I have an Apple Mac mini, which sports an HDMI port, with a 22" monitor with VGA, DVI, and HDMI interfaces. I was using the DVI connector, since the monitor included that cable. I wondered what it would be like to use the HDMI connector.
DVI (digital video interface) and HDMI (high definition media interface) are the same, except for the following differences:
- DVI is video signal only
- HDMI transmits video and audio on one cable
- HDMI incorporates copy protection in an attempt to prevent you from syphoning off the signal and making copies, legal or illegal.
- DVI and HDMI use different connectors: DVI has a bulky square connector, while HDMI is slim and rectangular.
- Monitor vendors seem to always include in the box a DVI cable, but not an HDMI one.
I found a short HDMI cable at Walmart for $10, and connected the miniMac to the monitor. The aspect ratio was wrong and signal overshot the screen (the Mac desktop image was bigger than the monitor).
Weird, I thought. I pressed the monitor's AUTO button, but no change. I checked the miniMac's monitor settings, but all seemed fine.
Finally, I went through all of the monitor's settings, one by one. I finally found one that corrected the problem: signal type could be Cinema or PC. It was set to Cinema, so I changed it to PC, and the problem was fixed.
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