Mini displayPort Confusion!

[p.carter]

I have a macbook aluminium fall 2008. I would like to connect it to my lcd tv and i'm confused as to which adapter i need. What's the difference between HDMI, VGA and DVI.

The ports I have on my tv are HDMI and VGA in...which do I use? Which is better quality? Is there one which integrates the picture plus sound through the tv?

I was doing some research and it seems that HDMI is the better option (?), yet am I right in thinking that there's no single HDMI cable that connects from my macbook to the tv? I'd have to buy a bunch of convertors right?

If someone could give me to advice on this I'd greatly appreciate it!

Cheers

 

[spinnerlys]

How to: Connect a MacBook, MacBook Air, or MacBook Pro to a TV

 

[dnkbro]

If you have HDMI on your TV, I would definitely go that route. VGA is strictly analog and will only output video. DVI can be both analog or digital but like VGA, it will only carry video as well (no sound). HDMI can carry both audio and video so it is the optimal choice.

The only adapter you need to buy is this:

http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=104&cp_id=10428&cs_id=1042802&p_id=5311&seq=1&format=2

All you have to do after that is plug an HDMI cable into the adapter (plugged into the MacBook) and into your TV. Now, I'm not sure if the MacBook Pro allows you to output sound through the minidisplay port so someone with a little more knowledge about Macs could answer that. Basically, the adapter is capable of outputting sound as well as video but it will rely on the source (your laptop) to actually support that feature.

 

[J the Ninja]

You probably want this doohickey. If you plan to use this as an actual computer monitor instead of just a TV, you may want to use VGA instead, as your TV might not overscan on VGA like it does with HDMI. It will be expecting a TV signal with HDMI. If you just want it as a movie display for watching videos on your Mac, go with the HDMI one I linked.

 

[plinden]

Use an adapter like this - (edit: ok ... that's enough, everyone's linking to that one)

This gives you video only. Hopefully you have an audio in on your TV. You need to connect the audio out of your MacBook to this, or use external speakers.

If you have a late model TV, you should be able to avoid overscan by setting the TV video configuration to something like "native" or "dot by dot", depending on the TV (my Toshiba is "Native")

 

[p.carter]

Thanks, that's totally made things a lot clearer.