Yes, You Can Get 1080P out of a Mac Mini

/ Adam Nash

As I posted last night, I’ve hooked my new Intel Core Duo Mac Mini to a Vizio 42″ 1080P LCD.

If you read the specs at Apple, it says the Mac Mini, with 64MB DRAM driving it’s Intel GMA 950 video, can support a 1920×1200 based resolution on a monitor.  I assumed that this meant it could drive any 1080P display, which is 1920×1080.

It turns out, there are a few hurdles that could get in the way of succeeding in getting a Mac Mini to drive a 1080P TV display.  Some of the hurdles are simple, but one was quite tricky.

Here is the solution, for all those intrepid Mac warriors out there:

  1. Getting the Max Resolution on the Vizio.  The Vizio display says on the box it only supports 1366×768 for computer display.  This turns out to be the onboard limitation for their VGA port.  If you use a DVI to HDMI cable, you can drive the full 1920×1080 through the HDMI port.  I used a 10ft DVI to HDMI gold plated cable from Fry’s.  (Price $19.99)
  2. How to Get Sound on the Vizio.  I bought a cheap 3.5mm Mini Plug to RCA Red/White 6 inch cable (Price: $2.79).  I then used a standard 12ft Red/White RCA Audio cable to plug connect the Mini to the Vizio TV.  The second HDMI port on the Vizio is paired with an auxiliary set of RCA Red/White jacks, seemingly designed for this situation where your HDMI does not actually carry audio.
  3. How to Get 1080P, not 1080i, out of the Mac Mini.  This is the tough one.  When you go to the Displays control panel on the Mac Mini (Leopard, Mac OS X 10.5), you are given lots of video choices.  However, the maximum resolution says 1920×1080 (interlaced) at 60Hz.  What gives?   I’m not sure, but it seems like a bug.  The secret is to enable the checkbox that says “Show displays in menu bar”.  If you do then, a displays icon appears in the menu bar.  Click it to get a drop down menu of all display resolutions.  Interestingly, there are now two 1920×1080 options, which are labeled identically.  Choose the other one!  You’ll now be driving full 1080P (confirmed by the Vizio).

I’ve searched the web, and this issue is tricky enough that lots of people complain about the lack of the ability to drive 1080P from the Mac Mini.  Most of the debates seem to argue that it depends on the TV.  I don’t buy it.  I think the issue is a bug in the Mac OS display detection in DVI/HDMI scenarios that is somehow hiding the 1080P option.  Either that, or the Mac Mini for some reason thinks that 1080P is too much for it for some other reason, and the drop-down menu is missing that filter to remove it from the list.

I’m not going to spend time on the why.  The point is, if you are looking for the how, you just got it.

BTW Leopard is a huge improvement for applications like this.  The improved network browsing and FrontRow application are incredibly well-timed.   It’s going much better than I expected.

66 thoughts on “Yes, You Can Get 1080P out of a Mac Mini”

  1. Thanks – your blog post was incredibly useful as I am considering getting a Mac Mini myself to connect to my 1080p HDMI LCD TV and had lots of questions that you’ve now answered. Now if only I can find out whether Apple are considering using a dedicated graphics card in their next revision (and when that will be).

    Thanks again

    • I get the 1080p I just don’t want it! I want a true 1920 x 1080 pixel so that my text doesn’t look cartoonish! its not crisp in 1080p and my cheep monitor can’t fix it and neither can Apple. however if I connect this cheep monitor to Winblows 7 it works perfect!

  2. Did not work for me 😦

    I only see one 1920 x 1080 option both in the Display settings and in the menu bar.

    Does anyone know another place to enable it?

    I have Panasonic 42″ Full HD so it would be really great to have non-interlaced 1080p.

  3. Tuukka,

    That’s really strange. I only have one menu option in the Control Panel, but clearly have two options in the menu bar drop down.

    To my knowledge, that’s the only place to enable it.

    Two quick questions for you:
    1) What version of the Mac Mini are you using?
    2) What kind of DVI -> HDMI converter are you using?

    Adam

  4. Hmm, I’ve got my mini on the 1080i setting in ‘System preferences’ but my Sony Bravia 1080p LCD shows the signal as 1080p. I’m also using DVi->HDMI like you.

