[w8ing4intelmacs]

I know that Mac Mini's have overscan issues (i have first hand knowledge using a MM and my HDTV). my question is why? what is it about the DVI connection that Mac Mini's have that make it overscan.

BTW, my AppleTV is fine with my HDTV.

[mduell]

It's an issue with your TV. See if you can turn it off in your TV's menu system. If not, change the refresh rate on the Mac mini either to 60Hz or to not 60Hz; some TVs will automatically overscan/not overscan based on the refresh rate.

[w8ing4intelmacs]

Why would my TV overscan with my mini but work fine with my AppleTV?

BTW, I'm not being argumentative. I just want to understand what's going on.

[mduell]

Could be that the TV handles the input the ATV uses differently (if the ATV uses a different input than the mini)or the ATV either does or does not do 60Hz... what's the TV model?

[w8ing4intelmacs]

I have a Samsung HP-S4253. I use a DVI-to-HDMI cable with the mini and an HDMI cable with the ATV.

[mduell]

Did you read the part in the HP-S4253 owners manual where it says it doesn't work with computers with a DVI->HDMI adapter?
Given the low resolution of the set, I'd just use VGA; for non-text content it should be fine.

In the future, it'd be a good idea to follow Step 1 in the MacNN General Forum Rules Posting Guidelines; particularly the "Do a general web search for the problem, too — you're probably not the first person to encounter it" bit. This problem with your TV is well documented in the owners manual and other online forums.

[chichow]

anyone have a link or something to scan issues with mac mini?

[Luca Rescigno]

I don't know how to fix it on a Mac, but I am able to use my LCD TV with my computer with no overscan by adjusting the resolution through my graphics card drivers. This is through Windows, so I don't know how it's done on a Mac, but the drivers (ATI Catalyst Control Center) allow me to set the resolution to 1280x720 or 1152x648 without pixel interpolation - that is, I can set it to a resolution at or below my LCD's native resolution, and instead of interpolating the pixels to fill the entire usable area, it only uses the center of the screen for the display.

On my particular TV (a Westinghouse 32"), setting it to 1280x720 results in a slightly cropped image, while using 1152x648 gives me an image with small black bars around each side, but if I set the TV to the lightest of two zoom modes it fills it perfectly, with no cropping or black bars.

I would look for a utility that allows you more options for changing your resolution. If you're just doing 1280x720, you probably won't be able to see the menu bar. You'll need to set it to 1152x648 somehow.

[mduell]

Originally Posted by chichow 

anyone have a link or something to scan issues with mac mini?

Overscan is not a Mac mini specific issue; it's a TV issue.

Originally Posted by Luca Rescigno 

I don't know how to fix it on a Mac, but I am able to use my LCD TV with my computer with no overscan by adjusting the resolution through my graphics card drivers. This is through Windows, so I don't know how it's done on a Mac, but the drivers (ATI Catalyst Control Center) allow me to set the resolution to 1280x720 or 1152x648 without pixel interpolation - that is, I can set it to a resolution at or below my LCD's native resolution, and instead of interpolating the pixels to fill the entire usable area, it only uses the center of the screen for the display.

You can do this in OS X with SwitchResX, but the problem is the TV not the computer.

[Luca Rescigno]

Originally Posted by mduell 

Overscan is not a Mac mini specific issue; it's a TV issue.

You can do this in OS X with SwitchResX, but the problem is the TV not the computer.

I know that the TV is what is cutting the sides off, but wouldn't switching to that lower resolution solve the issues? The problem is really a combination of the TV's overscan and the Mini outputting a resolution that gets cut off. Since you can't remove overscan from the TV, the only other way to fix it is to give the TV a resolution that doesn't get cut off. That's also why I said providing a resolution with a buffer zone around it (that is, setting it to display 1152x648 as real 1:1 pixels in the center of the screen) is a good idea.

It looks like SwitchResX can do all those things, so I'd suggest trying it out.

[Sideshow Bob]

Originally Posted by w8ing4intelmacs 

Why would my TV overscan with my mini but work fine with my AppleTV?

BTW, I'm not being argumentative. I just want to understand what's going on.

w8ing4intelmacs, you are being tricked by the user interface to think that ATV is working fine but the mini shows overscan. In fact, the TV is responding to the mini and ATV both the same, meaning both are being rendered with overscan. It's just that you don't notice with ATV because the Front Row UI is designed to keep important elements away from the edge of the screen so that you can't tell that the edges are missing. The same cannot be said of the OS X UI where the menu and dock are right at the edge and hence you notice when there is overscan in the display.

If you were to run Front Row on the mini, you would have the same experience as with ATV, namely you couldn't tell there is any overscan because Front Row does not have a menu bar, or anything else anywhere near the edges. So this is the answer to your question; your TV is overscanning with both ATV and the mini. It's just that you can't tell with ATV (or Front Row in general).