MiniDisplay Port to HDMI Cables "Unlicensed" and Cannot Be Sold

[oneofthesedaves]

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Hehe..he said female dongle.

 

[macalifesoft]

...Instead, users can buy Mini DisplayPort to HDMI Female dongles. These dongles, when combined with a standard HDMI-HDMI cable, connect MacBook Pros, and other devices with mDP ports, to high-definition televisions and desktop monitors that accept HDMI.

ridiculous, if mini dp to hdmi cable is unlicensed, why the adapter is allowed. Just because they HDMI associations want to sell HDMI - HDMI cable? Sucks!

 

[SuperMatt]

I agree with most of the posters here. Why allow adapters that translate DVI or minidisplayport to HDMI, but not a cable that does the same thing? It just doesn't make any sense whatsoever.

 

[AllieNeko]

Yes, and it will be this way for a wile at least. In many conference/classroom environments the switching, cabling, and projector would need to be changed to support HDMI. All of this would be at great expense, 5 BNC runs can support 720 resolutions fine. At my school we just got a bunch of Blue Ray players to get them when they still had component out.

Often the projectors are capable of DVI, but the rest isn't. Example, at my church (which is a large church often rented out for concerts), we have VGA to the installed projectors. And you can only run 1024x768 unless you bypass the installed switching. And the screens are 4:3 aspect. But the installed projectors are DVI capable, 5:4 aspect 1280x1024 projectors. Don't ask. I was NOT part of that setup. It was all bought at once... and far too much was spent on it.

I've seen this far more than once though, especially in schools - VGA run up to projectors that have DVI inputs... makes me want to cry...

 

[Mikal789]

Yes They Can be Sold

I don't know they can be sold or not without license but you can purchase them at CableShark

HDMI Cables
Cable

 

[saxofunk]

Yet another failure related to Mini DisplayPort! That's the worst thing ever. First this, then Thunderbolt. Incompatible with everything.
How come all projectors STILL use VGA, and the newer ones HDMI and not Mini DisplayPort? It's because Apple makes the wrong choices with stupid connectors.

VGA is still used for projectors because it is an analog signal, which can inherently be run for longer distances with acceptable levels of degradation. When a digital signal degrades (from interference or resistance) it simply ceases to be a signal and you get nothing. Analog signals can be boosted with an amplifier (increases the noise floor) but with digital, you have to have a device that can read the degraded (low voltage) signal and then repeat it with the higher - correct voltage (introduces lag).

HDMI is as bad as the MPAA, just trying to impose a tax on hardware. (Mini) Display Port is most likely to take over as the 'single wire' solution, especially if it is adopted as the standard connection for Thunderbolt.

Baryon: Apple isn't wrong just because they choose the best solution for their situation. ADC was a brilliant connector/standard, it just wasn't adopted because of the licensing. Same thing will happen to HDMI, licensing costs will kill it. Mini Display Port is an open standard.

 

[PracticalMac]

USB *extension* cables are not in spec either, and in fact is "illegal", but they are everywhere.

Problem : mDP to HDMI Cables.

Solution : Call them mDP to HDMI dongles and slap the cheapest ferrite core you can find onto the end of one.

Yeup, there ya go.
Change the wording, and everyone is happy.


in the end, it is really mindless bureaucracy of the organization, that is why I hate HDMI