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They look the same to me. Just a thought, try buying from monoprice.com. You'll probably find a much better deal on pretty much everything related to cabling there. I buy all my cables from them. They're super cheap and work quite well. Only downside is you have to pay for shipping but still a lot cheaper than buying from apple directly.
Hope it helps!
Sweet thanks! Ill check it out. But that cable is only 5 bucks on amazon!
Looks like the third adapter with three A/V jacks is female. One of the other two adapters would have to be male.
I have no idea what that means but you are probably right. Got both cables in the mail and it aint workin : /
Those are actually different adaptors, one is mini-displayport, and the other is mini-dvi. You need to make sure you get the right one for your computer
think about it. basic organic design.
Male RCA:
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Female RCA:
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Male into female.
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no one has caught the the two adapters are not the same.
The first is MiniDISPLAYPORT to DVI, the second is MiniDVI to regular DVI.
Two very different things.
If you have a MacBook or old PowerBook, you would need #2. If you have a newer (late 2008+) MacBook or MacBook Pro, you will need #1.
Alrighty, thanks : ) the dvi to component cables I got should be ok though?
Actually, unless I'm very mistaken, no it won't. I've read complaints here from people who attempted to do this with a VGA monitor and it didn't work.the dvi to component cables I got should be ok though?
Actually, unless I'm very mistaken, no it won't. I've read complaints here from people who attempted to do this with a VGA monitor and it didn't work.
Note that the component adapter says DVI-I, because it requires that DVI signal to include the analog VGA signal wires to do anything with it. To my knowledge no Displayport-DVI adapters support an analog, VGA-style signal. Displayport is capable of adjusting its output signal to match HDMI/DVI, if (I assume) the adapter tells it to, but that has nothing to do with the analog signal that DVI-I includes on a separate set of pins.
What you need is a Displayport to VGA adapter, then a VGA to component adapter. This will work because Displayport-VGA adapters are active--they have circuitry inside that is powered by the power available from the Displayport connector (yep, there's power in there, like USB), and converts the digital signal to analog. Here's Apple's:
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB572Z/A
...though I bought a cheaper 3rd party one for about $20 (I think from Monoprice, but I can't remember right now and I'm at work so I can't check), which worked perfectly with a VGA monitor.
Note that it still might not work, depending on what you're plugging the component cables into and how the VGA adapter works--I have read that unless the device is specifically configured to output a component signal (some video cards do), a "dumb" VGA-component adapter won't do anything. You need a transcoder that actually converts the VGA signal to a component one.
It's possible that the displayport-VGA adapter does this for you, or maybe that your TV/projector/whatever can handle it, but for $29 I seriously doubt it, and it's a gamble if you can't return the cables. Thread with some info:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=840626
And a thread at Apple asking about the same thing confirming it probably won't work even when they're sold together, as you'll find on eBay and discount retailers:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=10551966
...so unless your TV/projector will accept a VGA input on its component inputs (unlikely, I think), you'll need the above-linked Displayport to VGA adapter plus a VGA to component converter, like this StarTech one, which are relatively spendy. You'd be in much better shape if your device includes either a VGA (or better yet HDMI) input--many do.
Why? Most non-Apple computers don't have component output, either, and many of the ones with VGA out wouldn't work any better with the "dumb" VGA-Component cables than a Mac. The issue is with the differences in analog formats, not Apple.This is crazy to me. First time I've been very dissapointed in apple : /