Mini DisplayPort to VGA Adaptor

Reviews for Mini DisplayPort to VGA Adaptor

Customer Reviews and Ratings

3.0 out of 5 stars

Based on 496 reviews

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  • 3.0 out of 5 stars

    samsung and vga

    • Written by

    Appears lots of people are upset with the adapter not working with their samsung. I don't have the adapter but the reason for the "non-working" condition is based on the samsung vga implementation. It appears that samsung needs or wants to see all grounds connected in the vga connection coming into their monitor / tv. In vga land, there are 5 grounds (one for each color, sync signals and a shield / connector ground). IF these grounds are not connected together "in some form", then in my findings, your samsung display will not "highlight" the "pcmode" and as result, nothing will be displayable on the monitor (usually you will get "check cable" message). The reason for the "differences" that people are experiencing in results is that some vga cables are built with the grounds connected, some computers (eg. some PC's) are implemented to switch (connect) their grounds at the output port, and some different adapters (versions) have the grounds "hard-wired" together, some don't (this one?). Not sure why samsung choose their implementation, but these are my recent findings from my efforts to connect two pc and mac to a newly purchased samsung 61 HD TV. The "easiest" way around things (in my opinion) is to get a vga cable with all ground pins and sheath ground connected... if you already have a vga ("non-working") cable, then try buy a short "extension" cable with the described characteristic and use it as an intermediate cable (ie. between the samsung monitor and the "non-working" vga cable). Hope this is understandable and helps.

    129 of 135 people found this useful

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  • 3.0 out of 5 stars

    Its rough being on the leading edge of technology...

    • Written by from Calgary

    I bought this adapter with my new aluminum unibody macbook a couple of weeks ago. I immediately rushed home to try it out with my samsung LN46A550 TV... To my dismay the TV nor the macbook recognized that they were connected to eachother...

    After some hard research and digging i found out that this particular adapter only supports up to a 30" display. For whatever reason, apple made it this way. So i returned my adapter and asked employees at the apple store what was up with only supporting 30" or smaller displays. To my surprise i was told good news and bad news... The good news, theres another adapter coming out for my macbook with mini display port... The bad news is that it is not shipping yet and they dont know when it will start shipping. My guess is it has something to do with signal strength for the display size....

    Either way, I have an awesome new computer and im just gonna have to wait to hook it up to my 46" TV.

    99 of 109 people found this useful

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  • 3.0 out of 5 stars

    Works after calling Apple.....

    • Written by from Alamogordo

    I have a Macbook Pro and had issues getting my Samsung T.V. to read the VGA adapter. After calling Apple, they walked me through resetting my laptop. When we did this, the t.v. was able to pick up the signal and it worked. If your adapter is not working, don't worry....it's just a communication issue between the laptop and the t.v. Apple will be able to help you with this. They will walk you through the whole process. I gave it 3 stars, because it should not be this difficult. Other than that, the adapter works great.

    77 of 83 people found this useful

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  • 3.0 out of 5 stars

    MacBook Air (2012) restart to connect to external VGA monitors

    • Written by from Chassell

    I am confirming another review and post regarding the Thunderbolt video connection to VGA adapter on a week old 2012 MacBook Air. After an afternoon of disappointment attempting connections to several different monitors using several different cables and thoughts that the adapter was broken or not compatible with the Thunderbolt port, I concur that there must be a software/firmware error in the 2012 MacBook Air related to the Thunderbolt port so that it will not connect to *any* external monitor using the VGA adapter without rebooting the machine with the monitor attached. I confirmed this tonight.

    Nothing wrong with the minidisplay to VGA adapter as an interface. It is perhaps not the most ideal design, but it works. Apple, c'mon guys. The company generally makes good stuff but you've got to get the bar raised again or you've lost it... Professor of EE...

    52 of 54 people found this useful

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  • 3.0 out of 5 stars

    A possible solution...

    • Written by from Krusevac

    Why don't you (apple) just make a longer cable for adapters like these?

