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gamblor · Jan 24, 2007, 09:25 PM

I"m attempting to connect my 500 MHz Sawtooth to my Panasonic TH-37PX60U Plasma HDTV via the DVI out using a DVI-HDMI connector into the TV's HDMI input. When I boot up, the Apple startup logo appears and then the TV loses the signal. I tried setting up a custom resolution per SwitchResX to no avail. I tried DisplayConfigX but it crashes out as soon as I start it up. Also, SwitchResX reads the connected display as an SVGA/VGA display for some reason. Does anybody have any experience trying to get a similar system hooked up to an HDTV or have any tips? Thanks.

Gossamer · Jan 25, 2007, 08:18 PM

Is your Sawtooth capable of utilizing two monitors at once? If so, can you have a normal monitor on with the computer on, and then just plug in the HDTV and hit 'detect displays?'

BigBadBiologist · Jan 25, 2007, 08:28 PM

What kind of video card is in your sawtooth?

P · Jan 26, 2007, 08:47 AM

I had a similar setup. It was an LCD TV (LG) and an old iMac over VGA, eventually shifting to a homebuilt HTPC with DVI. While my setup isn't identical to you, some of my experience might be interesting.

TVs usually have a very limited set of accepted resolutions. The manual can help you there, but anything outside regular XGA (1024*768) at an accepted refresh rate - often only @60 Hz - is very unlikely to work. For my LCD, regular VGA (640*480@60 Hz) also works, as well as WXGA (1280*720/1366*768). I'd suggest going for 1024*768@60 Hz to begin with.

You may also have to set up the TV. Mine has an autoconfigure menu option that will setup the picture for the output, along with a switch for the HDMI port (PC or DTV signal).

gamblor · Jan 26, 2007, 10:05 AM

I have the standard Rage 128 Pro installed. It has a VGA out and a DVI out but doesn't support dual monitors.

I'll check the TV's specs and try setting up from that end as wel. When I booted up with the G4 connected to the TV, I wasn't getting any picture so I had to use VNC from my laptop to try to adjust the display settings. That was when it was only reading the display as VGA despite being in the DVI slot. Not sure if that makes a difference. I'm also going to borrow a DVI monitor from a friend to see if I can hook that up and make adjustments that way.