    My current bet is that he mini actually sends out a 1080p signal that is de-interlaced by a simple combine filter. If you rapidly move the mouse pointer or a window you can easily spot tearing on the graphics identical to what you would get from an interlaced signal.

  5. Works for me! You’re a genius Adam 🙂
    BTW I have an Intel Core Duo mac mini running leopard and a Sharp 52″ LCD HDTV (using a DVI-HDMI) converter. I was super-bugged that i could see the interlacing flicker, but your solution worked perfectly! Hopefully Apple will come out with a fix for this eventually…

  6. Did not work for me either. I have the two options in the menu bar drop down, both produce lousy interlaced video. My samsung 52″ full HD display also has a VGA input, and it works great with that, using the little white Apple DVI to VGA adaptor. Strange that it does not work with the DVi->HDMI cable, as the mini powers a normal ( DVi-> DVi ) monitor at 1920×1080 just fine, so it must have something to do with the HDMI cable, or the code pushed back from the HDTV.

  7. This is useful information. I’m planning on buying a Sony Bravia KDL40 W3000 and a mac mini if they will work together in 1080p, but I’m having a job on confirming this. I don’t really want to have to take one to the sony shop to test it out as (a) I wanted to buy the TV cheaper on Amazon and (b) I’m not sure it’s something I can reliably resolve in the shop as it may take a lot of time playing with settings.

    Can anyone help out please?

  8. Thanx Adam and Cameron !

    Camerons VGA-way looks best for my setup.
    Although i get Adams 2 options in menInubar-

    MacMini-IntelCore2Duo 1,83 GHz, 1GB RAM, OSX 10.5.3,
    Samsung LE–52 M86BD
    5m DVI-HDMI-cable

  9. Hi Adam,

    I have Mac mini Intel Core Duo 1,83GHz and Samsung LE32A558, but did not work for me.
    Do you help me, please?
    Thanks a lot.

  10. Hi,

    the same thing here… i have an MacPro (early 2008 with GF8800) and Samsung LE40A656A and there is only 1080i possible but the LCD-TV is supporting 1080p with DVI/HDMI cable….

  11. Thanks! Using Mac Mini with Core 2 Duo and a vizio 52″ lcd. Oddly enough the Mac initially installed itself with the correct video settings. Parallels messed it up this morning and this was the tip I needed to get it straightened out.

  12. Hi, I looked over all of the comments here but still haven’t found a solution to my problem…my mini doesn’t even give the option of a resolution higher than 1024 x 768 interlaced. I have a 1.25 ghz running on leopard-is this one maybe too old (2005)?

  13. Hi Everyone.
    I’Ve just purchased a mac mini 2Ghz and connected it to a Samsung LS40A556P via DVI-HDMI cable. My problem is a large black border around the display. Any help on the configuration needed to achieve full screen res 1920x1080p would be a God send. Thanks in advance
    Andy
    PS I have tried the above

    • Hi Matt,

      Open Preferences, then Displays. Then click on the “Options” tab/button near the top of the window and make sure the “overscan” box is checked. That’s how to get rid of the black box around your picture. Let me know if this helps or if you have any other questions. 🙂

      Nick

  14. I had my mini connect to a Sony XBR4 1080p LCD via the tv’s VGA port and the display was great (mini recognized Sony TV and adjusted the settings automatically). I rearranged my setup and had to add a vga extension cable. The Sony TV setting no longer appears and the option for 1920×1080 (or any other 16:9 aspect ratio resolution) has disappeared. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks

  15. Great blog post,

    I have just bought a 42″ Sony full HD (1080p) and want to buy the 2.0GHZ mac mini.

    I can see most people here are concerned about connecting the mac to the LCD using HDMI, well thats all good (if it works) but the other question is . . . will the Mac mini (G4) have enough grunt to actually play full HD files (from hard disk). So I’m talking about 20 – 30 GB MKV blueray files?

    I am concerned it might drop frames and keel over.

    I found this blog :

    http://www.green-traveler.com/mro/1080p-mkv-mac-mini/

    Seems like you might be able to, but only by messing about with settings and tweaking about

    Anyone tested this out and really pushed it to its limits?

