I was wondering what kind of luck you guys have hooking up a mac mini to a flatscreen tube tv for day to day computing use. I'd like the comfort of my big screen without having to buy a monitor but not so sure how the display quality will be. Will be using s-video or component video in if I can.
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Mac Mini and Tube TV
- Thread starter intrepkid21
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the tv will blur anything higher than 720x625 ish (525 in the US) it varys on the make model etc but the bigger screen the better really.
Dont have a still image on it for to long as you could cause tube damage though you will get a headache long before that if you plan on looking at web pages.
its only practical to use a crt tv for games and video. and use an S-video connection not the composite one, else bright colours will look bad.
Dont have a still image on it for to long as you could cause tube damage though you will get a headache long before that if you plan on looking at web pages.
its only practical to use a crt tv for games and video. and use an S-video connection not the composite one, else bright colours will look bad.
640 x 480, 60 Hz refresh or worse.
Text not readable under 14 point bold. Single-pixel lines wil be broken up or wiggly, borders between areas of solid colour (red against black, particularly) will "crawl", high-contrast patterns will shimmy.
Bad, bad idea.
Text not readable under 14 point bold. Single-pixel lines wil be broken up or wiggly, borders between areas of solid colour (red against black, particularly) will "crawl", high-contrast patterns will shimmy.
Bad, bad idea.
It looks like crap...I used the DVI to S-video/composite adapter at 640x480. Had to jack up fonts just to read it.
But MacMAME looked pretty good..
But MacMAME looked pretty good..
Yeah, you can't use a regular TV, for a computer.
Sure, you can connect your standard-def television to look at photograph slideshows, or watch movies. However, the resolution is way too low to use programs and whatnot.
Sure, you can connect your standard-def television to look at photograph slideshows, or watch movies. However, the resolution is way too low to use programs and whatnot.
Most of the above info is correct if the TV is a standard def TV. However, you state that you have component plugs, and this leads me to believe you have an CRT HDTV. What's the make and model number?intrepkid21 said:
Most (if not all) CRT HDTVs can accept 1080i, however, most CRT HDTVs cannot resolve more than 960 lines of resolution. Assuming that you could get the mini to display 1080i (with the help of SwitchResX or DisplayConfigX), you might be able to get decent results.
Now here's the catch. There's no easy way to get video out of a Mac using component cables. I've read where the Roku device (not the sound brigde, but the one that displays pictures) can be used to output through component at HD resolutions.
All in all, we need more info to help. Namely the model of the TV.
BTW, if you misspoke regarding the component connections, and only have composite connections, then yeah, it's not going to be pretty.
ftaok said:
Thanks for trying to help out. But no, it is not a CRT HDTV. Just a plain old 20" Panasonic Tau Flat-Screen. It just happens to have component video in. I'm sure the mini will have a terrible picture on it.
Pure craziness...
This is going to sound crazy to some (except the ppl who merchandise Apple stores), but the really great thing about the Mini is that you can make a really space-efficient workstation by combining a large-screen LCD with a tiny computer to maximize your space. The previously unimaginable form-factor in combination with Tiger and a high-end monitor makes computing truly enjoyable.
Sure, the Mini doesn't support Core Image, and the graphics processor is not exactly stellar, but if you simply value the Mac experience and, like most people, mainly surf the internet and use basic entertainment and productivity apps, then the small computer, large screen theory works well. It's not really a solution tailored to a low-budget Windows switcher, but it actually makes sense for the vast majority of home and business users. (At full retail, my setup would have cost around $2200 before tax, peripherals, and network hardware. Pricey, but it does what most people actually need.)
Of course, we'll see what my Visa buys me when the faster Intel Macs come out...
This is going to sound crazy to some (except the ppl who merchandise Apple stores), but the really great thing about the Mini is that you can make a really space-efficient workstation by combining a large-screen LCD with a tiny computer to maximize your space. The previously unimaginable form-factor in combination with Tiger and a high-end monitor makes computing truly enjoyable.
Sure, the Mini doesn't support Core Image, and the graphics processor is not exactly stellar, but if you simply value the Mac experience and, like most people, mainly surf the internet and use basic entertainment and productivity apps, then the small computer, large screen theory works well. It's not really a solution tailored to a low-budget Windows switcher, but it actually makes sense for the vast majority of home and business users. (At full retail, my setup would have cost around $2200 before tax, peripherals, and network hardware. Pricey, but it does what most people actually need.)
Of course, we'll see what my Visa buys me when the faster Intel Macs come out...
mac mini and CRT HDTV
Hey everyone, new to the whole forum/group/posting thing so if I do something out of step please excuse me
anyway... read a bit about what everyone had to say about the Mac mini and HDTV and their experiences.
I'm trying to hook up my mini to a Toshiba CRT HDTV 30HF85 and not having much luck. I bought DisplayConfigX and tried using it without much luck. There is no info in the manual for my HDTV as far a resolutions and so forth.
I was able to get a very basic desktop image to come on the screen but I would like to try and figure out how to tweek it to the best I can get.
anybody have any suggestions or ideas?
thanx!
DVS
Hey everyone, new to the whole forum/group/posting thing so if I do something out of step please excuse me
anyway... read a bit about what everyone had to say about the Mac mini and HDTV and their experiences.
I'm trying to hook up my mini to a Toshiba CRT HDTV 30HF85 and not having much luck. I bought DisplayConfigX and tried using it without much luck. There is no info in the manual for my HDTV as far a resolutions and so forth.
I was able to get a very basic desktop image to come on the screen but I would like to try and figure out how to tweek it to the best I can get.
anybody have any suggestions or ideas?
thanx!
DVS