Get your gamma on! Tune your HTPC Mac mini’s output
One of the first things you’re likely to notice after connecting a Mac mini to your TV is the smudgy black appearance of text and lines, for example, which can make navigation difficult for some users. Here are a pair of free apps, both from the same clever guy, to sharpen the picture.
Setting up a home theater Mac mini is cheap ($30 in cabling, give or take) and easy. However, the picture often lacks clarity, especially when you’re trying to get around OS X.
Black text and lines blur, and it’s not unusual for the image to cheat to one color or the other. On the older Sony I’m using that color is blue, just an annoying hint.
Thereupon, if you’re running OS X 10.6.x Snow Leopard, your Mac mini should automatically detect and adjust display settings (see above). Nevertheless, the resulting picture quality can be better and here’s how.
Two for the price of none
Black Light and Gamma Control from Michel Fortin provide more granular control over your Mac’s gamma settings, which can be tweaked to provide improved clarity and color.
The advantage of Black Light is that it’s super easy to use. For example, if you’re using a miniDVI or mini Displayport to HDMI cable, this free app provides a one-click way to adjust HDTV Luminance, a tweak that can be difficult to achieve manually. But, wait, there’s more…
With Black Light you can apply a combination of visual effects to your screen by manipulating the gamma curve. Opening Black Light will automatically apply the selected effects. Quiting the application will restore the original settings. Clicking on the Black Light icon in the dock will activate and deactivate the selected effect combination.
If you want to manually adjust every aspect of your Mac’s gamma settings, then you should consider Gamma Control, which provides infinitely granular control. Further, should you notice, as I have, that different apps and content types (i.e. multiple codecs and compression rates) deliver different results, you can tweak and save settings specific to those needs.
Better now, honey?
Although it’s entirely possible to tweak gamma settings entirely within OS X, it’s one heckuva lot easier to use Michel Fortin’s free (donations encouraged) and easy-to-use applications.
Pretty sweet, huh?
via XLR8 Your Mac
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