Visio HDTV as monitor?

I just replaced a Visio 42" HDTV with a newer HDTV and was wondering if I could use the Visio as a monitor for a Mac Mini? Has anyone used an HDTV as a monitor this way?

Ues it will work. However TVs do not make good monitors especially if it is only HD resolution. That is not many pixels for a computer monitor. Things look big and you do not get much on on the screen

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Display for Mac mini - HDTV or monitor?

Hi folks
Just got a brand new Mac mini - went to PC World yesterday to get a new display - while there wondered if I shouldn't just get an HDTV instead of a monitor. Asked for a bit of advice from one of the sales assistants and was told that they were virtually the same - same refresh rates, etc - with no discernible difference in quality.
I opted for a 24" full HD model made by Logik, PC Worlds own brand. When I get it home and set up via the HDMI port, the image is terrible - white fuzzy hazing round text, colours seem dull, objects lack definition and edge. I've tried just about every setting in System Preferences>displays ( 1080p, under scanning , etc) but still the image quality is bad.
Was I advised badly - is there a difference between HDTVs and monitors. Should I have bought a monitor in the first place ? If so, any recommendations? I'm looking for something around 22"-26"
Thanks in advance
Doug

That's a shame. I set one up for a neighbour this week and she got a cracking picture with a cheap 22" monitor via an rgb to hdmi adapter lead.
I presume that you have gone into System Preferences (that's clicking on the small black Apple logo) top left hand corner of the screen, and scroll down to System Preferences. and then Displays. You'll then see Display / Color.
Then try one of the options presented to you in the list and see if you can find one that gives you the High Resolution you seek. Good luck!

Using Visio 37" HDTV (not monitor) as Display for mini

I really WANT to buy my FIRST Apple mini as my only computer! Will it work with my Visio 37" HDTV? I want to buy a cable that has the HDMI connector at one end for the TV and DVI on the other for the mini. Can it be that simple???
Thanks for input. I want to go to the Apple Store Friday!!!

I was in the same "boat" about wanting to use an LCD for a monitor. But, due to the higher resolution of a dedicated computer LCD vs a TV/LCD I opted for a Dell 24" Ultra Sharp W2408WFP to get the maximum capabilities out of my Mac Mini. Yes, the monitor is expensive, for me about $599 plus $45 shipping but included a 3 year warranty. However, unlike a traditional TV/LCD's resolution of approx. 1366 x 768 you will get the full 1900 x 1200 with the Dell 24" monitor (as with most other quality 22"-24" computer monitor's.
Now that is important if you are going to use this display hooked up to your Mac as a desktop, i.e. web browsing, various app's etc. The higher resolution will make the fonts and fine details of what you are looking at much clearer than what you are looking at with a TV/LCD. PLus, with a 32" LCD you will need to sit that bad boy a good 3 to 4 feet from your face in order to focus properly. However, if like many users of Mini's you will use it mainly as an entertainment hub for movies and itunes than I believe the TV/LCD such as the 32" Vizio (I have one in fact) would make for a better investment.

Often lose wireless connection when using HDTV as monitor

I have an unusual wireless networking problem when using my Samsung HDTV in my living room as a monitor for my MacBook (when watching Internet TV shows, for example). Frequently when I switch URLs, networking freezes, even though the connection appears strong, with the Airport symbol at the top of my screen showing all bars. To re-establish the wireless connection, I have to go through the process of re-joining my network through the “Join Other Network" option. The signal holds as long as I don’t try to change it, as in selecting another URL.
I connect to my HDTV via HDMI cable, using a mini-DVI to HDMI adapter from my Macbook’s video-out port. The audio connection is a mini-plug from the Mac’s headphone out jack to stereo RCA plugs associated with the TV’s HDMI port.
The wireless connection is through a Lynksys Wireless-G 2.4 Ghz, 54 Mpbs Broadband router.
I’d appreciate any solutions the Apple user community has to offer.

I'd say this has nothing to do with your display. The problem will likely lie in either your router settings, network settings or a simple signal strength issue. Try first changing the broadcast channel on your router, and make sure all settings are correct for your desired network.

How to smooth text when using 720p HDTV as monitor?

