra durable & Extra freedom. Minimize interference. HDMI 2.0 Ultra High-Def Performance. 4K@60Hz High-resolution. Braided Nylon Cable, Advanced Aluminum Case. Recommended by a trusted testing websi...

www.amazon.com

 

[davejuen]

Sweet, thank you Phoenix! I bought the cable and tried it out. It still didn't work though

Do you have any other ideas? I am thinking that it might be the color profile and I just don't have the right display profile to select in settings?

 

[Fuchal]

You might try this (saw this on the Best Buy page for this tv): Hold Home button on TV remote until little menu pops on right side of screen Go To Picture Go to Advanced Settings Go to HMDI Input Mode Mine was set to auto, but manually change it to the 2.0 option

MacOS can be pretty finicky about detecting monitor support, so maybe this will force the issue a bit.