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

Can I plug a Mac Mini into my HDTV?

Blazer24K

Blazer24K

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 2, 2009
39
0
Birmingham, AL
Sorry if there's already a thread dedicated to this, if so please feel free to direct me to one, but....

I'm really hoping for an update to the Mini at Macworld. With a new mini, I'd love the ability to connect it to my 36" HDTV and connect wirelessly with a keyboard and mouse from my couch. I would love to be able to use the Mac from the comfort of my living room for both work and pleasure. (I'm a bit of a gamer as well)

So my question is, is this a pipe dream?

Will the new Minis support an output to a HDTV? (Or for that matter, do the current minis?)

How far is the range for a standard bluetooth mouse & keyboard? Would it be possible to put the keyboard and mouse on my coffee table (about 6-8' from the TV)?

And most importantly, if this is all possible, will this make me the ultimate couch potato, and will I ever see daylight again?

Thanks for any input!
 
Bluetooth should have no trouble going 6 feet. As previously mentioned you will also need to connect a seperate audio cable either to the TV (if it has audio in jacks) or to a receiver.
 
Tallest Skil said:
DVI-HDMI cable for the current model, Mini DisplayPort-DVI adapter and then DVI-HDMI cable for the next model. Simple. You will need external speakers.
Click to expand...

Assuming it has a Mini DisplayPort(I'd guess it will)

Also a Mini DisplayPort to HDMI is rumored for 2009, so that could be something for the OP to keep an eye out for
 
Will the upcoming mini not have VGA out, or is that not a good option? I'm currently connecting my pc to my Sony LCD (which only has one hdmi in and no dvi in) by VGA cable, and hoping I won't have to get a mini display port to dvi to hdmi to hook the new mini to my LCD, and use a hdmi switcher (or receiver) to connect both the mini and my cable box hdmi out to my tv. Any thoughts? Thanks
 
What's better:

Mini display port --> DVI --> VGA (TV)

or

Mini display port --> DVI --> HDMI

Any quality differences or are they both the same?
 
phiberglass said:
What's better:

Mini display port --> DVI --> VGA (TV)

or

Mini display port --> DVI --> HDMI

Any quality differences or are they both the same?
Click to expand...

HDMI. VGA is not digital and will probably cause resolution problems in addition to poorer quality. Keep an eye on monoprice.com for a mini display port to HDMI cable.
 
thanks all! Hopefully Macworld will reveal some answers for us this week, and make my decision to purchase a new mini easier.
 
Just a warning: Some TVs don't work quite so well with a computer connected over HDMI as opposed to VGA.

A friend of mine has an LCD TV (Samsung LN40A650, I think?) that'll only let him do 1920x1080 from a Mac mini over the VGA port; it displays garbage connected via HDMI. The TV is able to deal with 1080p sources just fine, however; I suspect it might be some sort of timing-related information in the EDID info that the TV reports that differs between VGA and HDMI, but I haven't looked into it much myself.
 
I've used my Mini with my 46" 1080p Samsung over VGA and it looks fantastic. HDMI may be superior technology but this looks fantastic and avoids some of the HDMI/computer nastiness that you can run into depending on the TV and or computer being used. As most panels with VGA ports do, mine also has an 1/8" audio plug paired up with the VGA port, so sound works great. I have my components on a different wall than my TV is mounted to, so I bought a 25" VGA cable from Monoprice that includes an 1/8" stereo connector paired up with it for easy installation. Couldn't be happier with the results.
 
Not really an issue right now, but maybe for the new Mac Minis. In order to be HDCP compliant ( needed to play Blu-ray/HD-DVD ) it will need to be connected by HDMI/DVI. VGA will not carry the digital signals required for this.
 
I tried DVI - HDMI on my Toshiba LCD and it would never quite display correctly.
DVI - VGA works great. Many people reject VGA out of hand, but if you sit any distance from your TV you won't want to use a high resolution as text will be too small to use.
 
I've 2 TVs ... a 26" LCD 1080i and a 43" Plasma .... both don't display the macmini properly ... the LCD is either off-center picture or when i switch overscan on its outside the bounds of the screen

The plasma is the oposite ... its actually ok with overscan (small border round picture) but not perfect

I've never managed to get displayconfigx or similar to work
 
jim.lynch said:
I tried DVI - HDMI on my Toshiba LCD and it would never quite display correctly.
DVI - VGA works great. Many people reject VGA out of hand, but if you sit any distance from your TV you won't want to use a high resolution as text will be too small to use.
Click to expand...

That's what increasing the font size is for.

Despite conventional belief (as least, based on the number of people I've seen with 20" LCDs set to 800x600...), resolution isn't for 'make things bigger/smaller!', it's for increasing the granularity of pixels so things are sharper.
 
zap2 said:
Also a Mini DisplayPort to HDMI is rumored for 2009, so that could be something for the OP to keep an eye out for
Click to expand...

Assuming Apple doesn't play nice and just include a true HDMI port, can anyone confirm whether the DisplayPort spec can carry audio signals as well as video? S/PDIF doesn't have the ability to transmit Dolby Digital Plus/HD or DTS HD Master audio, and I'm worred that the Mini (which could be the perfect media center) will be limited to the older audio formats due to lacking a true HDMI port. I'll be all over a new Mini if it can plug it into a newer receiver and bitstream the next-gen HD audio formats. If it's limited to traditional DD/DTS, then I've got every reason to look elsewhere after waiting a long time for the Mini refresh.
 
brand said:
You answer is here
Click to expand...

Thanks so much. :cool: Since Apple isn't using a standard DisplayPort connection, that link's not exactly helpful.

Allow me to be more specific: anyone have an opinion as to whether the MINI DisplayPort on the new Mini might be able to carry audio as well as video once Monoprice releases the direct MDP--> HDMI cable, since the full DisplayPort supports audio but Apple's MINI DisplayPort implementations (to date) haven't?
 
It has the bandwidth to move True-HD and DTS-HD audio, but it is not clear if the DisplayPort standard can transmit those signals. I'm pretty sure it can, but until it's demonstrated we won't know for certain. In addition, someone will have to release software that can passthrough those audio files. None does so at the moment and the closest thing to it is Plex. But it extracts the AC3 and DTS cores from the HD audio on the fly for passthrough of compressed digital audio.
 
I have played around with 2 Mac Minis (G4 1.8Ghz Mac Mini & Intel 2.2Ghz Mac Mini) and 2 LCS Screens (32" Samsung Series 5 & 52" Samsung Series 6)
Funny the G4 Mini would display on the 32" but would not on the 52" ( think this is due to the intel having 64Mb shared graphics where the G4 only has 32Mb)
the Intel Mini worked on both but as someone said above over filled the screen but this was easily resolved by using the Samsung "Just Scan" setting that adjusted the screen perfectly.
The set up i have in the front room is Intel Mini, DVI -> HDMI connecting to the 52" and i have an audio cable going from the headphone jack into aux in on Samsung surround soud, works perfect but obviously i dont get true surround sound.
 
All Minis can support up to 1920x1200. There isn't a reason it can't hook up to ANY 1080p HDTV of any screen size.
 
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