connect BlackBook to TV

[TyWahn]

I am trying to connect my black Macbook to my HDTV to mirror and it is not working.
I have the MiniDVI to DVI adapter then a DVI to VGA cable running to the back of my HDTV.
My MacBook detects the display 542-811 in its own preferece panel, but I get nothing on the screen.
I am sure my TV is set on the right input.
Am I missing something? Shouldn't this work?
Would I be better off getting MiniDVI to VGA?
I wouldnt even know if which one of my cables/adapters I just bought were bad. But because it detects my display, I dont know if thats the problem.
Thanks

 

[J&JPolangin]

... I have a similar setup running with a HD projector... JN HDMI cables are slightly different that USA cables so I go from the JN cables to USA cables that go RGB... not the best output possible but it does work to send my digital signal to the projector...

Sorry, I can't help with your exact situation.

 

[ppc750fx]

I am trying to connect my black Macbook to my HDTV to mirror and it is not working.
I have the MiniDVI to DVI adapter then a DVI to VGA cable running to the back of my HDTV.
My MacBook detects the display 542-811 in its own preferece panel, but I get nothing on the screen.
I am sure my TV is set on the right input.
Am I missing something? Shouldn't this work?

Things to check:

1) Are your cables good? Swap them with ones you know to be good and see if that changes anything.

2) What resolutions does your TV support? The MacBook might be outputting an unsupported resolution.

3) Does the TV accept HDMI/DVI input? If so, get the appropriate adapter(s) for your MacBook and try that. If it works, then you know the issue is with VGA input. If not, then it might be an issue with your MacBook.

Edit: I just noticed you're doing miniDVI->DVI->VGA. Is there any particular reason for that? Most recent TVs support DVI, so why not just use that? No need to introduce another point of failure, esp. considering that it results in a loss of signal quality when it's working correctly...

 

[TyWahn]

Things to check:

1) Are your cables good? Swap them with ones you know to be good and see if that changes anything.

2) What resolutions does your TV support? The MacBook might be outputting an unsupported resolution.

3) Does the TV accept HDMI/DVI input? If so, get the appropriate adapter(s) for your MacBook and try that. If it works, then you know the issue is with VGA input. If not, then it might be an issue with your MacBook.

Edit: I just noticed you're doing miniDVI->DVI->VGA. Is there any particular reason for that? Most recent TVs support DVI, so why not just use that? No need to introduce another point of failure, esp. considering that it results in a loss of signal quality when it's working correctly...

I was doing that because my TV only has VGA, not DVI.
I am going to try a MiniDVI-HDMI set up today and see if that works better.

Thanks for your reply.

Edit: I finally got it to work. I took back the set-up I had before and just got a Dynex MiniDVI-VGA. Ran a Dynex VGA cable between it and my TV, and it worked beautifully.
From what I read, the problem was with the MiniDVI-DVI adapter. It didn't have pins to carry the Analog signal, just the Digital. It did look like it was missing a bunch of pins when I looked at it. Whether this is true or coincidence, I don't know. Doesn't matter. It works now.