I know I'm not using the best choice for a Monitor, but want to tweak it the best I can.
Sony Bravia BX 320, 720P TV as my monitor
New Mac Mini bought yesterday
1080P Display Setting in Mini's display profiles
720P ibid
Connected via HDMI
Have tried tweaking around with different Mac Display profiles and color calibrations. Above look the best as far as resolution and picture when sitting far away from screen.
Closer I get to screen, the more pixelated and crappy the text looks, which is really bad
What are the tweakablle settings, both in the monitor and computer I would want to play with to smooth the text out as best as is possible given my monitor choice?
What would be a better "TV" choice to use as a monitor for my Mini? I only run a Roku and OTA HDTV into the TV tuner.
Is there a choice that looks good in both TV and Mini monitoring applications?
Thanks so much.

I have never used any of this, I have never needed to use it. I just know that the information is around and has been useful to others.
I also saved this tutoial that I found once. Perhaps it can help you;
SwitchResX Tutorial
0. All of this is easier to do if you have a portable Mac, since you can configure the external display while viewing everything on the built-in display. You can do it with only the external display (your big TV, that is), but it's tedious.
1. Get the proper cable to connect your Mac to the display (VGI, DVI, or DVI->HDMI, depending on your display's inputs; if you're using a portable Mac with only mini-DVI you'll need the adapter *and* a cable).
2. Connect the display and turn on the Mac. Launch the SwitchResX Control application (if all you're doing is setting up a custom configuration, you don't need the preference pane and thus don't need APE either).
3. In the SwitchResX Control application, select the display you want to configure in the "Settings of:" menu (if it isn't selected already) and click the "Display" tab. Then click the "Export DDC" button and select a location to save the file.
4. Using the text editor of your choice (TextEdit works, or you may have a preference for something else) open that file you just exported. You should see at least one Monitor Description Block (mine has two, labeled Descriptor #0 and Descriptor #1). This should give you a starting point. Mine looks like this:
Code:
    Descriptor #0 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............16mm
        V Image Size............9mm
        H Border................0 pixels
        V Border................0 lines
            Interlaced
            Sync: Digital separate with
                * Positive vertical polarity
                * Positive horizontal polarity
Note that the Mode is described as 1920 x 540 @ 60Hz, interlaced. It's actually 1920 x 1080, interlaced. I'm not sure why the vertical resolution is half what it should be there, but that's an important detail to note. If yours looks like it's half what it should be, you'll have to double it below. Use your common sense here.
The next step depends on what problem you need to solve. If you have a picture and you just need to adjust its position and/or size, you have the easier task and these instructions can help you. If you don't have a picture at all, the values provided by your display are invalid, and you'll have to do some research to find valid values (I can't help you find them). Search and/or ask on this forum, and also try Google.
5. Click on the "Custom" tab in the SwitchResX Control app. Click the "+" button to create a new resolution. Select "Custom" in the menu at the top (as opposed to "Scaled"). Start by entering the values in the Monitor Description Block you exported and opened in a text editor. The thing to realize as you get started is that all the numbers interact with each other, and as you change one value the application will recalculate the others if they're affected by the change. At a given resolution, the number of horizontal pixels and the number of vertical lines in each box always have to add to the same totals, and you can get those values by adding the "Active" and "Blanking" values in the Monitor Timing Block. To stick with my display, the horizontal pixel values must add up to 2200 (1920 (H. Active) + 280 (H. Blanking)), and the vertical line values must add up to 1124 (2 * (540 (V. Active) + 22 (V. Blanking))). The horizontal and vertical scan rates are calculated using those total values and the pixel clock value.
This is a very important concept to understand. With a constant pixel clock value and constant totals of Active + Blanking in both axes, the scan rates should also remain constant. If you have changed your active, porch, or sync width values and the scan rates don't add up, you won't get any picture. To use my display as an example again:
