Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Black Macbook and Sony Bravia 40" HDTV

N

nauzerlvr

macrumors newbie
Original poster
My first post here, so, first off, hello everyone!

I just bought the black Mac Book, 2.2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo and nave 4 GHz or RAM. I bought the MiniDV to VGA adapter and made an attempt to hook up my 40" Sony Bravia to the laptop. It works but the picture is small in the center of the TV. I tried other resolutions but nothing seemed to help.

All my HDMI inputs are being used and I thought since it had the VGA port, why not try.

Am I wasting my time and should I try an alternate route?

TIA everyone.

N
 
that might be the best your going to get because the macbook doesn't have the supported resolution you need to fill your screen. a macbook pro on the other hand would. i could be wrong but i think there really isn't anymore you can do
 
basesloaded190 said:
that might be the best your going to get because the macbook doesn't have the supported resolution you need to fill your screen. a macbook pro on the other hand would. i could be wrong but i think there really isn't anymore you can do
Click to expand...


Yeah, I was afraid of that. The Macbook I have uses a chip set rather than a graphics card. I sold my Powerbook to get this one. I thought about trying to use one of the utilities like DisplayConfigX or perhaps SwitchResX. Anyone think that route might work? If not then I can still live with it. Doesn't hurt to try though.
 
It could be a settings thing. My mac mini uses the full area on my Sony 40" HDTV - just worked like that out the box so I couldn't offer any ideas on how to get it working though.
 
A VGA output to your HDTV won't do anything. Any movies or pictures will produce terrible quality regardless of your settings on your MacBook. Keep in mind that VGA outputs are analog and not digital.

Your DVI output will give you the digital signal you are looking for. It should give you up to a 720p display. The MBPs will support up to 1080p.
 
CKtoph said:
A VGA output to your HDTV won't do anything. Any movies or pictures will produce terrible quality regardless of your settings on your MacBook. Keep in mind that VGA outputs are analog and not digital.

Your DVI output will give you the digital signal you are looking for. It should give you up to a 720p display. The MBPs will support up to 1080p.
Click to expand...

I have used both the VGA out and DVI out on my Macbook to connect it to my HDTV and there is no difference in quality. The VGA connection actually offers me more choices of resolutions so I can get a picture that covers the screen from end to end. The original poster should give it a try.
 
first of all, all these people are wrong 😀 (sorry lol)
the macbook has a mini-dvi connector which is basically a single-channeled dvi connection. This port can output to a display up to 1920x1200 pixels, which is what the 23 inch apple cinema display has and is also higher than all the 1080p displays on the market. The reason why it's higher is because there is more room on the top and bottom for the computer's operating systems taskbar.

The MBP on the other hand has a full-sized dual-channeled dvi connector. This can output to a display up to 2560x1600 pixels, the 30" apple cinema display. The MBP goes higher than 1080p.

I don't know why your television doesn't support all the pixels your computer is outputting to it, since both VGA and DVI support 1200p. Maybe fiddle with your television settings I don't know.

People saying the macbook has bad graphics capability is wrong. The intel gma950 and x3100 are both optimized to fully support quartz extreme and hd video. I did a test where I unloaded 8 quicktime divx movies at once, and used expose to see them all at once. All 8 movies were being played back at 24fps 😱. The more I added later on, the slower the fps got overall. This is again probably not the chipset's fault, but the 5200rpm harddrive inside the macbook. I will try to play 8 movies, and perhaps 4 over the network and see if I get the same results. This was on the 2.16ghz macbook with gma 950 and 2.5 gigs of ram. Ur computer has more memory and a faster processor, so I am pretty sure running ONE 1080p movie will not be a problem.

For the record, 720p is 1280x720, and the macbook's 13 inch screen is 1280x800, so it can obviously run more than that.
 
I had something similar when I tried to connect my MBP running Vista to my 1080p TV. From what I read, there is no fix for it yet. I'm not sure if that is similar, but I thought I'd offer it up.
 
I had a similar problem using with my Macbook and Samsung TV. I found that if I played with using either the 'clone' desktop or the 'dual' desktop abilities (option+f7) I could fill more of the screen using the 'dual' desktop ability.
 
Redline13 said:
I have used both the VGA out and DVI out on my Macbook to connect it to my HDTV and there is no difference in quality. The VGA connection actually offers me more choices of resolutions so I can get a picture that covers the screen from end to end. The original poster should give it a try.
Click to expand...

I really don't see how this is possible. I've worked in settings where I've utilized both as well (albeit not on a MacBook, but still on the same PC) where the VGA output was clearly lesser in quality than the DVI. Purely by working mechanics, I don't see how you are getting no difference in quality from an analog versus a DVI signal. Keep in mind, I'm not trying to argue a point, but I'd be interested to know to what capacity you are making the comparison to equate the two signals.

