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

Anyone interested in a Hi-def (1920 x 1200) mod for PB/MBP?

jrsade said:
Can this be modified to work with a Samsung LTN154U1-L03?
Click to expand...

I would suggest opening both EDIDs inside Phoenix and then copying the appropriate parts (probably just the specific resolution one) from the one I made.

You probably don't want to copy mine verbatim. The timings may work, but I'm certainly not going to guarantee them.. you could damage your panel, your mileage may vary etc.

If you are trying this on a panel noone's created a working overrides file for, I would DEFINITELY have SwitchResX and an external monitor.


Faye
 
Faye said:
I would suggest opening both EDIDs inside Phoenix and then copying the appropriate parts (probably just the specific resolution one) from the one I made.
Faye
Click to expand...

Do you mean Phoenix EDID Designer? How did you copy/extract data from there to the override file? "Save EDID as..."?

jrsade
 
jrsade said:
Do you mean Phoenix EDID Designer? How did you copy/extract data from there to the override file? "Save EDID as..."?

jrsade
Click to expand...

Yes, I mean Phoenix EDID designer. It's base64 encoded inside the override file. I used a site on the web to convert hex to base64... just googled it.

This piece of perl will convert a binary version of the EDID to the format required by Phoenix. If you're a programmer, it wouldn't be hard to add base64 decoding to this ;)

Code: 
#!/usr/bin/perl
undef $/;
print "EDID BYTES:\r\n";
print "0x   ";
for ($c=0;$c<16;$c++) { printf "%02X ", $c; }
print "\r\n";
print "    ","-" x 48;
while(<>) {
        $l=$_;
        for ($c=0;$c<length($l);$c++) {
                if($c%16==0) {printf "\r\n%02x | ",$c;}
                print unpack("H*", substr($l,$c,1))," ";
        }
}
print "\r\n";
 
Upload override file

jrsade - can you upload the override file for me when you get it working. I have the same screen as you. I am not a programmer so it would be difficult for me to get it this done. Thanks in advance.
 
jeeb75 said:
jrsade - can you upload the override file for me when you get it working. I have the same screen as you. I am not a programmer so it would be difficult for me to get it this done. Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

I don't have this panel yet. I thought of taking one of those because I can get one without any mounting clips. This seems to make things easier...
 
jeeb75 said:
okay, thanks anyways.
Click to expand...

It's always possible that panel just doesn't work. It's always possible that the EDID in that panel reads perfectly in the Mac and delivers a flawless picture first time ;)

I think the problem with the Tosh panel is that the settings don't have enough blanking interval, which seems ok for some gfx cards and drivers, but not for the ones on the Mac.

Just needs someone to be brave enough to try it.

That brave person should run SwitchResX so that they can restore to safe settings if the first attempt doesn't work and they should have an external monitor so that they can still configure their laptop if their internal screen is not working properly.
 
Success!

Well, with much thanks to Faye, I'm finally running a completely working 1920x1200 MPB. I'm using the Toshiba panel, and have an original MBP. Here's what I did (using an external display):


1. Uninstalled SwitchResX

2. Replaced the vendor override with Faye's.

3. Rebooted and reset the PRAM twice.

4. Changed the internal display resolution to 1920x1200 @ 60hz. Worked immediately.

This is awesome, the screen space is mind-boggling. My MacBook is back =).
 
Excellent! Did you need to use an external monitor in order to complete the project?

col22 said:
Well, with much thanks to Faye, I'm finally running a completely working 1920x1200 MPB. I'm using the Toshiba panel, and have an original MBP. Here's what I did (using an external display):


1. Uninstalled SwitchResX

2. Replaced the vendor override with Faye's.

3. Rebooted and reset the PRAM twice.

4. Changed the internal display resolution to 1920x1200 @ 60hz. Worked immediately.

This is awesome, the screen space is mind-boggling. My MacBook is back =).
Click to expand...
 
Yes, but that was only because the LCD flat out didn't work at all until the vendor override was in place. Unlike some of the other people here, the LCD had a bunch of changing vertical lines rather than just screwed up colors.

Basically, you just need to see what you're doing, so it's fairly probable you could do it without any external display at all.
 
col22 said:
Yes, but that was only because the LCD flat out didn't work at all until the vendor override was in place. Unlike some of the other people here, the LCD had a bunch of changing vertical lines rather than just screwed up colors.

Basically, you just need to see what you're doing, so it's fairly probable you could do it without any external display at all.
Click to expand...

