Vydeo Cancelled their Mini DP to DP cables... :/

[dmcbride]

I thought this was a tad disturbing...what do you guys think? I call BS.

Isn't this "form of digital media copyright protection" pretty standard in the industry at this point? To not support it, doesn't this really disable one from playing a huge portion of digital media?

Vydeo makes it sound as if this is just from Apple's legal department or something.

Yes, Devin, this particular design was in engineering several weeks ago - nearly complete, actually - but we've cancelled our program.

Apple is deploying a form of digital media copyright protection across the connector interface, and we have no desire to get entangled with Apple's industry-famous legal team.

FYI,
Mike

Technical Support
Vydeo Integrated Systems, Inc.
Littleton CO USA
http://www.vydeo.com




On Dec 9, 2008, at 4:49 PM|December344, McBride, Devin wrote:

I'm looking for a Mini DisplayPort to DisplayPort cable assembly.

Is Vydeo capable of making these?

Thanks,
Devin

 

[fathom]

This is strange indeed, and definitely unfortunate. My understanding was that the mini displayport to displayport conversion would simply be two different connectors with wires going from one pin on one connector to one pin on the other connector: a direct conversion. Why or how digital rights management affects this in any way completely confuses me. In other words, if Apple introduced DRM into their mini displayport (which it has), the DRM is in the circuitry inside the laptop (and inside the display), not in the cable.

 

[fathom]

I wonder if, and this is pure speculation, they developed some prototypes and found that they didn't work because the DRM wasn't enabled on today's monitors. For example, today, Dell and HP make 30" monitors that have DisplayPort inputs. If Vydeo tried out their prototype cables and found that they didn't work because the MacBook sensed that the display to which it was connected was not DRM enabled, I can see Vydeo throwing its hands in the air and saying that they do not want to get involved. Otherwise, they could have many upset customers demanding refunds, etc. even though it is not the cable's fault.

Again, I want to be clear: this is pure speculation with absolutely no basis. But, it's the only plausible explanation that I can think of right now.

This is a smack in the face to me --- someone that has been waiting and waiting to properly use my displayport-enabled 30" monitor at its native resolution.

 

[dmcbride]

This is strange indeed, and definitely unfortunate. My understanding was that that the mini displayport to displayport conversion would simply be two different connectors with wires going from one pin to the other: a direct conversion. Why or how digital rights management affects this in any way completely confuses me. In other words, if Apple introduced DRM into their mini displayport (which it has), it is in the circuitry inside the laptop and inside the display, not in the cable.

That is what I had thought - and essentially replied to them with.

It seems odd to me this is one of the last cables to come out considering it has absolutely not converting going on.

If more companies start pulling cables from distribution, there is going to be a whole lot more problems.

To think that Vydeo had this cable near complete /weeks/ ago...I have to wonder if there is alot more going on behind the scenes than we realize.

 

[matticus008]

It seems to me you've got two kinds of miscommunication going on. Whoever sent the original email was asking about an adapter cable, but got a response about video conversion.

Vydeo is a video conversion firm--software, processing, circuitry. They are not a cable manufacturer. The response, therefore, refers to video signal processing and conversion. They were likely assuming that the original poster was asking about something other than a simple adapter cable.

 

[butterfly0fdoom]

Apple's implementation of DP employs HDCP, I don't see how that would directly involve Apple's legal team; HDCP isn't an Apple DRM.