Can't connect Mac Mini to TV via VGA.

OzyOly

OzyOly

OzyOly

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So, my stepdad has bought a mac mini for his 42" 1080p TV. It (the TV) had VGA input for PC.

With his mac mini, he got a mini-DVI to DVI adapter. So disappointed at first, and had to wait till the weekend to get the cables.

He gets a DVI cable and a DVI>VGA adapter, the kind of thing I used to use on my old PC when using an older monitor.

So Mac Mini>mini DVI-DVI adapter>DVI cable>DVI-VGA adapter>TV

It doesn't seem to work though. The TV definitely works, we tried his old windows pc via vga and everything was fine, accept it's got a tonne of viruses.

So, taking his mac to my house, we try it on my samsung TV, vga again, no video.
We then plug the mini_dvi-adapter-vga-cable-hybrid-monster-thing into my iMac to my TV and still nothing.

As you can imagine he's a bit peeved. A new mac mini, no VGA adapter included and when he spends £70 on cables at the purple shirt place, he still can't get it work.

Anyone got a clue to why this might not be working? Do I HAVE to buy apple's mini-dvi>vga connector to get it to work, do they block (by magic) third party adapters at the other end of the cable?

Cheers guys.
 
The mini DVI to DVI converter doesn't pass through the analogue signal which is needed for the DVI to VGA converter to pass out a VGA signal. (see here) I.e. it's mini-DVI to DVI-D not DVI-I.

Hence, yes I'm pretty sure if you need VGA out you will need the Apple cable.
 
bit lost mac mini has dvi so its

mac to dvi to (i use dvi-hdmi) dvi convertor into tv.. is that correct ?

so either try a dvi-hdmi in all you have tried and or take it back in to purple peeps to have cable they supplied checked.. ie take ur mac mini and there supplied cable

as suggested above mini-dvi is macbook not mini mac
 
You need the Mini-DVI to VGA adapter from Apple. The Mini-DVI to DVI adapter doesn't pass analogue through so you won't get a signal.
 
You need the Mini-DVI to VGA as stated before.

However, would it not be better to hook it up via HDMI (if possible)?

The VGA picture from my computer horizontally tears half way through the screen (sort of looks like the top half is out of sync with the bottom half). Maybe it's limited to my TV but I thought I read it was a VGA limitation.
 
Cheers guys. Got a DVI to HDMI cable and it's working fine. Not full res though. His TV is 1920x1200 but it's not listed on his display preferences so as 1368x720 or something, with overscan which looks okish.

Now we just need to work out the problem he has with surround sound. =P
 
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