Macbook Pro To LCD - Flickering / Text & Picture Wobbling Left & Right?

[PeteJames]

When I hook my 2009 macbook pro unibody up to my 32 inch Sony LCD tv I notice that the picture is constantly wobbling / shifting left and right. It's especially noticable when looking at the text a meter or two away. What is this phenomenon? Is it something called 'flicker' or to do with the refresh rate?
I'm currently using a mini displayport to VGA input (on the pc input as I can't get audio over hdmi and can only get audio in on the tv when using the pc input channel.

Any ideas? I can't remember if it does it when I used a hdmi cable but I had to send that back anyway as I needed audio.

Thanks

 

[dusk007]

Sounds like a bad VGA signal.
It won't happen when you use a digital input.
VGA is fairly poor the greater the resolution is. Running 1080p on VGA usually won't work well. There is also the problem that signal gets worse each step of the way.
1. convert to analog on the notebook output
2. cable
3. convert back to a picture.

If you have a poor cable or the converter in one or two isn't good enough the end result sucks. Usually it is just flickering especially of some grey tones.

Buy a second HDMI or DVI cable an use it.

VGA works good enough for most projectors which usually don't have that high resolutions or at least good converters. For an external screen at home it is a solution of last resort but nothing I would use permanently.

 

[Takashi]

When I hook my 2009 macbook pro unibody up to my 32 inch Sony LCD tv I notice that the picture is constantly wobbling / shifting left and right. It's especially noticable when looking at the text a meter or two away. What is this phenomenon? Is it something called 'flicker' or to do with the refresh rate?
I'm currently using a mini displayport to VGA input (on the pc input as I can't get audio over hdmi and can only get audio in on the tv when using the pc input channel.

Any ideas? I can't remember if it does it when I used a hdmi cable but I had to send that back anyway as I needed audio.

Thanks

You might have to adjust the screen resolution on your Sony LCD TV.

If you have a 2009 MBP and want to use HDMI cable to connect your TV to your mac, you will need a "Mini DisplayPort with Toslink Audio to HDMI Adapter" to get HDMI with audio coming out of your MBP:
http://www.powerbookmedic.com/Mini-DisplayPort-with-Toslink-Audio-to-HDMI-Adapter-p-17572.html

 

[PeteJames]

Sorry I meant 2008 mbp - it was the first unibody so no thunderbird.

BTW these are the video specs i can run through usb port on my lcd


Video – format = MPEG1; specs (640 x 480 MPEG1; 320 X 240 MPEG1); extensions - *.mpg
- Format = MP4(AVC/H264; specs (640 x 480/30p 3 Mbps) – extension *.mp4
- Format = DivX; Specs (DivX Home Theater 3.0) – extensions *.avi

Does that mean no 1080p or 720p without hooking up my laptop?

 

[judedcoutho]

How can i cahnge my output to 1920X 1080 for the MBP

I am setting up my MBP which i purchased just a few months ago to a an external DELL 22" LED monitor , but it used to work fine at first now it says i have set my video input to 1920x1080@60Hz but this option is not found in the display settings . How can i sort this out , can anyone help ?