Plugging Macbook Pro i7 into external displays looks like crap.

I have a rather confusing problem with my Macbook Pro. I went out and bought a Samsung 27" display. I am running a generic no-name adapter from the mini port to a HDMI plug into the display. The quality was AWFUL- as in basically unusable. I returned the monitor and came back a few weeks later with the laptop to the store. I spent about an hour plugging the laptop into various monitors throughout the store. Almost all of the monitors- including smaller 24" monitors- looked like crud also except for the upper end models from HP and of course- the $1,000 model from Apple. I wound up buying a 27" HP 2710m monitor. It looked "ok" in the store. I work as a graphic designer so I'm very picky about details. Upon opening a Photoshop doc I could see that things like gradients, shadows, and text all looked funky and wrong. Thus again- the monitor I bought looks like #$@!.
What's weird is that if I take a look at the display settings when its not plugged into a monitor there is a huge amount to choose from. When its plugged into any monitor I've tried- except of course the super expensive Apple display- about half of those setting become unavailble and I'm basically stuck with using what appears to be TV settings ( 1080P) and so on.
I tested the new monitor on a Mac Tower and it seems to do fine. But then again- it looks like crud with the Laptop. The Mac tower uses non-apple 24" displays and they look great. I even plugged the laptop into one of these 24" displays currently used for the tower and again- SAME thing!
So basically I've got a $2,000 laptop that appears to ONLY work with an Apple monitor. Is there something stupid I'm simply not getting here or what? I realize those apple displays are a much higher pixel density, but still- the generic 24" displays work with the Mac tower but NOT with the laptop.

Welcome to Apple Discussions!
If you have an i7, it can't be running 10.5.4 reliably. At minimum it can run 10.6.3. So that might be part of the problem if you managed to to load an older operating system on the Mac than the Mac itself can handle. Your My Settings or posted OS link has 10.5.4, even though you are using an i7. If you meant to select 10.6.4, pardon me.
Generic adapters are usually not as reliable as quality adapters, but also if you have 1080p display, I recommend checking your progressive setting under Apple menu -> System Preferences -> Displays Options.
I'm assuming you tried the same cables on the desktop as the notebook. If you don't have a mini-Displayport connection on the desktop to test with, you can't rule out the cables.
http://www.macsales.com/ offers several adapters you can use with your notebook for HDMI. You might want to check with them, or find a non-generic adapter.

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How can I disable the internal display on my MacBook Pro with connected external display?

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Thank you!

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Macbook Pro not detecting external display

