[HDMI] Screen goes black when watching dark scenes in movies

[Numerator]

Hi folks,

I've been living with a problem for a couple of years and I'm hoping someone here might have some insight. I have an oldish mac mini (~2009, 2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo) running 10.6.8 serving as our primary media/TV hub. It's connected to a 32" LG TV (similar era) via HDMI. Whenever we are watching a fullscreen movie (DVD, Netflix, iTunes--doesn't matter) and a particularly dark scene comes on (e.g., a night scene), the screen essentially shuts off, as if it is going into a power saving mode. I thought for a while it was an LG "feature" but I was unable to find any information about this anywhere. It recently occurred to me that it could possibly be the mini's video hardware--shutting off the signal when it thinks that there is not enough information to send or some such. I found some indication that some mini models had a more random intermittent blackscreen issue, but it wasn't linked to dark scenes in movies. After a couple of years I can say with confidence that the issue occurs when the video image is dark, and doesn't happen otherwise.

Has anybody seen this?

Whether yes or no, is there anyone out there who might have a better understanding of HDMI and energy saving modes who could help me figure out what is causing this issue and how I might go about fixing/working around it?

Many thanks.

//mark

 

[philipma1957]

Hi folks,

I've been living with a problem for a couple of years and I'm hoping someone here might have some insight. I have an oldish mac mini (~2009, 2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo) running 10.6.8 serving as our primary media/TV hub. It's connected to a 32" LG TV (similar era) via HDMI. Whenever we are watching a fullscreen movie (DVD, Netflix, iTunes--doesn't matter) and a particularly dark scene comes on (e.g., a night scene), the screen essentially shuts off, as if it is going into a power saving mode. I thought for a while it was an LG "feature" but I was unable to find any information about this anywhere. It recently occurred to me that it could possibly be the mini's video hardware--shutting off the signal when it thinks that there is not enough information to send or some such. I found some indication that some mini models had a more random intermittent blackscreen issue, but it wasn't linked to dark scenes in movies. After a couple of years I can say with confidence that the issue occurs when the video image is dark, and doesn't happen otherwise.

Has anybody seen this?

Whether yes or no, is there anyone out there who might have a better understanding of HDMI and energy saving modes who could help me figure out what is causing this issue and how I might go about fixing/working around it?

Many thanks.

//mark

MY first suggestion is hook the mini up to a different screen/monitor run the same movie and the same scene let us know if it goes to black. if it goes to black at least you will know it is the mini. my point is it may be the lg tv. if I remember

you can't be connected via hdmi the 2009 mini has mini dvi and mini display no hdmi.



http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Mac+mini+Model+A1283+Teardown/659/1


so do you use mini dvi to hdmi adapter or do you use mini display to hdmi adapter? i suggest buying this cable



http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10246&cs_id=1024603&p_id=9474&seq=1&format=2


buy 2 you get a discount and if one is bad you have a second on hand.