Code:
Pixel Clock 74.25 Mhz, Interlaced
            Horizontal      Vertical
Active:     1920 pixels     1080 lines
Frt. porch: 88 pixels       4 lines
Sync width: 44 pixels       10 lines
Back porch: 148 pixels      30 lines
Scan rate: 33.75 kHz       60.05 Hz
Note that 1920 + 88 + 44 + 148 = 2200, and 1080 + 4 + 10 + 30 = 1124.
6a. Adjust the values to fit your display (heh). This is the trial-and-error portion of the task, and is also slightly counterintuitive. You can get an idea of the adjustments you need to make if you use DisplayConfigX to display an "Image Size Test" (in the "Test Screen" tab). It'd make life easier if that were built into SwitchResX, but anyway:
If you need to shrink the visible area, decrease the Active value and increase the front or back porch values by the same amount. If you need to increase it, do the opposite. It helps to work incrementally (say, by multiples of 8) and save and test your work as you go along. Note that you may not actually need to restart the computer: I found that I could just unplug the HDMI cable from the back of my display and plug it back in, and the new settings would take effect. Remember to click "OK" (and not "Cancel") in the Timing Parameters window, then "Apply" in the main window, before you do this, or before you reboot. Otherwise your changes will be lost.
The porch values are counterintuitive. The horizontal "front porch" is the right edge of the screen (not the left as you might expect); the vertical "front porch" is the bottom edge of the screen. To move the image to the right, decrease the horizontal front porch and increase the horizontal back porch; to move it to the left increase the front porch and decrease the back porch. To move the image up, increase the vertical front porch and decrease the back porch, to move it down, decrease the front porch and increase the back porch. Again, it helps to save and restart or disconnect/reconnect the display to test these adjustments. The "Quick change" buttons in the bottom right-hand corner of the Timing Parameters window will adjust the porches for you, but note that in older versions the buttons were reversed (down means up and left means right, if you catch my drift). That's been fixed in version 3.7.6, apparently.
Also, remember as you adjust porch values that you shouldn't ever need to change the sync width.
6b. You know how I said you might not need to restart the computer? That's not actually 100% true for some displays. When I boot my computer with the display connected, the image is shifted to one side. If I subsequently change resolutions in software or disconnect and reconnect the display, the image will shift back. I got around this problem by first coming up with a configuration that was properly aligned after such a switch. After I had that I rebooted and estimated how far the image was shifted to one side. I then adjusted the porch values, saved, rebooted, and tested again. I now have two configurations, one for "fresh boot" that's adjusted for that sideways shift, and one I can use if I've changed the resolution for some reason. After all that, my default settings are now:
Code:
Pixel Clock 74.25 Mhz, Interlaced
            Horizontal      Vertical
Active:     1834 pixels     1024 lines
Frt. porch: 120 pixels      40 lines
Sync width: 44 pixels       10 lines
Back porch: 202 pixels      50 lines
Scan rate: 33.75 kHz       60.05 Hz
Again, 1834 + 120 + 44 + 202 = 2200, and 1024 + 40 + 10 + 50 = 1124. The Pixel Clock and both scan rates are the same as I found in the DDC.
Note also that if you have the same sideways shift problem, your two resolutions can't be identical (the system won't know which one to select). I made mine different by two pixels of horizontal resolution, which turns out to be rounded off in practice anyway (so one's 1832 x 1024, and the other's 1834 x 1024, with porch values adjusted accordingly, but they both look the same).
At this point you should be able to align your desktop to your display by iterating through these steps, applying your changes, and either disconnecting and reconnecting the display or rebooting.
7. If ever you go horribly wrong and go from having a misaligned picture to having no picture at all, you'll have to delete the override installed by SwitchResX. Boot the computer into Safe Mode, launch the SwitchResX Control app again, and click the "Factory settings" button, then the "Apply" button, and reboot.
And as a preemptive strike: no, I probably don't own your display and don't know the numbers for it offhand, and my consulting rate is $45/hr (really!).
Copyright Fedward. All rights reserved, all wrongs reversed.

