So I got a mouse and keyboard today, and set to finally setting up my Mac mini.
First of all, I accidentally ordered mini-Toslink to Toslink, instead of mini-Toslink to mini-Toslink. Yes, my
TV uses mini-Toslink, not Toslink! It uses Toslink for output, of course, but only mini-Toslink for input. (Ironically, that was probably to make it "easier" for people who wanted to hook up their PCs to it.) I only need a 76 cent adapter, but still...
What's worse is that my TV is a 16:10 screen running at 1440x900, okay? 16:10, fairly high resolution - perfect for a computer monitor, right? But for some reason, it doesn't support 1440x900 using HDMI. It just switches between taking the signal (no matter what I set the Mac mini's resolution at) and putting it through either 720p or 1080i. These are both 16:9, which means that the top (i.e., the menu bar) and the bottom (i.e., the bottom of the dock, where I can see which programs are running) are cut off. Changing the widescreen settings on my TV just stretch the 16:9 picture to fit the 16:10 frame, rather then letting me see what's supposed to be
behind the black bars on my screen.
Does HDMI not support resolutions that are 720p or 1080p? I know that it can support higher resolutions, but is it somehow limited to 16:9? If so, why don't the 16:9 resolutions on my computer work?
I'm pretty sure it's just a limitation of my display. Yay, Sony!
The manual says I'm supposed to use the VGA port. But does VGA even
do 1440x900?
It just
irks me that I have to use VGA in order to "get the most" out of my TV. Why can't they make its full resolution work with HDMI? And what if VGA doesn't work? I will have a 1440:900 display with
no way to put 1440:900 content on it. What's the point?
Reducing the resolution lets me see more and more of the stuff I'm missing (since it makes the menu bar and stuff "bigger"). I have it set to 600x800 right now, which lets me see like the bottom third of the menu bar, which is enough to let me click on the Apple logo, the wi-fi symbol, etc. But still...it's hardly an ideal use of my nice 1440x900 display. I'll have to order a mini-DVI to HDMI cable...yay.