Hello All,

I just got a macbook to use as a HTPC. I just got the cables yesterday to hook it up to my tv and I tried something a little different.

Iam going from the Macbook mini dvi to a dvi cable to a DVI + HDMI to HDMI cable. I have the ps3 hooked up to the hdmi, and the mac hooked up to dvi, then the hdmi plugged into one of my hdmi ports on my AV reciever.

I know you are not really supposed to use 2 inputs to one hdmi, but it does work as long as you just use one at a time. I got my mac to show up on my sharp aquos 32" in 720p mode and it actually looks very good except.....

I am seeing mad sparkles in the video expecially in the black portion of video on screen. My next step is to ditch the dvi+hdmi to hdmi adapter and just get a DVI-D to DVI-I adapter as my TV has a DVI-I input and im guessing that will relieve the sparkles issue.

Anyone give me any advice on this one? Also need to figure out how to perfect the overscan issue and will be doin some digging, anyones tips are greatly appreciated. THX!

Anyone give me any advice on this one?

Yeah, why not KISS before you jump right to overcomplicating things by going into and out of an HDMI AVR with some funky multiple device cabling?

You're going to have a hard enough time just directly connecting over DVI with your Macbook to that Sharp at 1366 x 768.

Also be prepared to explore VGA.

I use my MacBook as do you however I go mini-dvi to dvi directly to my 720p projector. I works very well. My only issue is on video_ts playback I ocasionaly see "judder" during playback using both VLC or Apples DVD app.

Hey, glad to see some responses, thanks guys!

Yes, i had thought about going to VGA but doesn't that max out at 480p? I was pretty sure I wouldn't be able to get a 720p signal via VGA so thats why I went the DVI-D to DVI-I, or DVI-D to HDMI route,....

The Sharp does have a vga input so I think I could use a dvi-d to vga adapter. Will I get 720p? I would prefer the better connections but hey if it works im not going to care too much.

That is crazy you are getting "judder" with video TS playback on your macbook, shame. I have a 2.0 core duo w/512 ram , ill probnably get 2gb ram later but for now must wanted something better than an apple tv or a mac mini and could pass up on the portaiblity and versitility factor of using a nice black 2.0 macbook.

So far with my testing I can even play HD content over the network without any "judder" (aka lag/skipping) (trailers and stuff from apple.com) and some video codecs play seamlessly and a few dont. I've got enought room on my HD to just transfer videos over too if it gets too heavy and the macbook can handle just about any media playing at full res.

I just gotta get rid of them sparkles. I am just going to get a DVI-D dual link female to DVI-I dual link male adapter, and I am fairly certain it will work just fine. Tweeking the macbook to output the perfect res so there is no overscan I believe I will need to do with a program like DisplayControlX or some thing. ill get to the scaling perfection once the signal is at least clear.

BTW. I can only seem to find DVI-D (M) to DVI-I (F) adapters, so im going to have to go from mini-dvi, to "DVI-D dual link (M) to DVI-I (F) adapter", to DVI-I dual link cable (M/M) to my Sharp Aquos 32" which had a DVI-I (F) input.

What a mess huh, : ) oh well, I think this will work and basicly it's just a cable and adapter for about $20

(Still upset im seeing sparkle from my dvi-d to hdmi adapter thingy)

:) Hey again. :)

So, I unplugged the ps3 hdmi cable going to the HDMI + DVI to HDMI adapter and tada! No more sparkels. I guess it was still trying to grab some signal from the ps3 hdmi cable even though it wasnt turned on. Its a pain to unplug the cord but the hdmi connection does seem to be perfectly clear now and looks great!!

Now I am stuck trying to get the resolution correct. I am pretty sure i need to set the mirrored monitor to "overscan" and then somehow add a front and back porch setting via one of the display enhancement apps.

I am having a hell of a time getting the resoluiton correct, i followed the tutorial and tied making a custom setting but nothing even seemed to change.... too bad the over scan doesnt just get rid of the black area.

Oh yea and to the guy who told me to Keep It Simple Stupid in the second post: your a jerk and dont know jack... :mad: all i had to do was unplug 1 cord and you were moaning about my jerry rig setup and how I was doomed to get anything working. thanks a lot.

So far I am liking macbook on tv, just gotta getthe overscan to work well and i am golden!

