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Apple DVI to Video Adapter

Looks Fine

Written by JD from West Lafayette

Feb 4, 2006

This looks JUST as good as the s-video out on the power books. Small text is blurry. Movies and Games look absolutely fine!

21 of 24 people found this useful

Apple DVI to Video Adapter

Won't work with a Nvidia 7800GT

Written by FJ from planegg

Feb 1, 2006

MJ from Deganwy was right. i too have this adapter and was disappointed to discover that it is not supported. i have heard it works on Apple's 6600 series GFX cards. check the apple forum for more information.

i can't say much as to whether it is good or not. i have the other mini-VGA to video adapter which i use for my iMac G5 and it works. i also have the DVI to VGA adapters for both the G5 and iMac G5 and these work excellently.

if you are expecting high res output that matches your computer don't. the output of pictures (still and moving) is great for TV, not fine print. you need a scan converter for this, and they cost significantly more money.

11 of 15 people found this useful

Apple DVI to Video Adapter

Doesn't work with 7800GT

Written by MJ from Deganwy

Jan 19, 2006

the 7800GT doesn't recognize this adapter or more specifically S-Video i think. And i'm not the only one with the problem, check out the Discussions at Apple support. If you have the standard Video card that already comes in a G5, then you might be okay. read into it first though. Otherwise it's well built, can't comment on quality, i assume its good, not hard to do DVI-S-video.

10 of 16 people found this useful

Apple DVI to Video Adapter

It works, but quality is poor

Written by SM from Pasadena

Jan 6, 2006

I bought the DVI to Video Adapter to watch videos (episodes of Lost) I downloaded from iTunes on my TV. I had to return the first adapter I bought because it didn't work. The second adapter worked but the quality is worst than I expected. Of course I am not trying to use my TV as a second monitor since everyone knows that NTSC resolution is low and TVs aren't designed to create sharp pixels. I bought it to watch videos from iTunes and DVDs.

Here are the reasons I gave it a low rating. Keep in mind that I used the video output and not the S-video. When watching videos on TV the picture doesn't fill the entire screen. There is a black bar of about 20 pixels on the top of my TV screen that is never used. The other disappointment was the poor color quality. A cheap DVD player has a much better color quality. So if you want to watch DVD on your TV, you're better off using a DVD player rather than your Mac and this adapter. Of course the picture quality of the iTunes movies aren't great to begin with (they are highly compressed and I was very disappointed by the picture quality) and the poorly designed adapter doesn't help much either.

I am still using it, since I have no other way of watching the second season of Lost, and I prefer to watch Lost on my big screen TV rather than my small monitor. However, I doubt I'll use it for anything else.

You're much better off watching on you Mac, especially if you have one those gorgeous 30" LCD screen rather than a TV.

24 of 49 people found this useful

Apple DVI to Video Adapter

totally useless

Written by BR from Ennetbaden

Jan 5, 2006

I decided to use my mac mini as a multimedia center.So when it was time to connect the mini to my 32" Panasonic TV (crt) nothing happened, just a some noise on the TV flashed by. So Im really disappointed with DVI-Video adapter (the PAL variant) since I expected it to do the work! I have also red that NTSC is default out but there is no way I can change it in OS X, tried to install Mac2tv, but no icon comes up because you have to have the adapter plugged, and how can I change from NTSC to PAL without a freaking monitor!

14 of 68 people found this useful

Apple DVI to Video Adapter

Problem is pixel aspect ratio, not product

Written by GM from La Grange

Dec 30, 2005

Don't blame Apple. Blame NTSC.

Computer screen pixels are square. TV pixels are rectangular. When this thing shoots square-pixel video out to a TV, the distortion and pixel-merging that makes it work makes for a picture that looks bad compared to a computer monitor.

For more on why, do a google search in Safari under "NTSC pixel ratio" and find out.

