How to display 2560x1440 using MacBook Air (2011)

[unagimiyagi]

Hi,

I just bought this Auria 27" LED IPS monitor at: http://www.microcenter.com/product/384780/EQ276W_27_IPS_LED_Monitor

Background that you can skip:
I went for this over the $300 monitors on Ebay b/c
1) it's Local with a 100% refund within 30 days, very generous and no risk
2) it has a full complement of ports: dvi, dp, hdmi, vga.
3) this full set of ports would put the cost at at least $400 even on ebay.

It has the same panel as the $999 Thunderbolt monitor (that's the consensus).

Of course, now being the cheap little monitor that it is, it won't display anything past 1920x1080.

Macbook air 2011, running mountain lion.

I have tried connecting with DVI, HDMI, Displayport.

Any ideas?

I'm using a mini-displayport adapter from monoprice hooked up to my MBA.

This should work, but it doesn't. Can someone please tell me how to do this?

When I plug my mini displayport into the displayport input of the Auria, I get "NO Signal" on the monitor and that's it. It's not even detecting my displayport?

I should not need a dual link DVI to get this to work right?

I also have a 2009 17" macbook pro with an NVIDIA graphics card and that, too does not work over displayport.
Thanks

 

[joewillmott]

It could be that either the port on the back of the monitor, or the cable you're using, or the adapter you're using, is faulty. That's what happened to me about 2 months ago.

Take your MBA + adapter + cable to a store or somewhere with a proper thunderbolt display and check they all work, then you know it's the monitor. My faulty part was actually the cable in the end, despite me thinking it was the adapter for so long.

 

[unagimiyagi]

Well, does anyone have any mac, of any kind, working with this monitor?

I bought new cables (hdmi 1.3b), so I know that works.
I can not find a minidisplayport to displayport cable in a retail store.
I bought another minidisplayport to hdmi adapter, and it looks to be the exact same OEM as my previous one, which is from monoprice. These are the identical cables about 1-1.5 years apart.

I get no signal connecting from displayport at all.

If I need a $99 cable dual link dvi, then I should just return the monitor b/c a $100 cable is ridiculous. Then I will start to look at a Dell monitor, etc. Factoring in time cost of trying to figure this out, for what amounts to nonuseful knowledge gained for my life, is not going to be worth it. I will try to connect the same cables using windows bootcamp. If that works, that will clinch that it's os x mountain lion that is the problem. It will peeve me if I find that Apple has only supported their $999 monitor which is their prerogative, but they have really taken the control way way too far.

 

[jmoore5196]

Friend, let me share some sage wisdom to add to your "non-useful" store: you get what you pay for.

If you want a solution that "just works," then take your $300 panel back to MicroCenter and pony up another $700 for an ACD.

If your sole objective is to avoid spending money, I fear you'll only be frustrated in your attempt to derive an elegant solution from inelegant product choices.

 

[drambuie]

If you want 2560 x 1440, you need a Mini DisplayPort to dual link DVI adapter. Single link DVI will only go to 1920 x 1200. If it works at 1920 x 1080 with a single link DVI adapter, then the dual link DVI adapter should be a go for 2560 x 1440. If the DVI cable that comes with the monitor has a solid block of 24 pins rather than two blocks of 9 pins, it is a dual link cable.

 

[unagimiyagi]

OK, here are the steps if you want to run your macbook air 2011 at 2560x1440 with the Auria monitor.

1. Order this from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/StarTech-6-Fe...spell&keywords=startech+minidisplyaport+cable

2. Plug it in.

For reference, I am using Mountain Lion, a macbook air 2011.

For other reference, I have a 2009 Macbook pro 17" with a mini displayport, but the most it will do is 2048x1120.

I did not know the difference b/w a passthrough adapter and an active adapter. I naively thought that I could just string the right parts together, as long as one end was a mini displayport and the other end was a displayport, then it should work at full resolution.
I was using mini displayport -> hdmi female adapter....then connecting an hdmi -hdmi cable to an hdmi to displayport adapter.

Yes, I actually had all of those parts lying around.

This might actually work if I could have found a minidisplayport to hdmi 1.3b adapter, used for sure hdmi 1.3 cables.

HDMI and displayport are not the same thing, even though they are close cousins.

In a nutshell, just buy the cable I listed above. It's completely and utterly not worth the effort to do anything else. It will work, and the audio also works. To use the audio, go into sound preferences and look under the output device. It is not the first tab that you see (that's for sound effects). Then it will work. I rate the built-in speakers. (yes the monitor has them) as good as the ones on my 17" macbook pro, and yes it has an analog headphone out jack in case you wish to connect to some speakers. You could in theory use this as an hdtv, or certainly with an apple tv if needed.

