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Whats "better" mini DP to DVI or HDMI ?

C

colour

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 13, 2009
189
0
I have a 2011 mbp 13" and am looking at buying am external monitor.
A large number of monitors have HDMI + DVI inputs, what i would like to know is what is a better input or which should i be using from my macbook to a device ?

i understand i will have to buy a mini display port to either HDMI or DVI but which one ? are they essentially the same or will one work better then the other for certain things ? like higher resolutions ?

My LCD TV also has dvi and hdmi inputs and i will be hooking them up.
 
colour said:
I have a 2011 mbp 13" and am looking at buying am external monitor.
A large number of monitors have HDMI + DVI inputs, what i would like to know is what is a better input or which should i be using from my macbook to a device ?

i understand i will have to buy a mini display port to either HDMI or DVI but which one ? are they essentially the same or will one work better then the other for certain things ? like higher resolutions ?

My LCD TV also has dvi and hdmi inputs and i will be hooking them up.
Click to expand...

The only difference is that hdmi supports audio so some monitors with speakers will be able to output the computers audio, otherwise dvi and hdmi are digitally identical.

HOWEVER, with the recent problems a lot of people have been having with hdmi and display port connectors on monitors, dvi is the safer option.
 
Well I've had some problems with my 2011 MBP switching from an external monitor to TV and since the update the problem is gone. Only thing which is peculiar is that I have to reboot when using my TV, because I can't transmit sound without restarting.

As I suppose you use it mostly for watching movies I would recommend the HDMI-adapter, unless you use an external audio source (like a stereo/surround-receiver), because I suppose it should be more stable.
 
Stick with the DVI adapter. I have an external monitor that does both DVI and HDMI and I've tried fiddling with the HDMI settings on both my laptop and the monitor, but the display of text and other graphics isnt quite as crisp when the signal is going through HDMI compared to DVI.
 
My TVs have HDMI (no DVI) so I have ordered the dp-to-hdmi with my new 15" from the official reseller here. Also all conferences that I have been in have VGA or HDMI for their projectors. DVI is effectively useless for me. But I'm in Europe, not sure how things are in the States...

Order verification states that it is made by Moshi, while dp-to-vga is made by Apple.

They said that it supports audio with 2010-2011 MBPs... I'll verify next Tuesday (that's when I'll be getting the MBP in my hands)
 
cvs said:
My TVs have HDMI (no DVI) so I have ordered the dp-to-hdmi with my new 15" from the official reseller here. Also all conferences that I have been in have VGA or HDMI for their projectors. DVI is effectively useless for me. But I'm in Europe, not sure how things are in the States...

Order verification states that it is made by Moshi, while dp-to-vga is made by Apple.

They said that it supports audio with 2010-2011 MBPs... I'll verify next Tuesday (that's when I'll be getting the MBP in my hands)
Click to expand...

I have the Moshi Mini DisplayPort to HDMI adapter and I can confirm that it does support audio out on the 2010 & 2011 MBPs.

But as for an additional adapter, it never hurts to have a Mini DP to VGA adapter for meetings or presentations.
 
colour said:
My LCD TV also has dvi and hdmi inputs and i will be hooking them up.
Click to expand...

Look into the details of this. When hooking up a PC or Mac to a TV like this, especially a large one, you want the input that provides the sharpest signal at the native resolution of the TV.

DVI and HDMI are both digital inputs, so theoretically either one should work well...but sometimes HDTV's have quirks or oddities about how certain inputs are processed compared to others. (Sites like avsforum are a good starting point for this kind of info.)

Edit: Throwing in my support for MonoPrice. They are a great, great site for cabling/adapters.
 
Last edited:
colour said:
My LCD TV also has dvi and hdmi inputs and i will be hooking them up.
Click to expand...

If you think there's a chance you'll hook it up to your TV, I'd go with HDMI, so you'll also have the audio. I have the mini displayport to hdmi adapter from monoprice. Recently used it to watch a movie stored on my hard drive. Set the macbook to output 1080p to the TV and put the movie in full-screen mode. Just had to change the system preference to output the audio to HDMI instead of built-in speakers. Worked like a champ.
 
I have surround sound for my macbook pro, so I wanted the sound to come out of the mac, not the TV. That, along with the fact an HDMI cable is $70 + for a good cable, I went with DVI ;D
 
Koning said:
Well I've had some problems with my 2011 MBP switching from an external monitor to TV and since the update the problem is gone. Only thing which is peculiar is that I have to reboot when using my TV, because I can't transmit sound without restarting.
Click to expand...

Did you try quitting and reopening the program? That solved the problem with me using VLC and a monoprice MDP->HDMI adapter
 
xMBPx said:
That, along with the fact an HDMI cable is $70 + for a good cable, I went with DVI ;D
Click to expand...

Really? I think you'll find as long as you don't need over 5m of cable $10 should be the maximum you pay for a HDMI cable.

Nick
 
xMBPx said:
That, along with the fact an HDMI cable is $70 + for a good cable, I went with DVI ;D
Click to expand...


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