PRG Mbox Designer Manual 3.9 - Manual (Page 75)

MBOX ® MEDIA SERVER USER MANUAL 67
Connected Display Devices and EDID
Overview
Without special hardware or software, a typical computer can only output video resolutions and frequencies that are
supported by the display equipment that is connected to it. Display devices communicate their required input
configurations via EDID (Extended Display Identification Data), which is essentially a communication protocol used
between a device and a computer.
In order to provide some of the specialized outputs - for example, the various SDI signals - from the Dual I/O module,
the computer must be told that it can output certain frequencies or resolutions that are required. For this reason, the
I/O module incorporates EDID management for both video outputs on the computer. The I/O module always tells the
computer what frequencies and resolutions are possible, and EDID from connected devices is never passed through
directly to the computer unless "captured" into the I/O module (as will be covered later in this section).
When connecting the Mbox video outputs to a display device, you must ensure that the display device's desired
resolution and frequency appear in the Mac Displays Preference window so that it will be possible to select the
resolution and frequency here and in the Fullscreen Mode section of the Setup tab (refer to
"Setup: Fullscreen Mode"
on page 58). If the desired resolution and frequency are not available, then you must change to an alternate EDID set
or capture the EDID settings from the connected display device.
The currently selected EDID set for each output is shown in the Mac Displays Preference window. Each output of the
server will show a configuration similar to the example in Figure 3-2 below. The header of each window will display
the name of the EDID set (e.g. PRG-MbE 60Hz as shown below) or the name of the captured EDID (e.g. LCD
2408WFP).
Figure 3-2: Mac Display Preferences