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MacBook in HDTV??

H

hussey24

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 17, 2007
4
0
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
Alright heres the deal:
I currently own the Black Macbook and i was planning on using a 40 inch Sony XBR2 as a display. I was going to buyin the Mini-DVI to DVI converter and then a DVI to HDMI cable to connect the macbook to the 40 inch. I was going to use the DVI to HDMI cause its makes it possible to achieve the highest quality picture. The macRumors guide to Macbooks suggest that "The Macbook does, however, now support desktop spanning, and supports an external display of up to 1920 x 1200 " theoretically meaning you can achieve 1080p with the Macbook and display. Does anyone see any immediate flaws with this set up?

Clearly im not going to buy the Sony XBR2 before ive tested this out, but i would prefer not to buy the DVI converter if there is an critical flaw to this setup that ive overlooked.

Thanks, Cheers:apple:
 
bump ..

i need to know the same as well.. :)

although i connected my blackbook via VGA, but i couldn't get the macbook to output at a decent reiolution (it kept wanting to only use 800x600 on my HDTV)

thanks
 
Im probably just gonna buy the Mini DVI to DVI and the DVI to HDMI and go to futureshop with my macbook and play around, i figure if i buy the tv on the spot they wont give me an hassle seeing as they're making 7% commission off of it.
That wont be till income taxs come back thou, but ill post my results as soon as i do. Theres another thread about similar content, 2 or 3 down from this post.

Cheers:apple:
 
The TV might only recognize standard TV resolutions like 720 and 1080, not sure if plugging it in will just work. Your best bet might be to find a TV with DVI in that is designed to support TV and PC resolutions. Buying the adaptors and going to the store to test it out is definitely a good idea.
 
SteveG4Cube said:
The TV might only recognize standard TV resolutions like 720 and 1080, not sure if plugging it in will just work. Your best bet might be to find a TV with DVI in that is designed to support TV and PC resolutions. Buying the adaptors and going to the store to test it out is definitely a good idea.
Click to expand...

He has a 1080P TV. I am just trying to find out if it supports the resoulution through vga or if he has to use dvi/hdmi
 
dalvin200 said:
the manual just gives instructions for windows xp.. :confused:
Click to expand...

Hmm, well not only am I using a slow connection but I am also on a P3 800mhz 2k box. It is taking me longer to get the manual. Does it have a list of supported resolutions? Usually they list all the resolutions the TV supports then list what connection the resolution is supported in.
 
diamond.g said:
Hmm, well not only am I using a slow connection but I am also on a P3 800mhz 2k box. It is taking me longer to get the manual. Does it have a list of supported resolutions? Usually they list all the resolutions the TV supports then list what connection the resolution is supported in.
Click to expand...

the manual is a 12mb file :D

anyway, here's the screenshot of the resolutions from the manual:

View attachment 72694

does this help?
 
Check page 53. It lists the supported resoulutions. 1920x1080 is supported if the video card can output 59.934 Hz. The Samsung may not be forgiving on the frequency it takes for that resolution. Can you try DVI to HDMI to see if the options change any? I am not seeing any real reason why it shouldn't work.
 
diamond.g said:
Check page 53. It lists the supported resoulutions. 1920x1080 is supported if the video card can output 59.934 Hz. The Samsung may not get forgiving on the frequency it takes for that resolution. Can you try DVI to HDMI to see if the options change any? I am not seeing any real reason why it shouldn't work.
Click to expand...

hmm.. which is exactly what i thought..

i did think about the dvi -> hdmi.. does that also output the sound too?
or you need (another) cable for that?

can someone confirm what the adapter below is? is it a mini dvi -> dvi? if so, i just need to get a dvi -> hdmi cable..

View attachment 72695

thanks
 
I don't think there's any point in doing a DVI to HDMI conversion if you don't have to. HDMI is just the DVI spec with the option of a copy protection layer and audio.
 
dalvin200 said:
i did think about the dvi -> hdmi.. does that also output the sound too?
or you need (another) cable for that?
Click to expand...

