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How to turn off iMac display while watching a movie from HD TV?

A

ApplesAOranges

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 7, 2011
335
3
I just can´t seem to figure this out. All I can think is putting something physically in front of the display, which is just stupid!

Even my MBA and rMBP can do this by dimming the backlight all the way down or just closing the lid and putting them to sleep, the movie will still keep rolling on the HD TV.

Did Apple folk´s super brains miss this feature or are they leaving this out intentionally just to annoy us?
 
In system preference, energy saving, you can specify that the display goes to sleep after 1 minute but the computer does not go to sleep ever.
This way your screen will be black after a min of not use and which ever you are streeming to the HD TV should keep running..
 
bmcgrath said:
Turn the brightness down.
Click to expand...

Like I said in my original post, that doesn´t work either. It works with MBA and MBP, but not with iMacs. The brightness won´t go all the way down, not even close. In fact I keep the brightness all the time with my 24" iMac already around 5-10%.
 
Trying using the Shift + Control + Eject trick, this turns off the iMac screen. Not sure of its behaviour when coupled with another monitor though but it's worth a try.
 
the only way to do it is by dimming the iMac screen, I researched this extensively for a while. There is software that enables you to completely dim it (just remember the shortcut to exit the mode before you do it though) but the backlights will still be on.
 
seble said:
Trying using the Shift + Control + Eject trick, this turns off the iMac screen. Not sure of its behaviour when coupled with another monitor though but it's worth a try.
Click to expand...

Would be perfect, but it turns the HDTV off as well. :(
 
ApplesAOranges said:
Would be perfect, but it turns the HDTV off as well. :(
Click to expand...

Sorry to hear that :( keep trying, I'm sure there is an app or mod out there for osx that allows this, let us know if you do find anything though as I am interested in this myself :)
 
I too investigated this. Not possible at the moment. Someone mentioned possibly a terminal tweak, but I found no solution.
 
snkeyez95 said:
I too investigated this. Not possible at the moment. Someone mentioned possibly a terminal tweak, but I found no solution.
Click to expand...

This is so sad. How can Apple miss such a simple feature? :(

I guess I´ll be throwing a shirt or towel on top of the iMac every time when I´m watching a movie and risk it overheating. :(
 
Could Apple give us this feature with an update possibly? It´s a bit ridiculous that I can´t do simple thing like this.

I´m sure they don´t want us either hanging our t-shirts, towels or whatever on top of our iMacs? Or maybe they do, so the iMacs will break sooner and we have to buy newer ones?
 
ApplesAOranges,

Don't know if you still need this, but I found an app that does exactly what you want: http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/shades

I am using it to watch movies from imac to apppletv. It doesn't turn off the lights, but increases the color you choose to tint the screen. So, if you choose black, it will tint the screen monitor with black, still, using light to do it. Not perfect, but, better than nothing. :)
 
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