Connect 27" LED Cinema Display to Mac Mini M2

[Silly John Fatty]

Hi people,

I have this 27" LED Cinema Display and would like to use it with my new M2 Mac Mini. It's the same display that was later sold as the Thunderbolt Display, the difference being it had a Thunderbolt cable, while mine has Mini Displayport + USB.

Some people say to get an adapter to connect it via USB/Thunderbolt, but I'd like to keep the port on the Mini free for external storage, so I was thinking of connecting it to the HDMI port of the Mini.

Does anyone know if this will work? I've heard many people have problems connecting this display. Someone also said there are voltage issues between HDMI and Mini Displayport. Some people said you need a special converter, and that even then it doesn't look nice because HDMI doesn't support the high resolution of that screen.

Some people also claim that apparently you can't convert Mini Displayport to HDMI directly, but you first need to convert MDP to Display Port, and then Displayport to HDMI.

Anyone know what's real about all of this? Can someone recommend a solution?

Thanks!

 

[Silly John Fatty]

So I got myself these two cables:

Cable Matters DisplayPort auf Mini DisplayPort Adapter (Display Port auf Mini Display Port Adapter, DP Stecker auf Mini DP Buchse) - 15 cm

Cable Matters DisplayPort auf Mini DisplayPort-Adapter (DP auf Mini DP) – 15 cm

www.amazon.de

Cable Matters unidirektional HDMI auf DisplayPort Adapter mit 4K 60Hz für PS4, Xbox one, Desktop und Laptoprechner (HDMI 2.0 zu DisplayPort 1.2) – Nicht kompatibel für PS5 oder Xbox Serie X/S

Cable Matters unidirektional HDMI zu DisplayPort Adapter (HDMI auf DisplayPort Adapter, HDMI auf DP Adapter) für Desktop- und Laptoprechner (HDMI 2.0 zu DisplayPort 1.2) mit 4K 60Hz Videoauflösung...

www.amazon.de

Someone on Reddit wrote that they found them to work with the 2010 27" LED Cinema Display and the Mac Mini M2. I'll receive them on Friday or Saturday and report here if it works for anyone who might need the answer in the future.

Even if it works: It's not 100 ideal in my opinion. It's a lot of cables to begin with. Apparently you need to convert some voltage or something from HDMI to Mini Displayport. For that, you need an extra power source, which is why one of the cables also has a USB cable. So one of your USB ports will be gone.

People have reported that it isn't possible differently apparently. I haven't looked for the best solution because I have 12 days to return the Mini and need to run some tests on it. So I got whatever I'm sure will work. Might find another solution in the future, and I'll report if there's any glitches with the resolution settings, etc. that some people reported with other solutions.

 

[Silly John Fatty]

Update

So I'm writing from my new Mac mini (2023 M2 Pro), and while setting up the system I already had issues with the display.

Right now I have things connected this way:

• The male Mini DisplayPort of the Apple Cinema Display goes into a female Mini DisplayPort entry, which is a male DisplayPort on the other side
• That male Mini DisplayPort goes into some kind of bigger adapter, which has one HDMI cable leaving it, and one USB cable.
• The HDMI cable goes into the Mac Mini's HDMI port and the USB cable in one of the USB ports. Apparently, like I said before, you need this USB cable to help the adapter (or converter, or whatever it is) to turn the Cinema Displays DisplayPort signal into HDMI.
• In addition to that, the Cinema Display also has a USB cable attached to it (to the same cord from which the Mini DisplayPort comes), and you need to connect this one to your Mac Mini as well, at least if you want to use the USB ports of your Cinema Display. My keyboard is connected to the Display, so it doesn't work if the Displays USB cable isn't connected to the Mac.

So for now all older USB entries on the Mini are taken.

The problem I got into is that the screen started flashing. The picture started disappearing and it became black all the time. And then it would disappear completely. This happens when I try to use the volume buttons buttons on my keyboard. It's one of those not completely new, but already recent USB keyboards from Apple. It resembled the first Magic Keyboard, but it's got the number bad, and it's connected by a cable.

So basically, I can't use the volume buttons as it seems. When I connect the keyboard directly to the Mac, there's no problem with the volume anymore. So it's a problem with the Cinema Display.

So when that screen flashes black and then turns completely black because I pressed a volume button, I need to unplug the Cinema Display from one of the Adapters or from the Mac in some way, replug it, and then the screen appears normally again. So there's definitely a problem here, maybe it's even unsolvable (the Mac has Ventura 13.4.1 installed on it).

