How to display 2560x1440 using MacBook Air (2011)

unagimiyagi · Nov 16, 2012, 12:46 AM

Hi,

I just bought this Auria 27" LED IPS monitor at: http://www.microcenter.com/product/3...PS_LED_Monitor

Background that you can skip:
I went for this over the $300 monitors on Ebay b/c
1) it's Local with a 100% refund within 30 days, very generous and no risk
2) it has a full complement of ports: dvi, dp, hdmi, vga.
3) this full set of ports would put the cost at at least $400 even on ebay.

It has the same panel as the $999 Thunderbolt monitor (that's the consensus).

Of course, now being the cheap little monitor that it is, it won't display anything past 1920x1080.

Macbook air 2011, running mountain lion.

I have tried connecting with DVI, HDMI, Displayport.

Any ideas?

I'm using a mini-displayport adapter from monoprice hooked up to my MBA.

This should work, but it doesn't. Can someone please tell me how to do this?

When I plug my mini displayport into the displayport input of the Auria, I get "NO Signal" on the monitor and that's it. It's not even detecting my displayport?

I should not need a dual link DVI to get this to work right?

I also have a 2009 17" macbook pro with an NVIDIA graphics card and that, too does not work over displayport.
Thanks

joewillmott · Nov 16, 2012, 03:40 AM

It could be that either the port on the back of the monitor, or the cable you're using, or the adapter you're using, is faulty. That's what happened to me about 2 months ago.

Take your MBA + adapter + cable to a store or somewhere with a proper thunderbolt display and check they all work, then you know it's the monitor. My faulty part was actually the cable in the end, despite me thinking it was the adapter for so long.

unagimiyagi · Nov 16, 2012, 07:05 PM

Well, does anyone have any mac, of any kind, working with this monitor?

I bought new cables (hdmi 1.3b), so I know that works.
I can not find a minidisplayport to displayport cable in a retail store.
I bought another minidisplayport to hdmi adapter, and it looks to be the exact same OEM as my previous one, which is from monoprice. These are the identical cables about 1-1.5 years apart.

I get no signal connecting from displayport at all.

If I need a $99 cable dual link dvi, then I should just return the monitor b/c a $100 cable is ridiculous. Then I will start to look at a Dell monitor, etc. Factoring in time cost of trying to figure this out, for what amounts to nonuseful knowledge gained for my life, is not going to be worth it. I will try to connect the same cables using windows bootcamp. If that works, that will clinch that it's os x mountain lion that is the problem. It will peeve me if I find that Apple has only supported their $999 monitor which is their prerogative, but they have really taken the control way way too far.

jmoore5196 · Nov 16, 2012, 08:02 PM

Friend, let me share some sage wisdom to add to your "non-useful" store: you get what you pay for.

If you want a solution that "just works," then take your $300 panel back to MicroCenter and pony up another $700 for an ACD.

If your sole objective is to avoid spending money, I fear you'll only be frustrated in your attempt to derive an elegant solution from inelegant product choices.

drambuie · 08:57 PM

If you want 2560 x 1440, you need a Mini DisplayPort to dual link DVI adapter. Single link DVI will only go to 1920 x 1200. If it works at 1920 x 1080 with a single link DVI adapter, then the dual link DVI adapter should be a go for 2560 x 1440. If the DVI cable that comes with the monitor has a solid block of 24 pins rather than two blocks of 9 pins, it is a dual link cable.

unagimiyagi · Nov 17, 2012, 08:56 PM

OK, here are the steps if you want to run your macbook air 2011 at 2560x1440 with the Auria monitor.

1. Order this from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/StarTech-6-Fee...plyaport+cable

2. Plug it in.

For reference, I am using Mountain Lion, a macbook air 2011.

For other reference, I have a 2009 Macbook pro 17" with a mini displayport, but the most it will do is 2048x1120.

I did not know the difference b/w a passthrough adapter and an active adapter. I naively thought that I could just string the right parts together, as long as one end was a mini displayport and the other end was a displayport, then it should work at full resolution.
I was using mini displayport -> hdmi female adapter....then connecting an hdmi -hdmi cable to an hdmi to displayport adapter.

Yes, I actually had all of those parts lying around.

This might actually work if I could have found a minidisplayport to hdmi 1.3b adapter, used for sure hdmi 1.3 cables.

HDMI and displayport are not the same thing, even though they are close cousins.

