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Mac Mini Mid 2011 - HDMI Output Issues

P

pismobrat

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 13, 2007
104
0
Hi All

Long time memeber - first time I need help post :(

I just scored a hell of a deal on an I5 2.3 Mac mini w/8GB of RAM for 300.

Issue:

- Using HDMI to HDMI cable on my TV, the video is all washed out, off center and fuzzy
- Using the Apple HDMI to DVI and a DVI to HDMI cable - same issue
- I've tried a new HDMI to HDMI, no change
- Mac mini going HDMI to DVI on a computer LCD = no problem

Why I know my TV should not be an issue:

- my old Mac Mini (Late 09 with the nVidia 9400) Mini DVI to HDMI works flawlessly at 720P & 1080P
- My RCA 42" doesn't have DVI on it, only 3 HDMI

The new I5 has the intel 3000 intergrated video, I suspect that this is part in part the issue. I am almost willing to go out an buy the 2.5 i5 and try that ATI and see if it works.

Has anyone seen this before? Like I mentioned the old Mac mini is flawless

Also, if anyone suggests it, I won't use the VGA on my LCD TV
 
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^ you'd think so eh?

The apple forums are riddled with people with the mac mini 2011 (no one really says if they are running the intel or ati intergrated video) who are facing all sorts of HDMI compatibilities.

- Samsungs turn off by themselves
- Panasonic with bad colour

etc.

I am also thinking I will try a thunderbolt to HDMI and see if that works.
 
Oh God, i dont believe that ill have that buy a monitor just because these HDMI issues. My TV is a New Plasma Viera 42", i was intending use it as a monitor, but right now my plan has fallen.
 
I have a Mid 2011 Mac Mini plugged in to my Denon A/V Reciever, which then is run into my 52in Panasonic Plasma with no problem. It is the i5 intel version with 8gb of ram. Check your HDMI cable? im just guessing cause i have no problems. Let me know if you figure it out, im interested to know what it is.
 
I am running a max'd i7 2011 mini with the ATI, and I've run it plugged into a viewsonic 24, Dell 24, and a Sony 40" TV, and haven't seen any issues like this at all - the only thing I saw was a very slight buzz coming from the speakers of the Viewsonic when it was plugged into the MDP whilst the Sony was plugged (HDMI to HDMI) in the other port.

Now if only I could plug all three in at the same time...
 
Here is the picture of the issue - not the worst. When it boots to the desktop the color is completely washed out. And 1080P isn't even supported.

72f83af6.jpg


So what did I do to solve this

I went out and bought a new TV. I bought an LG 42" LCD. NO visual issues

i did try panasonic plasma - would line up the image properly
Samsung plasma - not one of the tv's 42,46,51 would even display an image, it kept saying unsupported.
Samsung LCD - would boot, but the white apple logo at boot was purple. If you google Mac mini HDMI samsung - this is a very well known issue

So today I have also sold my old 42" for 250 bucks, and my old mac mini will be sold for about 400, new tv basically cost me 70 bucks.

Not bad for a days work.
 
Very strange. I have run my Mini to 2 Panasonic plasmas, 2 Sony LCD TVs, a Pioneer plasma and and Eizo monitor - all via HDMI - and not had any problem on any of them.

I did have some weird issues when I first used it with the Pioneer though, but that was really my fault because I had left "HDMI Control" on, on the Pioneer. Not entirely sure what that is supposed to do, but it did mess with the signal. I think most TVs have similar - have you tried switching it off?
 
@Chippy99

My old RCA, was one of the most basic you can get in the way of settings.

There was a pixel sampling option, but that did't effect the outcome of the questionable display.

Very simply - yet to confirm, more of an educated guess. Older TV's use the earliest editions of HDMI and the mac mini doesn't like it.

Its a shame that HDMI isn't a universal standard for the mac mini
 
Very odd indeed.

Did you try a mini displayport to DVI adapter (and then DVI to HDMI on your TV)?

I am wondering if this is an HDMI output problem (in which case the above should fix it) or something else.
 
