My forehead has a brick shaped bruise...

Like so many others it seems, I really want to like the Mac... but the simplest things are just so well hidden!

I gave up on trying to make the mini productive in my office some time ago, and just finaly got around to re-birthing it in the Lounge room to let it focus on its forte with digital media and the like...

I've bought a genuine Apple adaptor to provide a composite video signal (shocking quality I know, but the best my aged TV can cope with ) On first run, the video was simply aweful - grey smudges on a jumping grey background. I found that the system defaulted to a 60hz NTSC signal, while my TV required a 50hz PAL signal. Changed thak OK, and got some semblance of color back, but still had to set resolution to 640x480, and enlarge fonts to about 16point and play about with some other settings to make the screen readable. All these settings were saved into a new profile for my "display".

Now the problems start...

1) Not ALL of the fonts pay attention to the size setting. Some remain indecipherabley small.

2) Not ALL the windows respect the fact that the screen resolution is only 640x480. Many even of the basic MacOS functions become unusable because about a third of the window hangs off the bottom of the screen, and there is no scroll bar to get at it. ("Mac HD" gets the height correct, but displays too wide for the screen so anything past the second column is unreachable)

3) Some applications ignore the settings altogether, and switch the screen back to NTSC while they are running. (Should software be able to override hardware settings?)

4) Finally, after a reboot, everything is right back where it started again with the grey fuzzies...

Why won't this jolly machine simply do what it's told? Even the simplest change is just a nightmare!

Please someone, show me that there is an "expert mode" or something, in which the mini can assume I do actually know what I want, and stop behaving like a precocious child...

I don't think it's practical to use an ordinary TV as a monitor with any modern computer. Sorry, but none of your problems surprises me in the least.

I'd suggest you either get an HDTV, or get a real monitor.

I'm sorry to say, but this is like trying to make a cat talk portuguese. You can't expect a modern OS such as OSX to work with your "aged" TV. It's sad, but it's the truth.

Apple didn't really consider people using ,macs with old PAL TVs or any TV made before 2003 for that matter, and I don't think they need to.

Personally I feel that TV and computers are not coming together before 2008 or so. To much Mumbojumbo witht he video involved.

pal said:

Like so many others it seems, I really want to like the Mac... but the simplest things are just so well hidden!

Click to expand...

I would, like many others here, advise you to stop using a Mac like a Windows machine and use it like a Mac. It's a different OS and it works diffently. Forget or "unlearn" all those "Windowsisms" and learn how to use the Mac.

baggss said:

I would, like many others here, advise you to stop using a Mac like a Windows machine and use it like a Mac. It's a different OS and it works diffently. Forget or "unlearn" all those "Windowsisms" and learn how to use the Mac.

Click to expand...

I have gone the other way, I have only been using OS X for a day (I spent 9hours straight on it after I opened the box.) Now I'm at work on a Windows PC and I am having trouble finding things. It's as if OS X puts everything where I am about to look for it, the most logical place. I have had no trouble at all finding my way around OS X, I'm starting to think it was built for me, it's that easy!

It also seems to check my spelling on the fly, where ever I type. Kinda cool really!

I'm sorry guys, but I have to disagree. I think you are completely missing the point...

I know a TV is not ideal as a monitor, and I have no illusions that I could ever make it ideal. Its not ever going to be my main machine, and won't ever be used for wordprosessing, programming, graphic editing or anything else that requires fine details. The only simple little job I have for it, is to pull data from my nas drive and push it onto the TV - photos and mp3s - that's it.

The primary issue is that the mini has a built in setting (640x480) that doesn't display properly. If I was using a computer monitor with this setting, the issue would be exactly the same.

The secondary issue, is that once a hardware setting is made, it doesn't persist - resetting to another default on reboot.

And the tertiary issue is that it seem some software is able to override hardware settings.

The fact that I have it plugged into a TV, and the fact that (only) 3 of the 8 machines on my home network happen to run versions of windows, are both completely irrelevant to the fact that the mini isn't doing what it's told. That's all I was asking for help with...

I can understand why some evangelists would adopt MacOS's "Do it my way, or don't do it!" philosophy, but I'm from the old school that suggests that if a product has a feature built in, then that feature aught to work. After all, that is the great claim for the whole Mac series isn't it? "It Just Works"?

At college last semsester my neighbor the next room over in the dorms used his mac mini (PowerPC) as a DVD player all the time. We watched tons of DVDs on that thing and he never mentioned it being frustrating or anything. When I use my PowerBook to play video files onto a normal TV I always make sure to press the detect displays button and then scale if necessary. It usually takes care of the displays and sets it as high as it can. Although if you are using PAL maybe there is a setting you need to set somewhere so the computers external displays will be in PAL.

You will note that I simply addressed the first lines of your post and not the rest. I agree with most of what you say above, but your initial opening remark seemed like you were completely dissatisfied because the Mac was not working the way you though it should (Apps and window settings aside). It all hinged around the word "hidden" in the second sentence.

If that is not correct then I apologize, but I have seen a recent rash of new OSX users who are more or less complaining about OSX because it's not just like Windows. Perhaps I jumped the gun on this one, again, my apologies if I did.

