Mac Mini plus Dell 1503FP: what's wrong?
M-k. Here's what I've got. A 4 year old Dell PC that has a 1503FP flat panel - you know, the one in the illustration Apple gives when they show it hooked up to your existing non-Mac monitor/keyboard/mouse. Well, I've been between Macs (having sold my iBook to a friend), so I decided to get a Mini until the next generation Powerbooks are released. I've got the Mini hooked up to the Dell flat panel with the DVI connection, and the Dell hooked up to the monitor with the VGA (the monitor has dual connections and you can switch between them with a button on the front).
Here's the problem: The monitor still looks great hooked up to the Dell, even through VGA, but the Mini doesn't look as good even with DVI. Granted my PC has one of the old NVidia QuadroPro2 (64mb) cards, but will that make that much difference?
I've seen the Mini hooked up to the new Apple flat panels, and it was at least as good or better than my Dell to a Dell flat panel through DVI. Why, then, does the Mini not look as good through another brand of LCD as it does through an Apple? I'm sure the new Apple monitors are superior to my Dell flat panel, but my Mini should look better than the Dell computer since it's going through the digital DVI connection.
Anyone else have any experience the Mini plus non-Apple flat panels?
(oops - posted in wrong forum. Thanks for moving!)
Here's the problem: The monitor still looks great hooked up to the Dell, even through VGA, but the Mini doesn't look as good even with DVI. Granted my PC has one of the old NVidia QuadroPro2 (64mb) cards, but will that make that much difference?
I've seen the Mini hooked up to the new Apple flat panels, and it was at least as good or better than my Dell to a Dell flat panel through DVI. Why, then, does the Mini not look as good through another brand of LCD as it does through an Apple? I'm sure the new Apple monitors are superior to my Dell flat panel, but my Mini should look better than the Dell computer since it's going through the digital DVI connection.
Anyone else have any experience the Mini plus non-Apple flat panels?
(oops - posted in wrong forum. Thanks for moving!)
Comments
Originally posted by Karl Kuehn
What do you mean when you say it doesn't look as good. That could mean any number of things. There are a few very specific remedies, but each one is specific to a problem, and you haven't given one yet.
Sorry, let me be more specific.
1. Screen is not as bright and snappy (been though the color section of prefs and tried every option under the sun). I'll assume this may be caused in part by the low-end video chip in the Mac, or an ATI driver problem.
2. Perception of screen sharpness is lower
3. Font smoothing does not look like it does on an Apple panel. If I look really close at black text, I can see red and green pixels in some areas instead of black (like when your convergence settings on a big screen tv are slightly off). I know there are complaints about OSX font smoothing, however, I just got my wife a new iBookG4 last night, and I don't see these artifacts (same native resolution and video chip). It seems worst on web text in Safari. Turning off font smoothing using TinkerTool helps, but there is a lot of text that ignores the fact you've turned off smoothing, even with all the options selected to turn of smoothing for both Quartz and Quickdraw.
4. The DVI cable: I've noticed that dual-link cables do not have the four pins around the one larger flat one, but single-link ones do. The Mini's DVI-to-VGA converter has these four extra pins, but the cable that came with the Dell does not. On the DVI-in connector on the monitor it does not have a place for these four pins to go. So even if I got a DVI cable that matches the amount of pin spots on the Mini's connector, it would not plug into the Dell flat panel. Maybe this is the issue - I've never bothered to look at Apple's DVI cables on their flat panels - do they have those four pins around the large flat one?
Oh... and Apple used a not-so-fast video card, not a low quality one. I know that the Windows world does not recognize the difference, but Apple usually does.
2. As MrSparkle pointed out, if you aren't running the display at it's native resolution, things will look fuzzy. This is a property of LCD displays. Are you running at the native resolution?
3. Sounds like #2.
Originally posted by Karl Kuehn
1. There has been some issues with some defective units going out with bad video chips that product a dim display... but there are other issues that might be in front of that. Apple Service has been replacing units with the bad chips.
Oh... and Apple used a not-so-fast video card, not a low quality one. I know that the Windows world does not recognize the difference, but Apple usually does.
2. As MrSparkle pointed out, if you aren't running the display at it's native resolution, things will look fuzzy. This is a property of LCD displays. Are you running at the native resolution?
3. Sounds like #2.
Yes, I'm using the native resolution, in this case 1024x768.
FWIW, the VGA connection picture quality is abysmal compared to using the VGA on the Dell's NVidia card. The screen is much darker and fuzzier. The VGA Dell connection looks slightly better than my Apple's DVI connection.
Originally posted by ibook911
I must admit that I have a hard time making Macs like certain external displays. My Mac Mini didn't like my Sony CRT, and my Powerbook didn't like my Sony LCD, so I bought the Apple Cinema Display.
Looks like it's time to get an Apple display. I hate my current screen's 15" size anyway!
Originally posted by inslider
Looks like it's time to get an Apple display. I hate my current screen's 15" size anyway!
While I am not going to step in the way of your wish-fulfillment on the Apple display... if you read my point 1 (which you quoted) you might have figured out that this will probably not help you out at all. You probably got one of the bad video chips that are a known production issue. Contact Apple Care and they will have you do a series of steps, and when that does not correct the issue will swap out the defective unit.
Originally posted by Karl Kuehn
While I am not going to step in the way of your wish-fulfillment on the Apple display... if you read my point 1 (which you quoted) you might have figured out that this will probably not help you out at all. You probably got one of the bad video chips that are a known production issue. Contact Apple Care and they will have you do a series of steps, and when that does not correct the issue will swap out the defective unit.
Well, you said dim displays, but didn't specify if it was VGA-related, DVI-related or both. There is the known issue of snow on some DVI users monitors, and mine doesn't have that problem. Are the snow issue and dim issue appearing on the same systems or separately? Mine only seems less vivid/sharp on the DVI, but quite dimmer only on the VGA. I guess a trip back to the Apple store would help resolve it either way. Maybe the defective video chips have varying degrees of "defectiveness".
Go into the Display System Preference and set the refresh rate of the monitor from 75 Hz to 60 Hz. Worked for me?the Dell monitors look great now.
Hope this helps!