Prince McLean
Support for audio output over the Mini DisplayPort connector debuted with the latest generation of MacBook Pros. Apple now sells a revised VESA-compliant adapter for HDMI output that extracts both audio and video signals from the Mini DisplayPort connector.
A support document for the new model indicates the 2010 MacBook's Mini DisplayPort connector can be used to "connect to an external display, projection device, or TV that uses a DVI, HDMI (audio and video) or VGA connector with a separate adapter. You can purchase adapters for supported video formats from Apple."
Third parties are also able to sell Mini DisplayPort to HDMI adapters (or complete cables) that deliver both audio and video signals, although some existing Mini DisplayPort to HDMI cables do not yet support audio, so buyers need to be aware of the signals supported by a given cable or adapter.
Previous Mac models with Mini DisplayPort required a separate cable to deliver audio output to a TV in addition to using HDMI to deliver video, either using the optical or analog minijack output or alternatively a USB port delivering digital audio output using a more expensive USB+Mini DisplayPort hybrid adapter.
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
AppleInsider Staff
Chip Loder
Malcolm Owen
68 Comments
So the audio out over HDMI is a hardware upgrade? Does this mean that adapter won't work for my Macbookpro 5,2 model with audio out over MiniDP-HDMI? boo. i was thinking it was a firmware upgrade at most!
I just bought a mac mini, do you know what that means? Three weeks from know the mini's will get upgraded with this feature. *sigh* I had talked to a Apple trained service tech and he believes that the audio over display port was added through a hardware update and can't be implemented with software.
Which is to bad as it is great feature to have instead of buying a display port/USB to hdmi adapter which works well but is an unnecessary cost.
This MacBook update looks pretty good and I think Apple will sell the heck out of them. I think I maybe getting one of these for my 10 year old daughter as I am tired of listening to her eMac which sounds like a vacum cleaner running full blast.
Come on Apple, couldnt you have just done this in the first place?
Seriously, what did you think people were going to be using that Mini-DisplayPort for??
I just bought a mac mini, do you know what that means? Three weeks from know the mini's will get upgraded with this feature. *sigh* I had talked to a Apple trained service tech and he believes that the audio over display port was added through a hardware update and can't be implemented with software.
Which is to bad as it is great feature to have instead of buying a display port/USB to hdmi adapter which works well but is an unnecessary cost.
This MacBook update looks pretty good and I think Apple will sell the heck out of them. I think I maybe getting one of these for my 10 year old daughter as I am tired of listening to her eMac which sounds like a vacum cleaner running full blast.
Well at least you have a good sense of humor about it all! Your daughter is a fortunate young lady!
My daughter is 25, in school and has a 13" MacBookPro with 4gig of RAM and 8hrs of battery life...I, of course, have the original intel MacBook!
lol My daughter is 31, is doing online college courses, has the MacBook Pro with the great battery life too. I had a PC laptop that got about 1 1/2 hours of battery life on a good day and I thankfully went to an iMac, although I would have gotten the MacBook Pro if I hadn't had to purchase a new Mac before they went with the new batteries.
That was two years ago.
My next will be a MacBook, and I'm thinking that the basic MacBook is looking pretty good these days, although I'll probably spring for a MacBook Pro when the time comes. Trouble is, my iMac will probably last another 5 years and then some.
Ahhhhhhhhh..... I'll figure out some reason to sell it and buy a new MacBook Pro laptop!