I've never seen a machine, Mac or PC where the settings continuously went back to the default. What specific app are resetting themselves? If Windows won't size automatically, click the green button in the upper right corner. This should resize the window to the current screen size, perhaps a bit smaller. Are you logging into your specific user account or a generic account? How are you shutting down/restarting the Mac? I've never dealt with a mac in PAL mode so there may be some trick I am unaware of.

My dvd player has given up the ghost so my mini has been doing double duty as my home office computer and as a dvd player on my PAL tv. I can't say I've had any of the problems you're experiencing. When it's hooked up I always use the detect displays in system prefs and everything seems to go fine. How were you not able to make the mini "productive" in your home office? I've got MS office and most pro apps running just fine.

OK. I've managed to resolve one of the issues (although I'm not 100% sure how it happened), but it has also had a beneficial impact on another of them.

After three or four reboots (shutting down via the option on the apple menu - top left), and having the mini rebbot back in ntsc again, the next time, it did stay with the pal, resolution etc. setting that I had put into it. I'm not aware of having done anything any different when setting the video options, so I have no idea why it started to play ball, but am willing simply to accept that it did.

Once this happened, then the osx applications that had not been sizing correctly all started to do so. There are of course still some apps that don't like 640x480, like Garage Band for example, but it does pop up a window saying the resolution is not ideal, so that is OK and quite understandable.

Now that the window size is fitting the display resolution, I have started playing with the "visually impared" options for larger mouse pointers and zooming and the like. It's not as efficient as a hi-res monitor, but is at least working.

The other issue of software overriding hardware setting is still evident. The first example I found is the bundled marble game - not a significant loss I know - but the principle that concerns me is that it is possible for any program to choose to ignore the hardware settings. Can they (the hardware settings) be locked somehow to make them mandatory for all software?

The productivity in the office issue stems from the fact that everything I use is networked. The mini seemed unable to reliably keep a network connection with my file shares, or printers. The nas drive is in the office so that wasn't so bad, but my main laser printer is in the house. Having to run back and forth between the house and the office because the mini kept loosing contact with it, or claiming it was busy when it wasn't, etc etc., just wore me down. I have a linux machine in the office that "just works", and I got sick of chasing after the mini.

Don't get me wrong. The mini looks cool, and what it does, it does quite well. If you want to run it as a stand alone machine, and especially if you've never touched a computer before, then I'm sure it would be great. But in my experience, it just doesn't play well with others.

baggss said:

I would, like many others here, advise you to stop using a Mac like a Windows machine and use it like a Mac. It's a different OS and it works diffently. Forget or "unlearn" all those "Windowsisms" and learn how to use the Mac.

Click to expand...

Well put. Here's an example... It used to be that when I left something sitting around my room it would be exactly where I where I put it. Now I'm married... Every time I leave something laying around it somehow manages to make it back onto the place it belongs... and thus...I can NEVER find anything!

Mac is kind of the same way... It has a tendancy to surprise you by putting things where they belong instead of where Bill Gates accidentally left it.

pal said:

The other issue of software overriding hardware setting is still evident. The first example I found is the bundled marble game...

Click to expand...

Games on both platforms are capable of doing that. Perhaps the game isn't designed for such a low resolution and developers just thought not to be nice about it?

Got it networked to another mac, pc and external drive for storage.

xstep said:

Games on both platforms are capable of doing that. Perhaps the game isn't designed for such a low resolution and developers just thought not to be nice about it?

Click to expand...

I know software, particularly games, is capable of switching between valid operating modes of the hardware. I've even seen such valid choices cause problems. This however wasn't a resolution issue (the full page was there in the grey fuzz), it was an issue of the software switching the machine from PAL to NTSC mode. I would have assumed that if the mini was set to PAL, then nothing should have been able to switch it to a mode of operation that the display hardware didn't support. Not in this case granted, but inappropriate changes in settings are capable of physically damaging hardware. Perhaps it is just a refinement for a newer version of the os?..

pal said:

...I gave up on trying to make the mini productive in my office some time ago, and just finaly got around to re-birthing it in the Lounge room to let it focus on its forte with digital media and the like...

I've bought a genuine Apple adaptor to provide a composite video signal On first run, the video was simply awful - grey smudges on a jumping grey background. I found that the system defaulted to a 60hz NTSC signal, while my TV required a 50hz PAL signal. Changed thak OK, and got some semblance of color back, but still had to set resolution to 640x480, and enlarge fonts to about 16point and play about with some other settings to make the screen readable. All these settings were saved into a new profile for my "display".
Please someone, show me that there is an "expert mode" or something, in which the mini can assume I do actually know what I want...

Click to expand...

I know nothing, yet I hope you don't mind me responding and asking:
are you trying to utilize the Front Row application and using an Apple remote?(You say "mini" but don't specify Intel or PPC, specs, etc..)

I found a lot different results with iTunes, etc.. when I used the remote and opened things 'within the Front Row interface'
...esp. with probs I had like volume.

also, about your specific questions:
there is a 'root' user interface (administrator=windows term)
if you'll do a search here in the software forums perhaps you can find how to access it as I can't really explain it (still new user myself!).

I assume you are accessing the display options through the system preferences/display and then calibrating ? It helped me to click the option which leaves an icon in the menu for me to quickly get back to that setup when I need to.

(sorry if this isn't applicable/helpful...)