How to make my MacBook Pro display on my Samsung TV?

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Level 1

16 points

How to make my MacBook Pro display on my Samsung TV?

I connected the cable, with an adaptor to a MacBook (13 inch, 2019) thunderbolt port. The TV (built Oct. 2013) said no signal to the HDMI channel I was plugged into.

I powered up an old MacBook Pro (mid 2012), connected it with the same cable (less thunderbolt adaptor) to the same TV, and it worked nicely.

How to tell the MacBook Pro to send a signal to an external display? If this is not automatic, how to tell the MacBook Pro that the Samsung is connected?

How to tell the Samsung that a signal is coming in?

How to check that the thunderbolt adaptor (right out of the box) is working?

MacBook Pro 13″, OS X 10.11

Posted on Sep 18, 2020 3:25 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Grant Bennet-Alder

Level 10

133,363 points

Sep 18, 2020 4:53 PM in response to Metal_bender

to get a Mac display to become active, you need the Mac to query the display, and the display to answer with its name and capabilities. Otherwise, the display will not be shown as present, and no data will be sent to the display.

This query is only sent at certain times:

• at startup

• at wake from sleep

• at insertion of the Mac-end of the display-cable, provided everything on that cable is ready-to-go

• on invoking Option-(Detect Display) button in Displays preferences (from another display)

so try doing some of those things and see if the display comes alive.

Modern Displays with multiple ports are sometimes busy scanning the other ports, looking for an input, and miss the query from the Mac. They need to pay attention to the port you are actually using, or they will miss the query.

Some displays have On-Screen Display settings that can be used to tell the display a computer is attached on a certain port, or a certain port should be highest priority. Changing those may make your display more responsive.

Some displays include their own private "sleep" settings for the display alone. This can allow the display to enter its own sleep mode, on top of the Mac's not sending it data. A display that is sleeping on its own cannot respond to the Mac's query, and will stay dark.

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Answer 2

Metal_bender Author

Level 1

16 points

Oct 10, 2020 9:58 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Your option 3 (bolded) looked best. But it didn't work. :) It certainly should have.....

So I think I am left with these optional explanations:

1) the adapter from MacBook (2019) to TV cable is failed/not right. (the long cable works fine with the older MacBook Pro.)

2) The Samsung 'hears' a 2012 MacBook Pro, but not a 2019 MacBook Pro.

I can test (1) with another TV. I can speak with Samsung about (2).

Stay tuned, as they say.

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Answer 3

Oct 10, 2020 11:33 AM in response to Metal_bender

what adapter are you using, exactly?

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How to make my MacBook Pro display on my Samsung TV?

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