Mac Mini 2012 HDMI issue - crushed whites

nifmus · Nov 3, 2012

Hi guys, firstly a brief history of my Mac mini experiences. I've had a fair few in my time, mostly used for plex. I currently still have an old shape 1.83Ghz model (used as a web server now), a 2010 model, 2011 model and now the 2012 i7. Prior to the new model I only really had issues with the display output from the Dvi->HDMI connection from the 1.83Ghz model and to get around this I worked with the developer of Black Light to produce the 16-235 HD option that it now includes and it worked a retreat. When the minis began to have the HDMI port as standard I found there was no need for Black Light any longer as selecting the HD-709 Color space was all that was needed after a simple calibration. Both the 2010 and 2011 models worked great out of the box.

With the new i7 model I was anxious to purchase a beefier Plex Media Server as my main machine in the living room, to be the successor in the long line of minis I have used. As soon as I plugged it in I noticed an immediate problem with the HDMI signal. When viewing files in the Finder in list view, the horizontal striped background is non existent. Any subtle gradients in GUIs are rendered flat. Basically the whites are crushed and no changing of Color space or calibration of tv makes any difference.

I've tried every combination of workaround that my history of experiences with many models of mac minis has afforded me to no avail. Something is definitely wrong with the mini I have and I'm worried to think that it's either the new HD4000 graphics card or the drivers for that card.

For the moment I've connected the 2011 model back on TV, until the issue is confirmed by others and/or a driver fix is released. It's definitely the hardware as I booted all 3 HDMI enabled minis off an external OS just to prove to myself that I wasn't going crazy.

Thanks for listening and hopefully someone else notices something with their unit as well. BTW, I ordered the upgraded 2.6Ghz i7 model.

Cheers,
Steve

dasx · Nov 3, 2012

Looks like there's a problem with the HDMI port driver:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1482441/

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1478837/

philipma1957 · Nov 3, 2012

nifmus said:
Hi guys, firstly a brief history of my Mac mini experiences. I've had a fair few in my time, mostly used for plex. I currently still have an old shape 1.83Ghz model (used as a web server now), a 2010 model, 2011 model and now the 2012 i7. Prior to the new model I only really had issues with the display output from the Dvi->HDMI connection from the 1.83Ghz model and to get around this I worked with the developer of Black Light to produce the 16-235 HD option that it now includes and it worked a retreat. When the minis began to have the HDMI port as standard I found there was no need for Black Light any longer as selecting the HD-709 Color space was all that was needed after a simple calibration. Both the 2010 and 2011 models worked great out of the box.

With the new i7 model I was anxious to purchase a beefier Plex Media Server as my main machine in the living room, to be the successor in the long line of minis I have used. As soon as I plugged it in I noticed an immediate problem with the HDMI signal. When viewing files in the Finder in list view, the horizontal striped background is non existent. Any subtle gradients in GUIs are rendered flat. Basically the whites are crushed and no changing of Color space or calibration of tv makes any difference.

I've tried every combination of workaround that my history of experiences with many models of mac minis has afforded me to no avail. Something is definitely wrong with the mini I have and I'm worried to think that it's either the new HD4000 graphics card or the drivers for that card.

For the moment I've connected the 2011 model back on TV, until the issue is confirmed by others and/or a driver fix is released. It's definitely the hardware as I booted all 3 HDMI enabled minis off an external OS just to prove to myself that I wasn't going crazy.

Thanks for listening and hopefully someone else notices something with their unit as well. BTW, I ordered the upgraded 2.6Ghz i7 model.

Cheers,
Steve

I ordered this cable as a work around

http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10246&cs_id=1024603&p_id=9475&seq=1&format=2

has not arrived

PiroPhosphoric · Nov 4, 2012

¿Could be a problem with your TV (a "specific HDMI issue between new Mm and your TV set)?
¿Have you tried with a monitor or other TV set?

adonis3k · Nov 4, 2012

I have similar issue with HDMI connected to my Ilyama Prolite B2409HDS. I re-did a calibration through the Display settings, although not the best but better than it was. Hope Apple sort something out with a update soon.