Interestingly, I can't use the keyboard to set the brightness of the screen. When you press the buttons (F1 and F2), nothing happens. This is also the case when you connect the keyboard directly to the Mac. In fact, if you go to the System Preferences and search for Screen Brightness, you find it in the search, but you can't open it and you don't see it anywhere in the actual display settings, where the System Preferences search is actually telling you it is. It just isn't there. So it seems like you can not change the brightness of the Cinema Display if you run it on your Mac mini. That's … terrible. I'll have to see if I can find a fix for that. I think it might be an HDMI issue. I haven't read from people with Thunderbolt having this issue. Maybe an OS update could fix that?

So that's my first 10 minutes with the 27" Cinema Display and the 2023 M2 Pro Mac mini … not very pleasant. It probably could be fixed by using a Thunderbolt adapter to connect the Cinema Display to the Mac, but then I'd have one TB port used by the display. That's a problem, as I'm planing to use these for external storage. Since I'd like to use the full 40 Gb/s bandwidth, there can't be any attached to these ports (I'll only need two ports, but they will use they entire bandwidth of the Thunderbolt controllers behind those ports).

I'll keep reporting probably. If someone has a fix for the described issues, they're very welcomed!

 

[chrfr]

It probably could be fixed by using a Thunderbolt adapter to connect the Cinema Display to the Mac, but then I'd have one TB port used by the display. That's a problem, as I'm planing to use these for external storage. Since I'd like to use the full 40 Gb/s bandwidth, there can't be any attached to these ports (I'll only need two ports, but they will use they entire bandwidth of the Thunderbolt controllers behind those ports).

The Thunderbolt 2 to 3 adapter will only work with the actual Thunderbolt Display, not the Cinema Display that you have.

 

[Silly John Fatty]

The Thunderbolt 2 to 3 adapter will only work with the actual Thunderbolt Display, not the Cinema Display that you have.

I've read that, yes. I think in this case, what is needed is a Mini DisplayPort to Thunderbolt adapter. Or maybe I'm mixing it up with something else. But I've seen people make it work somehow.

My solution isn't optimal because the keyboard is attached to the display, otherwise this would work (I'll get a Magic Keyboard soon I think). Then remains the problem with the brightness - I have to find a way to be able to change the brightness, but there may be no way.

And then, since the USB ports of the display are problematic, it poses the question what works when you connect a USB drive to it for example.

All in all, not very ideal so far. Too bad, because the display is really excellent. I really wouldn't want to change it.

 

[chrfr]

I've read that, yes. I think in this case, what is needed is a Mini DisplayPort to Thunderbolt adapter. Or maybe I'm mixing it up with something else. But I've seen people make it work somehow.

You're looking for a USB-C to mini DisplayPort adapter. Alternatively you could try this HDMI to mini DisplayPort adapter: https://www.newegg.com/p/183-00BG-00004

 

[Silly John Fatty]

You're looking for a USB-C to mini DisplayPort adapter. Alternatively you could try this HDMI to mini DisplayPort adapter: https://www.newegg.com/p/183-00BG-00004

Ah yes, the USB-C to mDP is what people may have been using that works. The problem is that you occupy one of the TB ports. I need these for other things, so it's not really a solution. And I thought: Why not use the HDMI port, when you have one.

But apparently, it doesn't work. HDMI and (mini) Displayport don't like each other. But maybe I'll figure a way to make it work. Maybe it's just the cable and another one doesn't have that problem.

It's sadly hard to find one. This was the only one I found. The one you posted is in the US (I'm in Europe). Apparently not enough people in Europe wish to convert mDP to HDMI.

What also surprises me is that the model you posted doesn't have this "converter" box. The one I bought, that I posted above (https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B0..._b_asin_title_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1&tag=macr05-21) isn't just an adapter, but it's an actual converter, so they say at least.

And they also say it has an additional USB plug for power supply, to feed the converter with energy. So they say. Apparently some other models, like the one you posted, don't need that. Weird.

For now I've ordered a USB-C to mDP and will see how it works.

 

[Silly John Fatty]

Other annoying things I encountered with the cables I used:

• When the screen is sleeping (Mac still running but screen in sleep mode - a feature I use a lot of times), the screen actually needs 5-6 seconds to wake up, after I click the mouse. That is very annoying.
  
  
• When trying to change the volume or the screen brightness in the control center (top right corner), the screen becomes just as glitchy (blinking black and then turning black completely and the image eventually randomly reappearing sometimes) as when I'd try to change the volume on the keyboard. The brightness can not be changed at all. The bar is not movable at all

 

[kitsunesoba]

I don't have experience with HDMI → DisplayPort convertors with the LED Cinema Display specifically but have wrestled with convertors/adapters in a several other situations and nearly without exception, they're glitchy cantankerous beasts for anything but the most basic usage (1920x1080 and below @ 60hz). Even the best ones act weird from time to time. DisplayPort and HDMI might both do basically the same thing but conversion is messy.

