04-20-2008, 08:10 AM

For quite some time I have been using my Element 32" HD LCD TV (little-known brand) as a computer monitor to watch webisodes and such, and have never had trouble with my very old Dell (win xp) laptop. Last night, I tried it with my new macbook via the vga adapter, but the tv flickered, flashed "not compatible," and then the blue screen just sat looking at me with the "no input" up in the corner. I'm not sure if it's a mac issue, because I then tried it with a much newer gateway (also win xp), and it also said "no input" but it never said "not compatible." The TV manual is useless, and web searches have turned up very little. My hope is that it has something to do with the newer video cards and/or drivers, and that I can tweak something in the resolution settings or something and get this to work. For now, the TV only likes my ancient dell, and I have posted the question also on FixYa (techie questions of all flavors). Ironic thing is, the video card/driver on the Dell is the only thing that is causing me issues as I try to switch that machine over to Ubuntu!

04-20-2008, 03:22 PM

Sounds like the resolution is either too high or low.

04-20-2008, 09:10 PM

Thanks; Someone also replied to my post on the FixYa.com forum. They said that the resolution AND refresh rates of the TV and the laptop must match exactly or it won't work, and that newer computers have faster refresh rates (thus the non-issue with my ancient Dell). Resolution's easy to adjust. However, the refresh rate in my macbook display preferences is grayed out and there's an "n/a" in there. I've read that the standard refresh rate for most lcd monitors is 60 Hz and that as a rule they can't be adjusted, but then why can the pc's running win xp be adjusted?? Aren't many of them lcd's also? Does anyone know if this can be adjusted on a macbook (white, purchased just a week ago)?? We have no satellite or cable, so we do most of our TV viewing via the web (Fancast and the like) and hate to crowd around the laptop if we can get it on the 32" screen. The fact the NetFlix instant viewing won't work on my mac is a major bummer... NetFlix needs to remedy that, and I will be complaining to them.