<div id="popup_box_thanks" style="display:none" onClick="close_popup_thanks('popup_box_thanks', 'ts')"><br>Thanks for submitting your tip! All submissions are moderated by an editor before appearing online. We've reset the form so you can enter another tip. Or you can close the tip submission box. <div class="x_close" id="thanks_upper_right"><a href="javascript:void(0)" onmousedown="close_popup_thanks('popup_box_thanks', 'ts'); return true;">Close</a></div></div>
<div class="tbf_row"><div class="tbf_wide_extra_top not_bold">Please submit only technical tips that will help other TidBITS readers better use their Macs, iPhones, and related software and hardware. All product announcements should be sent to <a href="mailto:releases@tidbits.com">releases@tidbits.com</a>.</div></div>
<div class="tbf_left">URL</div><div class="tbf_right"><input type="text" value="" name="tip_link_url" tabindex="3"><span class="tip_description"><br>Enter the URL to a Web page that supports your tip.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="spacer"></div>
<div class="tbf_row">
<div class="tbf_left">Linked text</div><div class="tbf_right"><input type="text" value="" name="tip_link_label" tabindex="4"><span class="tip_description"><br>Enter the name of the page linked above.</span></div>
<div class="tbf_wide"><input type="submit" value="Preview Your Tip" name="preview_tip" onClick="fill_preview('tipbits_enclosure_preview', 'ts', this.form); return false;" tabindex="7"> <input type="submit" value="Send Us Your Tip!" name="submit_this_tip" onClick="handle_tip_submission('ts', '', this.form, 'tip'); return false;" tabindex="8"></div>
</div>
<div class="spacer"></div>
<div class="tbf_row">
<div class="tbf_wide"><span class="fine_print">When you submit a tip, you give us permission to use it. Read <a href="javascript:void(0)" onClick="generic_show_hide('tip_terms')">our terms</a> for more details. All submissions are reviewed before publication.</span></div>
<div class="tbf_wide"><span class="fine_print">Our terms: By submitting a tip, you agree to assign TidBITS Publishing Inc., a non-exclusive, worldwide, perpetual license to reproduce, publish, and distribute your tip in connection with the TidBITS Web site and associated products in any media. You agree that you created the content you submitted, and that you have the right to assign us this license. You give us permission to use your name, but your email address won't be publicly displayed or shared. We review all submissions before publication, and reserve the right to select which submissions we feel are appropriate for our readers and to edit those we publish.</span></div>
<div id="comment_thanks" style="display:none" onClick="close_popup_thanks('comment_thanks', 'comm')"><br>Thanks for submitting a comment! Please check your email for a link that, when clicked, will verify that you're a real person and cause your comment to appear immediately. <div class="x_close" id="comment_upper_right"><a href="javascript:void(0)" onmousedown="close_popup_thanks('comment_thanks', 'comm'); return true;">Close</a></div></div>
<div class="tbf_wide"><span class="fine_print">Our terms: We reserve the right to edit or delete any comment, so please post thoughtfully. We use your email address <i>only</i> to send you a one-time verification message confirming that you posted this comment. We also store your address to allow you to verify using other Web browsers in the future. For more info, see our <a href="http://db.tidbits.com/privacy.html">privacy policy</a>.</span></div>
<li><a href="/feeds/tidbits.rss" title="Subscribe via RSS" class="gettb">RSS <img src="/images/feed-icon-12x12.gif" width="12" height="12" border="0" class="nav_img" alt="Subscribe via RSS"></a></li>
<li><a href="http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=276986548" title="Subscribe to the podcast" class="gettb">Podcast <img src="/images/feed-icon-12x12_podcast.gif" width="12" height="12" border="0" class="nav_img" alt="Subscribe to the postcast"></a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.twitter.com/TidBITS" title="Get Article Updates via Twitter" class="gettb">Twitter <img src="/images/feed_icon_12x12_twitter.png" width="12" height="12" border="0" class="nav_img" alt="Get Article Updates via Twitter"></a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/TidBITS/195314925519" title="Go to the TidBITS Page at Facebook" class="gettb">Facebook <img src="/images/feed_icon_12x12_facebook.gif" width="12" height="12" border="0" class="nav_img" alt="Go to the TidBITS Page at Facebook"></a></li>
<li><a href="javascript:void(0)" title="Sections" class="tabhead" onClick="return showhide('articleslist')">Sections <span id="articleslist_triangle"><img src="/images/nav_triangle_open.gif" width="9" height="9" border="0" class="navtriangle" id="articleslist_tri_image" alt="Click to show or hide the contents of this section."></span></a></li>
<li><a href="javascript:void(0)" onClick="return showhide('stafflist')" title="Staff" class="tabhead">Staff <span id="stafflist_triangle"><img src="/images/nav_triangle_closed.gif" width="9" height="9" border="0" class="navtriangle" id="stafflist_tri_image" alt="Click to show or hide the contents of this section."></span></a></li>
<li><a href="javascript:void(0)" title="Issues" class="tabhead" onClick="return showhide('issuelist')">Weekly Issues <span id="issuelist_triangle"><img src="/images/nav_triangle_closed.gif" width="9" height="9" border="0" class="navtriangle" id="issuelist_tri_image" alt="Click to show or hide the contents of this section."></span></a></li>
<li><a href="javascript:void(0)" onClick="return showhide('abouttidbits')" title="About TidBITS" class="tabhead">About TidBITS <span id="abouttidbits_triangle"><img src="/images/nav_triangle_closed.gif" width="9" height="9" border="0" class="navtriangle" id="abouttidbits_tri_image" alt="Click to show or hide the contents of this section."></span></a></li>
<div class="center_top">Thoughtful, detailed coverage of the Mac, iPhone, and iPad, plus the best-selling <a href="http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/?pt=TB-TAGLINE" style="color:yellow">Take Control</a> ebooks.</div>
<!-- begin centercolumn -->
<div id="centercolumn">
<!-- begin rightcolumn_container -->
<div id="rightcolumn_container">
<!-- begin rightcolumn -->
<!-- rightcolumn is embedded within centercolumn so featured text wraps around it -->
<p><p>Within the Finder, Column View enables you to see folder hierarchies, with each subsequent level getting its own column. Dragging on the double lines at the base of a column divider changes the preceding column's width. But Option-drag on any divider, and all the columns in the window change to the same width.</p></p>
<div class="tbf_wide_80" id="hc_rc_6594">To help us avoid automated posts and misuse of our site, please enter the words below.</div><div class="x_close_row" id="hc_upper_right2_6594"><a href="javascript:void(0)" onmousedown="HidePopupContent('hc_6594', 'hc', '6594'); return true;">Close</a></div>
<div class="featured_meta"><div class="meta_article">14 Feb 2005 | <a href="/article/7984?print_version=1">Print <span class="shift_up"><img src="/images/printer_icon.gif" alt="Printer-Friendly Version of This Article" border="0" width="9" height="10"></span></a></div></div>
<div id="article_box_6594"><P>As part of dropping our cable television subscription recently, I purchased a Mini-DVI to Video Adapter for my 12-inch PowerBook so we could watch DVDs on our TV (that's right - we've somehow ended up with DVD drives in multiple Macs without ever having purchased a normal consumer DVD player for our TV). It's a $20 cable, and seemed like an easy thing to order from the Apple Online Store, which was offering free shipping at the time. (Normally I'd order from Small Dog, but I needed an iBook battery too, and they were out of stock on that item at the time.)</P><P><<A HREF="http://www.smalldog.com/product/12652174">http://www.smalldog.com/product/12652174</A>></P><P>The adapter arrived, and I plugged it into my PowerBook and into the S-video cable that had previously been used by the TiVo to send a video signal to the TV. However, when I woke up the PowerBook, expecting a picture to appear on the TV, I was disappointed - just static. Then followed two hours of troubleshooting, completely rewiring all our video devices (which needed doing anyway, given that I'd given back the cable box and could disconnect the TiVo's IR blaster and the external Supra modem I'd used to replace a blown modem in the TiVo). But no matter what I did in terms of settings in the Display preference pane, using different cables (both RCA and S-video), and adjusting the TV's settings, the best I could coax from the Mini-DVI to Video Adapter was a highly compressed, skewed, black-and-white image that was replicated three times.</P><P>I asked some savvy friends and all basically said, "It should just work," although Alan Oppenheimer, who's paying a lot of attention to display devices now that his company produces the Envision Internet slide show program, pointed me toward the shareware program DisplayConfigX, which lets you adjust the resolution and refresh rates of your video signal to match your monitor in an optimal fashion. He had good luck with using DisplayConfigX to drive a large LCD HDTV that wasn't working otherwise. Unfortunately, DisplayConfigX states fairly clearly that it doesn't support standard TV output.</P><P><<A HREF="http://www.3dexpress.de/displayconfigx/">http://www.3dexpress.de/displayconfigx/</A>><BR><<A HREF="http://www.opendoor.com/envision/">http://www.opendoor.com/envision/</A>></P><P>Luckily, Contributing Editor Mark Anbinder lives nearby and has a 12-inch PowerBook, a Mini-DVI to Video Adapter, and a different TV. So I went over to his house, plugged my PowerBook into his adapter and TV, and it worked perfectly. I then put my adapter into the mix instead, and saw exactly the same problem as at home. Case closed - my adapter was just broken. (As an aside, troubleshooting by replacing parts of any system is one of the best possible ways to narrow down the potential causes of a problem. Keep that in mind whenever you're experiencing trouble.)</P><P>The story has a happy ending. Although it's not spelled out all that clearly on the Apple Web site, you have to call AppleCare to return a product purchased from the Apple Online Store. I did so, and after a brief frustration with an automated phone system that wanted me to say the name of the product I was having trouble with (the system interpreted "Mini-DVI to Video adapter" as "DVD Studio Pro"), I finally was able to talk with a tech support rep. Thankfully, he didn't argue with my testing, and after confirming a few things on the order, he sent me over to a customer service rep. She tapped at her keyboard for a minute or so, and then told me that she would be sending me a new adapter via two-day shipment and that I didn't have to return the broken one. That made perfect sense - it was a $20 part, and all Apple would do is throw it out.</P><P>The moral of the story? Sometimes hardware is just broken. And unfortunately, when that happens, you can waste hours trying to figure out exactly what's wrong. But kudos to Apple for solving the real problem quickly and efficiently once I knew what was wrong.</P><P>Oh, and the new adapter? It arrived, I plugged it in to the PowerBook and the TV, and it just worked. Like Macs are supposed to.</P><!-- Sometimes It's Just Broken Adam C. Engst --></div>
<!-- end article text -->
<!-- PayBITS -->
<p> </p><div class="sponsorbox">
<div class="sponsortext"><A HREF="http://www.smilesoftware.com/"><IMG SRC="http://db.tidbits.com/images/badges/SmileLogo2010-50x50.gif" ALT="" HEIGHT="50" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0" ALIGN="left"></A>Get more productive with software from Smile: PDFpen for<br />editing PDFs; TextExpander for saving time and keystrokes while you<br />type; DiscLabel for designing CD/DVD labels and inserts. Free demos,
<br />fast and friendly customer support. <<a href="http://www.smilesoftware.com/">http://www.smilesoftware.com/</a>></div>
