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Mac Mini Max Res.

KettyKrueger

KettyKrueger

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Feb 17, 2007
509
4
UK
Hi All

Due to a growing family and lack of space, my office is soon to become a nursery. With no good place to keep my iMac, I'm going to sell it in favour of a Mac Mini. I'm obviously going to wait until MacWorld is out of the way and get the spunkiest Mac Mini available (assuming they do refresh the line).

I plan to have the MM in my living room, connected to a Sony Bravia 40" (1080p res). Given the fact that we don't know what jacks the new MM's will have, if I connect the MM to my TV (via a Sony AV receiver) with a DVI-to-HDMI cable, will I get full 1080p resolution? If so, will text look clear enough to use it as my only machine in the house??

Is using a TV as a monitor generally a good idea?

Thanks for any input.
 
The max DVI resolution is 1920*1200, you may have to get a program to use the custom 1920*1080 resolution, but it is easily done. Minis are used as HTPCs all the time. At one time, my mini was able to output to two 20" widescreen monitors in their native resolution with no problem.

If the text is not clear, the fault will be the TV. TV's are not nearly as nice as computer monitors for fine viewing. I would get whatever adaptors you need to try the imac with the TV as an external, and see if it works to your liking before selling your computer and buying another one.
 
gotzero said:
If the text is not clear, the fault will be the TV. TV's are not nearly as nice as computer monitors for fine viewing. I would get whatever adaptors you need to try the imac with the TV as an external, and see if it works to your liking before selling your computer and buying another one.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip, very wise. I used to have a PS3 and the text was crystal clear, do you think that's a decent indication? Or would I have to rig up the iMac?
 
I would say the component to be worried about is the TV. If the PS3 was clear on small fonts, you will probably be good to go.

You may have to tweak things a bit when you get the computer hooked up, but it will certainly be useable one way or another.
 
I will also be doing this with a mac mini in the living room for a media center and general computer use. I currently have a powerbook hooked up to my upstairs 32" TV via VGA and it looks pretty decent on that and can handle small fonts, when I use DVI --> HDMI I'm sure it will be much better. I can't wait to set this up! Hope everything works out for you! :D
 
KettyKrueger said:
I plan to have the MM in my living room, connected to a Sony Bravia 40" (1080p res). Given the fact that we don't know what jacks the new MM's will have, if I connect the MM to my TV (via a Sony AV receiver) with a DVI-to-HDMI cable, will I get full 1080p resolution? If so, will text look clear enough to use it as my only machine in the house??

Is using a TV as a monitor generally a good idea?
Click to expand...

I am using the current 2gig Mini connected to a 42" 1080p Panasonic. I am using a DVI to HDMI cable for the video and a mini jack to phono for the audio (DVI does not carry audio).

The resolution is good enough for reading web pages, docs etc but as yet have not been able to find a res to give a full screen view; I either get about a 1" border or lose the top menu bar on the next available setting. I'm sure I will be able to overcome this when I get more time to research it.

I use my MBP for general surfing, emails and docs so having the border is not an issue for me. The setup is still in it's infancy and I am learning new things all the time to improve the setup for a HTPC.

The only drawback of using a plasma as a monitor may be screen burn if you leave it on the same screen for lon periods.
 
coopermac said:
I am using the current 2gig Mini connected to a 42" 1080p Panasonic. I am using a DVI to HDMI cable for the video and a mini jack to phono for the audio (DVI does not carry audio).

The resolution is good enough for reading web pages, docs etc but as yet have not been able to find a res to give a full screen view; I either get about a 1" border or lose the top menu bar on the next available setting. I'm sure I will be able to overcome this when I get more time to research it.

I use my MBP for general surfing, emails and docs so having the border is not an issue for me. The setup is still in it's infancy and I am learning new things all the time to improve the setup for a HTPC.

The only drawback of using a plasma as a monitor may be screen burn if you leave it on the same screen for lon periods.
Click to expand...

I think there are a couple of programs that can give you full resolution. Off the top of my head I can't remember what they are called though!! I've read comments on various forums that users can achieve 1080p without and overscan, borders, etc with these programs.

I'm concerned over using the MM as my main computer mainly due to web browsing. Maybe I could change the res on my imac to 1080p, take a screen shot and view the image on my TV via pen drive. That way I could see if text can be read comfortably. Not a bad idea actually!
 
KettyKrueger said:
I think there are a couple of programs that can give you full resolution. Off the top of my head I can't remember what they are called though!! I've read comments on various forums that users can achieve 1080p without and overscan, borders, etc with these programs.

I'm concerned over using the MM as my main computer mainly due to web browsing. Maybe I could change the res on my imac to 1080p, take a screen shot and view the image on my TV via pen drive. That way I could see if text can be read comfortably. Not a bad idea actually!
Click to expand...

Scrap that, my iMac can only display 1680x1050!
 
KettyKrueger said:
I think there are a couple of programs that can give you full resolution. Off the top of my head I can't remember what they are called though!! I've read comments on various forums that users can achieve 1080p without and overscan, borders, etc with these programs.
Click to expand...

You dont need any special software what so ever with the mini to achieve 1080p. Most likely it will even autosense your display, and set it to 1080i. By checking that "show displays in the menubar" button in display settings you will be able to switch between i and p from there, although both are just called 1920x1080. Ull know when you have the right one just by looking at the screen.
 
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