hello all,

long time lurker, first time poster. For the past few years I've been connecting mac mini to my panasonic TH50PF9UK 720p plasma panel via VGA and apple's DVI/VGA adapter. The output resolution was 1360x768, and I never had a problem. For various reasons to pointless to go into, i've decided recently to consolidate all of my components to hdmi. The TH50PF9UK doesn't come with a hdmi input, and i had to get a TY-FB8HM adapter board that adds an hmdi input to the panel. So now the connection to the mini goes mac mini => dvi/hdmi adapter => 1.3a hdmi cable => plasma panel via TY-FB8HM. And...no picture. Looks like the mini doesn't even see the panel via this connection and under the display preferences there's no "detect displays" button. Tried it with a macbook pro and got the same result. But here is the weird thing, plug the mac mini => dvi/hdmi adapter => 1.3a hdmi cable => into my projector, and it works. plug my cable box into the TY-FB8HM, and it also works.

So each component is functioning, and it's just that particular combination of mac mini => dvi/hdmi adapter => 1.3a hdmi cable => plasma panel via TY-FB8HM doesn't work. any wild guesses as to why it wouldn't? thanks all.

For the past few years I've been connecting mac mini to my panasonic TH50PF9UK 720p plasma panel via VGA and apple's DVI/VGA adapter. The output resolution was 1360x768, and I never had a problem.

This is a good thing, at least it works over VGA. HTPCs can be difficult enough, sometimes things just seem to work right out of the box, other times you hit a roadblock right away. We've seen many of these "I'm having a problem connecting to my "x" display over HDMI, but VGA works right out of the box" posts, especially with that 1360/1366x768 res, so you have a LOT of company. It almost always comes down to the unique characteristics of your display--so I'd start by digging into your manual and specs for your particular plasma and that adapter, find out how they work, if there's a firmware issue and which exact resolutions are supported.

For various reasons to pointless to go into, i've decided recently to consolidate all of my components to hdmi.

I'm curious about these reasons.

But here is the weird thing, plug the mac mini => dvi/hdmi adapter => 1.3a hdmi cable => into my projector, and it works

Neither weird nor surprising, since you're connecting to a completely different display.

The TH50PF9UK doesn't come with a hdmi input, and i had to get a TY-FB8HM adapter board that adds an hmdi input to the panel. So now the connection to the mini goes mac mini => dvi/hdmi adapter => 1.3a hdmi cable => plasma panel via TY-FB8HM. And...no picture. Looks like the mini doesn't even see the panel via this connection and under the display preferences there's no "detect displays" button. Tried it with a macbook pro and got the same result

It could simply be that your Panny or the TY-FB8HM doesn't support 1360/1366x768 over HDMI.

Good thing for you is that Panny plasmas are pretty popular, I'm sure there's a long thread about your exact model in the plasma forum. Use the search function and I'm sure you'll find threads on that TY-FB8HM adapter as well. I found these in a few seconds:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=16717824&highlight=#post16717824

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=609335&page=3

There's a user named "Techniwizard" on those threads who really seems to know his stuff, he must repair Panny plasmas, so read his posts and see if that helps.

that particular combination of mac mini => dvi/hdmi adapter => 1.3a hdmi cable => plasma panel via TY-FB8HM doesn't work. any wild guesses as to why it wouldn't?

My guess is your Panny plasma expects to receive certain resolutions based on the input type/input number--so when you're going VGA into input #3 "it just works" with 1360x768 because the Panny is expecting that res from a computer--but when you're trying to go through that HDMI adaptor into input 1 or 2, the Panny is expecting something else, it's less tolerant and your Mac isn't getting through to deliver it.

So, read through those threads, dig out your manual and specs, I'm sure you'll eventually figure out if you're trying to something that's supported or not. And, looking down the road, it may be that if you insist on going HDMI you'll need something like the Gefen DVI Detective programmed to the exact resolution the display is expecting to fool the Mac into thinking that it's still connected to the display, even when you switch away.

Be sure to tell us what you find out...

Thanks for the help chefklc.

basically my reason for consolidating to hdmi is that i recently bought a panny projector. But I also want to use the plasma for "everyday" viewing and viewing during the day time. So to have all of my components drive the two displays, i decided to get a 4x2 hdmi switch. hence i need all of my components to be on hdmi. also that way during installation i would only need to run one data cable to the projector, which is at the other side of the room. that would make things easier. i guess i could have just as easily consolidated everything to component but i was going to get blu-ray too and 1080p was too tempting. (personal rant: i would much rather do everything over analog, so really all this consternation is because the industry artificially limits 1080p to hdmi. thanks guys, keep up the crappy work.)

from reading the threads you forwarded and from other forums, it looks like the problem is that the TY-FB8HM is refusing to forward the EDID to the mac. and the mac won't output anything without reading the EDID. This is consistent with the fact that when i VNC into the mac, the desktop is all screwed up and the wallpaper isn't rendered. so if that's true, the gefen dvi detective would solve the problem. I'm going to get a similar device, the DVI doctor from monoprice, and report back.

So to finish and resolve the thread, in case anyone hits this thread in a search later:

The DVI doctor from monoprice did the trick. Though I guess it was pretty key that I had a display other than the plasma from where the DVI doctor can read the EDID. Plugged the DVI doctor into the panny projector, which the mini was able to display to, via a DVI<=>HDMI adapter. The DVI doctor read the PJ's EDID, plugged it into the mini's DVI port and plugged the other end of the doctor into the plasma. The mini still thinks it's connected to the pj, and is outputting 1080i to the plasma. The color profile looks a little off, but I guess I'll adjust that later.