Advice / recommends for using HP 24ea monitor with MacBook Air

[mbm2017]

Hello. First, I did not see a forum directly related to HP Monitors / Displays, but I am posting to the most closely related board I found.

I recently purchased an HP 24ea IPS LED monitor as an external display for my 13" Macbook Air (early 2014 model). As you'll see in the Amazon listing, this monitor comes in five different screen sizes.

https://www.amazon.com/HP-24ea-Display-built-Audio/dp/B01L73OEOG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1482591681&s...

I chose the 24 (23.8)" . (Interestingly, the manufacturer's price for that size is $45 cheaper than the 23", and it has built-in-audio, a feature the other size models of the same monitor don't have. I compared the specs for the different sizes, and they appeared to be the same, so I figured HP lowered the price when it introduced the 24".) 

Anyway, I setted on the HP 24ea after looking into a number of options for external displays for my Macbook Air. Besides the positive reviews I saw, including from Mac users, I liked that the silver aesthetic of the monitor matches my Apple products. 

I connected the monitor using a MiniDisplay Port to HDMI / VGA adapter from Ugreen, and the HDMI adapter that was included in the box with the HP 24ea monitor. 

I am having issues with the display quality. When I first set it up, I noticed that the experiencing of reading and viewing text was not as crisp and clear as it is when I use the Macbook Air without a display. In the past, I have used external displays (usually Samsung) with PC laptops, and never encountered this issue. It is difficult to describe -- the text is not overtly blurrly or fuzzy, but it is not a pleasant reading experience, and as far as basic tasks that I do as a writer, I would actually prefer to use my laptop without the external display. I haven't used the monitor extensively for viewing photos or video yet, but it seems to peform better on those fronts. 

I viewing the troubleshooting sections on HP's support page for "Fuzzy text, blurry or stretched images" as well as "General troubleshooting tips for display quality issues." Those tips were not immediately helpful, and I also noticed that the software for the display is only available for Windows. 

 I went into the Display pane under System Preferences of my Mac. My Mac recognizes the HP 24 ea display. It uses the 1920 x 1080 resolution @ 60 Hz. I noticed there were not a lot of ways to adjust the setting. I did go to the Color tab. I found a few default Display profiles on the Mac that did a much better job with the display, including SMPTE-C and PAL/SECAM. I also went through the basic calibration process, and felt that did a nice job as well with displaying text and images. I actually got to a point where I was happy with the display experience. However, it is not consistent. It seems that after my computer goes to sleep or the display has been on for a while, the monitor goes back to displaying text in a somewhat fuzzy / blurry way. Sometimes I'll restart the computer and/or plus the MiniDisplay adapter out and plug it back in, and I can get it back to the display providing a pleasant viewing experience. I feel I souldn't have to do this, and I am wondering why my monitor has a difficult time working with the Macbook Air. 

I posted on the Apple forum as well but haven't received a response. I am wondering if I should go with a different brand of monitor that has software for Mac. Perhaps the problem is with my Ugreen MiniDisplay port adapter http://www.ebay.com/itm/291968804186. Are there any other ways to adjust the display settings / resolution? 

Any feedback or tips here would be greatly appreciated. 

Happy Holidays!

Mona 

[MKazi]

@mbm2017

Welcome to HP Support Forums. 🙂 I came across your post and would like to help.

I understand from your post that you have connected an HP 24ea 23.8-inch IPS Display monitor via  UGREEN Mini DP to HDMI VGA to your MacBook Air (13-inch, Early 2014). I read that the text is not overly blurry or fuzzy, but it is not a pleasant reading experience. You have tried to adjust a few display settings and went through the basic calibration process which seems to help temporarily. I appreciate the steps you have performed and have certainly done a great job.

Have you tried to use the monitor on any other PC yet just to check if the display is good?

I did some research and found that the recommended resolution for the monitor is 1920 x 1080 @ 60 Hz (Full HD). And your Macbook supports up to 2560 by 1600 pixels on an external display, both at millions of colors. I suggest you to use this monitor on a different computer if possible and check the output. If the display is still the same then it can be a monitor issue. Also, if you have an alternate singular VGA output using Mini DisplayPort to VGA Adapter or Mini DisplayPort to HDMI Adapter then you can use it and check.

The above mentioned steps are only to isolate the issue. This way we can chek if its an issue with the monitor itself or the UGREEN Mini DP to HDMI/VGA adapter. Hope this helps. Feel free to let me know if you have any further questions. Merry Christmas! 🙂

[Mark444111]

I have a similar problem although playing with the resolution settings does not help.

My PC has two outputs vga and hdmi, when I try to connect the monitor to my pc using vga then resolution is not 1920x1080 even though the display setting say so.

Can this monitor not run of an anologue signal?

My PC is a LENOVO IdeaCentre 510s-08IKL

[kevin-t]

Hello,

Thank you for posting in this thread. Unfortunately based on when the last response was made, I have closed this thread to help keep comments current and up to date. We recommend starting a new thread for your issue. 
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