Oh and my previous post was a little misleading...for some reason, I added the fact that the MBP supports up to 1080p while the MB supports only up to 720p. What I meant was the native resolution on the laptop itself, not the output 😛
 
dvi is obviously the better choice, only because it is all digital. The signal outputted is only 1s and 0s, so the quality wouldn't change depending on the cable, analog signals do
 
OP, hook up your Mini-DVI adapter to your VGA adapter...

on your "beautiful" Sony Bravia LCD 40" (I have the same one), then turn on your MB, press "menu" on your Sony remote, select "external inputs" select your "PC" which should be "Video 7" and your "desktop" should appear. If it doesn't appear then go to "Displays" under "System Preferences" and select "Arrangement" and ensure that you check the BOX for "Mirror Displays" and you are good to go. You'll get the "FULL SCREEN" of your desktop as it looks on your MB (your display resolution should be set at 1360 x 768, but you can set it to whatever you like). After all, it's your MB and Sony Bravia LCD 40" TV! Enjoy; I've been running my MB/BlackBook to Sony since last year August! PM me if you like. 😎😛
 
SFStateStudent said:
on your "beautiful" Sony Bravia LCD 40" (I have the same one), then turn on your MB, press "menu" on your Sony remote, select "external inputs" select your "PC" which should be "Video 7" and your "desktop" should appear. If it doesn't appear then go to "Displays" under "System Preferences" and select "Arrangement" and ensure that you check the BOX for "Mirror Displays" and you are good to go. You'll get the "FULL SCREEN" of your desktop as it looks on your MB (your display resolution should be set at 1360 x 768, but you can set it to whatever you like). After all, it's your MB and Sony Bravia LCD 40" TV! Enjoy; I've been running my MB/BlackBook to Sony since last year August! PM me if you like. 😎😛
Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestions everyone, I'll try it again tonight and report back.
 
I have a black macbook. What I use is a mini dvi to vga and from the vga to the vga on my TV. I have a 50" Pioneer plasma and it filled up the screen fine even when i play a movie. Like the earlier poster states you just need to fiddle around a little to make it a full screen
 
I second that Motion...

bunzwsu said:
I have a black macbook. What I use is a mini dvi to vga and from the vga to the vga on my TV. I have a 50" Pioneer plasma and it filled up the screen fine even when i play a movie. Like the earlier poster states you just need to fiddle around a little to make it a full screen
Click to expand...

I've used my MB/MBA/BlackBook in this same manner for my Sony Bravia LCD 40" and the campus overhead projectors without a "hitch." Feel free to PM is you should have any further problems. 😎
 
Fonzijr1964 said:
the MB does not support anything over 24 inches i believe
Click to expand...

like i said earlier, its not a matter about screen size, but the number of pixels. the macbook supports dvi and vga (both most common computer connections), and the macbook outputs to both 720p and 1080p (and interlaced) with both these connections. You can plug ur macbook to a 42", 80", whatever you have 😀
 
I have a 40" Sony Bravia LCD and a 32" Sony Bravia LCD...

Fonzijr1964 said:
the MB does not support anything over 24 inches i believe
Click to expand...

and they are "perfectly" supported. See attached photos! These were taken with my iPhone and uploaded to my BlackBook 2.4 Penryn 250GB for your viewing pleasure. These are from "Black Hawk Down" from iTunes Movies, while the 1st pic is my Desktop on my Sony Bravia LCD 40" TV. Any questions??? 😎😛
 

Attachments

  • photo-3.jpg
    photo-3.jpg
    119.8 KB · Views: 250
  • photo-2.jpg
    photo-2.jpg
    199.9 KB · Views: 162
  • photo-1.jpg
    photo-1.jpg
    158 KB · Views: 115
SFStateStudent said:
and they are "perfectly" supported. See attached photos! These were taken with my iPhone and uploaded to my BlackBook 2.4 Penryn 250GB for your viewing pleasure. These are from "Black Hawk Down" from iTunes Movies, while the 1st pic is my Desktop on my Sony Bravia LCD 40" TV. Any questions??? 😎😛
Click to expand...

but how?
 
on a macbook, if you set the display preferences to mirroring mode, you only get 1280x800p resolution, which means if you have a 1080p television, the picture will be either stretched to the full display, or scaled and centered
 
pattman247 said:
on a macbook, if you set the display preferences to mirroring mode, you only get 1280x800p resolution, which means if you have a 1080p television, the picture will be either stretched to the full display, or scaled and centered
Click to expand...

so what do you set it to?

how about on a MBP
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back