No, it’s not fair to legally-paying consumers, but nothing’s going to change their minds. Any manufacturer who intends on marketing their products as HD-capable (including monitors, TVs, Blu-Ray drives, etc.) is forced to integrate HDCP to appease the movie industry’s crooked ways. When viewing high definition content on an external screen (once it becomes available from the iTunes Store in the future, for example), you must use a digital signal (VGA is analog).ĭon’t get too riled up - Apple is not the only one adding HDCP to their products. Not to mention the fact that VGA is not compatible with the HDCP copy-protection measures incorporated into the latest MacBooks. Sure, you can use Apple’s adapters if your TV supports VGA or DVI, but some models do not have these connectors. So how do you push video out from that shiny new MacBook to your big, beautiful high definition TV? As of right now, there’s no optimal way to do it. What this means for users is that the only way to connect these new laptops to an external display at the moment would be through Apple’s own adapters - currently limited to Mini DisplayPort to VGA ($29.99), Mini DisplayPort to DVI ($29.99), and Mini DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI ($99.99). Not only DisplayPort, but an Apple-customized variation of the open standard called Mini DisplayPort. Since Apple introduced the new aluminum MacBooks and MacBook Pros a couple months ago, there has been a lot of uncertainty and frustration over the consequences of DisplayPort being the only video-out option offered on the notebooks. An upcoming video adapter will allow new unibody MacBooks and MacBook Pros (and refreshed MacBook Airs) to be connected directly to high definition television sets.

Mini dp to hdmi for macbook pro