Problem solved for $10. Other solutions with this monitor will cost you upwards of $70 to $99, thereby completing negating the purpose of buying the monitor in the first place (the discount). I could not find a mini displayport to displayport cable at a retail store at all.

Now I do have an Apple Cinema-level quality display for $399. Microcenter sells both monitors so I had a look. The screen is beautiful and as far as I can tell is identical, and certainly, certainly, certainly worth the money.

Happy as a clam and I am thinking of buying another one, but the price can only go down, so I may wait.

 

[twenty4play]

OK, here are the steps if you want to run your macbook air 2011 at 2560x1440 with the Auria monitor.

1. Order this from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/StarTech-6-Fe...spell&keywords=startech+minidisplyaport+cable

2. Plug it in.

For reference, I am using Mountain Lion, a macbook air 2011.

For other reference, I have a 2009 Macbook pro 17" with a mini displayport, but the most it will do is 2048x1120.

I did not know the difference b/w a passthrough adapter and an active adapter. I naively thought that I could just string the right parts together, as long as one end was a mini displayport and the other end was a displayport, then it should work at full resolution.
I was using mini displayport -> hdmi female adapter....then connecting an hdmi -hdmi cable to an hdmi to displayport adapter.

Yes, I actually had all of those parts lying around.

This might actually work if I could have found a minidisplayport to hdmi 1.3b adapter, used for sure hdmi 1.3 cables.

HDMI and displayport are not the same thing, even though they are close cousins.

In a nutshell, just buy the cable I listed above. It's completely and utterly not worth the effort to do anything else. It will work, and the audio also works. To use the audio, go into sound preferences and look under the output device. It is not the first tab that you see (that's for sound effects). Then it will work. I rate the built-in speakers. (yes the monitor has them) as good as the ones on my 17" macbook pro, and yes it has an analog headphone out jack in case you wish to connect to some speakers. You could in theory use this as an hdtv, or certainly with an apple tv if needed.

Problem solved for $10. Other solutions with this monitor will cost you upwards of $70 to $99, thereby completing negating the purpose of buying the monitor in the first place (the discount). I could not find a mini displayport to displayport cable at a retail store at all.

Now I do have an Apple Cinema-level quality display for $399. Microcenter sells both monitors so I had a look. The screen is beautiful and as far as I can tell is identical, and certainly, certainly, certainly worth the money.

Happy as a clam and I am thinking of buying another one, but the price can only go down, so I may wait.

This may be a tad premature... But you're a life saver! I just unboxed my Auria 27" 30 minutes ago and was banging my head trying to figure out why I couldn't get full resolution. I too had the HDMI to Mini-DP adapter... fail. Interestingly, when I went to Amazon, that cable was already in my shopping cart... lol I was eyeing it a few days ago when I started researching the Auria monitor, I should have just bought it then!

Thanks for posting your resolution (pun intended)!

 

[unagimiyagi]

No problem, I'm sure that going from minidisplayport to displayport directly, no hdmi interconversions, will work at full resolution.
It did on my macbook air 2011.
Definitely do not settle for 1920x1080 and keep at it; it does work with the Auria monitor.
If you can get an Auria without dead pixels and even backlighting, it's every bit as good as the Thunderbolt display. Same panel used.

 

[csixty4]

I have the same monitor and an 11" Air (previously a 2010, now a 2012). You cannot get the full resolution over HDMI. You need to use a direct DisplayPort cable. It might also work with a dual-link DVI, but I haven't tried that.

 

[xxcysxx]

hi, i just got the display cable from the amazon store that was provided by the link on this post and i cannot get 2560x1440 on my macbook air.

macbook air specs are:
mid 2012 11 inch macbook air
i7 2.0GHz
8GB ram
256GB ssd

monitor is the auria 27 inch 2560x1440 from micro center
interface cable is the amazon mini display male to display male.

i could not get the external monitor to display 2560x1440 at all. it shows it as available but when i selected the images is all garbled up and unusable. however, the highest i can get is 2048x1152, which is not what i intended to get this cable for.

is there any special setting you have to make to get native resolution with this cable?
could i have a bad cable? though i don't think it is since it work just fine up to 2048x1152.
furthermore, i've also tried to connect this cable to my mid 2011 mac mini, and i get the boot loop. yeah the mac mini was stuck in a boot loop, and when i reconnect it back with the hdmi cable it boot just fine. weird!

anyway, could i have a bad cable or just this auria just doesn't support 2560x1440 from a mac? because my gaming pc display runs just fine over the same hdmi cable at the monitor native resolution.

 

[itnaanti]

OK, here are the steps if you want to run your macbook air 2011 at 2560x1440 with the Auria monitor.