It just may be, franklee, that you're an idiot savant when it comes to home theater, that you operate on a level of genius and complexity that we mere mortals just can't understand. And as a savant, it's not like you can explain it to us anyway...the rest of us, we're left to learning from our own and from others mistakes, sharing, paying attention to what other, wiser, folks are trying to tell us, because they do have some first hand experiences and have been around these kind of things before. You're not the first person to have a little trouble with a 1366 x 768 native res Sharp LCD--the Mac discussion forums have been littered with user posts just like yours. Heard the old adage about leading a horse to water but not being able to make him drink? I'm afraid you just might be that horse.

By recommending KISS I wasn't actually calling you stupid. I empathize with your situation. But with all your permutations of cables and adaptors and going through an HDMI switching AVR, man, you asked for trouble. And "jerry rigging" to get rid of sparklies is just going to get you so far--1:1 pixel mapping at 1366x768 is tough under the best of circumstances with your LCD--and you were making it harder on yourself than you should have.

At this point, you're probably tuning out, I mean, I'm a jerk and don't know jack, so what follows is for anyone else reading along in the future trying to go into a 32" LCD with a native res of 1366 x 768 over HDMI with their Mac. This is the new affordable HDTV size. Frankly, you need to choose your set wisely--you just may have some pain ahead--and usually it is from the display manufacturer's end--the limiting factor is the TV, how its EDID data is arranged and how it processes the video signal it receives.

Here are some things to avoid initially:

don't go into an HDMI switching AVR

don't go through a 3-5 port HDMI switch

What often happens using either is your display isn't re-detected once you let your Mac sleep, or switch away and back to the mini input. HDMI switching receivers are relatively new, some work better than others. Better to make a direct connection to the display with either the Apple mini DVI to VGA adaptor or the Apple mini DVI to DVI adaptor and one other cable. That's it. Initially avoid a clusterf-ck of cables and adaptors (unless you are an HT idiot savant, of course.)

If you insist on HDMI and you have a display that isn't meant to connect to a computer, be prepared to use VNC and the frustration that is known around here as DisplayConfigX or SwitchResX. Try to find other users beforehand who have your exact model display and can share timings that worked for them. Find out if anything worked for them--do this soon after you purchase your TV so you can still return it if you chose poorly. You might also need to buy something like the DVI Detective if your Mac keeps losing your display's EDID. There's no way to predict whether you'll be prone to that, and that is extra $$$, but the good news is the DVI Detective actually works.

The larger issue is, there are different HDMI spec versions-- with certain displays you can only get 720p via HDMI in no matter what you do, other times you can improve things a little bit with an app like SwitchRes, and other times still you end up having to go VGA instead because nothing else gives you that native res of 1366x 768.

Many folks end up using the mini DVI to VGA adaptor, then a regular VGA cable, instead of messing with the HDMI, in order to get their 1366 x 768. Apple specs for VGA are 1920 x 1200, so no worry, it can handle it.

Hope that summary helps someone down the road...

Thanks for the story. I was bored.

Yea I already bought my Sharp Aquos 32" 720p TV a few years ago and it has served me well for a while now. I am trying to hold out as long as I can before I get a nice 1080p screen.

For my next TV I am strongly considering the 10,000:1 Sharp Aquos 46" LCD. I found it for about $1699 and I can probably sell my 32" and afford it. I hear the quality is good and even though I have read about some Sharp screed doing banding, I am fairly certian I will be very happy with the picture. I also think I read that others have been getting 1:1 when hooking up their macs to Sharp screens via DVI. Also I will be playing ps3 on it via hdmi and want to make sure it handshakes well (im sure it wil) and possibly check to see if xbox 360 is compatible with it over Component cables up to 1080p. (some tvs and monitors accept 1080p over component from x360, some dont)

So yea after all your blabbing dude you didnt really tell me anything to help me out. You basicly told me to search the forums which I already did. And you told me (and everyone else) a bunch of advice you probably have only actually read about. You never even directly answered me if you can get full 720p over VGA but I assume from your last post this may be possible.

Here is some real advice for hooking up a Macbook to Sharp Aquos 32" LCD : Macbook mini dvi to hdmi works fine, but you have to tinker with the 3rd party display configuratoins to get it to remove any borders or overscan. I have yet to find the perfect settings,.... I'll search more to see if I can get a config list for my exact tv, but so far no luck. I will let you know how it goes.

(I just want to get a 1080p display and forget about it really, but I am not in a big hurry and I will have a little while to be bored and tinker around with this)