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Will Apple ever adopt HDMI for their displays?

wrldwzrd89

wrldwzrd89

macrumors G5
Original poster
Jun 6, 2003
12,110
77
Solon, OH
I'm wondering if Apple has been looking at HDMI as a means of connecting their displays to Macs, especially the 30" and any bigger displays Apple makes in the future. Not only is HDMI backward-compatible with DVI (and DVI forward-compatible with HDMI!), it has enough bandwidth to drive a 30" display without needing two links. Plus, HDMI cables are quite a bit smaller than DVI cables.
 
MisterMe

MisterMe

macrumors G4
Jul 17, 2002
10,709
69
USA
wrldwzrd89 said:
I'm wondering if Apple has been looking at HDMI as a means of connecting their displays to Macs, especially the 30" and any bigger displays Apple makes in the future. Not only is HDMI backward-compatible with DVI (and DVI forward-compatible with HDMI!), it has enough bandwidth to drive a 30" display without needing two links. Plus, HDMI cables are quite a bit smaller than DVI cables.
Click to expand...
What are you talking about "Not only is HDMI backward-compatible with DVI..."? HDMI and DVI have completely different plug designs.
 
R

rchang713

macrumors newbie
Feb 18, 2005
3
0
HDMI is a digital video interface just like DVI. It is infact compatible in the sense that you can get an adpater plug that allows a purely digital DVI to HDMI or vice versa conversion. I believe other than the actual pin configuration of the two interfaces the video portions are identical. HDMI also has extra pins for audio. I believe the OP is trying to suggest such a change, because HDMI is becoming a standard for home theater applications and apple could market the 30" display as a HDTV monitor because several cable boxes, newer DVRs, and most new HDTVs are moving to this interface. In my mind, this may be unecessary because cinema displays don't have audio support. And you could simply use a HDMI to DVI adapter to hook up a HDMI cable box, etc to the cinema display. Also, DVI single and dual link connections have the exact same pin configuration, dual link just uses all 24 pins and single link uses just 12 of those pins.
 
MisterMe

MisterMe

macrumors G4
Jul 17, 2002
10,709
69
USA
rchang713 said:
HDMI is a digital video interface just like DVI. It is infact compatible in the sense that you can get an adpater plug that allows a purely digital DVI to HDMI or vice versa conversion. I believe other than the actual pin configuration of the two interfaces the video portions are identical. HDMI also has extra pins for audio. I believe the OP is trying to suggest such a change, because HDMI is becoming a standard for home theater applications and apple could market the 30" display as a HDTV monitor because several cable boxes, newer DVRs, and most new HDTVs are moving to this interface. In my mind, this may be unecessary because cinema displays don't have audio support. And you could simply use a HDMI to DVI adapter to hook up a HDMI cable box, etc to the cinema display. Also, DVI single and dual link connections have the exact same pin configuration, dual link just uses all 24 pins and single link uses just 12 of those pins.
Click to expand...
My TV has both HDMI and DVI. However, its resolution is too low to be used as a replacement for my 23" Cinema Display. OTOH, the number of pixels available on a 30" Cinema Display is massive overkill for watching or even editing HD video. However, it is physically too small to really enjoy the HDTV experience. I come on the side of those who believe that there is no point in targeting the 30" display as HDTV/computer monitor.
 
wrldwzrd89

wrldwzrd89

macrumors G5
Original poster
Jun 6, 2003
12,110
77
Solon, OH
MisterMe said:
My TV has both HDMI and DVI. However, its resolution is too low to be used as a replacement for my 23" Cinema Display. OTOH, the number of pixels available on a 30" Cinema Display is massive overkill for watching or even editing HD video. However, it is physically too small to really enjoy the HDTV experience. I come on the side of those who believe that there is no point in targeting the 30" display as HDTV/computer monitor.
Click to expand...
I agree with you - that's why I suggested in my original post that if Apple were to use HDMI, it would be purely as a DVI replacement. What I didn't say is that it probably won't happen until even dual-link DVI becomes insufficient.
 
wrldwzrd89

wrldwzrd89

macrumors G5
Original poster
Jun 6, 2003
12,110
77
Solon, OH
DarkNovaMatter said:
Even though I do like smaller cables, the DRM is a showstopper for me- http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/01/17/1825232&tid=196 :eek:
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I read through the article on Slashdot and many of the comments - it looks like HDMI is a complete non-starter, at least for right now. All I want out of a DVI replacement is something that offers the same, or better, quality that DVI has with more bandwidth, a smaller cable, and is easily adapted for older DVI connections - basically HDMI without the frills.
 
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