Panasonic TC-32LX60 and Intel Mac Mini

[jheidelo]

The native resolution for this television is 1366x768. I've tried using DisplayConfigX and SwitchResX with no luck getting anywhere close to the native resolution. The best I can do is 1024x768 and the picture is horrible. Can anyone offer any advice or good settings for this television?

[jheidelo]

*bump*

[BSteely]

The native resolution for this television is 1366x768. I've tried using DisplayConfigX and SwitchResX with no luck getting anywhere close to the native resolution. The best I can do is 1024x768 and the picture is horrible. Can anyone offer any advice or good settings for this television?

How are they cabled together? Maybe that is the limiting factor.

[jheidelo]

After reading more experiences on the Internet, I'm almost convinced now that it is in fact the way the setup is cabled. I'm using a DVI to HDMI cable. It's the only option I have. Is that really the limiting factor? I have an appleTV on order for this purpose but if I can avoid having to buy it and get a decent picture with this setup, then I'd be pretty happy.

[BSteely]

It could be that it won't work at native res. That is the case with a lot of LCD TVs with 1366 x 768 native panels. But you should be able to get it to run from 1280 x 720. In SwitchRes X, there is a button labeled "Export DDC". When you click on it the TV's driver data (EDID) gets saved to a text file. If you like, post the text data here and I will help you interpret it which can give a better understanding of what is going on and if you can expect native or 720p to work over HDMI.

[jheidelo]

It could be that it won't work at native res. That is the case with a lot of LCD TVs with 1366 x 768 native panels. But you should be able to get it to run from 1280 x 720. In SwitchRes X, there is a button labeled "Export DDC". When you click on it the TV's driver data (EDID) gets saved to a text file. If you like, post the text data here and I will help you interpret it which can give a better understanding of what is going on and if you can expect native or 720p to work over HDMI.


Here are the settings you asked for. I really appreciate you're help!

DDC block report generated by SwitchResX for display
PANASONIC-TV

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 34 A9 C1 0E 62 99 05 04
1 | 2B 10 01 03 80 00 00 78 0A DA FF A3 58 4A A2 29
2 | 17 49 4B 00 00 00 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01
3 | 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 1D 00 72 51 D0 1E 20 6E 28
4 | 55 00 C4 8E 21 00 00 1E 01 1D 80 18 71 1C 16 20
5 | 58 2C 25 00 C4 8E 21 00 00 9E 00 00 00 FC 00 50
6 | 41 4E 41 53 4F 4E 49 43 2D 54 56 20 00 00 00 FD
7 | 00 3B 3D 0F 2D 08 00 0A 20 20 20 20 20 20 01 C0

-----------------------------------------------------
Valid DDC block: checksum passed

EDID Version........1.3
Manufacturer........MEI
Product Code........49422 (C10E) (0EC1)
Serial Number.......67475810

Manufactured........Week 43 of year 2006
Max H Size..........0 cm
Max V Size..........0 cm
Gamma...............2.20

DPMS Supported Features:
------------------------


Display type:
-------------
RGB color display


Input signal & sync:
--------------------
Digital

Color info:
------------
Red x = 0.640 Green x = 0.291 Blue x = 0.163 White x = 0.288
Red y = 0.345 Green y = 0.635 Blue y = 0.093 White y = 0.296

Established Timings:
--------------------

Manufacturer Reserved Timings:
------------------------------

Standard Timing Identification:
-------------------------------

Monitor Description blocks:
---------------------------
Descriptor #0 is Timing definition:
Mode = 1280 x 720 @ 60Hz
H. Active...............1280 pixels
H. Blanking.............370 pixels
V. Active...............720 lines
V. Blanking.............30 lines
HSync Offset............110 pixels
HSync Pulse Width.......40 pixels
VSync Offset............5 lines
VSync Pulse Width.......5 lines
Pixel Clock.............74.25MHz
Horizontal freq.........45.00kHz
Vertical freq...........60.00Hz
H Image Size............708mm
V Image Size............398mm
H Border................0 pixels
V Border................0 lines
Non-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............708mm
V Image Size............398mm
H Border................0 pixels
V Border................0 lines
Interlaced
Sync: Digital separate with
* Positive vertical polarity
* Positive horizontal polarity

Descriptor #2 is Monitor name:
PANASONIC-TV
Descriptor #3 is Monitor limits:
Horizontal frequency range.......15-45 kHz
Vertical frequency range.........59-61 Hz
Maximum bandwidth unspecified

[BSteely]

OK, so from Descriptor #0 and Descriptor #1, I can see that the TV is requesting the host send 720p (1280 x 720) and 1080i (1920 x 540 x 2 interlaced). The TV is not asking for native resolution. Sometimes TVs that don't have a request for native timing within their EDID (DDC) will still work with a native timing, but it is rare.

