Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Mac Mini with Dell Monitor looks blurry

C

Cherish

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 27, 2014
92
3
Hi,

I just connected my Mac Mini to Dell U2312HM 1080p monitor using HDMI to DVI Cable but the images and fonts all looks blurry and jagged.

The Chrome tabs and bookmarks font are also too small to see on the Mac. Everything looks fine if I connect the monitor to a PC so anyone knows what could be the problem?

Have already tried turning off font smoothing and reduce transparency.

Mac:
http://i.imgur.com/gIFi5gA.png
http://i.imgur.com/R0W56pl.png


Windows:
http://i.imgur.com/7Vl6cqx.png
http://i.imgur.com/9drGizq.png

Take note of the /// and Chrome tab and bookmarks font. It looks so much sharper when the monitor is used with Windows.
 
Last edited:
I don't see anything wrong with that screenshot. Likely it's because it's a problem with the monitor, not the Mac, no one but you will see the problem.

Could the monitor's settings be out of whack (brightness, contrast, etc.).
 
xraydoc said:
I don't see anything wrong with that screenshot. Likely it's because it's a problem with the monitor, not the Mac, no one but you will see the problem.

Could the monitor's settings be out of whack (brightness, contrast, etc.).
Click to expand...

My monitor settings are all set to default. I just updated my post with comparisons pictures.

Are the Chrome tab/bookmarks fonts supposed to look this small and blurry though? Even Safari/Mail/Calendar/VLC fonts all look too small.
 
Last edited:
I think that you can check the Dell's on screen display to see if the signal it is getting is either YPbPr or RGB.

And likely can check the system profiles to see if Mac OS X is detecting the monitor as a HDTV or a monitor and defaulting to the wrong signal (YPbPr).

Force RGB Dell Mac OS X -- seem to be commonly connected search terms for those with Dell display problems with their Macs.

The other one was disabling Displayport 1.2 on the dell monitors.

Don't know much about the issue, but keep seeing threads pop up on these.
 
Looks like the monitor is not used in its native resolution.

System Preferences -> Displays -> Check what resolutions are offered.

xraydoc said:
I don't see anything wrong with that screenshot. Likely it's because it's a problem with the monitor, not the Mac, no one but you will see the problem.

Could the monitor's settings be out of whack (brightness, contrast, etc.).
Click to expand...

Clearly visible in the icon on the left for the "Forum" icon.
 
gnasher729 said:
Looks like the monitor is not used in its native resolution.

System Preferences -> Displays -> Check what resolutions are offered.
Click to expand...

The Display shows 1080p 60z which is the right resolution for my monitor.

----------
Sun Baked said:
I think that you can check the Dell's on screen display to see if the signal it is getting is either YPbPr or RGB.

And likely can check the system profiles to see if Mac OS X is detecting the monitor as a HDTV or a monitor and defaulting to the wrong signal (YPbPr).

Force RGB Dell Mac OS X -- seem to be commonly connected search terms for those with Dell display problems with their Macs.

The other one was disabling Displayport 1.2 on the dell monitors.

Don't know much about the issue, but keep seeing threads pop up on these.
Click to expand...

Dell display options show RGB as the input and System profiles only show Dell U2312HM Display. No TV mentioned. I don't see any Overscan options on both monitor and display preference too.
 
Last edited:
nep said:
Re-enable LCD font smoothing for some monitors
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20090828224632809


You can force OS X to use LCD font smoothing on all displays with this Terminal command:

defaults -currentHost write -globalDomain AppleFontSmoothing -int 2
Click to expand...

Just tried this using terminal but it look worst with font smoothing on. I changed GAMMA on the dell monitor to mac and it looks better but still looks slightly blur.

What monitor do you guys use with your Mac Mini and how do you guys connect it? I might just get a new monitor if there is no other option. :mad:
 
Does the Dell display have a displayport connector?

If so, have you tried using a minidisplayport (Mac end) to displayport (Dell end) on it?
 