In order to achieve the funky colors you need to set the refresh rate properly... which you need an external monitor for :p
 
My bad =). I thought that some people got the screwed up colors by default. So (thanks whateverandever, I definiely just gave some bad advice, hehe) , I'm revising my statement, you definitely need an external monitor. Sorry about that, didn't have my facts straight.

Still, that shouldn't be to hard to do, even if it just means borrowing someone else's screen; it seriously takes less than five minutes.
 
I am glad someone else got value out of my EDID work :)

I know that if you pre-install my Overrides file that you don't need an external screen (This assumes you're using a Tosh panel). I recently re-installed my mac, using a customised install DVD (with my overrides file in place) and it worked perfectly. Unfortunately because I am not sure how to patch a BOM file I couldn't get it to install my Overrides file and had to boot into the DVD a second time, open terminal and copy the file to the new install manually.

After I'd done this, it worked fine. Make sure you bear this in mind when reinstalling, or upgrading to Leopard :)


Faye
 
tutorial

Hi Faye... I read this entire forum... I kept getting confused, is there any way you would have time to write a quick tutorial or summary?
 
Stuck with funky colors

So, I'd been using a Samsung rev -L01 WUXGA display for the last couple months with great success when all of a sudden, my machine crashed hard and when it rebooted, I was stuck with the funky colors. I still had SwitchResX installed and I went through every trick in the book to get the colors back to normal. Ultimately, I gave up and went back to the Apple original display which worked fine.

I then re-read this whole thread, and, since my Samsung display had been used and badly scratched anyway, I decided to splurge and treat myself to a new Toshiba display with Faye's overides file. The good news was that sync worked great with no SwitchResX installed, and it even worked with other resolutions, something that never worked with the Samsung, but my colors are still messed up, and no amount of PRAM resets (mostly with external monitor connected) or even Apple recommended all power removed, power button held down 5 sec. reset had any effect. I even tried reinstalling SwitchResX (which threw some crap into Faye's overides file).

I'm now wondering if there isn't some other firmware related pollution keeping the colors messed up?

Anyone have any further experience ridding themselves of the funky colors? I'm considering a clean install of the system on the off-chance that something else in the system is getting modified (polluted), but that's a more significant committment.

I've got the original CD MacBook Pro. Booting into XP has same issue.
 
MichaelPrichard said:
I'm now wondering if there isn't some other firmware related pollution keeping the colors messed up?

Anyone have any further experience ridding themselves of the funky colors? I'm considering a clean install of the system on the off-chance that something else in the system is getting modified (polluted), but that's a more significant committment.

I've got the original CD MacBook Pro. Booting into XP has same issue.
Click to expand...

You've confirmed my worst suspicions :( The same thing happened with my LG display that I'd been experimenting with. The color crap wouldn't go away even in Windows XP (where it previously had no problems). I was at first suspicious of my display...

I was thinking of buying one of the newer Samsung panels (L04, I believe, a newer gen panel with better response time / brightness). Glad I didn't :/

Looks like Apple's hiding this thing deep in firmware / EFI. I tried everything to get it fixed on my LG display in Windows and failed.

Looks like if I want a WUXGA machine I may have to buy a new machine =| If you do end up finding a solution, I'd be glad to hear it.
 
MichaelPrichard said:
So, I'd been using a Samsung rev -L01 WUXGA display for the last couple months with great success when all of a sudden, my machine crashed hard and when it rebooted, I was stuck with the funky colors. I still had SwitchResX installed and I went through every trick in the book to get the colors back to normal. Ultimately, I gave up and went back to the Apple original display which worked fine.

I then re-read this whole thread, and, since my Samsung display had been used and badly scratched anyway, I decided to splurge and treat myself to a new Toshiba display with Faye's overides file. The good news was that sync worked great with no SwitchResX installed, and it even worked with other resolutions, something that never worked with the Samsung, but my colors are still messed up, and no amount of PRAM resets (mostly with external monitor connected) or even Apple recommended all power removed, power button held down 5 sec. reset had any effect. I even tried reinstalling SwitchResX (which threw some crap into Faye's overides file).

I'm now wondering if there isn't some other firmware related pollution keeping the colors messed up?

Anyone have any further experience ridding themselves of the funky colors? I'm considering a clean install of the system on the off-chance that something else in the system is getting modified (polluted), but that's a more significant committment.

I've got the original CD MacBook Pro. Booting into XP has same issue.
Click to expand...

