FYI: Amazon is having some special rebates right now on the new Apple Laptops. $100 rebate on the new MacBook Pro
.
I stand corrected. In my new MacBook and MacBook Pro Review:
I scolded Apple for coming up with what I thought was a proprietary Mini DisplayPort Standard on how they connect external displays to the new MacBook and MacBook Pro. In turns out that the DisplayPort, and apparently Apple's Mini DisplayPort, are an industry standard. According to Wikipedia:
“DisplayPort is a digital display interface standard (approved May 2006, current version 1.1 approved on April 2, 2007) put forth by the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA). It defines a new license-free, royalty-free, digital audio/video interconnect, intended to be used primarily between a computer and its display monitor, or a computer and a home-theater system.”
However, it doesn't seem to be a widely used standard for something that has been around since 2006.
In fact, the Wikipedia entry mentions Dell using the DisplayPort Standard, but I just went over to the Dell website to see if their new LCD monitors and TV's contained a DisplayPort connection and I didn't see one. Now I didn't exhaustively go through all of them, but the 4 new LCD displays marked as “New” on the Dell website only contain a combination of the following ports: VGA (Analog)/ DVI-D (Digital)/ HDMI with HDCP. Notice the lack of DisplayPort or Mini DisplayPort.
Wikipedia also mentioned HP had products shipping with DisplayPort connections. So, I then went over to the HP website, and although in the support archives I found one of the old monitors ( that is no longer for sale ) had a DisplayPort, none of the 5 monitors for sale for Home and Home Office had a DisplayPort. Basically their monitors only had the following inputs - VGA, HDMI (with HDPC), DVI-D or some combination. Again, it doesn't look like HP is coming out with products with a DisplayPort connector right now.
This is not to say that the DisplayPort and Mini DisplayPort aren't better than the other standards, but I don't want the DisplayPort and Mini DisplayPort being the Betamax or HD-DVD of industry standards. Granted I am not a video guru, but I haven't heard squat about DisplayPort until now.
Apple is obviously buying into the whole DisplayPort standard as their new 24“ LED Cinema Display only has a Mini DisplayPort to connect to a MacBook, MacBook Pro, or other notebook.
Related Posts: