Intel Mac Mini hooked up with my TV

[^squirrel^]

Hi,

I'm thinking of buying a mac mini to hook up to my 32" Samsung HD screen. Will the Mini be able to cope with such a large screen and what kind of res do you i'll be able to run on it?

Thanks very much

Darren

 

[miniConvert]

What's the resolution?

My Mac mini powers my 23" HD Apple Cinema Display just fine at 1920 x 1200 pixels. I'm guessing your TV is less than that

 

[qtip919]

first off, most HDTV's run odd resolutions (crap like 1366x768)

all you need to do is get a DVI - HDTV cable, and download the app (cant remember what the name is right now, that allows you to run other resolutions other than the native OS X resolutions...)

Also, you could just run overscan...

 

[coot]

Works very very well from my mini to a 50in rear proj DLP - had a bit of trouble with the VGA connection, changed to DVI->HDMI and everything just worked, mini set itself to the correct resolution and its been plugged in for a month now without any issues.

Cheers,

Pete.

 

[^squirrel^]

Well i have a VGA output on the TV so all i need is a DVI to VGA cable.

I priced up a Mac mini in the UK.

iSight £84.26
Mac mini 1.66GHz Intel Core Duo £594.90
Wirless keyboard and mouse £59.57

With VAT total £868

But i can get a 17" iMac for £929 and a much better spec.

I would like to go with the mini as we have a screen but the iMac seems much better value.

 

[coot]

Depends on what you want it for, my mini was needed to sit under the TV and act as a media box, for day to day work I've got a couple of iMac G5's, horses for courses.

The mini does start to get pricey once you start adding a few things though....

Also, the mini comes with DVI-VGA adapter in the box.

Cheers,

Pete.

 

[^squirrel^]

I think i'll go with the mini.

Would be nice to be able to surd the net, collect email, shopping etc....all from my TV.

Thanks all

 

[DeSnousa]

I think i'll go with the mini.

Would be nice to be able to surd the net, collect email, shopping etc....all from my TV.

Thanks all

For those things it should be fine, just don't expect to playback 1080 HD

 

[^squirrel^]

For those things it should be fine, just don't expect to playback 1080 HD

I'll get a proper player one of these days.

 

[andiwm2003]

For those things it should be fine, just don't expect to playback 1080 HD

in other threads people said the mini can play bach 1080p from H.264. so there seems to be no problem.

 

[drawds]

I have an iMac G5 in my room and a Mac Mini in the living room connected to a 32 inch LCD HDTV and it works BEAUTIFULLY! It even recognises it's a TV and sets the best resolution for it without you doing anything! I was trully impressed with the quality of the image, coming from connecting a VGA PC into the TV, which makes the image slightly blurred compared to DVI.
I use the Mac Mini, among other things, to play music in the living room, using the iTunes music sharing thing. It's hooked up to the surround sound so I get really good quality sound, and get to pick the songs from the huge screen. I really feel like I'm part of the 21st century now!

 

[generik]

in other threads people said the mini can play bach 1080p from H.264. so there seems to be no problem.

Only the Duo, 1080p will kill the Solo model

 

[^squirrel^]

If i was to buy the Solo for now could i upgrade the CPU to a merom ( with frimware updates ) and is it just as simple as upgrading a PC?

Thanks again

D

 

[sandman42]

I've done that, but resolution was an issue

I have an LG 32" LCD HDTV, and I occasionally hook my mini up to it using a DVI to HDMI cable (available for cheap, BTW, from cablesforless.com). It works just fine, but the resolution issue was not quite so straightforward for me. The TV and the Mini both support a variety of resolutions, but the only one they seem to like to do *together* is 1024x768, which is not fantastic. Both the computer and the TV can do better than that, but there doesn't seem to be a higher resolution than that that they have in common.

Still, it's nice to have a computer available in the living room. I think I may ultimately dedicate the Mini to this use, and get a BT keyboard and mouse and store them in the coffee table. Could be a nice convenience.

I would like to use this set up as my 'media player', including DVD player. Problem with that is that the TV doesn't support the various aspect ratios in HDMI mode that it does in TV mode, so you can't zoom widescreen DVDs to fill the screen.

 

[^squirrel^]

I have an LG 32" LCD HDTV, and I occasionally hook my mini up to it using a DVI to HDMI cable (available for cheap, BTW, from cablesforless.com). It works just fine, but the resolution issue was not quite so straightforward for me. The TV and the Mini both support a variety of resolutions, but the only one they seem to like to do *together* is 1024x768, which is not fantastic. Both the computer and the TV can do better than that, but there doesn't seem to be a higher resolution than that that they have in common.

Still, it's nice to have a computer available in the living room. I think I may ultimately dedicate the Mini to this use, and get a BT keyboard and mouse and store them in the coffee table. Could be a nice convenience.

I would like to use this set up as my 'media player', including DVD player. Problem with that is that the TV doesn't support the various aspect ratios in HDMI mode that it does in TV mode, so you can't zoom widescreen DVDs to fill the screen.

I wonder what the res would be through a VGA input rather than HDMI. I've heard that this is a common problem when going via DVI or VGA to HDMI.

If you have a VGA I would try that.

 

[Bobajobbob]

I have a core duo mini hooked up to my 32" LCD HD TV. Using HDMI I cannot get native resolution for some reason (1366x768 or thereabouts). I have to overscan a lower res or lose some screen.

Using VGA however it runs perfectly at native res and looks pretty damn good. It plays HD content without a hitch and streams video over wifi perfectly too.

All in all a great machine for the job now that my first broken machine has been replaced.

 

[fradac]

actually

should work like a charm i have my mac mini plugged to a 42inch plasma and it discovered the resolutions supported by it perfectly

works amazingly