In a nutshell, just buy the cable I listed above. It's completely and utterly not worth the effort to do anything else. It will work, and the audio also works. To use the audio, go into sound preferences and look under the output device. It is not the first tab that you see (that's for sound effects). Then it will work. I rate the built-in speakers. (yes the monitor has them) as good as the ones on my 17" macbook pro, and yes it has an analog headphone out jack in case you wish to connect to some speakers. You could in theory use this as an hdtv, or certainly with an apple tv if needed.

Problem solved for $10. Other solutions with this monitor will cost you upwards of $70 to $99, thereby completing negating the purpose of buying the monitor in the first place (the discount). I could not find a mini displayport to displayport cable at a retail store at all.

Now I do have an Apple Cinema-level quality display for $399. Microcenter sells both monitors so I had a look. The screen is beautiful and as far as I can tell is identical, and certainly, certainly, certainly worth the money.

Happy as a clam and I am thinking of buying another one, but the price can only go down, so I may wait.

twenty4play · Nov 27, 2012, 09:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by unagimiyagi

OK, here are the steps if you want to run your macbook air 2011 at 2560x1440 with the Auria monitor.

1. Order this from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/StarTech-6-Fee...plyaport+cable

2. Plug it in.

For reference, I am using Mountain Lion, a macbook air 2011.

For other reference, I have a 2009 Macbook pro 17" with a mini displayport, but the most it will do is 2048x1120.

I did not know the difference b/w a passthrough adapter and an active adapter. I naively thought that I could just string the right parts together, as long as one end was a mini displayport and the other end was a displayport, then it should work at full resolution.
I was using mini displayport -> hdmi female adapter....then connecting an hdmi -hdmi cable to an hdmi to displayport adapter.

Yes, I actually had all of those parts lying around.

This might actually work if I could have found a minidisplayport to hdmi 1.3b adapter, used for sure hdmi 1.3 cables.

HDMI and displayport are not the same thing, even though they are close cousins.

In a nutshell, just buy the cable I listed above. It's completely and utterly not worth the effort to do anything else. It will work, and the audio also works. To use the audio, go into sound preferences and look under the output device. It is not the first tab that you see (that's for sound effects). Then it will work. I rate the built-in speakers. (yes the monitor has them) as good as the ones on my 17" macbook pro, and yes it has an analog headphone out jack in case you wish to connect to some speakers. You could in theory use this as an hdtv, or certainly with an apple tv if needed.

Problem solved for $10. Other solutions with this monitor will cost you upwards of $70 to $99, thereby completing negating the purpose of buying the monitor in the first place (the discount). I could not find a mini displayport to displayport cable at a retail store at all.

Now I do have an Apple Cinema-level quality display for $399. Microcenter sells both monitors so I had a look. The screen is beautiful and as far as I can tell is identical, and certainly, certainly, certainly worth the money.

Happy as a clam and I am thinking of buying another one, but the price can only go down, so I may wait.

This may be a tad premature... But you're a life saver! I just unboxed my Auria 27" 30 minutes ago and was banging my head trying to figure out why I couldn't get full resolution. I too had the HDMI to Mini-DP adapter... fail. Interestingly, when I went to Amazon, that cable was already in my shopping cart... lol I was eyeing it a few days ago when I started researching the Auria monitor, I should have just bought it then!

Thanks for posting your resolution (pun intended)!

unagimiyagi · Nov 28, 2012, 01:43 PM

No problem, I'm sure that going from minidisplayport to displayport directly, no hdmi interconversions, will work at full resolution.
It did on my macbook air 2011.
Definitely do not settle for 1920x1080 and keep at it; it does work with the Auria monitor.
If you can get an Auria without dead pixels and even backlighting, it's every bit as good as the Thunderbolt display. Same panel used.

csixty4 · Nov 28, 2012, 06:11 PM

I have the same monitor and an 11" Air (previously a 2010, now a 2012). You cannot get the full resolution over HDMI. You need to use a direct DisplayPort cable. It might also work with a dual-link DVI, but I haven't tried that.

xxcysxx · Jan 2, 2013, 09:58 PM

hi, i just got the display cable from the amazon store that was provided by the link on this post and i cannot get 2560x1440 on my macbook air.

macbook air specs are:
mid 2012 11 inch macbook air
i7 2.0GHz
8GB ram
256GB ssd

monitor is the auria 27 inch 2560x1440 from micro center
interface cable is the amazon mini display male to display male.