    Cheers

  16. Been reading this thread for the past week or so, just went out and bought the G4 Mac mini with DVI > HDMI cable (2.0GHZ Core 2 Duo 2GB Ram)

    Thanks very much Adam for the original post, however I’m afraid it didn’t work for me.

    I subsequently researched another solution, which I will share with anyone thats having problems. I think this will work for anyone, BUT, you will need to spend some time figuring it all out. I will show you how though.

    So here’s what I did (which I am confident will work for anyone having this god awful problem)

    1) Download ‘SwitchRes’
    2) RTFM – Read the fucking manual
    3) Read this http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=751713
    4) Configure your Mac with the correct settings in SwitchRes and IT WILL WORK 🙂

    So lets break that down a little,

    Go and download a free and very well written MAC app SwitchRes:

    http://www.madrau.com/html/SRX/About.html

    This application is how your going to get your mac (any mac) to work . . well assuming its not 20 years old that is. Certainly this will work on any G4 Mac Mini, plus may others I expect.

    Once you’ve installed it, read the manual, its not that long, but you will need the knowledge and you’ll learn lots from it, dont skim it, read it . . . well ok, skip the history lesson at the front, but the rest is gold.

    Then go and soak up :

    http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=751713

    This advise is very good, and very necessary, so do what I did, print the SwitchRes manual out, and the link above, go to starbucks and READ it all 🙂 You cant cut corners, so just read this and you’ll be well on your way to getting 1080p from your Mac.

    Regards Simon’s Q above, yes it has enough grunt, I use Plex, this can easily play the trailers on the apple site, the 1080p ones.

    I have one other 10GB MKV blueray 1080p files, (ok its superman . . . shhh) and its ‘almost’ perfect, but does judder ever so slightly at the beginning part, but the rest is perfect, that could just be the way it was encoded, or how Plex decodes it, not sure, barely noticeable though.

    I probably wont check this post for a while, but if anyone wishes to email me I ‘ll help best I can

    Cheers

    • I’m not getting this – you spoke of the
      “G4 Mac mini with DVI > HDMI cable (2.0GHZ Core 2 Duo 2GB Ram)”

      Sorry, but there is NO SUCH ANIMAL –
      the G4 mac Mini has a PowerPC processor in either 1.25, 1.42 or 1.5 gHz … the Core 2 Duo machines have INTEL processors …

      Its Either/or – and they handle Video (and video memory) quite a bit differently!

  17. I’m starting to see Mac Minis and AppleTVs discounted at Fry’s electronics. I’m wondering if this is signaling a imminent Mac Mini hardware upgrade or perhaps a refiguring of Apple TV so that it is, in essence the combination of a Mini and the ATV.

    The other thing is this: Dell came out with the studio hybrid, a small 2 core low power CPU which can be configured with a blu-ray disk, blue-tooth accessories, 802.11N. It comes standard with an HDMI output as well as a DVI. This almost sounds what the upgrade to the Mac Mini wants to be, without the lousy Vista operating system, that is.

    Here’s my prediction: by the end of October, we’ll see a new Mac Mini brought to market.

  18. I may need to burry my head in my hands if this is the case! Bought my new MM couple of months back, very pleased with it, but if they release a new one that would be a dilemma

    I had been watching the Mac Rumors site, and I really do feel that, given the complete lack of comms from Apple about the new gen MM, seems to me they are looking to discontinue it.

    It really just compromises the apple TV product in my view. Well . .. we shall see!

  19. GREAT BUT A LITTLE PROBLEM. ANYONE ELSE EXPERIENCE THIS?

    First; Adam this is great! I clasped my hands together and let out a proper laugh as I watched your instruction work its magic. I was ripping my hair out because of the horrible static interlacing happening before me on my brand new HDTV. I thought I was stuck under 1280 x 720 inevitably defeating the purpose of having an HDTV with 1080p.

    Second; Now while this is great and I am at full 1920 x 1080 (non-interlaced via the drip down display menu) when I go to play a video in Front Row, the screen gradually becomes filled with static until the picture goes out completely and my Samsung says there is no signal.

    Im lost here because the main purpose of my mini is as a media center pc.

    I have the original Mac mini 1.25GHz / 1GB RAM running Leopard 10.5 connected to a Samsung 40-inch 5 Series LN40A550.