1. Order this from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/StarTech-6-Fe...spell&keywords=startech+minidisplyaport+cable

2. Plug it in.

I know this thread is a little old, but I wanted to chime in and mention that I purchased the cable above (the 6' version) to connect my 2013 MBA 11" to the same Auria monitor mentioned above, and it does work perfectly for me. 2560x1440 @ 60Hz.

$8 cable saved me from having to pick up the $99 dual-link. Thanks!

 

[specialbuddy]

I know this thread is a little old, but I wanted to chime in and mention that I purchased the cable above (the 6' version) to connect my 2013 MBA 11" to the same Auria monitor mentioned above, and it does work perfectly for me. 2560x1440 @ 60Hz.

$8 cable saved me from having to pick up the $99 dual-link. Thanks!

I have an adapter that has HDMI, DVI and DP. I plugged in a display port cable and it shows that it is displaying at native resolution but I have about a 1/2 inch letter box around the outsides. It's not expanding all the way. Do you know of anything to fix this? This is the first time I have hooked up the MBA 2011 to this monitor and it looks amazing. I'm tempted to not hook it back up to my PC

 

[oranges03]

I have an adapter that has HDMI, DVI and DP. I plugged in a display port cable and it shows that it is displaying at native resolution but I have about a 1/2 inch letter box around the outsides. It's not expanding all the way. Do you know of anything to fix this? This is the first time I have hooked up the MBA 2011 to this monitor and it looks amazing. I'm tempted to not hook it back up to my PC

i have this exact same issue, except for a 2013 MBA. i get full resolution (2560x1440) through mini displayport to displayport, but have 1/2 inch letter box around what is displayed.

also, this is on an acer B276HUL, which provides no options to scale the screen.

the odd part is, when i reboot the computer, the grey screen with the apple logo is displayed 100% without the letter box.

i tried downsizing the resolution to 2048x1152, but the letterbox stays. anyone know of a fix?

i dont think its the cable, this is happening to my other macbook air also (have 2 acer monitors, both running off of MBAs)

 

[thisma]

Overscan and Underscan

I plugged in a display port cable and it shows that it is displaying at native resolution but I have about a 1/2 inch letter box around the outsides. It's not expanding all the way. Do you know of anything to fix this?/QUOTE]

Often displays have a "overscan" or "underscan" mode. This is more often on TV type displays. OS X also sometimes had a "no-overscan" mode in the displays preference pane; it looks like they call it "overscan correction" now. Here's an article if found describing the issue: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5841

It was always strange to me to see this sort of thing on a fully digital connection end to end. Anyway, on one display that I used intermittently it would go outside the edge or an inch or so inside the edge is switch the overscan setting in OS X and eventually the display would rebel and I'd have to toggle it again.

 

[hbell]

hi, i just got the display cable from the amazon store that was provided by the link on this post and i cannot get 2560x1440 on my macbook air.

macbook air specs are:
mid 2012 11 inch macbook air
i7 2.0GHz
8GB ram
256GB ssd

monitor is the auria 27 inch 2560x1440 from micro center
interface cable is the amazon mini display male to display male.

i could not get the external monitor to display 2560x1440 at all. it shows it as available but when i selected the images is all garbled up and unusable. however, the highest i can get is 2048x1152, which is not what i intended to get this cable for.

is there any special setting you have to make to get native resolution with this cable?
could i have a bad cable? though i don't think it is since it work just fine up to 2048x1152.
furthermore, i've also tried to connect this cable to my mid 2011 mac mini, and i get the boot loop. yeah the mac mini was stuck in a boot loop, and when i reconnect it back with the hdmi cable it boot just fine. weird!

anyway, could i have a bad cable or just this auria just doesn't support 2560x1440 from a mac? because my gaming pc display runs just fine over the same hdmi cable at the monitor native resolution.

I am having trouble with an external display (Acer K272HUL) and after a lot of research I finally found someone (see quoted above) who seems to have had the exact same problems.

Have you solved the problem? If so: How?

 

[motrek]

I am having trouble with an external display (Acer K272HUL) and after a lot of research I finally found someone (see quoted above) who seems to have had the exact same problems.

Have you solved the problem? If so: How?

That's a great monitor. I'm using one now.

First of all, you have to use the DisplayPort input. HDMI and DVI will get you nowhere, don't bother trying.

Second, I don't think the display autodetects inputs so you will have to switch it to DisplayPort once you connect the cable. Press the button on the far left, then the one associated with "Input", etc.

Let me know if it doesn't work, because I know it can.

 

[hbell]

Solution for MacBook Pro (mid2012) and Acer K272HUL bad resolution

Thanks for the quick answer, but I found another solution (actually the only one that did work at all):

Mini DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI Adapter (Apple)

This adapter (plus the DVI cable that came with the monitor) was the only way to get the full 2560x1440 resolution!

