Mac Mini - dim display

Ifrit

Ifrit

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Currently I use a mac mini and the DVI - VGA adaptor which is connected to a iiyama 19'' CRT monitor.

Something I noticed is, that the Mac mini's output is dim and a bit blurry compared to my other machines.

So far I tested my ibooks's external VGA output (same resolution > 1280x1024 @ 85Hz with Firmware hack), and an Athlon XP with ATI Radeon 9700 graphics card. Every machine has great output with vivid colors and the display of the "color" white is actually bright compared to the mac mini which seems to display white as very light grey.

Another DVI - VGA adaptor doesn't change the quality of the picture nor did a color calibration nor did the new OSX version Tiger fix it.

After a google search I found out that I am not alone with this problem. A german computer magazine (c't) tested the vga signal strength of the mac mini which is below the VESA standart of 520 mV.

Some monitors are capable to detect the signal strengh and compensate (for) it if it is to low, unfortunally mine doesn't.

Is there a way to remedy/"cure" this problem? Does anybody else in this forum notice it?

I am sorry if this has already been reported. But several searches brought no results.
 
Did you try fine-tuning the color calibration? Maybe a brighter picture will solve your problem. Also take a closer look at Gammawork. For the blurry effect try to change the horizontal frequencies. On some of my computers a lower value for the horizontal frequency caused a much sharper picture.
Good luck!
 
Already did fine tuning with enabled "expert controls". It didn't changed much. As I already said, my ibook's vga output (also Tiger) is much better compared to my mac mini at the same resolution.

So, I don't think the different display/color models of the various machines I use is the reason.

I believe its an hardware issue (which Apple seems to deny). I thought that buying a new dvi adaptor, cable might fix it.

But I don't know where to start. The adaptor I am looking for has to detect and compensate the low voltage of the display signal. Is this even possible?
 
This is a semi-wide-spread problem when using the DVI->VGA adapter. There's a topic about it on Apple's discussions boards: http://discussions.info.apple.com/webx?14@974.QJMbadgbQAi.1@.68a64fff (Apple's server seems a bit screwy atm; ironically, Firefox has better luck loading it than Safari.)

One user there suggested going into your Universal Access preference pane and adjusting the contrast setting, and another user reported this helping. But it's definitely not just a matter of improper software settings, at least in most cases.

AFAIK, there is no real fix for this issue, eccept, of course, to use a native DVI connection. :(
 
i have heard that this is mainly a problem with older screens and mini. unfortunately that is just the kind of screen most people are going to use.
 
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