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MacBook > TV Can I combine these two apple adapters

M

mrdeath5493

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 30, 2010
3
0
I have:

1) a mini display port > DVI adapter from apple and,
2) an older DVI > VGA adapter from apple

However the male end of #2 has four extra pins and won't fit in the female end of #1. In the picture below I have a male DVI-I and a female DVI-D. My question is this:

Can I just splice into the cable on each and connect the wires in such a way that will give me mini display port > VGA adapter? This way I can avoid spending more money that I already have on this fiasco.

Much appreciation in advance if u can help me :)
 

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I was afraid of this, and I thank you for the quick response.

From what I can tell, the missing pins carry analog RGB plus sync...which is what VGA would be. I don't fully understand what that means. However, it looks like my only 2 options are to either

1) Buy a stand-alone mini-display > VGA adapter from apple or
2) Use what I have now and convert the DVI > HDMI, wich would be a higher quality video signal. My TV does have HDMI in, but for some reason it has VGA instead of DVI :S

Does this sound correct?
 
Your tv, actually , most TVs have VGA and hdmi (not dvi) for one simple reason; hdmi and dvi are pin for pin compatible with merely the appropriate cable, so you technically already have dvi on your TV. The VGA of course just adds compatibility. since displayport is compatible with VGA, dvi and hdmi, you can pretty much do whatever is cheapest. If you have hdmi, it makes no sense to buy more parts for lower quality video.
 
He is correct, you can not do this. Also you will have trouble pushing VGA to a TV if you want 1080p. I connected my 2010 MBP to a LCD TV through VGA and could only get it to do some crazy resolutions. I ended up doing things a bit azz backwards but it works for me.

I had a Mini DP to DVI
I had a HDMI to DVI

so i plugged the HDMI to the TV then DVI to DVI to Mini DP into the computer. This way I get 1080p resolution. In your case the best thing you can do is if you want to hook it up to a HD TV buy a Mini DP to HDMI.
 
So, I ended up getting a DVI>HDMI plug since I already had a HDMI cable. The resolution looks about 10 times better than when I used to use VGA.

When I set the resolution to 1080p, 1080i, 720p, or 720i it looked really fuzzy, however I found that setting it on 1360x768 made it look like true HD. This was on a ~40" Hi Def Samsung. I'm not sure why using the normal TV/NTSC resolutions looked so bad...but just tinkering with it I found a good setting. Thanks for the help again guys.
 
mrdeath5493 said:
So, I ended up getting a DVI>HDMI plug since I already had a HDMI cable. The resolution looks about 10 times better than when I used to use VGA.

When I set the resolution to 1080p, 1080i, 720p, or 720i it looked really fuzzy, however I found that setting it on 1360x768 made it look like true HD. This was on a ~40" Hi Def Samsung. I'm not sure why using the normal TV/NTSC resolutions looked so bad...but just tinkering with it I found a good setting. Thanks for the help again guys.
Click to expand...

I bought the mini-port HDMI adapter to use with our TV and it works great. I Use the mini-to VGA when I use the computer with other projectors and mini to DVI with new projectors. I keep them with me you never know when you will need an adapter.
 
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