Cables that I tried without success:
- Mini DisplayPort to DVI adapter (Apple) plus DVI cable delivered with the monitor
- Mini DisplayPort to Displayport (Dinic)
- Mini DisplayPort to HDMI (Dinic)
- Mini DisplayPort to HDMI 4K (Belkin)

It's a shame that you have to pay almost 100 € for a monitor that only costs 300 €. But I have tried for several days (including software solutions like Switch ResX) and there seems to be no other way.

 

[motrek]

...
It's a shame that you have to pay almost 100 € for a monitor that only costs 300 €. But I have tried for several days (including software solutions like Switch ResX) and there seems to be no other way.

Return it if you can because all you need is a $10 displayport cable.

Your mini-displayport-to-displayport cable should have worked. What happened when you used it?

I followed the link you had to that cable and that web page is a disaster. The picture isn't of the correct cable, the name of the cable is wrong, etc. Doesn't inspire confidence.

I bought this cable for $10 and it works perfectly:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00C7RJQPY/ref=pe_385040_121528360_TE_dp_1

 

[scyc]

Hi!

Just to let you all know that I got an external 2560x1440 monitor working on a mac book air 2010 over mini DP to HDMI at 60Hz.

My monitor (ASUS VX24AH) does not have DP, only HDMI. I went through all the motions of trying different cables, switchresx etc, but everything failed. The best resolution that it could reach was 1920x1080p. It looked ghastly!

What you need is an "ACTIVE" MiniDP to HDMI. Many HDMI cables and adaptors are passive devices rewired to spec.
I bought a Z-TEK Mini Display Port To HDMI (1.2 Active, 4K Ultra HD) adaptor, plugged it in and works like a charm. Costing me around 15 USD!

I'm playing a full res video with audio at 2560x1440 as I'm typing this reply…its simply amazing!

Cheers,
scyc

 

[motrek]

Hi!

Just to let you all know that I got an external 2560x1440 monitor working on a mac book air 2010 over mini DP to HDMI at 60Hz.

My monitor (ASUS VX24AH) does not have DP, only HDMI. I went through all the motions of trying different cables, switchresx etc, but everything failed. The best resolution that it could reach was 1920x1080p. It looked ghastly!

What you need is an "ACTIVE" MiniDP to HDMI. Many HDMI cables and adaptors are passive devices rewired to spec.
I bought a Z-TEK Mini Display Port To HDMI (1.2 Active, 4K Ultra HD) adaptor, plugged it in and works like a charm. Costing me around 15 USD!

I'm playing a full res video with audio at 2560x1440 as I'm typing this reply…its simply amazing!

Cheers,
scyc

Interesting, I didn't know this was possible. It seems most monitors can't accept anything more than 1080p over HDMI so I don't know if this would work for most people. But for some people it might save a lot of money, if it means they don't have to buy Apple's $99 dual-link DVI adapter.

 

[Wjkhkjh]

Hi!

Just to let you all know that I got an external 2560x1440 monitor working on a mac book air 2010 over mini DP to HDMI at 60Hz.

My monitor (ASUS VX24AH) does not have DP, only HDMI. I went through all the motions of trying different cables, switchresx etc, but everything failed. The best resolution that it could reach was 1920x1080p. It looked ghastly!

What you need is an "ACTIVE" MiniDP to HDMI. Many HDMI cables and adaptors are passive devices rewired to spec.
I bought a Z-TEK Mini Display Port To HDMI (1.2 Active, 4K Ultra HD) adaptor, plugged it in and works like a charm. Costing me around 15 USD!

I'm playing a full res video with audio at 2560x1440 as I'm typing this reply…its simply amazing!

Cheers,
scyc

Hi SCYC... you are a life saver... I struggled to find the answer to this, I tried SwitchresX etc, tried MiniDP to VGA, tried another MiniDP to HDMI adaptor (which supposedly supported 4K)... still couldn't get 2560x1440 with an ASUS VX24AH on my Mac Mini Mid-2010..... read this post and purchased an 'Active' MiniDP to HDMI adaptor (ATI Eyefinity Active mini DisplayPort DP to HDMI) from eBay and it worked like a charm... Cheers!!!

 

[Sheriffs]

Hi SCYC... you are a life saver... I struggled to find the answer to this, I tried SwitchresX etc, tried MiniDP to VGA, tried another MiniDP to HDMI adaptor (which supposedly supported 4K)... still couldn't get 2560x1440 with an ASUS VX24AH on my Mac Mini Mid-2010..... read this post and purchased an 'Active' MiniDP to HDMI adaptor (ATI Eyefinity Active mini DisplayPort DP to HDMI) from eBay and it worked like a charm... Cheers!!!

Thanks y'all! Tried everything with an Acer K272HUL as well. Active mini DisplayPort to HDMI adapter did the trick!