Reviews for Apple Mini-DVI to DVI Adapter

I bought this adapter to connect to a DVI monitor. I attempted to connect the DVI connector to the DVI monitor, but no go. I looked and sure enough, the apple connector has four fewer pins and a wider center pin on one side. It doesn't match my DVI monitor at all! I have owned many DVI devices and never run into this problem before! Every plug i've ever seen that is DVI has been DVI-I since it only makes sense to have extra compatibility including Apple's powerbook output 4+ years ago. Why does this adapter have fewer features when there is no advantage? Even if these pins aren't active, they should at least be there, because it can't even work in Digital mode on most monitors since the pins don't mesh!

It took me a while to figure this out - buy I got it working now. The MacBooks mini dvi port only supports video, not sound.
But this plug works great, just be aware that you will still need an extension because this plug is way too short. I use a dvi extension cable with two male plugs (my tv has a female receptor). You could use the 3m DVI-D M/M Dual Link Digital Video Cable from Cables to Go.

To get the sound, you just need to add a 3.5mm Stereo Audio Cable M/M (Make sure your tv has one, but my 2007 LCD TV did).

Now you have video AND sound.

For all those people telling us "one stars" to do research, why is it that Apple isn't publicizing the fact that the female DVI end is actually DVI-D? I'm greatly annoyed now because I've wasted money and it is a pain and inconvenience to spend even more money to head back to the Apple store to return this piece of junk. Why can't they just make one that works? So much for Apple "just works". And why is it that even the diagram on the package has those four analog pins that are actually missing?

Is it any surprise the only way you can actually discover the true specification of this adapter is from complaints and forums, NOT from Apple. People buy this thing expecting it to work with "DVI" (which is all the information Apple gives us) but why on earth did they not choose to get the more compatible type? It makes me so angry.

so yeah i had to show a keynote at school (totally wish i ad MS office '08 rather than iWork '08) and i needed this addapter to show it because it only had the full size one at school on the LCD projecter, so i want to the media center and asked for the cord.. they took it off an iMac (white previous gen) and it wouldnt fit even though it had the symbol like this |[]| but it wouldnt fit so i was like whatever and i bought this and nope doesnt work with macbook DONT BUY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (well you can if you have an iMac that you'd like to bring to class)

MK wrote: "If you have a DVI-D equipped monitor and want to hook it to the iMac or current PB 12", this adaptor is for you. If you want to hook up some other sort of monitor (analog, DVI-I, ADC), this is not for you, or you may need an additional adaptor."

If you don't know which type of DVI you have, Google "pin configuration for DVI cable" and click the link for "Digital Visual Interface ( DVI ) Connector, DVI Pinout" (sorry, but Apple won't let me include the actual link in this review). The page that comes up shows illustrations of the different pinouts. Between MK's informative review and that illustration, I was able to choose the correct cable.

I don't like ranting about stuff, but this adapter is very bad.

I have the following hardware:

DVI to TVOUT (for mac-mini) Apple
2x DVI to VGA (mostly for beamers) WIESON & Apple
standard (I think) DVI cable (came with my 22" display)

All four parts listed above work great with my mac-mini!
This adapter is missing the 4 pin holes around the wide horizontal pin on the right-hand side and the wide horizontal pin-hole is not wide enough!

According to the DVI specification, it is a digital only plug, this however, is not clearly written in the description. The problem is that all my equipment here is dual (digital and analog) like most of the stuff out there! ddwg.org dvi specification page 45 and 46.

For you folks who say that you can't convert this cable to VGA because it's a digital signal and VGA is analog:

How come under Apple Accessories > Cables - there is a Mini DVI to VGA adapter right next to the Mini DVI to DVI adapter? From the product description:

"The Apple Mini-DVI to VGA Adapter is designed for use with the iMac (Intel Core Duo), MacBook, and 12-inch PowerBook G4. Connect the adapter to the Mini-DVI port of the computer and the VGA end of the adapter to an external VGA monitor or projector."

Apple did a shoddy job of describing the DVI adapter. That's all there is to it - as you obviously can convert the Mini DVI to VGA.

DVI is a digital video signal.

VGA is an analog video signal.

Even if the pins match up, the display won't be able to render the picture because you're feeding it a digital signal when it's looking for an analog one.

Get a DVI to HDMI cable and watch everything work.
Or, get a Mini-DVI to Composite Video Adapter and then go VGA from that.

But DONT come here with your uninformed posts and trash an adapter I have used countless times in proffessional home theater applications without fail.

For the dummy that stated "the sound output does not go through like the video feed does" ...that's because there is NO audio signal in a DVI cable. Period. Even if you plugged it into a DVI-HDMI adapter, you will still have no sound. The DVI interface contains video signals only, and as the other well-informed poster stated, there are different types of DVI connector; DVI-I, DVI-D, DVI-A. Know what you need to buy before your ignorance makes you write something stupid.

The usefulness of this adapter is seriously limited by the fact that goes to DVI-Digital rather than DVI-Integrated. The mini-DVI connector on the macbook carries both, why can't apple just include the extra wires in this adapter? There's no reason why not to, and I have to buy two over-priced proprietary adaptors rather than just one.