I could never get XP or Vista in boot camp to boot up without the funky colors. I had tried to reset the PRAM many times with not results. I finally had to use a third party solution in XP (PowerStrip). I use SwitchResX in Mac OSX. I have the Samsung panel L03. I agree with whateverandever that there is something deep in the EFI/firmware preventing us from getting this to work flawlessly.

My screen has been working great for months now.
 
My story so far:

I have a Samsung LT154U1-L01 panel installed in a CD 1.83GHz MBP. I've got SwitchResX giving me the correct resolution but messed up colors in OSX when I use any of the 3 simplified settings. I've got Windows XP working perfectly (correct res., refresh rate, colors are good) in BootCamp and installed PowerStrip. The panel is BEAUTIFUL in Windows XP, but requires a PRAM reset to work (OSX screws it up). Copying the timing data from PowerStrip in XP to SwitchResX in OSX totally screws up the resolution and timing. Colors are obviously still borked, and the display is running @ 60 Hz, when all other previously "working" (i.e. right resolution, right refresh rate, ****ed up colors) configurations on OSX had the LCD running @ 56 Hz. Trying to change the refresh rate in System Preferences\Displays doesn't work for the LCD as the box is grayed out.

I'm interested in this EDID business, but I admit I don't even know what you guys mean when you say EDID. Are these the DisplayProductID-XXX files? Either way, does the EDID business presuppose that you got the panel working in OSX with SwitchResX, or is this another line of attack if SwitchResX is not doing the colors properly?

My VendorID is 610, and my ProductID is 9c20. What they were for my previous panel (if that matters), I don't know.

If anyone has any ideas I'm all ears. I'm at my wit's end. :\

And who wants some irony? I had originally purchased a LTD154EZOD, but then backtracked, canceled my order because I thought that panel wasn't working and ordered a LT154U1-L01 instead.
 
Sadly, I'm where you are as well. I had been using the Samsung LT154U1-L01 for over 2 months with some odd issues waking from sleep, inability to use any other resolutions and the occasional crash when operating on battery power, but these were all worth it for the resolution. I saw the crazy colors a couple of times when I was first setting the screen up, but PRAM resets made them go away, and once everything was dialed in, I never saw them again..... until my hard crash a couple weeks ago. Since then, I've not been able to get the colors back. I even have a brand new Toshiba panel which syncs up beautifully with Faye's driver and works in many resolutions, but which is permanently stuck (along with the Samsung) in crazy color mode. Similarly, XP (via Bootcamp) is crippled as well, although I haven't tried Powerstrip.

EDID is the low level protocol the computer uses to talk to the display at powerup time. It's supposed to provide the information the computer needs to know how to talk to and discover the resolutions it's capable of displaying, but OS X is clearly not responding to this information correctly. The one piece of information which does seem to survive OS X's abuse is the panel ProductID/VendorID. OS X uses this information to pull up the correct Overides file which is how we've all been able to get OS X to work once the correct syncing information is loaded.

I suspect that until someone experiments more thoroughly with EFI, perhaps with a really low level (and safe) reset, some of our machines will be locked out of WUXGA joy.
 
I'm a bit confused how your panel even worked in the first place... especially since I have the exact same one and none of the simplified settings in SwitchResX give me good colors, and then all of a sudden your screen doesn't work. There must be some other variable.

What's so upsetting is that the damn thing works so well in XP. There has to be some simple setting, some simple value in a file somewhere that can be copied from XP over into OSX. It would seem the timing information from PowerStrip is not it. A fix feels so tantalizingly close, and yet so far...
 
Oh, one cute thing: Has anyone else noticed that if they highlight images (say, embedded in a web page) sometimes portions of the image can be seen with normal colors? I notice this happens a lot with flesh tones, so load up a news website and you can view world's leader's faces in creepy color by highlighting them. :p
 
AznAstronaut said:
What's so upsetting is that the damn thing works so well in XP. There has to be some simple setting, some simple value in a file somewhere that can be copied from XP over into OSX. It would seem the timing information from PowerStrip is not it. A fix feels so tantalizingly close, and yet so far...
Click to expand...

Timing information will only fix the sync. The color whackiness is the mystery surrounding EDID and the EFI :|
 
The only thing I can think of is to take the EDID that you're currently using
(extract it from ioreg -w0l)

load it into phoenix.

Make changes to the colour profile etc.

Put the EDID override into your DisplayOverrides file.

Reboot

See if it makes any difference.

Maybe compare your EDID loaded by phoenix in windows, and the one used by OS X.
 
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