My personal recommendation would be to get either a Thunderbolt dock or port expander (make sure it's a known good unit) and use a USB-C → mDP adapter if you really want to use the LED Cinema Display. It'll probably be less trouble in the long run.

 

[magphotos]

I don't have experience with HDMI → DisplayPort convertors with the LED Cinema Display specifically but have wrestled with convertors/adapters in a several other situations and nearly without exception, they're glitchy cantankerous beasts for anything but the most basic usage (1920x1080 and below @ 60hz). Even the best ones act weird from time to time. DisplayPort and HDMI might both do basically the same thing but conversion is messy.

My personal recommendation would be to get either a Thunderbolt dock or port expander (make sure it's a known good unit) and use a USB-C → mDP adapter if you really want to use the LED Cinema Display. It'll probably be less trouble in the long run.

I would suggest the same. I understand that you don’t want to use one of the thunderbolt ports but this is the ONLY viable way to do what you want to achieve.

The HDMI port only accepts video in, so you can’t control volume or brightness with the setup you are using at the moment. It works some way through the adaptors you set up, but it is NOT the correct way to do so.

Save yourself a lot of headaches and accept that you need to use a mDp female → USB-C male to be connected to one of the four thunderbolts ports you have. Then you can use the app MonitorControl to control brightness and volume via keyboard. It works pretty well!

 

[Silly John Fatty]

I don't have experience with HDMI → DisplayPort convertors with the LED Cinema Display specifically but have wrestled with convertors/adapters in a several other situations and nearly without exception, they're glitchy cantankerous beasts for anything but the most basic usage (1920x1080 and below @ 60hz). Even the best ones act weird from time to time. DisplayPort and HDMI might both do basically the same thing but conversion is messy.

My personal recommendation would be to get either a Thunderbolt dock or port expander (make sure it's a known good unit) and use a USB-C → mDP adapter if you really want to use the LED Cinema Display. It'll probably be less trouble in the long run.

I guess there's just not enough demand for it, for it to be a good product on the market. Or maybe it really is a purely technical thing.

The problem is I'll need those Thunderbolt ports in the future, for other things. I'll need the entire bandwidth for external storage. I want to get the entire 40 Gb/s, but if the display uses just one of the ports, I can't get that.

I did order a USB-C to mDP adapter for now, but until I get my external storage (maybe in a year or less) I'll try to figure out if there's a way to still get good results with HDMI.

I would suggest the same. I understand that you don’t want to use one of the thunderbolt ports but this is the ONLY viable way to do what you want to achieve.

Do you mean it's the only viable way for technical reasons, or just because there's no working solutions offered on the market right now? Because if it's technical … it's definitive I guess. If it's a market thing, who knows what might come in the future. I will definitely report to Cable Guys (the company I got the adapter from), maybe they bring an updated product in the future.

The HDMI port only accepts video in, so you can’t control volume or brightness with the setup you are using at the moment. It works some way through the adaptors you set up, but it is NOT the correct way to do so.

It's weird that it's not the USB port that controls volume or brightness.

Save yourself a lot of headaches and accept that you need to use a mDp female → USB-C male to be connected to one of the four thunderbolts ports you have. Then you can use the app MonitorControl to control brightness and volume via keyboard. It works pretty well!

For now I have. But are you saying that even with a USB-C to mDP adapter, I need an additional app to control the brightness? How come that is the case?

 

[Silly John Fatty]

Also, if I get it right, this is what's happening:

There's an HDMI signal coming out of the Mac Mini. But the Display can only receive a Mini-DisplayPort signal.

So does anyone know if there's technically a possibility to convert the HDMI signal into something else (maybe even USB?) and then back to Mini-DisplayPort?

Or maybe even use the Ethernet output of the Mac and convert it to mDP?

 

[magphotos]

Do you mean it's the only viable way for technical reasons, or just because there's no working solutions offered on the market right now? Because if it's technical … it's definitive I guess. If it's a market thing, who knows what might come in the future. I will definitely report to Cable Guys (the company I got the adapter from), maybe they bring an updated product in the future.

It is a technical reason. Mini-display can be easily converted to USB-C because they use nearly the same protocol for video and data transmission. The same can't be said for converting mini-display port to HDMI as the two speak two very different languages.