    This bulky VGA connector would be further from the computer, making less mess, and having less chance to be pulled out by cable itself.
    A lot of people have problems with it, maybe just a longer cable would do some trick?

    46 of 50 people found this useful

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  • 3.0 out of 5 stars

    Watch max resolutions on dual monitor setup with this adaptor!

    • Written by from Juno Beach

    In addition to the Mini-DVI to VGA adaptor, I purchased this Mini DisplayPort to VGA adaptor for my dual monitor setup on Mac Mini (2009). Worked great with my first set of lower resolution monitors that only had VGA in. However, upon upgrading monitors to higher resolution, I found out the hard way that there is a limitation on the resolution this adaptor will support. While the Mini-DVI to VGA worked fine in 1680x1050 mode, this adaptor did not! It only would work at the next resolution down, 1600x1200, not acceptable for identical dual monitor setup. Discovered that it was because of the analog output of this adaptor will not support resolutions this high. Fortunately the monitors also had DVI connectors, so I purchased the Mini DisplayPort to DVI adaptor instead and used theMini-DVI to DVI adaptor that came in the Mac Mini box. Everything now works fine but I am out another $29. Moral of the story: Go all DVI for best image quality and support for highest resolution, if you can!

    35 of 39 people found this useful

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  • 3.0 out of 5 stars

    TO ALL SAMSUNG LCD OWNERS

    • Written by

    This adapter works just fine, just change the VGA cable that you got with Samsung LCD. It misses some wires in it, and this is why this displayport adapter wont work with it.

    P.S.
    Apple should test this issue and write a notice somewhere, cause many users waste a lot of time experimenting this.

    35 of 42 people found this useful

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  • 3.0 out of 5 stars

    Works...for 2 months

    • Written by from Burlington

    I had just bought one, and was apprehensive about it. But it worked beautifully with everything I hooked it up with, including my 46" SAMSUNG TV(yeah, samsung, ). after a month of light use and lugging it between home and school, it just crapped out. Just like that. no warning or anything. Doubleyou-tee-eff, Apple. Also $30? Fo-real? Apple...$10. No more than $10.

    28 of 30 people found this useful

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  • 3.0 out of 5 stars

    Works, Overpriced

    • Written by from Cambridge

    Does the job. Too expensive (but it's not like I had a choice).

    31 of 37 people found this useful

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  • 3.0 out of 5 stars

    Overpriced accesory that is very useful.

    • Written by from Toronto

    I recently bought the Adapter at the Apple Store after waiting in line for around 20 minutes. This adapter was around $40 with tax which is outrageous considering its size. The adapter worked almost perfectly on first boot-up except for two exceptions:

    1. I couldn't type on either monitor on they first try. Once I rebooted I could type again.

    2. The colour is off even though I calibrated.

    In conclusion, the adapter was not worth the money that I put into it but will be EXTREMELY useful in the future.

    43 of 62 people found this useful

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  • 3.0 out of 5 stars

    Works, but insecure

    • Written by from Midlothian

    The adapter works perfectly, just as you'd expect. The only problem is that the screws on my VGA cord don't stay into the adapter. I don't know why (misaligned holes? too deep?), but it's a definite issue. As long as the adapter rests on a surface and there's no force pulling on it, it's fine.

    Of course, you could always use tape.

    25 of 26 people found this useful

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  • 3.0 out of 5 stars

    monitor keeps re-syncing

    • Written by from san francisco

    $29 is of course too much to pay for a video dongle.

    on top of that, my monitor right now always keeps re-syncing (blanking out and then realizing that yes, it does have input). it could just be this monitor model (samsung syncmaster 216bw), but definitely does it on several different ones around the office.

    i'm hoping that when the dvi one comes in the mail that it'll stop the constant blanking.

    28 of 32 people found this useful

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  • 3.0 out of 5 stars

    Advice

    • Written by from College Station

    I am not an owner of this product, however I am writing to share some experience I've had with connecting HDTV's to macbooks. In my experience the resolutions detected by the macbook for some HDTV's were incorrect, to make it work I've had to enable mirror mode.

