I am connecting my MacBook to my 40 inch LCD for the purposes of watching HD episodes of some missed TV shows (Lost, Heroes, Fringe). Should I connect to the VGA input or HDMI input of my TV. Which will give me better PQ for this purpose. Also, does anyone know if the above shows are in 5.1 surround? I was thinking about buying a mini jack to toslink adapter.
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Connecting MacBook to home theater
- Thread starter UNCMo96
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If your MacBook has miniDVI then you can use either adapter to playback HDTV shows. If however your MacBook uses miniDisplayport then you will have to use the miniDP to HDMI adapter to display those episodes on your TV (to maintain the HDCP "chain"). Also, many LCD's don't offer full resolution on the VGA input so you might check your specific model and make sure it will do HD resolutions on that input. As for the audio, I believe this varies per show on HDTV between DD 5.1, PL2 or Stereo - so there's no telling for sure without knowing the actual show and episodes. Having said that though, those miniToslink adapters are SO cheap and optical will pass 5.1 or any of those formats so thats your best option regardless 
I just set this up for my girlfriends unibody macbook. It was under $25 for all the cables and adapters from monoprice. They should really start paying me for all the plugs I make for them.
They have both mini-dvi and mini-display port adapters going to both HDMI and DVI depending on what you would prefer to do. Also, I would skip the toslink adapter and just go with a cable. It looks cleaner than having a bukly adapter and you don't have to worry about the toslink cable falling out of the adapter.
They have both mini-dvi and mini-display port adapters going to both HDMI and DVI depending on what you would prefer to do. Also, I would skip the toslink adapter and just go with a cable. It looks cleaner than having a bukly adapter and you don't have to worry about the toslink cable falling out of the adapter.
Should only cost $15 or $16 bucks plus shipping.
For the older MacBook's with Mini-DVI you would want:
For newer MacBook's and MacBook Pro's with Mini Display Port you would want:
The appropriate video cable for your adapter and TV.
This audio cable
For the older MacBook's with Mini-DVI you would want:
For newer MacBook's and MacBook Pro's with Mini Display Port you would want:
The appropriate video cable for your adapter and TV.
This audio cable
What about audio?
I have MDP as well, and no audio is transmited through it.
I am wondering about the audio stream. I do no have Toslink, the people at Apple say I need a headphone to RCA cable adapter for that. I have searched monoprice for such a thing but have not decided which one I need. Can anyone point me in the right direction?
I have MDP as well, and no audio is transmited through it.
I am wondering about the audio stream. I do no have Toslink, the people at Apple say I need a headphone to RCA cable adapter for that. I have searched monoprice for such a thing but have not decided which one I need. Can anyone point me in the right direction?
MDP = D stands for display, which is why no audio.
also "headphone to RCA" and Toslink are 2 completely different things even though they go into the same port on the computer. one is copper wire, the other is optical fiber. Unless your stereo has an optical input you need the headphone to RCA
headphone to RCA
Toslink - scroll down to where it says "Toslink to Mini Plug" to get what you want.