Re: Anybody using a DVI to HDMI adapter to get video (minus sound) from a Mac to a LCD TV (Sony)?

David wrote:
The TV doesn't have VGA or DVI input.

If you've tried DVI to to HDMI does it work?

I have my Mac Mini connected via DVI to the HDMI input of my Sony Bravia V32A12U. It works fine.

How's the picture?

The picture's clear, but because it's displaying 1280x720 (an HD resolution) on the Sony's 1366x768 native panel you get black borders around the picture. This is slightly annoying, but you can get rid of it by turning on Overscan in the Options tab of the Display System Preference. If you do that then you lose the menu bar and bottom of the dock but it's OK for watching DVDs.

I cannot get 1080i to work (interlaced 1920x1080) - the Mac detects that the TV can do it, and the TV's OSD flashes up '1080i' when it's selected, but the picture's entirely blank. This seems to be a generic fault in the video output of Mac minis - some just can't handle DVI very well, for no known reason. I know that a Powerbook can drive the larger V40 model just fine.

What did you pay for the adaptor and where did you get it?


You don't need an adaptor as such, you can use a single DVI to HDMI cable. I went through a few before I was happy with one - despite experts saying it's a digital format and you only have transmission problems over long lengths, I saw 'sparkling' pixels (a sign of a bad picture) over just a 2m cable.

I got mine from www.bluejeanscable.co.uk. They're shipped from the US but arrived in just a few days, costing around £25 I think. Don't be tempted into spending silly money on one in glossy packaging - Blue Jeans make no-fuss audio/video cables for sensible money. I actually have an even cheaper (£10) but supposedly good DVI-HDMI cable made by Molex still sealed because the supplier messed up and sent it two weeks late. Interested?

One word of warning - if you intend to have the Mac connected to the TV permanently, like I do, then you might get terrible interference on any input that comes in to the TV via RF co-ax (analogue and Freeview). This is due to interference caused by the HDMI cable and is curable. I've totally eradicated mine (and in the process got good enough reception to get every Freeview channel) by

1) routing the RF and HDMI cables as far apart as possible
2) Spending very little money on a custom built, properly shielded co-ax cable from www.satcure.co.uk. Fancy 'gold plated, 99.99% pure' cables from the high street do not make any difference, and cost 10 times as much.

Cheers,

Paul




.

Relevant Pages