    After setting mirror mode up, I then choose a resolution that I know the tv should support(to get it to show up on the list of available resolutions for the HDTV once I turned off mirror mode)

    Hope this helps at least someone.

    My friend had thought that their new HDTV would not connect to their macbook, but are much happier after I fiddled with it and got it to work. Once I made the proper resolution show up as an available option, future re-connections have not needed to go through the entire process of setting up mirror mode etc....

    my 2cents.

    26 of 29 people found this useful

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  • 3.0 out of 5 stars

    May have trouble syncing with monitors at higher resolutions

    • Written by from Oakland

    I have a late-2010 13" MB Air and use this adapter with various monitors. It appears that the VGA timings or signal strength on the laptop are marginal at higher resolutions (1600x1200 and above). The effect is that you periodically get zig-zag bursts across the entire screen. This is the analog VGA signal slipping between scanlines.

    The reason I'm mentioning this on the adapter page is that the build quality of the adapter appears to contribute to this. Perhaps there isn't proper shielding. In any case, I have tried three of these adapters and some are worse than others.

    Hopefully this issue can be fixed in the MB Air so that VGA is more usable at higher resolutions.

    Variables I have eliminated by trying different options: monitors, VGA cables, computer (2009 Mac Mini has no problem with same monitor and cable), USB or no USB attached, wireless networking disabled, and locations (home and office). Things that definitely fix it: using a DVI adapter or resolutions under 1600x1200 with VGA.

    So, if you have a single monitor, get the DVI adapter instead. If you're doing presentations, you have to use VGA but switch to a lower resolution.

    21 of 21 people found this useful

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  • 3.0 out of 5 stars

    One month range

    • Written by from Antioch

    I got this to connect my 13 macbook to my 37" LCD HDTV to and it worked beautifully for about one month then it just stopped. Wires gets messed up easily inside the adapter with everyday use and moving around. Really good product besides that though!

    22 of 24 people found this useful

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  • 3.0 out of 5 stars

    Limited Resolution

    • Written by from Victoria

    Maximum resolution seems to be limited to 1600x1200 and 1920x1080. I'm using an Aluminum MacBook (2008). My 1920x1440 CRT is crippled.

    24 of 28 people found this useful

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  • 3.0 out of 5 stars

    Finally got it to work! With a Samsung monitor widescreen.

    • Written by from Royal Oak

    This thing doesn't make much sense. It only works if the picture of the monitor on the adapter is facing up. But it fits in the Thunderbolt jack either way. I've tried three monitors and I was about to go back to the store when I tried it one more time and decided to flip the adapter over. I wonder how many people just gave up.

    20 of 21 people found this useful

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  • 3.0 out of 5 stars

    Cable "works" but has issues

    • Written by

    This cable does the job but the connector screws to the VGA don't fit properly and I needed to use electrical tape to keep them together.

    Also, I work at a College and we provide these adapters for student loan. It is VERY frustrating to purchase a new $34.00 adapter every 4 months because Apple keeps changing the "standard".

    21 of 24 people found this useful

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  • 3.0 out of 5 stars

    How to make it work...

    • Written by from Tychy

    If you having signal detection problems with your Mini Displayport to VGA adapter theres simple fix. The problem is that there's no ground on pin 10 (DDC Ground - to check which one is it search for VGA connector on wikipedia) of the vga connector. To fix this you can just wrap thin wire around this pin and attach it to the outside ring of the plug before connecting the adapter.

    16 of 17 people found this useful

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  • 3.0 out of 5 stars

    Worthless? Or not?

    • Written by from Ashburn

    I connect my new MacBook Pro to an LG 22" display. It's resolution is 1680x1050. For some reason, It'll let me output 1680 to the monitor, but the display won't show anything but a black screen. VERY annoying, since my old MacBook with the miniDVI port or whatever worked PERFECTLY! Although one absolute upside to this port is that the connection is a TON stronger (the adapter won't just simply fall out like the miniDVI one) and that it actually supports the PowerSave mode for my display.

    18 of 22 people found this useful

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