Tracking lines on laptop panel video when mirroring image via DVI

[AnthroAndStargate]

When I plug in a DVI to HDMI cable into my Macbook Pro and mirror the desktop (so the same image is shown on both the laptop panel and the HDMI HD tv, both resolutions native at 1440x900) and watch video, often the video will have "tracking lines" on it for the laptop panel display but not on the second monitor (in this case the HD TV). When I say tracking lines i mean a line that distorts the video goes up the screen occasionally.. like those old VCRs.

I took my laptop to the apple store and showed the tech on his apple cinema display and it did the same thing, so i don't think it is just my TV. He said he had no clue why and that it was probably because my nvidia 8600 with 256mb of vram was not powerful enough to mirror the desktop twice. This seems bogus though. It also seems that when I mirror the desktop the windows and what not get "laggy" but this could be my imagination.

Do you guys think this is a software issue or a hardware one? I don't want to take it to the Apple store and argue with them to fix it then have them dig around in my GPU for nothing. I'm at a loss for what to do, help!!

P.S. This is an Early 08 MBP 2.4 Ghz Pernyn, 4gb of ram, 8600 256mb vram, runnign OS X 10.5.5 (but this has been happening since I first got the computer).

 

[TheStu]

Originally posted by: AnthroAndStargate
When I plug in a DVI to HDMI cable into my Macbook Pro and mirror the desktop (so the same image is shown on both the laptop panel and the HDMI HD tv, both resolutions native at 1440x900) and watch video, often the video will have "tracking lines" on it for the laptop panel display but not on the second monitor (in this case the HD TV). When I say tracking lines i mean a line that distorts the video goes up the screen occasionally.. like those old VCRs.

I took my laptop to the apple store and showed the tech on his apple cinema display and it did the same thing, so i don't think it is just my TV. He said he had no clue why and that it was probably because my nvidia 8600 with 256mb of vram was not powerful enough to mirror the desktop twice. This seems bogus though. It also seems that when I mirror the desktop the windows and what not get "laggy" but this could be my imagination.

Do you guys think this is a software issue or a hardware one? I don't want to take it to the Apple store and argue with them to fix it then have them dig around in my GPU for nothing. I'm at a loss for what to do, help!!

P.S. This is an Early 08 MBP 2.4 Ghz Pernyn, 4gb of ram, 8600 256mb vram, runnign OS X 10.5.5 (but this has been happening since I first got the computer).

It could be the fact that you have an 8-Series nVidia mobile GPU... you know the ones that break really early on. Especially when you consider that I have hooked my first-gen MacBook up to 1920*1200 displays before and drove them along with my laptop display (1280*800) with no issues at all (well, beyond the fact that I am pretty much limited to documents and the like when trying to drive both. With my laptop in closed lid mode though, I can play back 720p on the 1920*1200 display)

 

[AnthroAndStargate]

Originally posted by: TheStu

Originally posted by: AnthroAndStargate
When I plug in a DVI to HDMI cable into my Macbook Pro and mirror the desktop (so the same image is shown on both the laptop panel and the HDMI HD tv, both resolutions native at 1440x900) and watch video, often the video will have "tracking lines" on it for the laptop panel display but not on the second monitor (in this case the HD TV). When I say tracking lines i mean a line that distorts the video goes up the screen occasionally.. like those old VCRs.

I took my laptop to the apple store and showed the tech on his apple cinema display and it did the same thing, so i don't think it is just my TV. He said he had no clue why and that it was probably because my nvidia 8600 with 256mb of vram was not powerful enough to mirror the desktop twice. This seems bogus though. It also seems that when I mirror the desktop the windows and what not get "laggy" but this could be my imagination.

Do you guys think this is a software issue or a hardware one? I don't want to take it to the Apple store and argue with them to fix it then have them dig around in my GPU for nothing. I'm at a loss for what to do, help!!

P.S. This is an Early 08 MBP 2.4 Ghz Pernyn, 4gb of ram, 8600 256mb vram, runnign OS X 10.5.5 (but this has been happening since I first got the computer).

It could be the fact that you have an 8-Series nVidia mobile GPU... you know the ones that break really early on. Especially when you consider that I have hooked my first-gen MacBook up to 1920*1200 displays before and drove them along with my laptop display (1280*800) with no issues at all (well, beyond the fact that I am pretty much limited to documents and the like when trying to drive both. With my laptop in closed lid mode though, I can play back 720p on the 1920*1200 display)

So do you think I'm gonna need to take it to the Apple store and have them replace the GPU? :/ I guess it is going to take some convincing. I wonder if I should wait or not - I don't want to be given a crappy refurb model of the same model - if I'm going to beforced to get someone elses laptop I'd rather have the next gen haha.