Mini Display to HDMI trouble

[jim.bright17]

Just recently got my mac pro and have it hooked up to my tv with a dvi to hdmi cable and it works fine. I figured the quality would be better using a mdp to hdmi adapter so i bought the adapter and hdmi cable from best buy. when i plugged it all in the tv didnt seem to recognize the mac pro. ive tried unplugging, plugging back in. restarting...and nothing seems to solve the issue. and a google search was near useless. if anyone has any tips to get this working they would be appreciated! thanks!

 

[xyzzy-xyzzy]

Just recently got my mac pro and have it hooked up to my tv with a dvi to hdmi cable and it works fine. I figured the quality would be better using a mdp to hdmi adapter

What makes you think that? I believe the video digital information is the same so there should be no difference in the picture "quality". What's "quality" mean here anyway when it comes to a digital signal?

The only thing the mDP's get you over DVI is no additional effort needs to be done to pass audio.

so i bought the adapter and hdmi cable from best buy.

It would have been more informative if you had said exactly which one you bought. I did a search for these adapters on bestbuy.com and found a Dynex and a Moshi. Both I believe should work (and pass audio too).

when i plugged it all in the tv didnt seem to recognize the mac pro. ive tried unplugging, plugging back in. restarting...and nothing seems to solve the issue. and a google search was near useless. if anyone has any tips to get this working they would be appreciated! thanks!

TV didn't seem to recognize the mac pro or mac pro didn't recognize the TV?

Some possibilities to "play around" with if it's the latter -- all things to try in the Displays preferences:

1. Detect Displays.
2. Resolutions (probably should be 1080i or 1080p)
3. Refresh rate (make sure it's NTSC -- Apple should change this to ATSC).

Note, if the Arrangment shows the TV but there's still no picture on the TV you will need to "Gather Windows" to get the TV's Display preference window on to your main window where you can fiddle its preferences.

If none of this stuff works the only other possibility I can think of is that the adapter is defective. Exchange it for a replacement.

Edit:
Oh, one more thing I thought of. Make sure the mDP plug is fully pushed in. When I first encountered mDP plugs I noticed I wasn't fully pushing them in. They're sneaky little devils 😀

 

[Vylen]

Just recently got my mac pro and have it hooked up to my tv with a dvi to hdmi cable and it works fine. I figured the quality would be better using a mdp to hdmi adapter so i bought the adapter and hdmi cable from best buy.

Not really... especially when DVI is electrically compatible with HDMI... that is to say, DVI is HDMI minus the sound.

So save yourself the hassle and stick with DVI to HDMI.

 

[jim.bright17]

To be honest the "genius" at the apple store told me that 😛 he told me mdp to hdmi is better because it'll do audio and itll look better. Lol audio isn't a big issue since I have it connected with external speakers.
Thanks for the tips xyzzy, I did try detect displays and it didn't do anything.
I think I'll just do what Vylen says and stick with dvi if quality will be the same

 

[xyzzy-xyzzy]

To be honest the "genius" at the apple store told me that 😛 he told me mdp to hdmi is better because it'll do audio and itll look better. Lol audio isn't a big issue since I have it connected with external speakers.
Thanks for the tips xyzzy, I did try detect displays and it didn't do anything.
I think I'll just do what Vylen says and stick with dvi if quality will be the same

Well, FWIW, I also am using the DVI for my TV 😉 I used the DVI since in my setup it turns out to be more convenient to do so than using the other mDP which is connected to a VGA. And since my computer speakers are at a different location than my TV speakers I use this handy little box I found at monoprice to pump my audio to the TV (toslink+DVI into the box, HDMI with video+audio out to TV). I use SwitchResX to easily switch with a menu between my computer setup (VGA+ADC) and my TV setup (VGA+ADC+TV) and it also switches the audio as well (line out for computer speakers or toslink for the monoprice box).

I'm sorry my suggestions didn't work getting your mDP adapter to work. Maybe it truly is defective.