    Could the mini’s video card not be strong enough or failing or …. ? Im stuck.

    Anyone else with this problem?

  20. Hi Xcelero,

    Not sure – if you get 1080P on the desktop, there is no reason video shouldn’t play. I got my Mac Mini in March, so it’s not very old, but it can either drive 1080P or it can’t.

    I wonder if there is an issue of signal quality with the cable? Or converter? That’s all I can think of.

    Adam

  21. Thanks Adam,

    Yes, it’s very strange to me. When ever there is a lot of motion on the screen (like a file for example) it becomes horribly interlaced and the signal degrades. I am thinking it may be the mini’s card. But as you said; either it will or it won’t.

    And forgive my ignorance (I am still a bit of a novice in video hook-ups and hdtv) but how can you tell if your desktop is 1080i or 1080p? Is the 1920 x 1080 (interlaced) 1080i?

    If it were signal quality would this be the fault of the cable (12ft gold-plated belkin hdmi-div) or what the mini is sending out?

    I’ll keep searching around but thanks for the ideas!!

  22. Why isn’t this ffmpeg filter skipping a default setting for VLC? There must be a tradeoff for quality. Anyone noticed anything?

  23. For those of you who are affected by the interlace problem with your DVI -> HDMI video, you should now go get a DVI -> VGA, problem solved.

    I started off DVI->VGA cable and did 1920x1080p 1080p video on my 52″ samsung with absolutley no problem, but I want digitall. real digital. so I spent $7 on a DVI->HDMI, what a mistake. mac mini seemed to have problems with it. All resolution selected are screwed up. 1920×1080 i (interlaced), plus some 1024×748 (stretched) mode or something crappy. I switched to DVI->VGA, and I’m happy. it’s not too bad at all. it looks amazing.

    Andrew

  24. Hi – attached Mac Mini Core2 Duo 2.0 to a Sceptre 32″ 1080p HDTV, via apple’s dvi/vga adapter into a vga slot on the TV. Just selected 1920×1080 from the system settings, did not do the extra menu step noted above. The resolution is fine, but the color/brightness doesn’t sync right. Spent hours fiddling with system settings calibration, TV menu picture settings, etc., but color and brightness still looks awful. Any suggestions? Would the added menu step noted at the top of this thread help with this issue? Thanks to all. Great thread.

  25. Okay, now you’re freaking me out. I was out searching for how I could use the Mac Mini as a DVD recorder, searched for “mac mini hdmi 1080p” and your post from yesterday showed up at the top of the list.

    Dude. I’m beginning to suspect you have friends across the parking lot. ;]

  26. Hi Jim – sorry to get you in a panic. Actually, the problem was my own incompetence. I didn’t tighten the DVI-VGA connector tight enough to the MAC. D’oh! Now the 32″ Sceptre HDTV looks absolutely beautiful as a monitor for the Mac Mini. I suggest max RAM, and the latest Mini with the core2 duo processor. Bottom line – it works fine,

  27. Isn’t VGA limited only up through 1080i? The VGA specification does not have the bandwidth required for 720p or 1080p.

  28. I have the same issue…now. I didn’t used to. I did have the mini attached directly to my TV (40″ Samsung with some stupid model number that no-one can ever remember) – DVI-to-HDMI – but now it’s going through a Sony amp and after I tried changing the display, I ended up with a border! Crap! I can’t easily attach the mac directly any more as the cables are now in the wall and the TV up on the wall. I’ll try buying a new lead (more £) and see if that helps. Will report back (and will try to include model numbers etc then).

    cw

  30. Pingback: Hackintosh HTPC part 4 « Bassheadtech.com

  31. I had my sony 37xbr connected to my 2ghz mac mini via dvi to hdmi, the tv recognized 1080p automatically, however when i changed to lower resolutions and then try to up again to 1080p I couldn’t, it just give me the 1080i option.

    This tip was really helpful, at the beginning I had the same problem, the dislpay icon in the menu bar just showed just one 1080 option, I changed the number of recent items from 5 to 10 in the same display icon menu and the two1080 options appeared, now I’m again in 1080p 🙂

    Maybe this can help some people who can’t see the two 1080 options.
    thanks!

