up vote 0 down vote favorite
share [g+] share [fb]

I am running a Mac Mini with OS X 10.6.2 as a HTPC on a 42" 1080p TV

With Windows 7 it was trivial to make everything easier to read from the couch (icons, web browser, explorer etc). Is there a simple way to achieve the same goal on OS X?

link|improve this question
feedback

2 Answers

up vote 1 down vote accepted

Unfortunately, there isn't an easy way to do this in System Preferences. This post describes a method using the following command in the Terminal:

defaults write NSGlobalDomain AppleDisplayScaleFactor 1.5

where 1.5 is a scaling factor you'll need to play around with. It will apply to newly opened applications. It may not change every font for every application, though.

link|improve this answer
Worked perfectly. Thank you very, very much – Paul Lockwood Jan 7 '10 at 22:36
No problem. Good to hear. – fideli Jan 7 '10 at 23:52
feedback
up vote 1 down vote

I think the only native part of OS X designed to be used on a TV is FrontRow (Cmd + esc), unfortunately.

link|improve this answer
Hulu and XMBC (plays DVDs too) work well on a TV too. FrontRow seemed a little lame to me. Last night I was using ctrl + scroll wheel to zoom in on Safari – Paul Lockwood Dec 28 '09 at 13:39
Oh, if you don't mint zooming, then the universal access zooming is the most awesome zooming ever! – Autopulated Dec 28 '09 at 16:12
I just played with the settings and found it possible to zoom the task bar + finder icons. That's all I've found so far – Paul Lockwood Dec 28 '09 at 19:24
Have a look at the universal access preferences, you can enable zooming with Ctrl+scroll, and then the whole screen zooms and follows the mouse, it's awesome :D – Autopulated Dec 29 '09 at 0:13
good tip, will do – Paul Lockwood Dec 29 '09 at 14:05
feedback

Your Answer

 
or
required, but never shown
discard

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.