Macbook Pro Dell Ultrasharp U2414H monitor

[robbertvermeulen]

Hi, I just bought the Dell Ultrasharp U2414H external monitor for my Macbook Pro (2015). The problem is that my resolution does not look "Ultrasharp". I do not know if a am so spoiled with my retina display or that there is something wrong with the resolution. It really looks like everything is zoomed in and not HD. Is there anything I can do?

 

[Azeroth1]

I think there may be some utilities that let you do custom resolutions st your own risk but I don’t think that will solve your problem. That monitor maxes out at 1080p, whereas Retina I think I a nutshell has a higher resolution based on how it renders the pixels. I butchered that last part, but basically your retina screen is higher quality than your external monitor and that’s probably why it doesn’t look so great when side by side.

 

[drsoong]

Hi, I just bought the Dell Ultrasharp U2414H external monitor for my Macbook Pro (2015). The problem is that my resolution does not look "Ultrasharp". I do not know if a am so spoiled with my retina display or that there is something wrong with the resolution. It really looks like everything is zoomed in and not HD. Is there anything I can do?

View attachment 757137 View attachment 757138

It will be always scaled, if you set it to "Mirror Displays", the Retina Resolution is 2880x1800 Pixels, and to mirror that it must be scaled - and it probably chose 1600x900 as that would give the "best" result with that option (2x900 = 1800).

If you changed that to 1080p, it would still scale the original Retina to the 2414H's pixels and not look sharp.

The solution is to change in System preferences the "arrangement" to use both displays, the Macbook's and the Dell, along-side (you can still close the lid, if you want to - then it will only use the external display) and use the "Default for display" option in the "Display" section of System preferences.

Then it should look in Dell's words "Ultrasharp", it will not scale the image and use the pixels 1 to 1. The pixel density is of course lower than retina resolution, but if that is severely disturbing is up to the observer.

-DrSoong

[Edit: typo]

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:

VERY important question:
How are you connecting to the display?

IF you are connecting with an HDMI cable, try a "minidisplayport (Mac end) to displayport (display end)" connecting cable instead.
(Or an equivalent would be "minidisplayport (Mac end) to minidisplayport (display end)" cable.)
Seems to me that the Dell has both displayport -and- minidisplayport inputs, right?

As it is now, the MBP thinks it's connecting to a television display, NOT to a computer display. You can tell this because you're seeing 1080p, 720p, etc. in the display preference pane.

If the display preference panes just "gives you numbers" (such as 1920x1080), then you know the MBP is "seeing" the display "as a computer display".

 

[jerryk]

To add on to what Fishrrman said. HDMI has different resolution limits with different cable spec. So if you can only use HDMI cables get a new HDMI cables can support the max resolution of your monitor. Look for cables meeting the version 2 spec. Often these are labelled "High-speed" HDMI. They are cheap. I paid $9 for 2 - 6 foot cables on Amazon.

 

[drsoong]

To add on to what Fishrrman said. HDMI has different resolution limits with different cable spec. So if you can only use HDMI cables get a new HDMI cables can support the max resolution of your monitor. Look for cables meeting the version 2 spec. Often these are labelled "High-speed" HDMI. They are cheap. I paid $9 for 2 -6 foot cables on Amazon.

High-quality cables are of course always recommended.

But the display is only FullHD (1980x1080), though, which is already supported by HDMI 1.0. So, that shouldn't be the reason.

 

[jerryk]

High-quality cables are of course always recommended.

But the display is only FullHD (1980x1080), though, which is already supported by HDMI 1.0. So, that shouldn't be the reason.

Agreed it should not be an issues. I really think your idea of using "default for display" is a good first step. And then see if more is needed.

 

[Steeley]

This may be useful: http://www.mathewinkson.com/2013/03...ix-the-picture-quality-of-an-external-monitor

 

[JPack]

Answer:

• Your MacBook Pro (2015) = 227 PPI
• Dell UltraSharp U2414H = 92 PPI

You can buy all the cables and fiddle with all you settings you want. That won't change the laws of physics.