HDTV as monitor via hdmi no signal

So I recently purchased my macbook pro 13" as my first mac and I've got to say that I love it. However, the one thing that has given me problems is when I try to use my HDTV as a monitor. It is an Insignia ns-32LCD. I am using a Rocketfish mini display to hdmi adapter. My Mac will detect a monitor and show me options for resolutions, but the TV still displays "no signal." As I'm new to the Mac I was wondering if there was maybe some display settings I am simply not familiar with as I have confirmed with Insignia that everything is connected and running correctly on the TV end. Thanks in advance!

Make sure the input settings on the TV are correct then restart both the TV and the Mini.

Any way to surf net on MBA using HDTV as monitor w/out cable?

My MBA is connected via a 2-wire modem/router, and I access the Internet wirelessly. Just bought an LG 32" HDTV (1080p, 60hz). I want to surf the net on my MBA and use the TV as a monitor. It works flawlessly when using a minidisplay to HDMI cable. But...I want to do the same thing, but without the cable. Don't like cable strung out across the floor. Apple Box or Roku won't allow surfing...you have to use their apps or subscribe to apps. Can this "wireless" dream of mine be done? Apple says "No"...but what do you guys say? My poor head is spinning! I bought the Air to do just this, and now find out it apparently won't work!!!

Hopefully they add it in the future to the Apple TV, but ya it isn't possible now.
If this is a must have feature and you can return the Air still, the Lenovo U300s Ultrabook has Intel's WiDi wireless mirroring capablility and is a nice machine.

Image quality of HDTV vs. monitor

How does the image quality compare, of sending the output of a Powermac to an LCD HDTV with a VGA input, vs. getting a regular LCD monitor (with DVI input)?
I can get a 23" or greater HDTV for about the same price as the Apple 20" Cinema display. Unless the image quality would be significantly worse, this would seem to be the better option as I could also watch TV or hook up a video game console as well. I could kill two birds with one stone and get both a better TV and monitor than what I already have, with just one purchase.
Or a related question, if I were to get an adapter to output to S-Video or Component for use on my current SDTV, is the image quality acceptable? I've tried it in the past with my PC and I wasn't too impressed.
PowerMac G5 Dual 1.8 Mac OS X (10.4.5) 5G iPod 60GB

How does the image quality compare, of sending the
output of a Powermac to an LCD HDTV with a VGA input,
vs. getting a regular LCD monitor (with DVI input)?
It depends a lot on the HDTV. Some HDTV only display 780 lines which is not much for a modern computer. Other potential problems are overscan (menu bar and dock off the edge) and non-square pixels (distorted images). DVI will give a shaper picture but some HDTV DVI ports do not wok well with computers. Sometimes the manual for the HDTV will give useful information, sometimes you just have to try it and see how it looks.
I can get a 23" or greater HDTV for about the same
price as the Apple 20" Cinema display. Unless the
image quality would be significantly worse, this
would seem to be the better option as I could also
watch TV or hook up a video game console as well. I
could kill two birds with one stone and get both a
better TV and monitor than what I already have, with
just one purchase.
A better choice might be a non-Apple computer monitor with DVI and video or TV input. Some have a buit-in TV tuner and speakers.
Or a related question, if I were to get an adapter to
output to S-Video or Component for use on my current
SDTV, is the image quality acceptable? I've tried it
in the past with my PC and I wasn't too impressed.
With SDTV the best you can get is about 640 X 480 interlaced. This is not much, and fine detail will flicker due to the interlace.

Need Advice: Which Camera 4 Capturing HDTV & Flipping Monitor Horizontally

I have CS4 Premiere and need to buy an HDTV camera and have questions how to achieve the following:
1) Capture hours of continous video direct to PC hard drive without stopping.
2) Display in real time a monitor image with the video flipped horizontally on a consumer LCD HDTV, so the monitor image is reversed as if you were viewing yourself in a mirror (we're recording a makeup artist who is applying makeup to a woman and needs his monitor to reflect a mirror-like image)
Any idea how to flip a monitor signal horizontally? I know how to do this in post production, but I need to do it on the realtime monitor feed from the camera.
Your recommendations for HDTV camera that works well with CS4, probably feeding a USB-2.0 signal to the PC.
Jonathan in Atlanta

I've learned that Adobe OnLocation when capturing video has a setting to flip video horizontally in the monitor display, so that would be a solution. (Few LCD consumer TVs have any ability to flip in hardware, except for Sharp LCD's which seem to have a mirror command, or professional video monitors which often can flip.)
My nagging problem now is apparently OnLocation cannot capture video from the newer HD consumer cameras which only have USB 2.0 and HDMI outputs, whereas OnLocation CS4 at this moment appears to only support 1394 firewire. New cameras no longer have 1394 outputs, the trend is to USB 2.0

Fuzzy hdtv external monitor

I've had this problem a while but its really getting on my nerves. I have a 37" hdtv as an external monitor for my window desktop. Every once in a while I want to use it with my macbook pro - when I initially did this everything worked fine. Then a while ago I was playing with the settings and changed something, might have been overscan or something like that, cant really remember. Now the hdtv looks "fuzzy" the picture quality is really bad. I've tried changing all of the settings in system preferences as well as resetting some options. The infuriating thing is if I rotate the screen 90, 180, or 270 degrees the picture quality is great again, but of course its upside down so it is not useable. When I switch back to normal orientation it is fuzzy again.
any suggestions on what I can do to get good picture quality again?

never mind, user error. Needed to push the auto-adjust button on the monitor itself.