I can't seem to make this work. I'm using a MiniDP-DVI cable which is plugged into an DVI cable plugged into an external monitor. I know it works because I have tried it on other computers and it has worked on the Macbook (erratically).
I've reset the PRAM several times and it has not fixed the problem. I did it in this order:
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3. Press Option Command P R until the second chime is heard.
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This is what the system log states when I plug the adapter in:
Oct 27 20:47:01 SMBP.local WindowServer[80]: Received display connect changed for display 0x42732c0
Oct 27 20:47:01 SMBP.local WindowServer[80]: Created shield window 0x66 for display 0x042732c0
Oct 27 20:47:01 SMBP.local WindowServer[80]: handle_will_sleep_auth_and_shield_windows: no action for lock state 1
Oct 27 20:47:01 SMBP.local WindowServer[80]: Received display connect changed for display 0x3f003d
Oct 27 20:47:01 SMBP.local WindowServer[80]: Received display connect changed for display 0x3f003e
Oct 27 20:47:01 SMBP.local WindowServer[80]: Received display connect changed for display 0x3f003f
Oct 27 20:47:02 SMBP.local WindowServer[80]: Display 0x042732c0: GL mask 0x1; bounds (0, 0)[1280 x 800], 9 modes available
          Main, Active, on-line, enabled, built-in, boot, OpenGL-accel, Vendor 610, Model 9ccb, S/N 0, Unit 0, Rotation 0
          UUID 0x0000061000009ccb00000000042732c0, ColorProfile { 3, "Color LCD Calibrated 2012-06-28"}
Oct 27 20:47:02 SMBP.local WindowServer[80]: GLCompositor: GL renderer id 0x01024301, GL mask 0x0000000f, accelerator 0x00004333, unit 0, caps QEX|QGL|MIPMAP, vram 451 MB
          texture units 8, texture max 8192, viewport max {8192, 8192}, extensions FPRG|NPOT|GLSL|FLOAT
Oct 27 20:47:02 SMBP.local WindowServer[80]: Display 0x003f003f: GL mask 0x8; bounds (2304, 0)[1 x 1], 1 modes available
          off-line, enabled, Vendor ffffffff, Model ffffffff, S/N ffffffff, Unit 3, Rotation 0
          UUID 0xffffffffffffffffffffffff003f003f
Oct 27 20:47:02 SMBP.local WindowServer[80]: Display 0x003f003e: GL mask 0x4; bounds (2305, 0)[1 x 1], 1 modes available
          off-line, enabled, Vendor ffffffff, Model ffffffff, S/N ffffffff, Unit 2, Rotation 0
          UUID 0xffffffffffffffffffffffff003f003e
Oct 27 20:47:02 SMBP.local WindowServer[80]: Display 0x003f003d: GL mask 0x2; bounds (2306, 0)[1 x 1], 1 modes available
          off-line, enabled, Vendor ffffffff, Model ffffffff, S/N ffffffff, Unit 1, Rotation 0
          UUID 0xffffffffffffffffffffffff003f003d
Oct 27 20:47:02 SMBP.local WindowServer[80]: Created shield window 0x68 for display 0x042732c0
Oct 27 20:47:02 SMBP.local WindowServer[80]: Created shield window 0x69 for display 0x003f003f
Oct 27 20:47:02 SMBP.local WindowServer[80]: Created shield window 0x6a for display 0x003f003e
Oct 27 20:47:02 SMBP.local WindowServer[80]: Created shield window 0x6b for display 0x003f003d
Oct 27 20:47:02 SMBP.local WindowServer[80]: Display 0x042732c0: MappedDisplay Unit 0: Startup Mode 1280 x 800, CGSThirtytwoBitColor, Resolution 1, IOMode 0x80000000, IODepth 0x0, IOReturn 0x0
Oct 27 20:47:02 SMBP.local WindowServer[80]: Display added
Oct 27 20:47:02 SMBP.local WindowServer[80]: Display removed
Oct 27 20:47:02 SMBP.local WindowServer[80]: Display 0x042732c0: GL mask 0x1; bounds (0, 0)[1280 x 800], 9 modes available
          Main, Active, on-line, enabled, built-in, boot, OpenGL-accel, Vendor 610, Model 9ccb, S/N 0, Unit 0, Rotation 0
          UUID 0x0000061000009ccb00000000042732c0, ColorProfile { 3, "Color LCD Calibrated 2012-06-28"}
Oct 27 20:47:02 SMBP.local WindowServer[80]: GLCompositor: GL renderer id 0x01024301, GL mask 0x0000000f, accelerator 0x00004333, unit 0, caps QEX|QGL|MIPMAP, vram 451 MB
          texture units 8, texture max 8192, viewport max {8192, 8192}, extensions FPRG|NPOT|GLSL|FLOAT
Oct 27 20:47:02 SMBP.local WindowServer[80]: Display 0x003f003f: GL mask 0x8; bounds (2304, 0)[1 x 1], 1 modes available
          off-line, enabled, Vendor ffffffff, Model ffffffff, S/N ffffffff, Unit 3, Rotation 0
          UUID 0xffffffffffffffffffffffff003f003f
Oct 27 20:47:02 SMBP.local WindowServer[80]: Display 0x003f003e: GL mask 0x4; bounds (2305, 0)[1 x 1], 1 modes available
          off-line, enabled, Vendor ffffffff, Model ffffffff, S/N ffffffff, Unit 2, Rotation 0
          UUID 0xffffffffffffffffffffffff003f003e
Oct 27 20:47:02 SMBP.local WindowServer[80]: Display 0x003f003d: GL mask 0x2; bounds (2306, 0)[1 x 1], 1 modes available
          off-line, enabled, Vendor ffffffff, Model ffffffff, S/N ffffffff, Unit 1, Rotation 0
          UUID 0xffffffffffffffffffffffff003f003d
Oct 27 20:47:03 SMBP.local WindowServer[80]: **DMPROXY** (2) Found `/System/Library/CoreServices/DMProxy'.
Oct 27 20:47:03 SMBP.local WindowServer[80]: Display 0x042732c0: MappedDisplay Unit 0; ColorProfile { 3, "Color LCD Calibrated 2012-06-28"}; TransferTable (256, 3)
Oct 27 20:47:04 --- last message repeated 1 time ---
Oct 27 20:47:04 SMBP.local WindowServer[80]: **DMPROXY** (2) Found `/System/Library/CoreServices/DMProxy'.
Oct 27 20:47:04 SMBP.local WindowServer[80]: Display 0x042732c0: MappedDisplay Unit 0; ColorProfile { 3, "Color LCD Calibrated 2012-06-28"}; TransferTable (256, 3)

I had the exact same behavior and log and I solved the issue by replacing the MiniDP-DVI adapter. I tried the "broken" adapter on another set of laptop+display and it was working there, so that made me think the adapter was ok, when apparently it was not.

Can the latest and greatest 15" Macbook Pro handle 2 external displays running 2560x1440?

if so how and with what adapters?
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LarsOw36 wrote:
Hello guys,
With that in mind I think the i7 is the only way to go with the 16GB RAM!? correct me if i'm wrong!
Then there is the processor; 2.3GHz or 2.6GHz(+ €183,92) - is it worth the extra money and will I notice anything in my editing speed?
I read alot on the forums about upgrading the storage to 1TB SSD but thats way out of my budget, would this be necessary for video editing? if so, is a external storage a good and 'cheap' solution?
-LarsOw36
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Why is it that when I plug my Macbook Pro to an external monitor, the external monitor turns black and shows the mouse only

Why is it that when I plug my Macbook Pro to an external monitor, the external monitor turns black and shows the mouse only

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I have stored everything on my Macbook pro in a external hard drive (Time Machine) Now that we have "wiped the machine" I am told I can start it over and load ontent--apps, docs, etc from the hard drive, just plug it in, find the time machine and what?

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hirogliffix,
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I wouldn't trust that backup.
Make sure the system is connected to AC and Do Over.

Plugging Macbook Pro i7 into external displays looks like crap.

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