MacOS on TV

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Tricky(Posted 2012) [#1]
Hi there;

I have an old PPC Mac Mini (as a backup system for when my Intel iMac breaks down or to have a small computer at the ready when I'm on the road), and I tried to make it work on my TV (as VLC player is installed on it, I thought this to be a nice way to play some videos).

I got two cables to make this possible, but neither one works.

First of all, the old MacMini has a regular a big connector, but I had no cables for that, so I had to convert it to a regular VGA connector like many old PCs have. I had one cable to convert it into the three connections, cyan, darkblue and red. I tried those at first. When I do I see on my TV everything in purple, either the Mac or the TV seems totally unable to get a clear screen and as soon as the desktop should appear the screen turns blank black and there it ends.

Now my TV DOES have a PC connector, so let's try that. I get the apple logo perfectly clear on my screen with no problem at all, so far so good, then the screen turns skyblue with a mouse cursor on the screen, which is normal for slow starting macs before the desktop appears and then.... pop... black blank screen and no way at all to get anything visible.

I've tried the safe mode to get around this, but the effect remained the same.

Some guy blamed my TV's resolution being too low, but that's bullcrap. I have a monitor which I have since even BEFORE Windows 95 came out which I used for my old DOS computer and MacOS X runs perfectly on that thing with the same an even lower resolution (640x480 should really be the max that thing can handle). It is clear to me that MacOS tries to scan what kind of monitor is connected and turns black blank when it can't detect the monitor (this always happens to me when I forget to turn on the monitor, just put the Mac to sleep (shortly pushing power will do that) and press a random key to come out and tada, fixed), and to me it's clear that my Mac can't detect my TV.

In both scenario's written above I can of course put the mac to sleep and activate it again. In my first scenario, I see purple unreadable screen for about 1 second and then blank screen, in scenario #2 nothing seems to happen at all.




Now I really wonder if there's some way to get this running somehow.


*(Posted 2012) [#2]
what hertz does the tv support. this could be the issue on the mac. I too have had the black screen when I forgot to turn it on when booting the mac. I would see what resolution the tv supports and its hertz then set that in the mac's preferences this should at least clear that hurdle. If after that it still wont play then I would try it on a different TV.


Tricky(Posted 2012) [#3]
OK, I'll try to sort the Hz out...
Thanks a lot


Winni(Posted 2012) [#4]
Your Mac probably won't work when that's an old tube TV with less than 60 Hertz screen refresh rate.

If it's a more modern TV with HDMI input, buy a DVI-to-HDMI cable for that Mini. The picture quality will be significantly better than with a VGA cable.

The real problem in the end might be this: Your PPC Mac Mini will only be good to play back DVDs and DVD-rips; any rip that has an HD or Full HD resolution will turn the Mini into a dia show. We still have two G4 PowerPC Macs in our house and MKVs/BluRay rips simply kill them. If DVD quality is good enough for you, then of course the Mini will do just fine.

You might want to try XBMC OSXPPC on your Mac:
http://xbmc.org/download/

I use a Zotac Zbox ID41+ (http://www.zotacusa.com/zbox-id41.html) with openelec (http://openelec.tv) as our media center system -- that solution is cheap and works beautifully even with 1080p MKVs.


Captain Wicker (crazy hillbilly)(Posted 2012) [#5]
HDMI cable + hd tv


Tricky(Posted 2012) [#6]
Well the TV is a flat screen I bought last year. A Panasonic to be precisely.
There is a HDMI input in that TV, so I might try that cable you suggested.

DVD quality is good enough for me (at least for now), it's just that I have some US DVD movies and the player I had to play those (I'm in Europe) is not performing that well any more. As VLC player ignores those region codes (and VLC still works on PPC) I was hoping the Mac Mini could save me here. I don't like watching movies at a desktop screen :)

I might try the other software you suggested as well.

By the way, the monitor I could get my Mac Mini to work on is an old tube monitor. But may it's because it is a computer monitor that MacMini recognises it... A TV could be a different story. I don't know... Just speculating here, I've always been in the dark when it comes to hardware.


I'll try to sort something out with this new information ;)


SystemError51(Posted 2012) [#7]
I have an old PPC Mac Mini


HDMI cable + hd tv


Reading comprehension FTW!

---

Some guy blamed my TV's resolution being too low, but that's bullcrap


Not necessarily. Some TVs don't have 640x480 (very old early models), it could also be, as suggested, the number of Hz. Some TVs support up to 59Hz for some odd reason, but not 60. However you can be certain that in most cases 50Hz will work just fine.

I wouldn't suggest an HDMI cable or adapters like that, since the machine is too old to do that. It probably wouldn't support any of the HD resolutions.


Captain Wicker (crazy hillbilly)(Posted 2012) [#8]
Did the older mac minis even have a vga adapter port?

EDIT:



from the look of this photo, the VGA adapter port looks nothing like the traditional kind that you would see on most PCs/notebooks.



for older television sets, maybe something like this would work better?

Last edited 2012


GfK(Posted 2012) [#9]
That's a standard dual link DVI socket. Not a VGA one. Most graphics cards these days have DVI sockets instead of/as well as VGA.


ima747(Posted 2012) [#10]
Since you're getting the boot screen and cursor the TV will support a resolution that the mac supports. Since it goes black something is changing that's causing it to go into a mode that the TV doesn't support. The problem is either that the TV doesn't support a decent resolution that the computer is trying to use, OR that the computer isn't detecting and switching down properly depending on who you feel like blaming.

If the TV has HDMI get a DVI->HDMI cable, you can find them on amazon for <$5 shipped. fewer adapters = fewer things messing with the signal and therefore less to go wrong. Also keeping it fully digital lets the devices talk to each other better and sort out supported resolutions and refresh rates more accurately.

If the TV doesn't have HDMI, but does have VGA, connect your mac to a monitor and set the resolution as low as it will go and the refresh rate low as well, and then hot swap it to the TV and see if it likes it. Repeat until you find something that works.

If all that fails you will need a converter to change VGA to SVideo, component, or whatever to get a signal that the TV will agree with. But this shouldn't be needed if there's any other way to connect the 2. It's just a matter of finding settings that they can both agree on, which is definitely possible since you can see the boot screen.

Another thing, if you have anything launching at startup on the mac it might be responsible for the resolution reset. Best thing to do would be to start with a clean OS install if you're just going to use it as an HTPC anyway.


D4NM4N(Posted 2012) [#11]
Apple hardware is a disgrace when it comes to multiple monitors. I have no end of problems with my macbook pro. Why could they not just have a simple 3 state switch like every other laptop on the planet????


DrDeath(Posted 2012) [#12]
Apple hardware is a disgrace when it comes to multiple monitors. I have no end of problems with my macbook pro. Why could they not just have a simple 3 state switch like every other laptop on the planet????

Problem such as? Actually, I have far less problems using multiple monitors with my MBP than anyone else I know with Windows laptops.