For now I have. But are you saying that even with a USB-C to mDP adapter, I need an additional app to control the brightness? How come that is the case?

MacOs Monterey officially dropped support for controlling brightness and volume of the Cinema Display via keyboard, because Apple considers it a "vintage" product. I am sorry, but this is how it is. If you want to better understand the problem and its solution you can have a look at this thread on the official Apple Community support forum.

In any case after you install one of the many apps that allows you to do so it-just-works, and you quickly forget about that. Try MonitorControl or QuickShade.

This is one of the very few cases in which a third party app completely solves a problem created by Apple dropping support for vintage products of functions, so you should be happy! 🤣

There's an HDMI signal coming out of the Mac Mini. But the Display can only receive a Mini-DisplayPort signal.
So does anyone know if there's technically a possibility to convert the HDMI signal into something else (maybe even USB?) and then back to Mini-DisplayPort?

As said before, you can't. Or maybe you can by using various adapters put together, but it is NOT the ideal solution as it will not perform at 100% of its potential.

Or maybe even use the Ethernet output of the Mac and convert it to mDP?

Absolutely no, Ethernet is for network connection only, no video output/input there.

Let me ask you this:

- What do you need four ports for at a maximum speed of 40Gbps?
- Are you really sure you can't use one of the four Thunderbolt ports of your Mac Mini M2 Pro to connect the cinema display? I understand that you need them to connect external storage, but you have 3x more ports at full 40Gbps plus 2x USB-A at 10Gbps, which are more than enough even for extreme video editing tasks.

I would suggest you to get one of the many Mini-Display Port → USB-C adapters (which are already tested for your use-case and work perfectly) and test that yourself. If you will ever need other ports, you will eventually get a Thunderbolt dock.

 

[Silly John Fatty]

It is a technical reason. Mini-display can be easily converted to USB-C because they use nearly the same protocol for video and data transmission. The same can't be said for converting mini-display port to HDMI as the two speak two very different languages.

Yup, from what I've read, there needs to be an "effort" made to turn HDMI into Mini-DisplayPort, that's why these adapters have these converter boxes. But HDMI also transports sound normally, so I expected the volume controls to work at least. The volume controls should work through the USB cable that goes from the Cinema Display to the Mac mini anyway.

But today I tried using the Magic Keyboard (it's an older one, first generation I believe) and when you press the volume buttons, the picture on the screen becomes laggy as well and starts flashing (so the same as when I change the volume on the wired Apple keyboard).

I don't even understand what these volume controls have to do with HDMI or the Display. I guess it's passed there somehow. You'd think it goes over the USB cable, but nope.

But in the end, I'm still not sure if it's technical limitations. I could imagine these converters are just bad. So I thought I'd buy all the ones I come across, maybe one will be the right one.

MacOs Monterey officially dropped support for controlling brightness and volume of the Cinema Display via keyboard, because Apple considers it a "vintage" product. I am sorry, but this is how it is. If you want to better understand the problem and its solution you can have a look at this thread on the official Apple Community support forum.

In any case after you install one of the many apps that allows you to do so it-just-works, and you quickly forget about that. Try MonitorControl or QuickShade.

This is one of the very few cases in which a third party app completely solves a problem created by Apple dropping support for vintage products of functions, so you should be happy! 🤣

Okay, this is the most absurd thing I've heard. It really does make Apple look like gangsters. Is this a company or are these criminals? This display cost 1000 € back then, I just spent over 3000 € on a Mac, and now I can't use my Display properly. 🤣 There's just one word that comes to my mind: It starts with A and ends with E!

That is absolutely catastrophic. So basically if I'd like to use the Display I will HAVE to install third party software. Which I absolutely do not want. I don't know who made these apps and what they do in the background. My computer is very sensible, I can't just install random stuff.

I think I'm literally going to sue them over the state's consumer protection bureau. It's free anyway and there's no risk. Because that sounds like they're purposely making things unusable, that's an illegal practice in the European Union. Just watched something about it today. So they're basically making an effort, to make something unusable, which is perfectly fine otherwise. Of course they'd like me to buy that new Studio Display, and of course I'd love to, but I just don't have the money, so now they've got an angry customer instead. Bad marketing …

As said before, you can't. Or maybe you can by using various adapters put together, but it is NOT the ideal solution as it will not perform at 100% of its potential.

I have to say, resolution wise, everything is fine with this HDMI to mDP cable. Everything looks very nice. Everything is flowing. I do feel like it's at 100%, it's just the brightness/volume thing that makes it glitch. And there's some delay in the display waking up when you wake up the Mac.

