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HDTV - Turning off MBA screen

B

bp1000

macrumors 65832
Original poster
Jul 7, 2011
1,504
252
I would like to connect my MBA to my HDTV via HDMI

I can't seem to turn off my MBA screen when connected to the tv.

I would like to keep the lid open for ventilation as when connected to the TV i am normally watch catch up tv programmes (flash video based).


Is this possible to do?
 
Nice!!

That did it, a little hack but it works, great solution!
 
VLC actually shuts off the main screen when plugged in to the TV and playing a video when you go full screen.
 
bp1000 said:
Nice!!

That did it, a little hack but it works, great solution!
Click to expand...

The ability to change the screen brightness is a widely known feature that has been part of Mac OS X for a long time. Your not changing any system files or making your computer do something that it wasn't designed to do so I am confused how this is a hack.
 
brand said:
The ability to change the screen brightness is a widely known feature that has been part of Mac OS X for a long time. Your not changing any system files or making your computer do something that it wasn't designed to do so I am confused how this is a hack.
Click to expand...

Because the screen isn't actually off, only the backlight is.
 
brand said:
Since it is working as designed it still is not a hack.
Click to expand...

The OP is calling it a hack becuase its a workaround to what he's actually trying to do. It's not that difficult to understand nor is it serious enough for you to get your feelings hurt over.
 
2IS said:
The OP is calling it a hack becuase its a workaround to what he's actually trying to do. It's not that difficult to understand nor is it serious enough for you to get your feelings hurt over.
Click to expand...

A workaround yes, a hack no. Since you are the first one to bring up feelings it would appear that you are the one who got yours hurt. If you want to talk about feelings you are in the wrong forum.
 
Hack.. workaround.. who cares what he calls it, 98% of us reading this thread knew exactly what he meant and could care less about his use (or perhaps misuse) of terminology.

Not everyone is on their 12th year of Apple guruism. Cool your jets, mister ;)
 
Terminology is splitting hairs; i was expecting to find an app or shortcut/hotkey to turn off just 1 screen.

I wrongly assumed that adjusting the brightness would do so on both screens and prematurely dismissed something so simple, forgetting that brightness control on the last bar can actually turn off the screen too. I perhaps dismissed something so simple because i saw the net filled full of elaborate solutions and uncertainty.

Either way and whatever terminology used i was expecting a hack but the default function of os x got me there.
 
OP, you can try setting a hot corner (in Screen Saver options) to turn off the screen. However, I'm not sure if it turns off the external HDMI screen as well when you do this.
 
A proper turn off internal display (rather than turn its brightness to nil) wouldn't leave you with a 1440*900 black hole to lose your mouse cursor in if you cursor out of the lit up higher res external display.

So as less than perfect workaround for a missing feature I'd call it a hack.
 
You used to be able to do this in Snow Leopard by sleeping the computer (putting the screen down) while the monitor is plugged in, then using an external USB mouse/keyboard to wake up the computer. Then once it's awake, you could open the screen, and the MBA's screen would still be off.

They changed this in Lion, however. Now even if an external monitor is connected, once you pop open the lid, the screen turns on. I'm not a big fan of it.

Sadly, Windows has much better monitor management than OS X. My default in Windows 7 opens the external screen only on boot up.
 
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