i could not get the external monitor to display 2560x1440 at all. it shows it as available but when i selected the images is all garbled up and unusable. however, the highest i can get is 2048x1152, which is not what i intended to get this cable for.

is there any special setting you have to make to get native resolution with this cable?
could i have a bad cable? though i don't think it is since it work just fine up to 2048x1152.
furthermore, i've also tried to connect this cable to my mid 2011 mac mini, and i get the boot loop. yeah the mac mini was stuck in a boot loop, and when i reconnect it back with the hdmi cable it boot just fine. weird!

anyway, could i have a bad cable or just this auria just doesn't support 2560x1440 from a mac? because my gaming pc display runs just fine over the same hdmi cable at the monitor native resolution.

Nov 16, 2012, 12:46 AM	#1
unagimiyagi macrumors 6502 Join Date: Jun 2009	How to display 2560x1440 using MacBook Air (2011) Hi, I just bought this Auria 27" LED IPS monitor at: http://www.microcenter.com/product/3...PS_LED_Monitor Background that you can skip: I went for this over the $300 monitors on Ebay b/c 1) it's Local with a 100% refund within 30 days, very generous and no risk 2) it has a full complement of ports: dvi, dp, hdmi, vga. 3) this full set of ports would put the cost at at least $400 even on ebay. It has the same panel as the $999 Thunderbolt monitor (that's the consensus). Of course, now being the cheap little monitor that it is, it won't display anything past 1920x1080. Macbook air 2011, running mountain lion. I have tried connecting with DVI, HDMI, Displayport. Any ideas? I'm using a mini-displayport adapter from monoprice hooked up to my MBA. This should work, but it doesn't. Can someone please tell me how to do this? When I plug my mini displayport into the displayport input of the Auria, I get "NO Signal" on the monitor and that's it. It's not even detecting my displayport? I should not need a dual link DVI to get this to work right? I also have a 2009 17" macbook pro with an NVIDIA graphics card and that, too does not work over displayport. Thanks
	0

Nov 16, 2012, 03:40 AM	#2
joewillmott macrumors member Join Date: May 2012 Location: England	It could be that either the port on the back of the monitor, or the cable you're using, or the adapter you're using, is faulty. That's what happened to me about 2 months ago. Take your MBA + adapter + cable to a store or somewhere with a proper thunderbolt display and check they all work, then you know it's the monitor. My faulty part was actually the cable in the end, despite me thinking it was the adapter for so long. __________________ 13" MBA, i5, 8GB RAM, 128SSD \|\| 4th gen iPod touch I make apps and games and stuff: JoeWillmott.com
	0

Nov 16, 2012, 08:52 PM	#5
drambuie macrumors 6502a Join Date: Feb 2010	If you want 2560 x 1440, you need a Mini DisplayPort to dual link DVI adapter. Single link DVI will only go to 1920 x 1200. If it works at 1920 x 1080 with a single link DVI adapter, then the dual link DVI adapter should be a go for 2560 x 1440. If the DVI cable that comes with the monitor has a solid block of 24 pins rather than two blocks of 9 pins, it is a dual link cable. Last edited by drambuie; Nov 16, 2012 at 08:57 PM. Reason: additional info
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Nov 16, 2012, 07:05 PM	#3
unagimiyagi Thread Starter macrumors 6502 Join Date: Jun 2009	Well, does anyone have any mac, of any kind, working with this monitor? I bought new cables (hdmi 1.3b), so I know that works. I can not find a minidisplayport to displayport cable in a retail store. I bought another minidisplayport to hdmi adapter, and it looks to be the exact same OEM as my previous one, which is from monoprice. These are the identical cables about 1-1.5 years apart. I get no signal connecting from displayport at all. If I need a $99 cable dual link dvi, then I should just return the monitor b/c a $100 cable is ridiculous. Then I will start to look at a Dell monitor, etc. Factoring in time cost of trying to figure this out, for what amounts to nonuseful knowledge gained for my life, is not going to be worth it. I will try to connect the same cables using windows bootcamp. If that works, that will clinch that it's os x mountain lion that is the problem. It will peeve me if I find that Apple has only supported their $999 monitor which is their prerogative, but they have really taken the control way way too far.
	0

