mac mini graphics card

hello!

Apologies in advance for my severe technological limitations.

I have an incredibly old PC (which came with Windows 98!!) and have decided on a long overdue upgrade.

Having recently bought a Samsung 26" LCD TV which can act as a monitor, I thought that a Mac Mini would best suit my needs. I was just wondering whether the graphics card that comes with the mini would be able to cope with a 26" widescreen without stretching or distorting. Unfortunately (largely due to my TV purchase) I am unable to spend much and would thus be looking for a second-hand one on ebay.

Thanks in advance for your help.

It will work ok. Realize though you will be running atvwhatever resolution you TV is, 720 or 1080 for HD or 480 or w/e for ED and 320 for a standard def. TV. If you have a 26" 1080p tv the quality might look ok, otherwise the quality will be less than average. TV dont display at a high enough resolution.

There's no way he's running a 26" TV with 1080p. It will most probably be a 1366*768 resolution TV. And I have heard some issues with 'getting it right' cause (I'm not sure about this) the mini outputs it at 1280*720...or something like that. Just wait for some more to reply before..

My last TV was a 27" 1080i so I cannot assume the resolution even if it is most likely 720p.
Both macs Ive hooked up to my Samsung worked fine but they have dedicated vid cards. The mini does not. Hopefully someone with a mini can chime in.
Bryan

Most 1080i TVs are 720p. 720p is superior to 1080i (which is actually 576p) most of the times...

goobimama said:

There's no way he's running a 26" TV with 1080p. It will most probably be a 1366*768 resolution TV. And I have heard some issues with 'getting it right' cause (I'm not sure about this) the mini outputs it at 1280*720...or something like that. Just wait for some more to reply before..

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A friend of mine have a 1366*769 26" 1080p HDTV, funny world eh?

1366*769 26" 1080p HDTV

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Doesn't make sense. You specify a 720p resolution and club it with a 1080p resolution.....

goobimama said:

Most 1080i TVs are 720p. 720p is superior to 1080i (which is actually 576p) most of the times...

Click to expand...

How are most 1080i TV's really 720p??
How is it superior? More lines are better so 1080 beats 720. Unless your comparing FPS, which progressive looks smoother than interlaced. I don't know a ton about TV's but I don't think the that TV's upconvert 720p to 1080i. I could see 540i being double to get 1080i, which some TV's do.

goobimama said:

Doesn't make sense. You specify a 720p resolution and club it with a 1080p resolution.....

Click to expand...

His TV could possibly cheat and upconvert the 720p 60FPS signal to 1080p 30FPS signal.

Either way, none of this has to do with his question.

Either way, none of this has to do with his question.

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That's one thing we both agree...

bryphotoguy said:

How are most 1080i TV's really 720p??

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The majority of HDTVs (especially the smaller ones) are 720p. The ones that do support 1080i just downsaple it to 720p.

That's why I'm not bothering with HDTV at the moment; I'm waiting until 40+" 1080p screens are more affordable. Until then I'll just get a HD computer display and watch HD video that way.

Cheers for the somewhat confusing help. To clear things up, my TV's 1366x768 and 720p.

What I was asking essentially is, does the mini (both old and new versions) have the option to change the screen properties to 1366x768 since my current pc hooked up simply stretches a 1280x1024 to fit, which looks rather odd.

Cheers.

Okay. The mac mini does 1366*768 resolution when run through analog. But with DVI to HDMI, it goes into 1280*720 resolution. I think there's an app which allows you to force other resolutions...

Ah. its called DisplayConfigX.

goobimama said:

Okay. The mac mini does 1366*768 resolution when run through analog. But with DVI to HDMI, it goes into 1280*720 resolution. I think there's an app which allows you to force other resolutions...

Click to expand...

Fantastic. Thanks for that!!

Now to find a cheap one on ebay.

I purchased a 6' DVI to HDMI at Best Buy for $60. I saw them at Fry's for $10. Try http://www.frys.com

I don't know how the quality is on a $10 cord though.

to be honest, even a $10 cord can do. The information being passed through it is digital, so if there can be no distortion or interference. It will either work, or it won't.


...at least thats what I was told.