Macbook Pro Retina 15.4″ External Display wrong resolutions

displaymacbook pro

Before this machine I had a late 2008 MacBook Pro, 15.4" (Lion) with max resolution of 1440×900.

Through the mini to HDMI adapter I attached a second display (TV/Monitor model 19LG3000) and I was able to set a resolution for both displays at 1440×900, it looked very nice and sharp on the external.

One thing I caught is that this TV has two HDMI ports, and depending on where I connect the cable (coming from the old MacBook) I get a list of different resolutions in Mac OS X settings and one of them (the port labeled 1) presents the 1440×900 resolution, which does fit in general on this kind of display.

Now the monitor port (HDMI 1,2) doesn't matter at all if I connect the Retina, it will always display the very same resolutions:

  • 1080p
  • 1080i
  • 720p
  • 1600×900
  • 1344×756
  • 1024×576

which I recall being the same list when I connect the old MacBook Pro to HDMI display port 2.

I tried every combination of resolution/frequency (defaults to 60 Hertz NTSC, but 50 Hertz is also sometime selectable, depending on the resolution value), but everything doesn't look well. Especially for coding it's very bad to the eyes, even at 1344×756.

Also I noticed that there is now Underscan, and I had to use it for about 3 bars to let the image fit in the monitor.

Is this is happening to anyone else?

Best Answer

Found SwitchResX 4 but also the keyboard shortcut.

While on the Monitor section, press the Option key when you choose the scaling option, it will show all resolutions.

No need for SwitchResX.