@Chippy99 - No mini display on the new i5 mac mini's - only HDMI or thunderbolt
 
pismobrat said:
@Chippy99 - No mini display on the new i5 mac mini's - only HDMI or thunderbolt
Click to expand...

even though its labeled as a thunderbolt port it supports mini display port output. So any adapter labeled as mini display port to whatever you please(DVI, HDMI, VGA) will work on a thunderbolt port.


I've got a 2011 mini server(which has the integrated intel graphics) hooked up to a 50" panasonic plasma via HDMI and have had no issues whatsoever. I did have to adjust the overscan a little bit in system prefs. I've got a choice of 1080P,1080i,720 and blah blah blah all of the different resolutions.

I was going to recommend you try a different hdmi port and also try a different hdmi device on the same port with same cable and different cable and everything. If you start having issues again might be worth taking it to the apple store. If it was bought on launch last year you've got about a month of apple care left
 
@CRIIM44

Hiya - I knew about the thunderbolt to X adaptors - no one in town stocked them

I mentioned at the top of the post, I tried a various amount of options.
Prior to buying the new mac mini, I did try all three of the HDMI ports. Bought a new cable, and various other interconnects.

I've also never had any problem using other HDMI devices - Xbox, PS3, bluray etc. And specifically, my old mac mini worked just peachy on the old tv using a mini dvi - to DVI/HDMI cable.
 
pismobrat said:
@CRIIM44

Hiya - I knew about the thunderbolt to X adaptors - no one in town stocked them

I mentioned at the top of the post, I tried a various amount of options.
Prior to buying the new mac mini, I did try all three of the HDMI ports. Bought a new cable, and various other interconnects.

I've also never had any problem using other HDMI devices - Xbox, PS3, bluray etc. And specifically, my old mac mini worked just peachy on the old tv using a mini dvi - to DVI/HDMI cable.
Click to expand...

You did not mention trying mini displayport to DVI. Specifically, did you try this?

pismobrat said:
Hi All

Long time memeber - first time I need help post :(

I just scored a hell of a deal on an I5 2.3 Mac mini w/8GB of RAM for 300.

Issue:

- Using HDMI to HDMI cable on my TV, the video is all washed out, off center and fuzzy
- Using the Apple HDMI to DVI and a DVI to HDMI cable - same issue
- I've tried a new HDMI to HDMI, no change
- Mac mini going HDMI to DVI on a computer LCD = no problem

Why I know my TV should not be an issue:

- my old Mac Mini (Late 09 with the nVidia 9400) Mini DVI to HDMI works flawlessly at 720P & 1080P
- My RCA 42" doesn't have DVI on it, only 3 HDMI

The new I5 has the intel 3000 intergrated video, I suspect that this is part in part the issue. I am almost willing to go out an buy the 2.5 i5 and try that ATI and see if it works.

Has anyone seen this before? Like I mentioned the old Mac mini is flawless

Also, if anyone suggests it, I won't use the VGA on my LCD TV
Click to expand...
 
Someone mentioned earlier that this was an issue with older sets and in part, that's the issue. Just before I bought my 2011 i5 AMD Mini I came on here and read up as much as possible and found that nearly all the display issues when using the mini over HDMI is down to the HDMI Handshake not authenticating properly.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1198351/
 
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I've also had issues with connecting via HDMI to a Samsung TV. The problem I've got is that the Mini won't display at the TV's preferred resolution (1360x768), so it's either far too small and blurry (1080i) or to big and blurry (720p).

I'm fairly sure it's an HDMI issue so I've ordered a Thunderbolt/VGA cable which I hope will fix the issue.

The odd thing is that I've connected loads of Windows PCs to this screen via HDMI before and never had this issue - they've all looked great. It must be something to do with the Mini's graphics card.
 
Hi all. - figured I'd chime back in

Chippy99 - didn't bother trying the mini display - others reported the same issues

Its just plain dumb that there are vaious support standards behind this. I am just lucky that this didn't really cost me any extra money for much. Buy the time I sold my mac mini and my old TV, the new tv cost me $70 to fix this problem.