I posted this in another thread:

Posting screenshots of either screen doesn't do anything, since all it's doing is dumping the framebuffer to an image file. Therefore, the problem with the image is in between the video output of the Mini and your eyes.

1. Cable.
2. Monitor.
3. Monitor calibration.
4. Eyes (highly unlikely that these need to be calibrated).

You need to actually photograph the screens in order for us to notice the difference between them.
 
BrianBaughn said:
Right. I think my Google URL shortener plugin has crapped out. Try this:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1727561/
Click to expand...

Thanks. I wanted to try this but there is no Display folder in Library probably cause it's a MM not MBP.

Anyway, I just checked my system profile display and it shows ARGB8888 not YCBCR.
Font Smoothing on: http://i.imgur.com/j86LyAc.jpg
Font Smoothing off: http://i.imgur.com/ROK4h0k.jpg
Not sure why the image looks pixelated using screenshot shortcut to capture but it's not on my screen. However, you can see the font looks bad.

The fonts looks too small and blur compared to this screenshot taken by another user where the text looks sharper and bigger.http://cl.ly/image/0i403k3g442w
 
Last edited:
Cherish said:
Thanks. I wanted to try this but there is no Display folder in Library probably cause it's a MM not MBP.

Anyway, I just checked my system profile display and it shows ARGB8888 not YCBCR.
Font Smoothing on: http://i.imgur.com/j86LyAc.jpg
Font Smoothing off: http://i.imgur.com/ROK4h0k.jpg
Not sure why the image looks pixelated using screenshot shortcut to capture but it's not on my screen. However, you can see the font looks bad.

The fonts looks too small and blur compared to this screenshot taken by another user where the text looks sharper and bigger.http://cl.ly/image/0i403k3g442w
Click to expand...

The bottom screenshot from another user is from a retina Macbook. So everything will look very different from your non-retina Mac.
 
Did anyone notice the screenshots are on different resolutions?

Sorry if im bumping a a-bit-too-old thread...
 
Cherish said:
Hi,

I just connected my Mac Mini to Dell U2312HM 1080p monitor using HDMI to DVI Cable but the images and fonts all looks blurry and jagged.

The Chrome tabs and bookmarks font are also too small to see on the Mac. Everything looks fine if I connect the monitor to a PC so anyone knows what could be the problem?

Have already tried turning off font smoothing and reduce transparency.

Mac:
http://i.imgur.com/gIFi5gA.png
http://i.imgur.com/R0W56pl.png


Windows:
http://i.imgur.com/7Vl6cqx.png
http://i.imgur.com/9drGizq.png

Take note of the /// and Chrome tab and bookmarks font. It looks so much sharper when the monitor is used with Windows.
Click to expand...

you must run the patch forcing it no longer handling your dell as a TV set
 
Running a pair of Dell S2340L monitors here (one direct HDMI, other by mini-DP to HDMI adapter) and they look great.

I have set the on-screen sharpness control on the monitors to 50, if the sharpness is set too low they look blurry. Sharpness set too high and the fonts look bad also.
 
OSX and windows have different anti/aliasing for fonts. No way around it. That's how macs are. Even on a 4k iMac vs a 1080p dell monitor with windows... side by side, the windows looks much sharper while the mac fonts look thicker, somewhat bold, and fuzzy. For the sake of my own madness I have compared multiple units side by side and that's just how it is. No, turning on or off font smoothing does not help. The terminal command which supposedly fixes this also does not help. FYI chrome look much more blurry on osx than does safari. Open the same webpage and compare side by side on osx. Anyhow, there are NO fixes, every solution listed across the web is anecdotal, usually followed by 'worked perfect for me' and a few 'no change for me'. Placebo changes. If you like the Windows graphics stick with windows, if you can live with the osx style of fonts/lines, then stick with osx. If it doesn't matter then choose your OS based on other issues. Bottom line, that's the way it is.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back