Nov 16, 2012, 08:02 PM	#4
jmoore5196 macrumors 6502 Join Date: May 2009 Location: London	Friend, let me share some sage wisdom to add to your "non-useful" store: you get what you pay for. If you want a solution that "just works," then take your $300 panel back to MicroCenter and pony up another $700 for an ACD. If your sole objective is to avoid spending money, I fear you'll only be frustrated in your attempt to derive an elegant solution from inelegant product choices.
	0

Nov 17, 2012, 08:56 PM	#6
unagimiyagi Thread Starter macrumors 6502 Join Date: Jun 2009	OK, here are the steps if you want to run your macbook air 2011 at 2560x1440 with the Auria monitor. 1. Order this from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/StarTech-6-Fee...plyaport+cable 2. Plug it in. For reference, I am using Mountain Lion, a macbook air 2011. For other reference, I have a 2009 Macbook pro 17" with a mini displayport, but the most it will do is 2048x1120. I did not know the difference b/w a passthrough adapter and an active adapter. I naively thought that I could just string the right parts together, as long as one end was a mini displayport and the other end was a displayport, then it should work at full resolution. I was using mini displayport -> hdmi female adapter....then connecting an hdmi -hdmi cable to an hdmi to displayport adapter. Yes, I actually had all of those parts lying around. This might actually work if I could have found a minidisplayport to hdmi 1.3b adapter, used for sure hdmi 1.3 cables. HDMI and displayport are not the same thing, even though they are close cousins. In a nutshell, just buy the cable I listed above. It's completely and utterly not worth the effort to do anything else. It will work, and the audio also works. To use the audio, go into sound preferences and look under the output device. It is not the first tab that you see (that's for sound effects). Then it will work. I rate the built-in speakers. (yes the monitor has them) as good as the ones on my 17" macbook pro, and yes it has an analog headphone out jack in case you wish to connect to some speakers. You could in theory use this as an hdtv, or certainly with an apple tv if needed. Problem solved for $10. Other solutions with this monitor will cost you upwards of $70 to $99, thereby completing negating the purpose of buying the monitor in the first place (the discount). I could not find a mini displayport to displayport cable at a retail store at all. Now I do have an Apple Cinema-level quality display for $399. Microcenter sells both monitors so I had a look. The screen is beautiful and as far as I can tell is identical, and certainly, certainly, certainly worth the money. Happy as a clam and I am thinking of buying another one, but the price can only go down, so I may wait.
	0

Nov 28, 2012, 01:43 PM	#8
unagimiyagi Thread Starter macrumors 6502 Join Date: Jun 2009	No problem, I'm sure that going from minidisplayport to displayport directly, no hdmi interconversions, will work at full resolution. It did on my macbook air 2011. Definitely do not settle for 1920x1080 and keep at it; it does work with the Auria monitor. If you can get an Auria without dead pixels and even backlighting, it's every bit as good as the Thunderbolt display. Same panel used.
	0

Nov 28, 2012, 06:11 PM	#9
csixty4 macrumors member Join Date: Apr 2010	I have the same monitor and an 11" Air (previously a 2010, now a 2012). You cannot get the full resolution over HDMI. You need to use a direct DisplayPort cable. It might also work with a dual-link DVI, but I haven't tried that.
	0

Jan 2, 2013, 09:58 PM	#10
xxcysxx macrumors regular Join Date: Oct 2011	hi, i just got the display cable from the amazon store that was provided by the link on this post and i cannot get 2560x1440 on my macbook air. macbook air specs are: mid 2012 11 inch macbook air i7 2.0GHz 8GB ram 256GB ssd monitor is the auria 27 inch 2560x1440 from micro center interface cable is the amazon mini display male to display male. i could not get the external monitor to display 2560x1440 at all. it shows it as available but when i selected the images is all garbled up and unusable. however, the highest i can get is 2048x1152, which is not what i intended to get this cable for. is there any special setting you have to make to get native resolution with this cable? could i have a bad cable? though i don't think it is since it work just fine up to 2048x1152. furthermore, i've also tried to connect this cable to my mid 2011 mac mini, and i get the boot loop. yeah the mac mini was stuck in a boot loop, and when i reconnect it back with the hdmi cable it boot just fine. weird! anyway, could i have a bad cable or just this auria just doesn't support 2560x1440 from a mac? because my gaming pc display runs just fine over the same hdmi cable at the monitor native resolution.
	0