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How best to connected a macmini to lcd tv?

A

allforpiratebay

macrumors member
Original poster
May 17, 2008
38
0
Hello all,

I will be buying a new tv and was hoping to take advantage of the 1080p resolution. The macmini can display that amount of pixels etc so thats hunky-door-ee but i'm unsure how to get the video & SOUND to the tv.

The only way i could think of doing it whilst maintaining high def is converting the dvi ---> hdmi then hoping the tv allows me to choose audio input.

How do you guy connect their mac to your tv?


If it helps answer by question better i'm going to get this tv: Samsung LE37A559P (providing i can watch stuff offa the macmini well)
Here's a link to amazon.co.uk's page for it:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0015CBL96/300001150-21/?m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE


though i can't find the tv specs on samsung.com/uk anywhere, though i heard it is because samsung didn't know that the tv was going to be sold this early.


Many thanks in advance
 
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the TV should have a PC input that will be either VGA or DVI. Either will give you full high res and a PC audio input. HDMI won't give you any benefit: it's main use is for HDCP which basically allows bluray players, etc to output at full def. Without hdcp support they will downscale.
 
I use a dvi->hdmi cable to connect my MBP to our lcd television. It doesn't have a dvi connection (basically hdmi is just dvi with sound). The vga connector on the tv works as well, but the resolution and quality is not very good ( to say the least). You have to use a separate connector to connect
the sound of your mac to the tv.
 
The problem is that the tv (like most samsungs) appears not to have dvi, only vga in - so i wouldn't be able to get near the resolution (for vga: Maximum of 720 horizontal pixels and a Maximum of 480 lines No where near 1080p)

So i would have to convert it to hdmi to get the resolution, but as hdmi is "dvi with sound" i didn't think one could sound input for the video stream from the hdmi input as the tv would use hdmi as the sole input of both sources.

Or is my understanding wrong, how do i the sound from computer to tv without going through hdmi whilst still having the hdmi as the source of the video?
 
I think you mean dvi is video only.
to quote wikipedia (don't mind if i do):

"HDMI supports, on a single cable, any TV or PC video format including standard, enhanced, and high-definition video along with up to 8 channels of digital audio."

I need to know that if i connect the sound via a 3.5mm jack into the tv that it will take the video from hdmi and the sound from the jack as use both together.

Anyone out there have a solution (or answer)?
 
i owned a mini briefly, and i was able to use a dvi->hdmi cable for the video and a 3.5->rca cable for the audio to connect to my samsung plasma tv. i'm sure the same will work for your samsung lcd.
 
allforpiratebay said:
I think you mean dvi is video only.
to quote wikipedia (don't mind if i do):

"HDMI supports, on a single cable, any TV or PC video format including standard, enhanced, and high-definition video along with up to 8 channels of digital audio."

I need to know that if i connect the sound via a 3.5mm jack into the tv that it will take the video from hdmi and the sound from the jack as use both together.

Anyone out there have a solution (or answer)?
Click to expand...

Oops! of course it's dvi is video only.
 
From my personal experience with this, which is a frustrating one. I would definitely recommend using the DVI>DVI solution or DVI>VGA solution since these carry the native resolution correctly. Unless you have no choice, as I do use the DVI>HDMI solution and you'll have a heck of a time trying to get that resolution right with programs like DisplayConfigX and others that I can't remember at this moment. I finally just gave in and quit trying to get my resolution correct on my 42" plasma and I just live with the overscan since it displays fine in Front Row and on EyeTV.
 
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