Poob Bubes · Nov 4, 2012

philipma1957 said:
I ordered this cable as a work around

http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10246&cs_id=1024603&p_id=9475&seq=1&format=2

has not arrived

Hate to break it to you, but I also tried a Mini DisplayPort to HDMI and there was no difference. I don't think it's the actual port that's causing the problem, it's how the HDMI signal is being interpreted and displayed. DVI connection results in the mini correctly identifying my monitor and setting the correct color profile. The HDMI is detected as a generic HDMI profile (HD-709A). I hope this can be fixed with an update. For now I have to choose between crappy display quality or unhooking my pc dvi cable every time I want to use the mac and vice versa.

The K Man · Nov 4, 2012

I'm experiencing the exact same issue. I've tried three different monitor brands and spent alot of time trying to calibrate the monitors and looking for a solution, and no matter what I do, the whites are exaggerated and blown out. Colors calibrate like normal but light shades go abruptly to white. I'm using a HDMI cable to the monitor and I have the 2.3 Quad i7 Mac Mini (2012). I've even tested three different HDMI cables to rule out the possibility of a bad cable.

I've hooked up my old iBook and calibrated the monitor and everything looks normal. I sure hope that there will be an update to address this soon.

adonis3k · Nov 4, 2012

Mine decided to stay off for about 5 minutes being waking its ass up, then decided to do it again 2 or 3 times

Ice Dragon · Nov 4, 2012

If anyone has a Vizio HDTV, let me know if you have the new mini hooked up to it. I am sure Apple will resolve the problem fairly soon though I am glad I did not hastily order the new machine with these problems happening.

borostef · Nov 4, 2012

I think that Apple is still not used to the HDMI technology...
I'll give you an example... I have a 2011 Mini, tried connecting it to my LCD TV using HDMI cable, picture is perfect but no sound... I start reading about "Handshake issues"... Tried everything, turn Mini off, unplug cable, turn off TV, plug back in... The combinations are endless... Finally got it to work... Then I put my Mini to sleep... Wake up... No sound again!
Since I do have a job and can't plug cables in and out all day waiting for the Mini to decide that the "Handshake" was successful I gave up and decided to be satisfied with the sound coming from the computers speakers... They really should write some better drivers for the HDMI output.

jdryyz · Nov 4, 2012

I have the base model 2012 mini connected to a Samsung LN55A950. I went with a straight HDMI connection to the TV out of the box and immediately noticed that my grays looked a bit pinkish. I then noticed the whites were too "hot". "Washed out" or "crushed" as the OP said are other ways to describe the same thing we're seeing. I'm glad it is not just me.

I then changed over to my Mini DisplayPort to HDMI adapter. The grays did not look as pinkish this way. No matter what I did with Apple's display calibrator, I just couldn't make it look right, though. I finally ended up locating this little program:

http://michelf.ca/projects/gamma-control/

I adjusted each one of the "White" settings from 1.00 down to .80 and it is the closest output to what I used to have with my 2009 mini. May want to give it a try in the interim.

I too noticed a color profile was not selected for my display and it defaulted to something else. It seems telling that a branded color profile is not being created, as if the EDID info is not being passed to the mini.

I do hope this is just a software issue and Apple fixes it.

The K Man said:
I'm experiencing the exact same issue. I've tried three different monitor brands and spent alot of time trying to calibrate the monitors and looking for a solution, and no matter what I do, the whites are exaggerated and blown out. Colors calibrate like normal but light shades go abruptly to white. I'm using a HDMI cable to the monitor and I have the 2.3 Quad i7 Mac Mini (2012). I've even tested three different HDMI cables to rule out the possibility of a bad cable.

I've hooked up my old iBook and calibrated the monitor and everything looks normal. I sure hope that there will be an update to address this soon.

Snowcake · Nov 4, 2012

So if i understand it correctly, the colorprofiles are not loaded and that is what you are all seeing?

But can you all manually calibrate and use that?

Can you all post pictures of the problem?

Edit: Pictures: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4480354?start=0&tstart=0
The screen looks here only normal under the shadow of another window.

lhjelm · Nov 5, 2012

Same issue

I have an LG IPS monitor (IPS277) with HDMI and VGA inputs and are experiencing the same problem when using HDMI-HDMI and Mini DisplayPort-HDMI but not when using Mini DisplayPort-VGA.

My monitor worked fine with my previous Mac Mini (early 2009) using a DVI-HDMI cable and the new Mac Mini works with a Samsung DVI monitor (SyncMaster 2243BW) when using HDMI-DVI and Mini DisplayPort-DVI.

