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I have an iMac (native 1920×1080) that is always connected to a projector (native 1280×800) by VGA with display mirroring enabled. In this situation, OS X automatically changes the iMac display to 1280×800 with some slight pillarboxing (black bars on the left and right sides). This is good.
The problem is when the projector is in standby, and the iMac is turned on or restarted, it doesn't read the native resolution of the projector, and uses different, undesired resolutions. The quick fix is to turn on the projector and unplug the cable and plug it in again, but this isn't a practical option in my situation.
I would like to use the pillarboxed 1280×800 resolution all the time, whether or not the projector is detected or even connected.
I'd prefer not to use a third-party utility, especially a paid product. From a technical point of view, the operating system and hardware is apparently capable on its own. Nonetheless, I did try some third-party utilities without much success. cscreen would read the resolution when 1280x800, but it would not set it, even with the force option. Creating a custom resolution in SwitchResX resulted in a black screen.
Jason
Posted 2014-10-21T16:25:52.040
Reputation: 5 925