Mac Mini Doesn't Display through Philips Tube HDTV

I have a Philips tube HDTV with a VGA connector in the back, and used the DVI-VGA connector that came with my new Mac Mini to connect. I don't have a computer monitor at home. The TV doesn't display anything.
So then I took the Mac Mini over to a friend's. He has a VGA monitor, and so he ran the Mac Mini through setup and set it to the lowest possible display settings. I came back here, rebooted and plugged it back in; still no display.
Then I tried this:
"First thing to try is to boot the mini into safe mode by holding down the shift key as it boots up. This should allow it to boot, and then give you access to the display preference pane to adjust the settings back to those that worked.
If that doesn't work, try disconnecting the TV, and rebooting the Mac with no display attached. Once it has fully booted and enough time has passed to allow the desktop to be displayed, reconnected the TV. This should force the mini to boot into a low-res mode that works with just about anything, then when you reconnect the display, either cause it to auto-sense the correct resolutions, or give you access to display preferences."
This didn't work either. Any suggestions?

Hi Alan,
Check your TV manual to see what resolutions your VGA/RGB connector on your TV will accept. Being a HDTV it is likely to be from 480p to at least 1080i.
You then set the resolution in your Display preference pane to 640x480 and you should get a picture on your TV. The trick is to set it when you can't see anything! Attaching to another device may not help because the Mac detects that device when you set the Display and will know its not that when attached again to your TV. When attached to your TV it is setting another resolution it thinks will work. It is clearly guessing the wrong screen resolution when you do connect it.
I overcame this situation myself using a VNC client. That requires you to have another computer you can use to control your Mac Mini via VNC. You can then access the Display pane via VNC and set the 640x480 resolution which will work.
For setting 1080i (and the VNC process) please see:
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20060319073027371&query=1080i%2BMac %2BMini
I am guessing you can also use an S Video adapter - available from Apple - to connect to an S Video port your TV may also have. That won't help with the VGA connection though.
Hope this helps.

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DDC block generated by SwitchRes X for display
Philips FTV
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F
0 | 00 FF FF FF FF FF FF 00 41 0C 00 00 01 01 01 01
1 | 00 00 01 03 80 40 24 78 0A E6 92 A3 54 4A 99 26
2 | 0F 4A 4C 21 08 00 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01
3 | 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 1D 80 D0 72 1C 16 20 10 2C
4 | 25 80 80 68 21 00 00 9E 01 1D 80 18 71 1C 16 20
5 | 58 2C 25 00 80 68 21 00 00 9E 00 00 00 FC 00 50
6 | 68 69 6C 69 70 73 20 46 54 56 0A 20 00 00 00 FD
7 | 00 30 3E 0F 32 09 00 0A 20 20 20 20 20 20 01 E3
Valid DDC block: checksum passed
EDID Version........1.3
Manufacturer........PHL
Product Code........0 (0000) (0000)
Serial Number.......16843009
Manufactured........Week 0 of year 1990
Max H Size..........64 cm
Max V Size..........36 cm
Gamma...............2.20
DPMS Supported Features:
Display type:
RGB color display
Input signal & sync:
Digital
Color info:
Red x = 0.640 Green x = 0.290 Blue x = 0.150 White x = 0.289
Red y = 0.330 Green y = 0.600 Blue y = 0.060 White y = 0.299
Established Timings:
800 x 600 @ 60Hz
640 x 480 @ 60Hz
1024 x 768 @ 60Hz
Manufacturer Reserved Timings:
Standard Timing Identification:
Monitor Description blocks:
Descriptor #0 is Timing definition:
Mode = 1920 x 540 @ 50Hz
H. Active...............1920 pixels
H. Blanking.............720 pixels
V. Active...............540 lines
V. Blanking.............22 lines
HSync Offset............528 pixels
HSync Pulse Width.......44 pixels
VSync Offset............2 lines
VSync Pulse Width.......5 lines
Pixel Clock.............74.25MHz
Horizontal freq.........28.12kHz
Vertical freq...........50.04Hz
H Image Size............640mm
V Image Size............360mm
H Border................0 pixels
V Border................0 lines
Interlaced
Sync: Digital separate with
* Positive vertical polarity
* Positive horizontal polarity
Descriptor #1 is Timing definition:
Mode = 1920 x 540 @ 60Hz
H. Active...............1920 pixels
H. Blanking.............280 pixels
V. Active...............540 lines
V. Blanking.............22 lines
HSync Offset............88 pixels
HSync Pulse Width.......44 pixels
VSync Offset............2 lines
VSync Pulse Width.......5 lines
Pixel Clock.............74.25MHz
Horizontal freq.........33.75kHz
Vertical freq...........60.05Hz
H Image Size............640mm
V Image Size............360mm
H Border................0 pixels
V Border................0 lines
Interlaced
Sync: Digital separate with
* Positive vertical polarity
* Positive horizontal polarity
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Philips FTV
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Horizontal frequency range.......15-50 kHz
Vertical frequency range.........48-62 Hz
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Mac Mini Doesn't Display through Philips Tube HDTV

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