  32. I solved through SwitchResX i have a Panasonic TH50PZ80E, but i think my settings should be correct for all Panasonic 50″.
    Here my parameters:
    Horizontal Vertical
    Active 1832 1026
    Fr Porch 568 29
    Sync W 44 5
    Bk Porch 196 65

    I hope they will be useful.
    P.S. In my Mac mini a reboot was not sufficient to apply settings. i had to power cycle the mini, or after a reboot to enter in power saving and exit pressing power button shortly.

    Have a nice tuning!

    GM

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  34. How do you know if you were successful doing this. I see the two 1080 settings but when i choose one it says 1920x1080i @60hz on my on screen display on my samsung and on the other it just says 1920×1080 @60hz with no p or i. Does that other one without the letter 1080p ?????

    thanks

  35. Hi Adam. My 2.0 GHz mini works great with a DVI-HDMI connection to my Samsung UN46B7000 but I was stuck with 1080i until I found your blog. Sound goes to a Denon AVR 3809 with which the airport-connected Mini shares an ethernet connection. Sweet setup!

    Thanks for the tip

    Jon

  36. My mac mini (intel core duo 2/gma 950/10.5.6) is connected to my 1080p Vizio 32″ tv via a dvi->hdmi cable. The signal is 1080i only, however when I use a vga cable it does 1080p (much better quality). The displays icon is in the menu bar but only shows the 1080i option).My ram is only 1gb could that account for this?

  37. Hi,

    This was Posted on January 24, 2008 by Adam Nash, and we’re still talking about it. wonderful !!!

    I’m thinking in buying a MacMini as a HTPC, because until now I’ve been using my MacBook Pro with XMBC player (free download at http://xbmc.org/ )

    Does anyone tryed to plug in to MacMini 2x TV’s ou 2x TFT’s ?
    Does anyone as tryed to play 30 GB MKV blueray files?

    • Hi Peter,

      Can you share if the 1.83GHz is enough to use the mini as a full media center (1080p)? I am considering buying one just for that reason so I would like to be sure.

      thanks
      edgard

  39. If anyone else is using a European TV, you might find that you only have 3 options (including 1920×1080 PAL and 1920×1080 NTSC), and all of them are interlaced (1080i). Try increasing Number of recent options to 5, and you should get the duplicates Adam mentioned. Selecting the other 1920×1080 (PAL or NTSC) and your TV should start receiving 1080p.

    I’m using a Panasonic viera 37 inch (not sure the exact model number)

  40. Adam,

    Wow that’s awesome. Four hours of forums and you were here all along. Way to go! BTW It also works on iMacs….10.5.5 still.

    You’re awesome! Thanks for the info! I had started trying all sorts of random things but I wouldn’t have thought of that!

  42. Great post and solution.

    I have got 1080p; but the picture quality for the desktop and web pages is crap; for DVD’s sing FrontRow its GREA – is this right?

    I was hoping for crystal clear HD quality on all apps for my MAC Mini. I am using a Sony Bravia 46″ HDTV….

    Thanks

  43. Very interesting & helpful thread! I am working on setting up a Mac Mini as a HTPC (still photo library+home videos+video recorded off-air via EyeTV) with a Sony 40″ XBR HDTV as the display. Getting digital video/audio out has stymied me, so I’ve held off buying the computer.

    My question for people: has anyone tried the following solution:
    http://tinyurl.com/yat5d8u
    (Apogee DVI and S/PDIF Audio to HDMI Converter, much cheaper than a similar Gefen device; it claims to combine DVI video and digital audio into a single signal it outputs via HDMI)

    As far as I can tell, to use this you’d need: the included miniDisplay Port to female DVI cable, a male:male DVI:DVI gender changer, a digital audio cable, the above converter, and an HDMI cable out to the TV.
    That’s in theory; only a few on-line stores sell this converter, so I wonder if it actually works in practice. Anyone use it successfully to get 1080p video and digital audio from the Mini to an HDTV?

    Thanks for your help! Apple would sure make things a heck of a lot easier if they’d add an HDMI port to the Mini, at least as a build to order option. Any guesses when the next refresh of the Mini line is?

