Apple Video adapter DVI I 4 pin mini DIN, RCA

Customer Reviews

Does what its supposed to...

2008-06-26
This product is solid, and it gave me no difficulty. It was perfect for hooking up to my roommate's old tube tv. That being said, if you have an HDMI input on your TV, or whatever you're linking up to, just get a DVI to HDMI converter. They're about 10 to 20 bucks on NewEgg and will give you a much better picture than this will. (Plus, most HDTV sets will talk to your computer and automatically set the display size when you use HDMI; this product will not).

A Must Have! Works Great!!

2008-01-02
Best Buy said "it doesnt exist". And we don't take that for an answer so we came to Amazon and POOF, got it!

This thing is the best. You can have vid output to any TV with RCA or Svid inputs. You can also use the TV as the second monitor by going into the settings and unchecking the box for "mirror". I like doing that so the fam can watch a movie and I can still surf while using my computer.. SUPER COOL if you're a traveling group like us.

I won't go anywhere without this now. (also great for playing Guitar Hero3 for Mac on any TV :)

Mini Mac DVI to VGA

2006-03-14
Excelent product easy to use, easy to install and great quality of image

Just fine.

2006-02-01
For someone who is looking for a cheep quick solution, this is just fine. I use this with my mac mini for general computer work, itunes, and surfing the internet. For high end work, take the other reviewers advice.

Not worth getting unless they fix the software first

2004-12-07
This is for a PowerMac G5, or so the label says. I haven't tried this on older G4 computers so I don't know if this really needs a driver that's built in a G5 or something.

I got this for the heck of checking what it can do for me. Nothing really.

1. First of you have to know that this adapter connects to the DVI port, not the old ADC port. What this means is that the Aluminum displays for the G5 model use DVI. This being the case, then you have a problem right there to fight over the port. Unless you have the high-end optional nVidia GT card with dual-DVI port, then the stock ATI 9600/9800 cards come with one DVI and one ADC. So I would think people with G5 have or are thinking of upgrading to the Aluminum display then you will be needing an ADC to DVI converter to hold the monitor and TV at the same time. That makes using the two "monitors" with respective adaptors. Why?! Unless Apple envisioned phasing out the ADC port soon, it makes no sense. And if they did envision to phase out the ADC then why release cards with the G5 that still have an ADC port if the new monitors use DVI and this adapter also uses DVI. Are they trying to make money selling adapters?

2. I haven't seen a perfect computer to TV interface from major video card manufacturers the same way Matrox has perfected it. What Matrox has done for dual monitors with one using a TV is that it automatically routes the video signal to the TV. If it detects your playing a movie file, it just brings it out to the TV as a full screen. No need to drag your windows into that screen and then making it into full screen. This adapter and the software interface doesn't do it. It just makes your TV into another monitor with extremely low resolution, naturally. The point of adding a TV as a monitor is to obviously put make multimedia viewing experience more enjoyable and hassle-free. If you play a QuickTime file or a DVD movie in your computer, you would want it to be played on your TV. Nope, not here. You will have to drag it then make it full screen.

But it doesn't stop there. Try opening another application and that full screen on the TV monitors automatically switches back into one within a window. Very stupid and annoying. So I believe they should follow the footsteps of Matrox and create a custom software that will allow to do just that. Put a check box if you want your video automatically output on the TV, on a window, in the first monitor, second monitor, etc.

3. The above suggestion actually works with Final Cut Pro application. But if you're a video editor, you really wont even need this. You see once you connect your TV via this adapter then you can route your TV as your monitor which is good to check the actual picture quality on a TV screen. It is a cheap solution. However, if you are editing on Final Cut Pro then it would be natural that you have either a video editing card that can output to a TV/monitor while keeping your dual computer monitor active for editing. Or, you have a camcorder with FireWire output or some other similar solution that you can use to route from the computer to camcorder to TV. Using FireWire is actually a better solution that this adapter because it DOES NOT allocate video card memory to the TV via the adapter. By using the adapter to connect to the TV you are eating up video memory between the computer monitor and the TV. So if you have 128MB memory then 64MB goes to each. This slows down the video information and will be evident if you are using big computer screens. By using FireWire the video card does not interfere and allocates full memory to your computer monitor.

4. The OS isn't even perfect with interfacing to the adapter. You connect the adapter and you'll need to constantly restart the computer whenever you connect/disconnect it. Simply putting the computer to sleep and waking it won't work. Your video card still thinks the TV is connected despite having no TV nor adapter (after waking from sleep). Shut down the computer, remove the adapter then start to make sure all video card memory is allocated back to your computer monitor.

So unless you have a high end video card that can afford to split the memory and an interface that automatically routes the video signal to your TV, this is pretty useless. It's just for fun to prove that you can output part of your screen to your TV with hassle and all. Skip until they improve the software.

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