Resolved 2011 Mac mini HDMI RGB range issues with PlayStation 3D Display

[Jeff Chen]

So, I got this PlayStation 3D Display on boxing day. Hooked it up with my Mac mini and got eye-hurting bright white and crashed black. For a couple of days I'd tried to calibrate the monitor with the assistant in OSX, but finally I realized that it might be the problem with limited RGB range again.

[Solution]
So what I did was, instead of using direct HDMI connection, I used the mini-DisplayPort. Using a mini-DisplayPort to DVI adapter, then a DVI to HDMI cable, I got a image in RGB full range and the white & black issues are gone.

It seems the display is posing itself as a TV to the mini, and the mini smartly sent the 16-235 signal to the display. However, the display failed to comply with that signal, and mistakenly parsed it with sRGB, and this ruins the image.

I'm gonna write to Sony about this issue, since it looks more likely a problem of their product. But in case anyone here knows how to force Mac OS X to send a RGB full range signal, please post the method below. Thanks.

 

[Jeff Chen]

Update:

I've returned the display after noticing several sever problems with it. Basically there is no cure.

1. Black/blue bleeding
When displaying something dark, and the dark part moves, it will leave a very long trail of blue-black color on the screen. That's very noticiable and makes watching movies & playing games impossible.

You can temporarily fix this issue by cycling thru the different 3D modes of the display. Most likely a firmware issue.

2. Red channel out of control
The display comes with a very weird tint that changes with the brightness. Why? Because the red channel doesn't really change when other channels do. If you try to turn down the brightness, you will noticed the screen goes dark except for the red pixels. This explains why the whitebalance is so wrong and red always look weird on this display.

Most likely another firmware issue.

3. RGB range problem
This display tells Mac OS X that it's a TV, therefore, Mac OS X sends range-limited RGB signals to the display via HDMI. However, the display itself doesn't know how to handle signal in limited RGB range. This makes the entire picture look washed up. I have confirmed this with my PS3 as well.

Most likely firmware issuie again. And you can bypass this one by using DP > DVI > HDMI connection. But that might introduce random blackouts as a results, if your cables are not the top ones.

Conclusion:
This display might be OK with its hardware, but the firmware is probably a mess. I had no choice but to return it, since Sony will not let you upgrade the firmware on it on your own (I had a 5300ES and Sony won't lemme do it). It's really a pitty because I really wanted to keep a 3D-capable device home.

 

[swizzleswirl]

I tried using this display with my MacBook Air. It never gave the quality I was looking for BUT it's also dim with terrible viewing angles. I stacked it up against the Thunderbolt display and it gets killed.

It's also not that great of HDTV... on a side note though 3D is great on this thing.