I can only recommend, take your mac mini to the TV store with a mouse and hdmi cable and test it if you are looking for a new TV.
 
pismobrat said:
Hi all. - figured I'd chime back in

Chippy99 - didn't bother trying the mini display - others reported the same issues
Click to expand...


pismobrat said:
@Chippy99 - No mini display on the new i5 mac mini's - only HDMI or thunderbolt
Click to expand...

3 posts ago you didn't know the Mini even had a displayport output. And now you tell me you didn't bother trying it because know of other people reporting the same problems.... with a connector you didn't know existed.

Sorry, but I am calling BS on this one.
 
I had this same problem with my 2.3ghz mini and my LG246 monitor. That monitor only has an HDMI and VGA inputs (no DVI). Using HDMI->HDMI from the mini to the monitor resulted in the same image you're getting. No resolution changes helped. I also had a ViewSonic VP201b (oooold school) with a DVI port and that worked fine with the supplied HDMI->DVI adapter.

After dinking around for a while I opted to buy another monitor to use with the mini (HP2511x).

Now on my PC, that LG monitor had issues with the nVidia card in the computer recognizing it as an HDTV, not a monitor. I had to hack the driver install files to ignore the EDID flag from the monitor so that the PC would use it as a monitor. Worked fine after that. I assume this monitor has some sort of setting inside of it that causes this to happen. I couldn't find a way to do the same hack on the Mac.
 
@Chippy99

I don't know what your pissed off about.

When you asked your question about the mini display port, I though you were asking if I tried it on my old mac mini (late 09) I in turn replied No I didn't.

Now if you mean did I try the mini display on the new mac mini (2011). I thought I posted earlier that no one in town (really small town) had the adaptor I need for the mini/Thunderbolt port adaptor. I had read enough about the mini connection as well and wasn't going to waste my time.

So it looks like there was some minor misscommunication.

Either way, just above this post another person had this issue. So I am leaving at that. There is enough recorded issues with this, and for the price that I paid for the new mac mini and tv - my time was worth more than running around and waiting for adaptor to come in.
 
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I had this problem and fixed it by disabling overscan on the monitor.

On some monitors Overscan might also be known as A/V Mode.
 
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Well, in my experience, if you are sure your TV is full HD or able to do the Full HD resolution (1080p/i), but you still got the blurry image/text. Please try to set the HDMI connection on your TV option. And change the function/name/input label (in my LG TV, its input label) of the HDMI connection to PC. And Voila !!! The screen look waaaaaay much better... :p

Please check the pics below :
6xx5qs.jpg

jtkyo7.jpg

Hope this can help anyone else.
 
I have a LG 24" LCD (L246WPQ) from quite a few years back. HDMI to HDMI works fine on my PC, but I have the same issues as above with my 2011 i5 / Intel graphics Mac Mini (that I just bought yesterday).

My monitor, while connected to my Windows box, has an "ARC" setting that can either be "full" (which is what is being used) or "1:1" (which shows up, but can't be chosen). When my Mac Mini is connected, this same "ARC" setting becomes either "full" or "original" - both of which can be selected, but neither one makes a difference / the screen is still shifted to the left, and up. The weird thing is that when my Windows box is connected, the monitor reads (correctly) that it's 1920x1200 / 60Hz. When the Mini is connected, it reads (incorrectly, obviously) as 480i - even though the Mini is configured to 1920x1200 / 60Hz.

The only thing that's "different" is that Windows doesn't know the actual monitor make / model, but OS X does...

Might just be a good "excuse" for me to by a Thunderbolt display... :-D

Edit: Never mind, I'm an idiot. The setup between my PC and MAC was *NOT* the same - I just realized that I'm using a DVI to HDMI cable on my Windows box. I vaguely remember this problem with a HDMI to HDMI cable, and that's why I'm using the DVI to HDMI one. Something about the "information" (I forget the technical term) the L246WPQ sends being incorrect, or something along those lines...
 
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