56 of 65 people found this useful

Apple DVI to Video Adapter

This Sucks

Written by LP from Billings

Dec 3, 2005

This device is good for nothing unless you want to look at a screen as if you were a mile away. I would not buy this product.

4 of 119 people found this useful

Apple DVI to Video Adapter

Great tv-out, but doesn't remember the resolution!

Written by SP from Helsinki

Oct 8, 2005

I've used this on a Mac Mini, and despite the lack of RGB SCART output (for European TV sets) I have to say it's the best ever on a computer. Big bonus for the anamorphic resolution 1024x576. No Windows PC does this, even if the display hardware is exactly the same.

There's just one BIG problem -- when you reboot the Mac, the TV resets to a 800x600 resolution. That's NOT very practical.

32 of 42 people found this useful

Apple DVI to Video Adapter

great for games, not for text

Written by JG from Vancouver

Oct 5, 2005

I bought this so I could record my matches in video games such as Halo: combat evolved, to my VCR, for that purpose this device is awesome. However, it is nearly impossible to read text or distinguish anything in detail, I would not recommend this device for anyone who needs to display text.

16 of 30 people found this useful

Apple DVI to Video Adapter

Impressive product!

Written by AA from MANFREDONIA

Oct 1, 2005

I have tested the Apple DVI to S-Video adapter on displays both lcd and crt type and with dimensions between 7" and 40".

I can report results of amazing quality.

Be aware that i am comparing results about s-video based hardware,
which although being pretty much different to VGA displaying,
it's really far better than composite video.

Just perfect for looking at DVD movies on s-video ready TV,
and for direct recording to VCR.

27 of 34 people found this useful

Apple DVI to Video Adapter

Adapter for video

Written by MM from Oklahoma City

Sep 30, 2005

The thing that you must remember is that a video signal is very low resolution. NTSC is 720x486 and DV is 720x480. A computer signal is never going to look very good on a television unless your tv can accept vga or dvi inputs. Likewise a video signal on a computer display will look stretched and pixelated because the image is being stretched to fit over more pixels that it has. Now if we are talking about HD that is a whole different animal. HD is of course high definition, meaning it has more pixels, therefore it has a cleaner more detailed image. The adapter does what it is supposed to do.

61 of 80 people found this useful

Apple DVI to Video Adapter

Quality typical for Computer -> TV converters

Written by MG from Wayne

Sep 28, 2005

The quality was about what I expected, since I've used other converters in the past. It's best to set the computer resolution to 640x480, since this is close to the resolution of standard TV (NTSC). It should also be noted that connecting it to a High Definition TV (HDTV) will not give a better picture, since the adapter can ONLY output standard TV signals - not HD.

55 of 65 people found this useful

Apple DVI to Video Adapter

The adapter itself is fine

Written by JB from Austin

Sep 27, 2005

Complaints that S-Video quality is poor compared to DVI are reasonable, but it's unfair to blame the adapter. The adapter itself is fine. This dongle simply carries the S-Video and Composite signals produced inside your computer out to a plug your TV can use. No signal conversion takes place here; the S-Video and Composite signals are already among the many pins of a DVI connector, and this adapter simply adds an appropriate plug.

If you want S-video or composite video from your Mini or G5 tower, this adapter is a safe bet. Don't be surprised to find that even S-video is nothing like VGA or DVI in terms of quality, but that's a limitation of the signal format, not the adapter. If you've used the S-Video or Composite output of a Powerbook, you know what to expect, and you should be well satisfied -- the quality is similar.

1220 of 1881 people found this useful

Apple DVI to Video Adapter

Not very useable.

Written by RW from Discovery Bay

Sep 20, 2005

I purchased this item and the quality of the display is very poor. I at first assumed it was just my TV but after speaking with another person who has tried to do something similar on a PC, he seemed to feel that it was just not something that works right. A TV and Computer is just too different. I would like to experiment with it more but right now I would say not to bother with this. He had a new HDTV so resolution should not have been a problem on his TV.

45 of 187 people found this useful