For the past month I’ve had our Mac mini connected to the plasma to allow us to play videos such as stuff from our movie library, iTunes, as well as music through our stereo.  This has been great fun, and opens up many possibilities for convenience and choice, not to mention being a serious alternative to cable TV.  However, since this is our main computer, it has made regular computer use a little more difficult.

Need to check email?  Walk into the living room and fire up the plasma.  Mail.app is easy to read on a 50-inch screen, but it is kind of silly.  The kids are enjoying Webkinz in full plasma goodness as well.  As I type this I’m crouched over a piano bench sitting on a child’s chair, with the keyboard hooked up by USB extension cord.  Funny, I know, but this has become known as Problem Number 1.  And we don’t plan on buying another computer just to have in the media center.

So that brings me to the title of this post.  Apple TV has been out for quite a while now, without much change other than the Take Two software upgrade.  For a little over $200 you get a small, silent box that will play your iTunes music and videos streamed from your PC to your HDTV.  Since the Apple TV connects by HDMI or component cables, it solves Problem Number 2, which was the difficulty of getting the resolution settings right.  I’m currently using SwitchResX to display my screen in an odd 1224 x 688 format (which by the way, prevents iMovie HD from opening, but that’s another story).  My Mac resolution is working, but I still have some quirks and fine tuning to work out.  The Apple TV is designed for television, and as such it will just work.

Many folks have hesitated to get the Apple TV due to some limitations, such as small hard drive space or playback of Apple-only video formats.  These limitations don’t matter for me now, as there are third party plugins for Apple TV (such as boxee and XBMC) which allow for added convenience of playing alternate video formats, not to mention connecting to internet video services such as Hulu and CBS.com (something we were already doing with the mini).  I can also use my EyeTV and Mac mini as a DVR, and stream those programs to the Apple TV as well.

The time has come. And with Apple refurb prices at $199, the time is right.  Apple TV, here I come!

One of the first things I did was connect my Mac mini so we can watch iTunes and other videos, DVDs using Front Row, Hulu, and so forth.  However, right away we noticed the overscan of the Mac’s video on the plasma.  Most of the menu bar was cut off, and at least half of the dock.  For most video sources this was OK, but the missing menu and dock made things difficult.

I took to searching the net and had a tough time finding settings specific to my display.  I discovered SwitchResX, a program that lets you make custom resolutions for your Mac in order to fix this type of issue. There is a good tutorial over at AV Science forum. It was still a confusing process though, and I was really hoping to find someone else with this same Panasonic so I could try their settings.

I finally discovered a user with a similar plasma using a custom 1224 x 688 resolution with DisplayConfigX (similar to SwitchResX). Based on his settings, I came up with the following:

The main difference between my settings and his are the vertical front and back porch settings. The 1224 x 688 resolution was correct, but I was still getting a bit of the menu bar cut off on the top. I played with these settings a bit and got it to where I have full view of my menu bar (just the tip of the Apple leaf is cut off) and full view of the dock.

I do have a bit of horizontal shift problem, where the image shifts back and forth a pixel or two, once in a while, but it is something I’m still working on. It was mentioned in the thread at AV Science forums, so once I get that sorted I’ll post an update here.

My current settings:

• Horizontal (H) active – 1224
• H front porch – 136
• H Sync – 80
• H Back porch – 208
• Vertical (V) active – 688
• V front porch – 22
• V sync – 5
• V back porch – 36