Monitor connection: HDMI or DVI

[Tike1994]

I bought my Mom a new base model Mac Mini for Christmas and we were experimenting with the monitor connection in order to get the best picture quality.

I'm connecting it to a 4 year old 23" 1080p monitor/TV with both HDMI and DVI connections. The moniitor is a Samsung HD2333 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824001341

When we connect the monitor directly to the Mac Mini with an HDMI cable the picture is much worse than with a DVI cable and the DVI to HDMI adapter that came with the Mini.

When we are looking at the monitor for "computer work" (i.e. Desktop, Web browsing, Office applications, etc.) the letters on the screen are much sharper with the DVI connection than with HDMI. With HDMI the letters seems to have a bit of a halo effect around them.

Am I doing something wrong, or is DVI generally going to give a sharper computer image than HDMI.

Thanks in advance for any input!

 

[scbond]

The picture quality for both HDMI and DVI should be the same. From the sounds of it there could be some sort of issue or fault with the HDMI input on the TV/monitor or with the cable being used.

When working properly, the only real-world difference will be the lack of sound via DVI in comparison to HDMI. There are ways around the issue, such as connecting external speakers or having sound output from the mini to the TV/monitor input via something like a conventional 3.5mm jack. For simplicity's sake though, HDMI is the one to go with if you want sound and you aren't using anything like an external sound system.

 

[paulrbeers]

I bought my Mom a new base model Mac Mini for Christmas and we were experimenting with the monitor connection in order to get the best picture quality.

I'm connecting it to a 4 year old 23" 1080p monitor/TV with both HDMI and DVI connections. The moniitor is a Samsung HD2333 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824001341

When we connect the monitor directly to the Mac Mini with an HDMI cable the picture is much worse than with a DVI cable and the DVI to HDMI adapter that came with the Mini.

When we are looking at the monitor for "computer work" (i.e. Desktop, Web browsing, Office applications, etc.) the letters on the screen are much sharper with the DVI connection than with HDMI. With HDMI the letters seems to have a bit of a halo effect around them.

Am I doing something wrong, or is DVI generally going to give a sharper computer image than HDMI.

Thanks in advance for any input!

Your mini might be treating the monitor as a tv when connected by hdmi and adding overscan. It happens.

 

[Tike1994]

Thanks for the input.

I found some information about overscan and found that I could change the overscan settings on the monitor instead of adjusting them in the display properties in System Preferences.

It seems to look the same with DVI or HDMI now.

Thanks for the ideas.

 

[Fishrrman]

There's no compelling reason to use the HDMI if using DVI works better.

Just use whatever gives you the best display and be done with it.

 

[pxbr]

check your samsung monitor setup menu.. i have a B2330HD that i used to use as a monitor - now i have a pair of HP ZR22w's...

in the menu on my Samsung:
Menu, input, edit name, scroll to the correct HDMI input & set the device type (there's quite a choice), as you cycle through them you'll see picture change..

may not be the same on your model Samsung, but, for me it made a huge difference in image quality if the input wasn't set correctly!

hth..

 

[Cave Man]

There's no compelling reason to use the HDMI if using DVI works better.

Unless you want to also pass audio to the display, in which case HDMI is the way to go.