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Help with setting up monitor resolution

N

NeuralControl

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Dec 3, 2009
921
38
I currently have a 2011 15 inch MBP.

Right now I am able to connect to a LG 34" UltraWide Full HD monitor. The resolution of the monitor is 2560x1080.

I connected to the monitor via a Thunderbolt to HDMI adaptor. I don't know the specs of the adaptor, but I do know it's probably at least 5 years old.

Text and images are not crisp on the monitor. They look significantly lower res than on my MBP display.
I was able to play around with the settings of the monitor and change the ratio from "wide" to "original."
This sharpened up the image to be much closer to that of the MBP display, but vertical black bars now flank the screen.

Is there a solution in which I can use the monitor display and have the text look similar to that of my MBP? Is this a limitation of the graphics card on the older MBP?

Also, would a 2017 MBP be able to display properly on the monitor?

This will be primarily used for a Microsoft Office, EndNote, Safari, mail, and other productivity software.

Thank you for your help.
 
So what's the solution? What type of computer would look good with this type of display?
I've seen it in stores and it looks very sharp.
 
Are you trying to show the same image on both the internal display, and your LG display?
If not, be sure that mirroring is turned OFF in the your System Preferences/Displays pref pane, then the Arrangement tab.

Also, try a Mini DisplayPort to DisplayPort cable instead of the HDMI connection.
And, I agree that the huge difference of sizes between your internal and external will likely leave your external looking much less sharp, when you try to show the same screen on both.
 
When I typed in "LG 34" UltraWide Full HD monitor" in a search, one of the Amazon pages listed 6 different LG monitors. They all had Displayport inputs. You might want to try a Mini-Displayport-to-Displayport cable (or MDP-MDP if your monitor has a MDP input). Your problem may be with your Mini-Displayport-to-HDMI adapter. The cheap one I have (Amazon Basics) does 1920x1080 well but can't do 2560x1440 (I don't have a 2560x1080 monitor). But without the specific model number of your display and adapter, one can't be sure.

DeltaMac's response got in before mine.
 
Try using a mini displayport to displayport cable, instead of HDMI. HDMI may be limiting you to 1920x1080. Go to Preferences and then Displays to see what resolution it's running. Try to change it to 2560x1440
 
DeltaMac,

I am not trying to mirror the same image. I would like to use it to display as another "Desktop" in macOS, essentially. I'd like to put some PDFs and files on the big screen and a word processor and Messages on the MBP.

This particular monitor only has HDMI inputs. Here's the model
LG 34UM61-P 34" UltraWide Full HD IPS Monitor
[doublepost=1520451707][/doublepost]Not sure if this helps, but the monitor says the current resolution is 1920x1080 and that it needs to be 2560x1080.
 
You should get the 2560 x 1080 if you change the monitor setting from "Original" to "Wide"

Be sure to also try the various "Picture Modes" in your monitor settings.
 
It was originally on "Wide" but the text wasn't so sharp. Image quality increased under "Original" but it was letter boxed.

Do you know if this is a limitation of the MBP or possibly the adapter? I'm not sure what the limiting factor is.
 
Since your monitor only has HDMI, you might want to try a different adapter. If your adapter isn't an "active" adapter, you might want to try one. The active adapters work better at higher resolutions. There's one at Amazon:
"Cable Matters Gold Plated Active Mini DisplayPort to HDMI Male to Female Adapter Supporting Eyefinity Technology & 4K Resolution"

There's a review that had the caption "Supports 1440p on Early 2011 MacBook Pro". The review reads "It's taken me a while to find a DisplayPort -> HDMI adapter that will support 2560x1440 over HDMI with El Capitan using my old MacBook Pro's Thunderbolt port. This one does just that using SwitchResX. I can finally plug into my 1440p HDMI monitor at full resolution." So you might need to install SwitchResX as well.
 
treekram, thanks for the information. That was helpful.

I went to the Apple product page for this particular model (early 2011 15 inch) and it says:
"Dual display and video mirroring: Simultaneously supports full native resolution on the built-in display and up to 2560 by 1600 pixels on an external display, both at millions of colors."

I believe that the computer should be able to fully drive the monitor. Maybe it really is an adaptor issue.
 
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