Mac mini resolution

[cisco697]

I have finally cut the cable bill last month and I bought the HDHomerun and have it setup with eyetv 3. I have everything running on my imac so my wife can approve the mac mini transition (she graduated in information systems so she's a techy).

I wanted to make sure everything works on my imac before we buy the mac mini. I hooked everything up last night and we loved the picture quality from hulu and other sites. The only thing is I realized that my tv is not 1080p it is 1080i. We can live with the bars on the side of the screen. I was wondering if there was a way to have it full screen without the overscan?

Also I have the mini toslink hooked up and my receiver did not show my movies playing in 5.1. I know front row doesn't play in 5.1 but I played them in plex and in vlc. Is it 5.1 and my receiver cannot detect it or do i need to change something? I have tried to research this but now I have come to the pros! Thanks for your help!

 

[rkdiddy]

Hi Cisco -

I wanted to clarify that 1080i/1080p shouldn't be causing the side bars. That is usually due to the fact your source is a 4:3 aspect ratio instead of 16:9/16:10. Are you sure your TV is setup to display the image in full?

It might also be caused by the input source cable - what are you using to connect to the TV?

Cheers,

Rick

 

[cisco697]

I wanted to clarify that 1080i/1080p shouldn't be causing the side bars. That is usually due to the fact your source is a 4:3 aspect ratio instead of 16:9/16:10. Are you sure your TV is setup to display the image in full?


Sorry I did not explain the issue very well, the computer screen only fills top and bottom but the sides come in short. It is not 4:3 but neither is it 16:9. The only way to fill it is is if the overscan is checked. When i have it hooked up the options give me 1900x1200 interlaced. if I choose that option i can see the interlacing and it looks like it is blinking. If I choose a smaller aspect like 1280x720 it looks fine just a little smaller with the side bars. It also shows that on my mac. Maybe I have something wrong?

I have it hooked up mini-dvi to dvi to hdmi to my tv.

 

[ftaok]

Sorry I did not explain the issue very well, the computer screen only fills top and bottom but the sides come in short. It is not 4:3 but neither is it 16:9. The only way to fill it is is if the overscan is checked. When i have it hooked up the options give me 1900x1200 interlaced. if I choose that option i can see the interlacing and it looks like it is blinking. If I choose a smaller aspect like 1280x720 it looks fine just a little smaller with the side bars. It also shows that on my mac. Maybe I have something wrong?

I have it hooked up mini-dvi to dvi to hdmi to my tv.

Can you provide more specifics?

TV make and model
Mac OS X version

BTW, your TV is most likely not 1080i. I'm sure it's 1080p. Only a few plasmas and CRTs display 1080i. Since you have HDMI, you have a newer model and it's not likely to be a Fujitsu plasma or CRT.

Does your Display System Preference allow you to select any 1920x1080 resolution? There may be a button to check off for "recommended resolutions" or something.

Does your TV support 1:1 pixel mapping? Usually on the remote, there's a button for "format". Pressing it flips through the TV's overscan control. On Sharp TVs, it's called Dot-by-Dot for 1080i/p sources.

As for the videos that are not quite 16:9, but definately not 4:3 ... I've noticed there are many videos (Hulu???) that are at 14:9. Sounds like what you're describing. What shows are you watching that are black on the sides?

 

[freepeacesweet]

I have a sharp set and as cisco697 states you can do the dot by dot setting which removes the overscan. My mini is outputting 1080p from DVI to HDMI. picture is perfect.

Before i had the sharp set i didn't have a HDTV only a EDTV plasma and the best way to prevent the overscan was a VGA cable.

As far as the 5.1 sound the sound is simply passed through the optical cable to the receiver and all the decoding would have to be handled by the receiver itself. Frontrow was only able to output 5.1 via hack but was broken by apple. Plex and VLC both output 5.1. Think you have to enable DTS under PLEX settings. The receiver is doing all the decoding work. So if the receiver can't decode AC3/DTS signals, it won't work.

 

[cisco697]

Ok I have a Sammy DLP hls 5086. It only outputs 720p or 1080i. My imac is 1080p lcd. So when I hook it up to my tv and mirror the two I have to down grade the resolution for the tv. The bars are there on the main screen and not when I watch movies the movies fills up as big as the screen is shown on the tv.

The problem I am having is getting my computer to tell my tv to fill the entire tv. my imac is the 24" so it is widescreen like my tv. I checked my setting on my tv and it is set to 16:9. So I am not sure what I need to change.

I changed the settings on plex because my receiver does decode dts and ac3. When I had my appletv surround sound worked fine. I wanted to do more so i sold it cut cable and am trying to work out the bugs before i purchase a large ticket item.

thanks for your help so far!!

 

[ftaok]

Ok I have a Sammy DLP hls 5086. It only outputs 720p or 1080i. My imac is 1080p lcd. So when I hook it up to my tv and mirror the two I have to down grade the resolution for the tv. The bars are there on the main screen and not when I watch movies the movies fills up as big as the screen is shown on the tv.

The problem I am having is getting my computer to tell my tv to fill the entire tv. my imac is the 24" so it is widescreen like my tv. I checked my setting on my tv and it is set to 16:9. So I am not sure what I need to change.

I don't know about the Plex stuff, but I can help you with your TV.

First of all, your Sammy is a 720p TV. It's native resolution (output) is 1280x720. Also, the Sammy is 16:9, but your iMac is 16:10, so when you have the display mirrored, something has to give. Either you set your iMac to a 16:9 and have a black border on the top/bottom of the iMac, or you have the TV try to drive a 16:10 ratio, which gives you the black sides.

So here's what you should do. Drive the TV at its native resolution ... 1280x720p. To do this, turn off mirroring, which will allow you to set the TV at a different resolution than your iMac. This will give you the best picture since there is no scaling going on.

Alternatively, see if you can run your iMac at 1280x720 while using mirroring. The TV should be full with no bars. The iMac will probably be running in a "postage stamp" mode with black on all 4 sides.

One last thing ... if nothing works, you could always try using the VGA port ... and by that, I mean if you can't get the TV to a zero-overscan mode. Typically, TV's with VGA or DVI ports turn off overcan on the ports used for PC/Macs.

ft

 

[rkdiddy]

I don't know about the Plex stuff, but I can help you with your TV.

First of all, your Sammy is a 720p TV. It's native resolution (output) is 1280x720. Also, the Sammy is 16:9, but your iMac is 16:10, so when you have the display mirrored, something has to give. Either you set your iMac to a 16:9 and have a black border on the top/bottom of the iMac, or you have the TV try to drive a 16:10 ratio, which gives you the black sides.

So here's what you should do. Drive the TV at its native resolution ... 1280x720p. To do this, turn off mirroring, which will allow you to set the TV at a different resolution than your iMac. This will give you the best picture since there is no scaling going on.

Alternatively, see if you can run your iMac at 1280x720 while using mirroring. The TV should be full with no bars. The iMac will probably be running in a "postage stamp" mode with black on all 4 sides.

One last thing ... if nothing works, you could always try using the VGA port ... and by that, I mean if you can't get the TV to a zero-overscan mode. Typically, TV's with VGA or DVI ports turn off overcan on the ports used for PC/Macs.

ft

Thanks FT - that was what I was trying to get at - but you filled in the dots.

 

[cisco697]

So my problem is using my 24" imac. So should I have the same issue when using a mac mini since it will be the only monitor?

 

[chrisliv]

Yeah,

About the 5.1 sound, beyond the System preference, try setting the sound preference in DVD Player.

Please let us all hear how it goes.

Peace to you,
C. Livngstone

Oops: you're not using DVD Player for your video player.