TV as External Display for Mac Mini question

[Krafty]

Soon enough I plan to buy a Mac Mini. I decided on this fact after I couldn't afford a $1,600 15" MBP, and it seemed like a pretty good deal to use with my 22" LCD.

However. I'm using a Dynex 22" 720p Widescreen Flat-Panel LCD HDTV and recently got a MiniDVI-to-DVI adapter which connects to my LCD via DVI (HDMI), so I'm able to use it with both the mini and my 1st generation MacBook. But my question is the images on my Dynex LCD look a little sharp. I remember using a VGA cable to see if it would work on my moms PC which uses some low-end ATI Radeon, but I didn't do too many graphical tests and it didn't look that sharp as I recall.

I'm saying this cause I'm in college as a designer, and I like the smoothness on my MacBooks LCD, but I'm not sure if the sharpness on my Dynex LCD was due to the graphics card which is a crappy Intel GMA 950 with 64MB shared. After doing some research I couldnt pinpoint it still if it was the problem, Apple says it can turn itself up to 80MB, other people say 128MB, and Intel says [url="http://www.intel.com/products/chipsets/gma950/gma950.pdf]192MB[/url].

Here are the displays running:

The Mac Mini I'm getting has a NVIDIA 9400M, so would this perhaps make it display better or is it just the Dynex LCD?

 

[angelwatt]

Can you elaborate on the sharpness you're talking about. I generally think of sharpness as a good thing, like crispness. I have a Mac Mini hooked up to my 32" Samsung LCD and it looks good. I have it connect a Mini-DVI -> DVI to my Mini, then a DVI -> HDMI from it to my TV.

 

[Krafty]

It's hard to explain, its not crisp but more sharp as in rough. I was going to try to snapshot it but its something you kinda gotta stand in front to really noticed. I'm trying to find an example, but it may just be cause its a television and not a computer monitor (if there's any real difference).

Its mostly noticeable in the text.

 

[angelwatt]

Is the sharpness similar to the way Windows displays text? That's an aliased vs anti-aliased issue. For comparison purposes, here's my settings for my TV (U.S.).

1280 x 720 60 Hertz NTSC
On Options tab, I don't have the Overscan option checked.

You can try different resolutions to see if you get different results.

 

[Fleetwood Mac]

Hi Krafty, I know what you're talking about.

This is an annoying side effect of hooking computers up to some HDTV's via HDMI. I don't really know what the problem is, but here are two solutions that have been successful for me:

1) The easiest way is to just hook it up with VGA (if your TV has it). This just seems to work, and image quality isn't really effected at the 720p resolution.

2) Play with the settings in the your television's display/picture settings. This is probably where your sharpness problem is coming from, and has been correctable by turning sharpening off (or to 0%) in my experience.

The problem is not related to your graphics cards or Macs, any intel Mac is capable of running a 720p display.

 

[Krafty]

Is the sharpness similar to the way Windows displays text? That's an aliased vs anti-aliased issue. For comparison purposes, here's my settings for my TV (U.S.).

1280 x 720 60 Hertz NTSC
On Options tab, I don't have the Overscan option checked.

You can try different resolutions to see if you get different results.

Unchecking the overscan just shrunk the overall display on my LCD.

Hi Krafty, I know what you're talking about.

This is an annoying side effect of hooking computers up to some HDTV's via HDMI. I don't really know what the problem is, but here are two solutions that have been successful for me:

1) The easiest way is to just hook it up with VGA (if your TV has it). This just seems to work, and image quality isn't really effected at the 720p resolution.

2) Play with the settings in the your television's display/picture settings. This is probably where your sharpness problem is coming from, and has been correctable by turning sharpening off (or to 0%) in my experience.

The problem is not related to your graphics cards or Macs, any intel Mac is capable of running a 720p display.

1) Yeah, but it sucks that I've already bought this cable and adapter. Now I'd have to buy a miniDVI-to-VGA and another VGA cable.

2) Turning the sharpness off made it look better, the only difference is a few areas seem "slpochy" or smudged a little, but better than before.