In your first post you said you can't get a resolution higher than 1024 x 768. So does this mean you aren't seeing 1280 x 720 as one of the resolution choices in Display Preferences? And what about 1920 x 1080? Both of those choices should be available under OS X without need for SwitchRes X. If you are not seeing those choices, it sounds like the display is not being properly detected. How is it identified within Display Preferences? Is there a "Detect Displays" option in Display Preferences that you can click on? If you are just getting a generic display description and "vanilla" resolutions to choose from, then for some reason OS X is failing to use EDID.

Sorry for all the questions. But if you can answer the above we should be able to get closer to gettng things working step-by-step.

[jheidelo]

OK, so from Descriptor #0 and Descriptor #1, I can see that the TV is requesting the host send 720p (1280 x 720) and 1080i (1920 x 540 x 2 interlaced). The TV is not asking for native resolution. Sometimes TVs that don't have a request for native timing within their EDID (DDC) will still work with a native timing, but it is rare.

In your first post you said you can't get a resolution higher than 1024 x 768. So does this mean you aren't seeing 1280 x 720 as one of the resolution choices in Display Preferences? And what about 1920 x 1080? Both of those choices should be available under OS X without need for SwitchRes X. If you are not seeing those choices, it sounds like the display is not being properly detected. How is it identified within Display Preferences? Is there a "Detect Displays" option in Display Preferences that you can click on? If you are just getting a generic display description and "vanilla" resolutions to choose from, then for some reason OS X is failing to use EDID.

Sorry for all the questions. But if you can answer the above we should be able to get closer to gettng things working step-by-step.

I do see 1280 x 720. Without the Overscan box being checked, there's substantial borders an all sides of the pictures (top, bottom, left and right). With overscan, the borders spill over the edges of the television. I do also see 1920 x 1080 (interlaced) but the televeision, as far as I understand, is not spec'd for this resolution. In both resolutions however, the display is not great. The display is not clear or crisp, and if I look at the dock on the bottom of the screen, I see a few lines that constantly "jump".

[BSteely]

I do see 1280 x 720. Without the Overscan box being checked, there's substantial borders an all sides of the pictures (top, bottom, left and right). With overscan, the borders spill over the edges of the television. I do also see 1920 x 1080 (interlaced) but the televeision, as far as I understand, is not spec'd for this resolution. In both resolutions however, the display is not great. The display is not clear or crisp, and if I look at the dock on the bottom of the screen, I see a few lines that constantly "jump".

Based on all the evidence, I am not optimistic that this TV is going to make a good computer display. It sounds like the signal processor inside the TV forces overscan from the HDMI input. This isn't so noticable for normal video sources like broadcast and DVD where it's not critical that 3%~5% of the edges of the image are missing, but on a computer it's a big problem. Unless overscan can be turned off on the TV, it may not be correctable. Furthermore, based on your earlier attempts, it sounds like it won't work from a native resolution signal, either. Sorry to end it like this but I have no good advice for you.

[jheidelo]

Thanks for your help! I guess my next step is to just take a chance on appleTV and see if that solves my problem.

[Budget_HT]

It looks like AppleTV may not be a total solution either, because it does not support receiving MPEG-2 video at 720p (1280x720) nor 1080i (1920x1080). At least that's what I have read over the last few days. The Apple site lists the video formats/protocols that are supported for streaming/downloading to the AppleTV from a source computer.

So even though the AppleTV hardware and firmware might support 720p and 1080i output to a TV over HDMI or component, it will not support receiving those resolutions in MPEG-2 from the source. The 720p they do mention is 24 fps instead of 60 fps for HDTV broadcasts.

I don't recall reading anything about using the AppleTV as a mirrored or 2nd display for an upstream Mac.