New to HDMI bare with me...

[Tiamat]

So, I bought a BJC (Blue Jeans Cable) DVI-HDMI cable because i want to plug my old mac mini into my Panny plasma so it can serve as a media box. It doesn't work??? No boot screen no nothing shows on the panny.

I mean, what gives? Just a cable... Any ideas? I thought it was just simply a rearrangement of conductors...


UPDATE:
Format Mac = problem solved.

UPDATE2:
New Problem - screen blinks on and off on and off. ARGH

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

I haven't done much of computer to non-monitor display work either, but...

Is the mac mini sending a resolution that the TV can accept?
Do you have another source you can check to see if the cable works on that?

 

[sdifox]

I am guessing it is a hdcp issue. do you have 2 output on the mac mini so you can check?

 

[Tiamat]

I am guessing it is a hdcp issue. do you have 2 output on the mac mini so you can check?

Current running VGA, it is very dull because mac doesnt have ATI settings (arg. I am a windows user).

All of the laptops around here have VGA output not dvi.

I could wheel my desktop to the living room to see.

I don't really know much about hdcp handshaking or what not except in the name itself. Is there a driver I download to get over that?

Thanks all!

 

[sivart]

A bad HDCP handshake most of the time results in a screen with a pink color.

Are you going from a DVI output on the Mac Mini or are you using some adapter to get it to DVI?

Did you also try cycling the inputs on the TV to redo the "handshake"?

 

[Tiamat]

A bad HDCP handshake most of the time results in a screen with a pink color.

Are you going from a DVI output on the Mac Mini or are you using some adapter to get it to DVI?

Did you also try cycling the inputs on the TV to redo the "handshake"?

We got a blank screen. (Not pink)
We are going through the DVI output on the mac mini.
For VGA, we have to use a DVI-VGA adapter.
We cycled through random and various inputs but still got a blank screen.


Thanks so much so far!

 

[Blazer]

i dont think the HDCP handshake takes place till protected content is loaded to display, if the op is just trying to display a OS signal it show up !

op did you select the correct video signal from the panny plasma ?

 

[Tiamat]

i dont think the HDCP handshake takes place till protected content is loaded to display, if the op is just trying to display a OS signal it show up !

op did you select the correct video signal from the panny plasma ?

Yeah, I just cycled between all 3 HDMI just to make sure. I'll try again tomorrow sometime :/

 

[Blazer]

try reseating the ram.

 

[slag]

Could be a bad cable. I have a bad hdmi cable I bought from monoprice that displays no signal.. Once in awhile I can see a little white snow, but no signal.

 

[Tiamat]

try reseating the ram.

I dont believe the ram be at fault? the mac mini works with VGA...



Update: Problem solved. Formatted the Mac and it works now! Thanks all!

 

[Tiamat]

New Problem - screen blinks on and off on and off. ARGH

Cable is secure. Moving it around does not affect the rate of which it blinks on/off

 

[sivart]

blinking sounds like a handshake issue (HDCP)

Does the plasma have a VGA in that you could try. Just to eliminate a video problem with the mac?

 

[CubanlB]

Is the adapter an all in one cable or an adapter with an hdmi-hdmi cable connected to it?

Once upon a time many Mitsubishi LCDs had this problem with Panasonic Bluray players. (Screen would go blue, then black then back to blue, so on and so forth) The solution? Use a cheaper cable that did not have the HDMI CEC pin (might have been the hot plug detect pin but who cares...). I'm not kidding.

If you try the VGA cable for troubleshooting just remember that most TVs will only accept 1024x768 over VGA.

 

[Tiamat]

DVI-> HDMI cable is an all-in-one cable.

VGA works fine, just looks like crap due to limitation in resolution.

I had DVI-HDMI working for like 2 minutes before it just started randomly blinking on/off with weird color problems at the same time.

I'm gonna try the cable with my Dell 2408 monitor because it supports HDMI... Dunno what else to try though.

 

[Tiamat]

The cable seems to work fine between the mac mini and my dell 2408...

Next test will be to haul my desktop to drive the panny... (isolate maybe Apple is a shit for connecting to HT)

Desktop computer works, but the 1920x1080P is windowed. None of the fill options on the TV look satisfactory. This all with the DVI-HDMI cable. :/

 

[jtvang125]

If your video card is ATI you'll have to go into the control panel and set scaling to 0%. Don't know why it defaults to 15% so I was getting about an 1" black bar all around.

 

[Tiamat]

If your video card is ATI you'll have to go into the control panel and set scaling to 0%. Don't know why it defaults to 15% so I was getting about an 1" black bar all around.

Thanks, I'll go ahead and do that. I'm running Windows server2008 so it wasn't giving me the standard ATI splash screen to do that. I'll probably just dl CCC and get the setting done. This is promising.

I dunno whats up with teh MAC. I think it is trying to be too smart and auto-detect resolution and then the panny just says "NO."

I'm gonna try a more recent mac mini to see if there is any improvement. Otherwise, I guess my gaming rig will have to be HTPC lol. I guess its ok, since I made sure to keep its noise output below 22 dB, perfect for HTPC environment.

 

[victorm]

have a similar problem with a high-end optoma projector. found anything? I need the mini since the projector is set on the ceiling and I cannot afford routing additional cables to it :-(

 

[JoeBleed]

You've probably checked, but what refresh rate is the mac using? And resolution? Try 1024x768 just to see if it will display it and make sure the refresh rate is 60Hz

I recently had to drag out my crt monitor when working on someones computer. Its refresh rate was well out of my TV/monitor's ability. Most newer computers auto detect and readjust but this one didn't.