Computer/HDTV combo monitor?

I know I'm asking for trouble with this post, but here goes...
Anyone using an HDTV monitor for editing and recreational HDTV viewing?

Dell recently released a 27" 1920x1200 display. I haven't seen it in the flesh, so I can't say how good it is. But I had the same thought as you when I read the announcement. But then again, you might be looking for something bigger than that...
FWIW,
Ron

Hdtv as monitor wont show full screen

i just recently bought a 32" hp lcd HDTV im using an hdmi to dvi conector... the display works but when i put it into the resolution i have to use 1280x720 some of my desktop screen gets cut off, you cant resize the screen through the display preferences and ive tried everything i can think of to try and get it to fit properly. does anyone have any ideas on how to fix it?

Probably it can't be fixed. Many televisions force overscan over their inputs and only accept ATSC standard timings. Does the HP have a VGA input that it designates for making PC connections? You will be better off using that if it has such an input.

Using HDTV as monitor for iPhone 3GS?

Hello everyone,
I've heard of mirroring the newer iPhones and iPads using Apple TV and AirPlay however I am still that guy with an iPhone 3GS. I was wondering if there was anyway of using my HDTV (HDMI or Streaming) to simply act as a larger screen for when I am writing on my iPhone? Or if anyone knows of a text editing app that streams itself as a video feed so I can see what I'm doing! Either one would be great!
TJ

David Owen3 wrote:
It's a pity that by now they hadn't added a HDMI port so you could send video & audio through one cable to a HDTV, a lot of strange decisions going on at Apple. Glad Steve Jobs is back maybe he will sort these anomalies out.
What anomalies? DisplayPort is a newer standard than HDMI. It's also royalty-free, which was likely a business driver for the decision.
As a pro user the current MBPs are unusable to me having no analogue video out,
"Pros" should probably be using digital equipment. I agree about the ExpressCard to SD switch - bad idea, IMO. But analog is going the way of the dodo. Apple does offer a mini-DP to VGA. The audio ports do analog as well as digital. That's pretty on track, I think. Why do you think Apple should support older technologies? What's next? Should we say Apple really needs to make a mini-DisplayPort-to-Rabbit-Ear-Antenna adapter?

Apple Picture Wavy on Panasonic Model PT-W4734X HDTV Projection Monitor TV

Just purchased and installed and tried the Apple TV on my 5 year old Panasonic HDTV. While Apple TV connected and functioned correctly the picture was wavy. Worked with a couple of levels of support over the phone and ended up taking back in to the store to test out the unit. The unit tested okay on a flat panel. The HDMI cable and connection worked perfectly with the cable box on my TV so it appears that there is an incompatibility between Apple TV and the Panasonic TV model. So apparently there are some bugs to be worked out with some models of TVs.

I had the same problem. Apparently it's an issue with going to to a DVI input on your TV. However, glory glory, it has been fixed with the new 4.1 update. Thanks Apple for not letting us down.

Matrox MXO2 Mini and HDTV monitor

hello...
i have the matrox mxo2 mini and want to invest (about $1500 or so) in a hdtv reference monitor for output and color correction.
nothing for broadcast delivery. right now i am using a sony pvm14m4u SD monitor. beautiful, sweet monitor but signal being downconverted and would like to see HD and more accurate color. would appreciate any suggestions. thanks.

I know this is an old post but...I think I'm gonna go with the Matrox mini to output my signal from FCP to HDMI...has anyone had good luck with a Sharp Aquos 32" 60Hz LED? Seems like a steal at only $269 for color correction purposes. That way I'm looking at about $700 for my color corrections set up...hoping it's doable.
Thanks!
David

Visio HDTV as monitor?

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