Mac Mini to the TV?

[oo5yolo10]

I was thinking about getting a mac mini and hooking it up to the TV as the monitor, just to play some dvd's, movies, music etc. How can I get the best quality out of it? It would be on a 20 inch flat screen. Right now I have a ibook and hook up the ibook with the red, white and yellow cords (sorry to be so specific). and its ok, but the quality isnt perfect

 

[Spanky Deluxe]

If your TV has the right connections you could use either VGA or DVI. If its a CRT display (sorry when you said flatscreen I didn't know if you meant CRT flatscreen or a thin display like plasma or tft).
If you don't have the VGA or DVI connections then your next bet would be to get the svideo adapter and hook it up to the TV with that.

 

[oo5yolo10]

could you explain VGA and DVI? I told you I was not good at this

 

[MacDonaldsd]

I want to do the same but all my tv has is scart input . What do I do ?

 

[Spanky Deluxe]

MacDonaldsd, you'll have to buy the apple dvi svideo adapter and then also a scart converter. Something like this: http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=13372&criteria=scart&doy=7m3
Just pop into a maplin store and ask them for an svideo to scart converter or if you want to pay a bit more head down to Dixons, I'm sure they'll have one. Ideally you'd also want a 3.5mm jack -> stereo phono adapter to connect the audio to the scart converter.

oo5yolo10, VGA is the 'traditional' analogue way of connecting a computer screen to a computer and DVI is the new digital form of connector.

See here for info on the VGA connection method: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VGA_connector
Or see here for info on the DVI connection method: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVI_connector

If its a brand new HDTV flat panel display then there's a chance that it may have and HDMI connection, which is essentially repackaged DVI, see here to see what this looks like: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDMI

 

[jsw]

could you explain VGA and DVI? I told you I was not good at this

Spanky Deluxe gave a great summary of the connectors. You obviously have the iBook connected to the single composite video connection now (the yellow plug), but I suspect that your TV has to at least have S-video.

If you can determine the model number and manufacturer of the TV, we might be able to help more!

 

[MacDonaldsd]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos...8-4/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i4_xgl/203-8389976-5607917

like that ?

What happens about audio ?

 

[Spanky Deluxe]

Yeah, that's the kind of thing you need. For audio you'll want a 3.5mm jack (small headphone jack) to stereo phono (the red and white things) that'll plug into the red and white coloured sockets on that adapter. The 3.5mm jack on the other end would go into the audio out of the mini.

 

[balamw]

One connection type that hasn't been mentioned in this thread is the component video connectors which look a lot like the red white and yellow composite video but usually have other colors like blue and green. These are common for DVD to TV connections, and can support a wide range of resolutions. There are DVI to component adapters or cables that can be had relatively inexpensively....

B

 

[powerbook911]

I use the composite and s-video to output to regular TVs.

The problem I have is the screen not fitting on the TV properly.

640x480 has black all around the edges.

The next one up (720x something I think) with overscan fills the entire screen, but it looks "squished" or something.

Didn't someone have an application to create strange resolutions, in attempt to fit the screen just right?

 

[Mord]

all lcd's have at least vga inputs.

 

[gunm]

I use the composite and s-video to output to regular TVs.

The problem I have is the screen not fitting on the TV properly.

640x480 has black all around the edges.

The next one up (720x something I think) with overscan fills the entire screen, but it looks "squished" or something.

Didn't someone have an application to create strange resolutions, in attempt to fit the screen just right?

powerstrip

 

[balamw]

powerstrip

Isn't powerstrip for Windows? Try SwitchResX for Macs.

B