How to extend your Mac to a larger screen

With the new Mac Mini and Apple TV with the HDMI interface, we can connect it to a flat-screen TV with a 1920*1080 resolution display. With wireless mouse keyboard/remote control can be easy to surf the internet and watch video. But the other Mac does not provide HDMI interface, what is the good? This article describes a way to comfortably display a Mac on a flat-panel TV using a rotary connector and other accessories.

The solutions described in this paper use the following products and accessories:

A Mac with a mini DisplayPort (Mac Mini, IMac, MBP, MBA and MB)

A flat-screen TV with full HD support

A mini DisplayPort to HDMI conversion head

An HDMI public cable, a 3.5mm audio public cable (some TVs may need 3.5mm audio to RCA Lotus head wiring, such as Panasonic plasma TV)

Wireless keyboard/magic mouse/magic Trackpad (if there is no demand for long distance operation, do not insist)

Apple Remote control (not required)

Iphone/ipod Touch/ipad (not required)

Wireless routers (not required if you do not use the Iphone/ipod touch/ipad for remote control)

List of required software:

XBMC 10.0 for Mac (free)

Rowmote Pro (not required if you do not use iphone/ipod touch/ipad for remote control)

Purchase instructions for various accessories will be attached at the end of the article. Connection method: The mini DisplayPort to HDMI switch head is connected to the Mac Mini DisplayPort, the other end is connected to the HDMI line and connected to the HDMI port on the flat screen TV.

Hint: If a flat-screen TV has multiple HDMI connectors, and your Mac does not support the use of the Mini DisplayPort output audio, be sure to connect the HDMI cable to the HDMI port where the TV can coordinate the audio input work. Typically, this HDMI interface should be close to a 3.5mm socket (which is labeled audio-in, looks like a common headphone jack) or a group of RCB Lotus Head sockets (one red and one white female jack). It is also highly likely that both the HDMI port and the audio port are located near the computer input port (VGA).

Turn on the Mac and select the input source for the TV as HDMI. If the connection is normal, the desktop should appear on the TV screen (if it is connected to a laptop or imac, it should be an extended desktop). At this point, adjust the screen display to 1080i. Determine if your Mac supports the use of Mini DisplayPort to switch to HDMI audio output. This option appears under the Sound panel of the System Preferences interface, the output page. As shown, my Mac mini does not support audio output, so I need to use a separate audio line to input audio to the TV. Plug one end of the audio cord into the Mac headphone jack and the other end into the audio input jack of the TV (that is, the audio input to the HDMI and VGA ports above).

Hints:

If your Mac is the imac that was launched in early 2010, or the mid-2010, late-stage MacBook Pro and the latest MacBook Air, they directly support the HDMI audio output. The "Sound" settings page directly selects the output as "external HDMI audio" to take effect.

When you adjust your video settings, you can directly turn off the original Mac screen to get a better display effect.

After testing the audio video output is normal, please enjoy your big screen mac! XBMC 10.0 for Mac support HD hardware decoding, support Blu-ray original disk playback, external caption loading, and open source free, strongly recommended not yet encountered unsupported format, but I have not tried rmvb ... No love. MKV/MOV/M2TS/MP4/M4V is no problem. American drama, 1080p and 720p can be played in full screen, the film is not necessarily, and the aspect ratio has a relationship. Home Address: http://xbmc.org

Please note: XBMC does not support the Chinese menu display and does not support the Blu-ray original menu display. Add your Resource folder directory to XBMC and select the video file to play. During playback, press ENTER to set, such as track, subtitle selection, etc.

Some other comfort improvements using the Apple Remote Remote control, the XBMC can be easily controlled and the use of Rowmote Pro can achieve the same effect. Rowmote Pro Price 4.99 dollars, is really a powerful app, with it in fact, Apple remote does not need, in addition to remote control, there are more remote control can not do things to use it to complete. Direct to the official introduction page several photos.

The desktop displayed on the plasma TV

The Mac Mini and the external hard drive under the TV

XBMC interface

Select the correct movie positive file

Play Movie (paused) Purchase proposal mini DisplayPort to HDMI adapter many, the market from 30 yuan to 300 yuan of products have, there are thousands of yuan adapter. I bought a moshi to feel enough, this does not bother to buy a hard disk player. Reference Price: Apple official 328, Taobao about 150, store 200-250, dry buy real goods. Apple official page: Dot I go to Apple China online store

Moshi Minidiplayport to HDMI adaptor

Shell for aluminum, good quality HDMI public cable does not need to be too good, I bought a root 25 yuan ... Don't despise me. 1.8m is enough, don't buy the wrong on the line, look at the picture.

The most common HDMI line, everywhere to buy audio lines, about 5 dollars a root, does not need to be too long, 1m enough.

3.5mm headphone jack Pair wiring

3.5mm headphone jack turn to RCA Lotus Head Audio Line topic off and Q&a:

Do not use plasma flat screen TV when the display, old to get online and chat, so it is easy to lead to aging panels, heavy burning screen. It's no problem watching movies and playing games.

Why not use the VGA port directly to connect the TV? Because many TV sets give VGA input the support resolution is not 1920*1080, including imported TV. To reach the 1080p display, you have to connect HDMI.

What if there's no sound? Read your TV manual carefully to see which HDMI interface is used with external audio input. Many TVs 3, 4 HDMI interface, only one can use external audio input to voice. Usually the last one.

What if the picture is too big/too small? There is a "screen scan" on the "monitor" page of System Preferences, try closing/opening this option.