  44. The trick worked for me! Though, my LG HDTV doesn’t register PCs/Macs as 1080i/1080p, rather just shows the resolution (1920×1080). Anyways my main problem is that everything is really small and I use my computer from far away. My main concern anyway is it’s also annoying that I have to zoom in all the time for each new website you visit. Does it really matter what resolution you use and will it still remain 1080p? I can base my theory of it being the same quality because each resolution plays the everything bigger but still looks like the same quality. Thank you very much.

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  46. Hi I have a late 2009 MAC Mini and a SONY HDTV and have had none of the difficulties encountered by others in connecting up. Not sure if this is due to the new MAC Mini (with Snow Leopard) or my TV. I just connected the Mini Display Port to DVI connector which ships with the MAC Mini to a Belkin DVI to HDMI cable (also available from Apple Store) and connected the HDMI to my TV. I switched on the MAC and could see the picture immediately. I was missing the menu bar at the top so went to SYSTEM PREFERENCES and then DISPLAYS and the OPTIONS tab, and unselected OVERSCAN, and that gave me a perfect picture.

    My MAC Mini displays a number of resolution with a little TV screen icon beside them, as if suggesting those resolutions for use with the Sony. It shows 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i and 1080p. There are also lots of others without TV icons beside them. By default the resolution was set to 1080p, but I found that this made it quite difficult to read text on my screen, even though it’s not so far away from the sofa. I swiiched therefore to 720p and this produces a very comfortable size of text for using the MAC.

    My question is whether it really makes such a big difference whether one chooses 720p or 1080p, as I really can’t see much difference for playback of video from Hulu or other streaming websites. Even when I played a DVD movie from my MAC Mini superdrive, the difference in quality was hard to detect. I guess if I tried viewing HD material, there might be some difference, but how much of that material is available on the net right now anyway. In short, I would question why so many people seem so desperate to set the resolution to 1080p. I have that option out of the box but find 720p to be far preferable so far.

    Look forward to hearing views!

  47. #1 was my concern. Couldn’t find that answer for the life of me. Since you can put the res to that rate through HDMI guess I will be keeping the TV. Thanks for the info.

  48. Question: I’ve got my Mac Mini switched through the receiver to a Vizio 42″ screen. If I have the screen switched to the Mac Mini at boot, I can get the resolutions I need (DVI, 1080p and i) – on Snow Leopard.

    But if the TV or the amp are switched to different inputs at boot time, the Mini doesn’t even turn on DVI output unless I sleep/wake it once I switch to the screen (at a minimum).

    I have no trouble using SwitchRes X to force resolution to 1080, but that won’t turn on the output if there’s no TV connected yet.

    Any ideas? Anyone else seen this?

  49. All,

    Can anyone share what the lowest possible configuration is for a mac mini to use it as a full media center? I am curious to set this up but do not like buying the new one from Apple.

    thx,
    E

  50. I spent half an hour, carefully reading this. Adam did a great job help us to get the best out of our HDTV and Mac Mini. I noticed that most SONY HDTV work well with minimum setup, SAMSUNG a bit tricky. I am personally have SONY and Mac Mini 1.8GHz with Snow Leopard upgrade to 4GB of RAM. Currentlr connect them via DVI to VGA adapter (supplied by Apple) + Normal VGA cable (Take it from old LCD monitor) to VGA port in my SONY (46″). I used them with XBMC for 3 months, quite happy with it. Use digital (optical) cable draw sound to my Bose sound system (great DTS and AC3 sound).
    I just wondering that If I try with DVI to HDMI adapter + 1.3 HDMI cable (already owned the cable), Is it will be any better? What’s the different between adapter and DVI to HDMI cable. I searched in wiki, it said no different coz, DVI is a subset of HDMI then no conversion, means no lost.

    Can’t help but wonder (like Carries Bradshaw in Sex and the City) my understanding is true……

  51. I have a Mac Mini (mid 2009 before snow leopard) using a 37″ Proscan 1080p monitor w/ HDMI input. My problem is a combination of several of the above.
    The tip to get 1080p works great! But if I select Overscan in Preferences, the top menu goes off the screen. If I de-select it, I get HUGE black bars around the image, essentially converting my 37″ 1080p screen into a 32″ 720p screen!

