Bravia KDL-32S5100 (32" LCD TV) drivers?

There seem as of yet to be no drivers for this TV.

The TV works, but 10.6 will output but one resolution (800x600). Since it's an HDTV, it goes much higher but Snow Leopard seems not to know how to output this to it.

I contacted Apple, they said contact Sony. I contacted Sony, they said they don't do drivers, contact Apple.

For "The Most Compatible Yet" version of OS X, it seems to have some strange compatibility issues....

Has anyone else got this problem, or know of a solution?

There are no monitor drivers required whether on a Mac or Windows or Linux.

What Mac do you have?
I would "assume" you are connecting via VGA - please verify.

Have you used the 'Detect Displays' button in System Preferences - Displays?


Can tell you that Sony is infamous for not supporting many resolutions on the VGA input on their HDTVs.
Looks as though yours should be able to get up to 1280 or 1360 x 768 - if it's transmitting proper EDID info.

edit: some of the Sonys had a preference in the order the equipment was turned on also.
Another thing to try is turning the TV on after the computer.

Thanks for the pointers, bobtomay, here's more info:


I have a MacBook Aluminum, connecting through Mini Display Port to VGA adapter.

The thing is, it worked without any hitch before I upgraded to 10.6 (I was running latest version of Leopard).

I tried all of the different ways of hooking things up and turning things on (even before calling Apple), rebooted, did the clearing procedure Apple had me go about (I forget what I was clearing), detected displays, etc. etc etc... I did everything that should have been done.

With 10.5, I plugged in the TV and it worked at 1920x1080 (non-interlaced) just fine.

It's not an issue of the TV being picky, it's not an issue of supported resolutions, it's an issue of 10.6 not dealing properly with the TV. Under 10.5, the TV was recognized properly (manufacture name appears in Display settings), while under 10.6 it's recognized only as a generic LCD display.

The advice I got from Apple was to "keep checking the software page" in case a driver update shows up. I got the impression that they had no idea what to do, and just gave me something to keep me occupied. I re-installed 10.5 and now sit with that and a $40 coaster (aka the Snow Leopard disc).

I'm waiting for support to be updated so that I can use 10.6, but it's up to me - I asked Apple support whether they had a support list so that I could be contacted when things were working, but there is no such list I was told.

Thanks for the update.

Looks like you've gone back and forth between 10.5 & 10.6, that's good info to have.

The fix shouldn't be that hard. Not really a change in the video driver, but merely in it's ability at receiving/interpreting the proper EDID from the TV. Unless it's due to poor implementation on Sony's side and only a few models being affected. That could be a tough one to be fixed on Apple's side unfortunately.

OK thanks for the info bob. Hopefully it's the quick fix scenario

Is there anyplace I can go to check on the status of things like this? I do want to start using 10.6, but I don't want to take a risk of having to re-do the 10.5 install again.

The best place to check will be to keep tabs on the 10.6 updates. Once you've found there has been an update, just google the update - ex. "download 10.6.1". You'll find Apple's combo update page similar to this one to see what sort of issues have been corrected in that update.

My personal advice, if you don't have a backup already:

Get yourself an external drive and use SuperDuper! to make a bootable backup.

First, when (not if) your internal drive fails, you'll be able to just boot to your external and keep on trucking as though nothing (or at least not much) has happened until you have time to get a replacement drive.

Second, in cases like yours, where there is an issue with an update or upgrade, it's really a simple matter to boot from the external and then use SuperDuper! to restore your internal back to the point prior to the update/upgrade.

That backup allows for much more also. I did a SL upgrade initially. Couldn't even boot into it once done. The system booted up to a kernel panic. That backup allowed me to boot to my backup of Leopard, take a look at the error logs of SL, find the offending 3rd party app that was causing the kernel panic, remove it, and get into SL. It really is worth it's weight. A restore of about 150GB from my firewire drive takes less than an hour.

That sounds like a good set of ideas. Thanks bob.

As an update, I re-installed Leopard and it worked fine. For some reason I can't remember I installed the upgrade again thinking that with an update that dealt with "several issues" related to the video out port and LCD displays I'd be fine. Not the case.

It seems that Apple just doesn't care. Any thoughts?

Fiddling around with SwitchResX & for fun set the default resolution to what I was looking for. POOF! Somehow the display is recognized as "SONY TV" (before some generic name), and 1080p works again.

I thought I left all this voodoo behind when I stopped buying PCs, but I guess not. Perhaps the problem is with Sony and 10.5 had some trick it used to get around it, but it would have been nice for it to have migrated with to 10.6 if that's the case.

More on the voodoo:

SwitchResX to change default resolution; unplug monitor, plug in. Quit SRX & select save. Don't ever unplug monitor if you don't want to have to do this whole thing again.

Update 2:

It seems to be about timing. Is there a chance that the new Mini Display Port driver isn't allowing enough time for the EDID to come through? The highest chances of success I've experience so far are when SRX has been open and (presumably) doing some sort of reading on that end. Is there some place I can look and maybe set a different value for a timeout that it's using?

More info in the following post. The first item has fixed it for many (including the op in that thread), the second for others.

http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/982427-post7.html

Did reset, nothing happened. Looking into timing issue.