Hi, first post on these forums though I have found lots of great info on here in the past.

I just bought a second hand Sanyo Z5 projector to replace an Infocus 4805 that died. It looks amazing displaying DVDs but when I connect my mac mini up to it the image is low quality with very little detail in the shadows, it is nearly unwatchable. I have simply unplugged one projector and plugged in another.

My setup is a 1.86gHz Mac mini running plex DVI-hdmi to an onkyo SR-605 hdmi to a Sanyo Z5.

Any ideas would be highly appreciated, Thanks!

The mac sees the Z5 on the HDMI as a TV and it sets a color profile for it that is wrong.

Before doing anything, make sure you set your HDMI on the projector to full range, expanded, or extended. The UI calls it different things on different models, but it all means switching from 16-236 TV color range to 0-255 PC color range.

Next you need to change the bad color profile OS X creates. You can change the color profile by going to system preferences > displays > color. Then uncheck the box that says "show profiles for this display only". Some alternatives are...

1. Choose sRGB or adobeRGB, which ever looks better to you. One has slightly higher gamma.

2. Or you can get the correct profile for the projector by connecting it via a VGA cable so the mac will see it as a full range computer display device and not as a TV. You can save the profile created via VGA and use it after switching back to HDMI.

3. Or you can create a custom profile by eye (hard for me) using the calibrate button starting from the native profile that OS X makes or search for a used ColorVision Spyder2PRO, its the cheapest colorimeter I can find that supports front projectors. I found one for $60 and it works fine, its not the best but it was cheap. The Sypder has the advantage that it will correct for color bias in your screen and ambient light.

Thanks for the help - looks great now!

Which option worked best for you?