Dvi is a video outlet and does not output sound. Even an optical cable only carries dolby digital sound. My understanding is that only HDMI is capable of outputting lossless sound. I'm no expert but it seems that even the most expensive apple desktops or notebooks, which all seem to lack an HDMI output are incapable of outputting Lossless high quality sound, or even dolby Digital sound to an AVR for play.
Personally, I play my computer music on my 12 year old Yamaha AVR via an optical cable from my cheap ACer desktop and great fantastic 24-96 PCM stereo sound + subwoofer. I don't think you can get this quality stereo sound from an Apple via its earphone output. My DVI to HDMI cable does get my high def quality video on my 50" hd monitor.
A notebook with an HDMI output could connect to an AVR to a HDTV with a short HDMI cable, and avoid the long cable connection problems of desktops located far from the TV or AVR.
To argue that a computer is not a home entertainment instument is not a very futuristic outlook. I have cloned my computer display to my tv for years and played my computer music over my AVR for at least 10 years while surfing my computer. My wireless mouse uses the TV display to control the primary computer display. High speed cable allows me to stream movies instantly from Netflix. etc. The computer is already a home entertainment device.
Think of Apple as a store rather than a computer. This store uses its computer to funnel its fans into the store to buy its products. This store has wonderful products, so most of its fans don't look or buy elsewhere, less there activities be known to their friends causing them to be viewed as an outsider and shunned.
Now, if Apple's technologically superior desktop or notebook had an HDMI output, some of its fans might figure out that a $5 HDMI cable would provide a superior connection to its $200 Apple TV (another kind of Apple store that only allows Apple movies to be shown on your large screen TV), whereas the $5 HDMI cable could play anything the computer can play. Its fans might even figure out that music sounds better when played on adult sized large speakers than the $10 speakers TV sets traditionally offer.
HDMI is simply a superior connection for sound and video that Apple does not offer on even its high end products. There must be a reason for that shortcoming and the only reason that I can think of is the Apple store. Similarly, there must be a reason why the Iphone will not "multitask" to allow you to listen to free Pandora radio music while you surf the internet or do mail. Maybe, Apple is losing its edge but just like GM and Ford, it continues to do a lot of business and make a lot of money. Unfortunately, GM and Ford had Toyota and Honda. Apple has Google, and Google's motto is not that the horse and buggy offer a quieter and smoother ride. Maybe Apple should start making a superior product with state of the art connections, before its many fans figure out that you really can get much more for less elsewhere.
TV has this connection? I tried searching for HDMI and was amazed at all the recent results. I would think most people should benefit from their computers having this connection, yet only one product offers it. Whatcha think? HDMI ports on the horizon, or not anytime soon?
