This is really an OS X issue as far as I can tell, hence it being here

I finally brought a DVI to VGA adaptor so I can use my 13" MB with my new 22" Widescreen LCD TV, however there are issues getting it to work as I would like.

When I connect the MB, I have to fiddle with all kinds of display settings to get it to fill the screen, and even then it doesn't completely fill it. I also find that after then disconnecting the adaptor, all my window sizes on my MB are screwed up. I also find the colours on the LCD to be way off the MB and kinda too dark and highly contrasted.

I figure, well maybe my TV isn't the best to be doing this with. Then tonight I connect my Dad's old work Dell Windows machine to it directly via VGA and what do you know, screen resolution perfect straight off, colours perfect. The complete opposite of the Mac experience. Don't tell me this is something Windows does better!

I am a complete noob with external displays so any help is muchly appreciated. I can post pics to show what I mean if needed.

Cheers

Should be fine... Make sure you set the output resolution of the external display to the native resolution of your TV. Also make sure colours are set to "millions" in the Display settings pane inside system preferences...

'grats on your 1,000'th post, Andrew.

Just out of curiosity, what graphics chipset is inside your Dad's Dell-beast? I know that the Intel GMA chip in the MacBook has a shorter list of supported resolution-sizes than anything from ATi or Nvidia. What is the native resolution of the TV-set?

One of the following programs may help you get a custom resolution working:

DisplayConfigX
http://www.3dexpress.de/

SwitchResX
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/15467

Thanks for the replies guys

Not sure what the old Dell has in her, will have to check.

Have discovered the TV has a max res. of 1680 x 1050 if that helps. When I set the output res to that though, it comes up on the screen, but very small.

I still can't seem to find a setting that looks right. The colours are still off as well.

The other issue is that after then disconnecting from the screen, all my window sizes screw up. Being a 13" screen and coming from Windows, I run a lot of my apps full screen and utilise spaces, eg. Safari. They all shrink or expand and just go funny.

Does this have to do with mirroring etc?

I will try and get some pics up to show what I mean. This is really annoying me

Thanks guys

You have to switch off mirroring. Then you can set different resolutions for your MacBook screen and the external monitor. Set both to their natural resolutions and all should be well.

If you want to mirror the 'Book screen then the TV will have problems displaying the 'Book's native resolution.

I looked into this again the other day and dug deeper on Google - turns out what I was experience is actually a bug/feature of MacBooks;

http://www.livingdigitally.net/2006/...an_extern.html

So it turns out this is how you do it! Works as well, but you need an external mouse or keyboard to wake the book - weird! I'm happy anyway.

Thanks guys!