Mac Mini and 42'' HDTV

Hello,
I have a philips 42'' HDTV (Philips 42PF7621D 42" LCD Widescreen Flat TV which I believe has a resolution of 1366 x 768)

The Mac mini seems to have a high enough output as it has an output of 1920x1200

Now the whole problem of how do I get them working together properly since under system preferences there is no resolution that fits these two perfectly. There is no custom output options so I'm stuck with (1280x768) the only one that shows the menu bar at the top of the screen (which really is necessary
This by the way gives space at the side of the screen (leaving unused screen real estate)

I'm going through the DVI out of the mini into the HDMI on the TV via a connection just to let you know

Is there any way of putting in custom display options to get the whole screen used or does anyone have a fix?

Try going from the DVI output on your Mini to the VGA input on the Phillips. I know that may not be what you would like, (no High Definition) but it might give you the option of displaying the Phillips at its native resolution of 1366 x 768.

Using a third party software solution to obtain a custom resolution is available but normally does not work well. "switchResX" Link

Regards.

While the native resolution of most 720p TV's is 1366 x 768, what is accepted through the inputs is 720p or 1280 x 720. The TV then does the conversion to it's native display.

I would note, before you even think about getting a VGA cable, unless you have one lying around, check the owner's manual of your Phillips. Most of them will list the resolutions their VGA port will accept and many TV's do not support above 800 x 600.

As to the black bars you're experiencing, let's just say that OS X's support of anything via HDMI bites the bullet big time and is way behind MS here. (To be honest, I don't know if it's OS X or a matter of them not having proper video drivers.) switchresX is the only real option. I've been living without it and just turning off overscan when I'm using a TV for anything other than watching video's from my Mac's.