So I guess it's a driver issue.

PS
One simple test is the Gmail login screen. It should be a grey box around the username/password fields but it's not showing when using the HDMI output.

adonis3k · Nov 5, 2012

jdryyz said:
I then changed over to my Mini DisplayPort to HDMI adapter. The grays did not look as pinkish this way. No matter what I did with Apple's display calibrator, I just couldn't make it look right, though. I finally ended up locating this little program:

http://michelf.ca/projects/gamma-control/

I adjusted each one of the "White" settings from 1.00 down to .80 and it is the closest output to what I used to have with my 2009 mini. May want to give it a try in the interim.

This worked a treat, shame you cant save the settings as default as it looks like how it should

koyeung · Nov 5, 2012

Mine is LG IPS237L...same issue.

would the issue generic to HD4000 with HDMI?
https://discussions.apple.com/message/20191157#20191157
http://communities.intel.com/thread/31860

lhjelm said:
I have an LG IPS monitor (IPS277) with HDMI and VGA inputs and are experiencing the same problem when using HDMI-HDMI and Mini DisplayPort-HDMI but not when using Mini DisplayPort-VGA.

My monitor worked fine with my previous Mac Mini (early 2009) using a DVI-HDMI cable and the new Mac Mini works with a Samsung DVI monitor (SyncMaster 2243BW) when using HDMI-DVI and Mini DisplayPort-DVI.

So I guess it's a driver issue.

PS
One simple test is the Gmail login screen. It should be a grey box around the username/password fields but it's not showing when using the HDMI output.

lhjelm · Nov 5, 2012

Same monitor, just different size. I also have the same issue on my Samsung TV.

From what I read in the large thread on the Apple discussion forum, it seems to work when using Windows on the same machine (which probably uses Microsoft/Intel display drivers). So it's likely not a hardware issue, but who knows.

Edit: It seems to be generic for all Mac's using HD4000 GPU

koyeung said:
Mine is LG IPS237L...same issue.

would the issue generic to HD4000 with HDMI?
https://discussions.apple.com/message/20191157#20191157
http://communities.intel.com/thread/31860

jdryyz · Nov 5, 2012

Using the OS X built-in calibrator didn't work for me. The whites are out of proportion compared to the others. I had to use a separate program to get things looking halfway decent.

Snowcake said:
So if i understand it correctly, the colorprofiles are not loaded and that is what you are all seeing?

But can you all manually calibrate and use that?

Can you all post pictures of the problem?

Edit: Pictures: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4480354?start=0&tstart=0
The screen looks here only normal under the shadow of another window.

----------

That's good to hear. I have yet to load bootcamp on my machine since I am waiting for my dual drive adapter. I was curious if the problem follows a Windows install also.

I am also wondering if the "HDMI blank screen" problem is related to this. The new minis have a couple of video issues it seems.

lhjelm said:
From what I read in the large thread on the Apple discussion forum, it seems to work when using Windows on the same machine (which probably uses Microsoft/Intel display drivers). So it's likely not a hardware issue, but who knows.

Edit: It seems to be generic for all Mac's using HD4000 GPU

The K Man · Nov 5, 2012

jdryyz said:
I then changed over to my Mini DisplayPort to HDMI adapter. The grays did not look as pinkish this way. No matter what I did with Apple's display calibrator, I just couldn't make it look right, though. I finally ended up locating this little program:

http://michelf.ca/projects/gamma-control/

I adjusted each one of the "White" settings from 1.00 down to .80 and it is the closest output to what I used to have with my 2009 mini. May want to give it a try in the interim.

Great, this worked for me. It makes everything look normal for now. Hopefully there is a fix soon.

jdryyz · Nov 5, 2012

Glad it helped.

The K Man said:
Great, this worked for me. It makes everything look normal for now. Hopefully there is a fix soon.

poloponies · Nov 5, 2012

Ice Dragon said:
If anyone has a Vizio HDTV, let me know if you have the new mini hooked up to it. I am sure Apple will resolve the problem fairly soon though I am glad I did not hastily order the new machine with these problems happening.

Have the latest-gen 55" 3D Vizio. Picture perfect the minuter I hooked it up. Ditto my 42" 3D Vizio. Thinking about picking up a second Mini now. Absolutely love it.