HDMI is capable of sound, but you're not going to magically get sound out of the video port on your MacBook.

dalvin200 said:
can someone confirm what the adapter below is? is it a mini dvi -> dvi? if so, i just need to get a dvi -> hdmi cable..

<snip>

thanks
Click to expand...

Can't confirm without seeing the other end, but that's a DVI-D connector.
 
mrogers said:
I don't think there's any point in doing a DVI to HDMI conversion if you don't have to. HDMI is just the DVI spec with the option of a copy protection layer and audio.
Click to expand...

i'd rather not, seeing as i dont have the hdmi cable..
i only have the vga cable, which is working, but not giving me the full 1920x1080 for some reason..

i'd actually like to watch some of the Apple HD trailers in 1080p.. but having the wrong resolution isn't giving me much hope :(
 
mrogers said:
I don't think there's any point in doing a DVI to HDMI conversion if you don't have to. HDMI is just the DVI spec with the option of a copy protection layer and audio.
Click to expand...

Well from the manual it looks like he only has HDMI ports and a lonely VGA port on the back. So if he wanted a digital connection it has the be DVI->HDMI.
 
diamond.g said:
Well from the manual it looks like he only has HDMI ports and a lonely VGA port on the back. So if he wanted a digital connection it has the be DVI->HDMI.
Click to expand...

Yep, there you are. That's what I meant by "if you don't have to." If you don't have a DVI port on the TV, then you'll have to do HDMI to get full resolution.
 
dalvin200 said:
in which case, do i need this cable for display and this cable for audio?

there's not an all in 1 solution?
Click to expand...

Correct. That is why HDMI was created, but it wasn't until this past year that video cards started having HDCP'ed DVI connections. Let alone routing the audio. I imagine at some point Apple will include HDMI on all systems.
 
mrogers said:
I doubt it. DisplayPort is supposed to replace DVI. HDMI is a licensed technology, and computer manufacturers didn't want anything to do with it.
Click to expand...

True.

Sony has a laptop that also uses HDMI with BR. If Apple plans on adding BR or HD-DVD they will more than likely adopt HDMI even though DisplayPort supports HDCP.
 
1920x1200 works on my MB

hussey24 said:
Alright heres the deal:
I currently own the Black Macbook and i was planning on using a 40 inch Sony XBR2 as a display. I was going to buyin the Mini-DVI to DVI converter and then a DVI to HDMI cable to connect the macbook to the 40 inch. I was going to use the DVI to HDMI cause its makes it possible to achieve the highest quality picture. The macRumors guide to Macbooks suggest that "The Macbook does, however, now support desktop spanning, and supports an external display of up to 1920 x 1200 " theoretically meaning you can achieve 1080p with the Macbook and display. Does anyone see any immediate flaws with this set up?

Clearly im not going to buy the Sony XBR2 before ive tested this out, but i would prefer not to buy the DVI converter if there is an critical flaw to this setup that ive overlooked.

Thanks, Cheers:apple:
Click to expand...

I am typing this on a Samsung 61 inch DLP @ 1920x1200 using the standard VGA connector on the back of the TV. The 1080P movie trailers from the quicktime site are outstanding.

This is a MB CD 2.0 with 2GB Ram. I am using the $20 Apple Mini DVI to VGA adapter (and a long VGA extension cable) but that's it.

Works perfectly.

Cheers,
 
panzer06 said:
I am typing this on a Samsung 61 inch DLP @ 1920x1200 using the standard VGA connector on the back of the TV. The 1080P movie trailers from the quicktime site are outstanding.

This is a MB CD 2.0 with 2GB Ram. I am using the $20 Apple Mini DVI to VGA adapter (and a long VGA extension cable) but that's it.

Works perfectly.

Cheers,
Click to expand...

That is so weird!! I have the same setup - ie, Apple Mini DVI to VGA adapter and a VGA cable..

oh well.. i've ordered the DVI/HDMI cable anyway.. a guy on another forum who had the same issue as me says his macbook pro works with the DVI/HDMI combo.. so i'll give it a go and post back my results when i get the cable.

thanks for your help guys.
 
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