But otherwise, I don't feel any lag or anything in that direction. I haven't done intense video editing, so it may be different in that case (HDMI is still almost 50 Gb/s as far as I know. So any difference would be un-feelable in most cases I guess).

If I get that working, this IS the ideal solution imo!

Absolutely no, Ethernet is for network connection only, no video output/input there.

Alright, I had read something in that direction, so I wasn't sure. 😅

Let me ask you this:

- What do you need four ports for at a maximum speed of 40Gbps?
- Are you really sure you can't use one of the four Thunderbolt ports of your Mac Mini M2 Pro to connect the cinema display? I understand that you need them to connect external storage, but you have 3x more ports at full 40Gbps plus 2x USB-A at 10Gbps, which are more than enough even for extreme video editing tasks.

I would suggest you to get one of the many Mini-Display Port → USB-C adapters (which are already tested for your use-case and work perfectly) and test that yourself. If you will ever need other ports, you will eventually get a Thunderbolt dock.

I need those ports for external storage and I want to get the full bandwidth that Thunderbolt allows you to reach. The thing is, these ports share that maximum bandwidth of 40 Gb/s. And there's 4 ports, but actually there's 2 Thunderbolt controllers in total (one behind two ports). I want to use a RAID 0 system, so I need the full bandwidth of both controllers. Two ports will therefore be left empty, but they'll be useless as the other two ports will be using the entire bandwidth.

Now it would be interesting to know how much bandwidth the display would use. It's still something I could consider after all.

And now while writing this I think I mixed up something. 40 Gb/s is not the full bandwidth of both controllers but of one controller I believe. I would need someone to confirm this. In this case I could in fact use a USB-C adapter.

There's a certain part (around 50%) of the bandwidth that is reserved for data, the rest for video, if I recall correctly. So if I want to get 40 Gb/s data transfer, I need a RAID 0 system which uses two Thunderbolt Controllers (from two different ports). I get 50% of the bandwidth of each, that gives me 40 Gb/s. So there would in fact be 40 Gb/s left for the display.

But someone would need to confirm this and I have no idea how much bandwidth a display like that uses. And what usage consumes how much. Hmmmmm … it's getting interesting.

 

[Silly John Fatty]

Does anyone know the technical reason why you can't adjust the brightness anymore? I get that Apple dropped support, but is it like a piece of code or something that they actively removed from new OS's for it to stop working?

 

[minik]

I stumble upon this thread and my office set up is the following;
14-inch MacBook Pro (M2 Pro, 2013), Dell 27" 4K USB-C Hub Monitor (P2723QE), Apple 24" LED Cinema Display (mini-DisplayPort), and elgato Thunderbolt 2 dock.

I have one USB-C to USB-C cable in between the MacBook Pro and DELL 'main' monitor, also using BetterDisplay to control the brightness with the Magic Keyboard (with Touch ID).

If I need to use the Apple 24" LED Cinema Display, I already have it connected to the elgato Thunderbolt 2 dock. Plugged in the Thunderbolt 2 cable to an Apple Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 adapter and to the MacBook Pro. I can control the display brightness and sound with the same Magic Keyboard.

I think the OWC 14-Port Thunderbolt Dock is the only dock with native mini-DisplayPort support. In my case, it's too much to spend on a new dock just to eliminate the Apple Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 adapter + re-using a TB2 dock.

 

[Silly John Fatty]

I stumble upon this thread and my office set up is the following;
14-inch MacBook Pro (M2 Pro, 2013), Dell 27" 4K USB-C Hub Monitor (P2723QE), Apple 24" LED Cinema Display (mini-DisplayPort), and elgato Thunderbolt 2 dock.

I have one USB-C to USB-C cable in between the MacBook Pro and DELL 'main' monitor, also using BetterDisplay to control the brightness with the Magic Keyboard (with Touch ID).

If I need to use the Apple 24" LED Cinema Display, I already have it connected to the elgato Thunderbolt 2 dock. Plugged in the Thunderbolt 2 cable to an Apple Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 adapter and to the MacBook Pro. I can control the display brightness and sound with the same Magic Keyboard.

I think the OWC 14-Port Thunderbolt Dock is the only dock with native mini-DisplayPort support. In my case, it's too much to spend on a new dock just to eliminate the Apple Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 adapter + re-using a TB2 dock.

My problem was that you'd need this 3rd party app to display the brightness. So I got myself the Studio Display.

 

[minik]

My problem was that you'd need this 3rd party app to display the brightness. So I got myself the Studio Display.

At work, it's very difficult to ask for a Studio Display. With my money, I went for the ASD at home. That 3rd party app is not bad at all and provides more info than the stock Display system settings.