As a total aside, I couldn't be happier with the current generation of Vizio LED TVs. Really awesome picture quality for the price. My only disappointment is that for a TV with a bluetooth remote they could write a killer app for the iPhone - but so far, nothing.

Snowcake · Nov 5, 2012

Maybe this does help

On a forum with a similar problem the solution was this:

Try holding the (Control Command Alt) keys and pressing the (Comma) key several times.

Alternately go to: Apple / System Preferences / Universal Access and in the Display section make sure that Enhance contrast: is set to normal.

Screen+shot+2012-06-30+at+10.22.10+AM.jpg

Link https://discussions.apple.com/message/18789011#18789011#18789011

JamSandwich · Nov 5, 2012

Thanks for this thread. I wasn't too worried about it to begin with -- output to my HDTV looked OK when I was moving my profile to the new machine... but I'm on monitor number two for my new Mini.

The first monitor (Samsung) was actually defective (horizontal grey stripes through the picture) and I had read that it took some not insignificant fiddling to properly calibrate.

The new monitor (BenQ), I've been playing with all night. It didn't take long to get to a point where it seemed serviceable, but the whites are pretty intense and on further examination it was clear that elements of what was on screen (i.e: Finder windows) were blown out. According to the monitor's menus, the computer is outputting 16-235 (YUV) as opposed to RGB/0-255.

Tomorrow I'm going to pick up a DVI cable. The other monitors have to go back anyhow (I bought a pair of the Samsungs). If it doesn't fix the issue I'll likely de-list my ad to sell my old iMac and plod along with it. Lord knows I wouldn't even remotely consider buying a monitor that connects only through HDMI (or HDMI and VGA -- icky analog). Hopefully a fix is forthcoming, but I won't be waiting for one.

Not sure the new monitor is right for me either (I never realized I was so picky), but at least I'll be able to learn whether the problem goes deeper than the Mini's handling of HDMI.

koyeung · Nov 6, 2012

It's not related to "Enhance contrast" and hence it has no effect.

It is more likely related to Intel HD graphics w HDMI display, which affects macbook air (https://discussions.apple.com/message/20191157#20191157) as well.

http://communities.intel.com/messag...container=&locale=en_US&q=hd4000+color&login=

Snowcake said:
On a forum with a similar problem the solution was this:

Try holding the (Control Command Alt) keys and pressing the (Comma) key several times.

Alternately go to: Apple / System Preferences / Universal Access and in the Display section make sure that Enhance contrast: is set to normal.

Image

Link https://discussions.apple.com/message/18789011#18789011#18789011

nifmus · Nov 6, 2012

Snowcake said:
So if i understand it correctly, the colorprofiles are not loaded and that is what you are all seeing?

But can you all manually calibrate and use that?

Can you all post pictures of the problem?

Edit: Pictures: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4480354?start=0&tstart=0
The screen looks here only normal under the shadow of another window.

Yup, that's exactly what I am seeing. The previous two mac mini HDMI models (2011 and 2010) I have had look fine on the same TV but I am seeing this issue with the 2012. This translates to the crushed whites I am seeing and that is present during the calibration process.

Even if I calibrate a new color profile with the built in calibration software, it still exhibits this phenomena.

Cheers,
Steve

----------

philipma1957 said:
I ordered this cable as a work around

http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10246&cs_id=1024603&p_id=9475&seq=1&format=2

has not arrived

I have this cable too. I tried it and it made no difference. The other issue is that this cable will not pass through any audio either.

Cheers,
Steve

philipma1957 · Nov 6, 2012

nifmus said:
Yup, that's exactly what I am seeing. The previous two mac mini HDMI models (2011 and 2010) I have had look fine on the same TV but I am seeing this issue with the 2012. This translates to the crushed whites I am seeing and that is present during the calibration process.

Even if I calibrate a new color profile with the built in calibration software, it still exhibits this phenomena.

Cheers,
Steve

----------

I have this cable too. I tried it and it made no difference. The other issue is that this cable will not pass through any audio either.

Cheers,
Steve

This cable worked better

http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10246&cs_id=1024604&p_id=6000&seq=1&format=2

no sound but I have a hi-end dac attached.... both cables got rid of the blackout issues so far.

the MDP to dvi cable has a better picture attached to my dvi monitor. then the MDP to hdmi has attached to my hdmi monitor or tv.

Mac Mini 2012 HDMI issue - crushed whites

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