    Anyone else had or solved this problem?

  52. I have a opposite problem.

    I bought a Mac mini just yesterday with 2.53GHz, 4GB, 320GB and MaxOS10.6, but my Sharp AQUOS TV does only support 1080i.

    When I connect mini to AQUOS with Mini DisplayPort to HDMI adapter, I got a message as “The video signal can’t be received, please confirm input equipment”, then black screen.

    I think the newest Mac mini set 1080p as default resolution, I hope that I can set it back to 1080i.

    Why Mac set high resolution as default?

  53. I used a Mini DisplayPort to HDMI Adapter (female) Cable for Apple Mac which was a lot less expensive and I did not have to enable the display in the tool bar to get the setting.

  54. Ok. Mac mini with 1gig of ram. Been using it flawlessly with a 42″ Sony for a couple of years now. Upgraded to Leopard recently. Had to use a small monitor to complete the upgrade of the OS(due to resolution issues). THE PROBLEM OCCURRED when I went and plugged the Sony Tv back into the Mac mini. The apple apeares at startup and then NOTHING! BLack screen. Now if I plug back into the small monitor , it works fine but why not on the TV ANY MORE. I DO T UNDERSTAND WHAT COULD HAVE CHANGED. Any advice would be appreciated.

  55. Mac Mini mid-2007 connected to Onkyo HT-R380 (AV receiver) connected to LG 42SL90QR (42″ LED). Found the two 1920×1080 options using the displays option in the menu bar and tried using both. TV onscreen display says both using 1080p @ 60Hz. Hardly noticeable difference in quality. My problem is in both options my menu bar is out of the screen. When put to 1360×768, the menu bar and bottom of the dock returns to normal viewing, however image quality is certainly reduced. I can’t seem to find the “overscan” option.

    Any ideas on how I can continue using one of the 1080p options and yet have the menu bar etc showing as they should?

    Cheers!

  56. Oops! Forgot to mention – Mac Mini is connected to the Onkyo AV Receiver via a XtremeMac HD DVI-HDMI cable and the AV Receiver is connected to the LG LED TV via a Hive HDMI-HDMI cable.

  57. More interesting stuff! Connected the mini direct to the TV to see if it was the AV receiver that was the trouble, still no luck but some more failed attempts at various methods.

    The 1920×1080 option in the Display options has completely disappeared from both the menu bar display drop down as well as accessing it normally through system preference. Instead its been replaced by an option of 1080p. It also now allows me to choose my refresh rate in Hz – 24, 30, 50 (PAL) and 60 (NTSC). It also allows me to toggle the “overscan” option. All this being when accessing it through the system preference. When using display from the menu bar drop down the options are called 1080p (Television) thrice and 1080p (PAL Television) once. All it does really is change the refresh rate.

    I’ve tried almost every combination of settings and have only managed to achieve the following:-
    a) 1080p is always easily achieved
    b) Under the 1080p option with overscan selected the menu bar and the bottom of the dock are cut and so not viewable in my TV screen.
    c) With overscan not selected there is a black border roughly 1.5 inch thick on each side of the displayed desktop screen effectively reducing my 42″ LED to a mere 39″.
    d) Selecting 720p still results in a perfect sized image albeit in a lower quality resolution.

    Any suggestions? Anyone! Cheers.

  58. i’m not sure if this will help anyone, but i had a problem where my mac mini connected to my 1080p samsung hdtv looked fuzzy.

    i was using the ‘underscan’ slider adjuster in the display settings to make the entire desktop fit onto my tv screen. but that made stuff look fuzzy. but if i didn’t adjust the underscan, i couldn’t see the menu bar or dock, etc.

    so the solution was to turn underscan off on the mac, and then use the hdtv menu to make everything fit. on my model, this screen mode is called ‘screenfit’.

    still, i’m pretty sure that my windows xp box looked way crisper when connected to this same tv. look a lot better now, tho.

  59. OMG THANK YOUUUUUUUUU!!!!! WOW.

    That’s really lame. Also, for those who cant find the “other” 1080 setting, change the “Number of Recent Items” to 10, and it should be there.

    Thanks again and again and again 😀

  60. Pingback: What do you have for a home server for multimedia?

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