Now that I have a beautiful, powerful laptop, I want to hook it up to my beautiful, powerful TV.  Excited, I picked up a DVI to HDMI cable, only to notice the the pins on the cable didn’t match the pins on the MacBook Pro connection.  I tried a little but it didn’t go in easily so I didn’t force it.  But I did solve the problem with help from the boys at Fry’s Electronics in Sacramento (no, really!)

 

I know, from writing the book* that there are different kinds of DVI cables-- DVI-I which stands for DVI integrated. It sends both analog and digital signals. And there’s DVI-digital (plain DVI, if you will).  Well, DVI TV connections (and flatscreen LCD monitors) use a digital connection for DVI and a regular VGA connection (ye ol’ monitor connection) for analog signals.  Digital signals being the preference for DLPs, Plasmas, and LCDs (called “native”)  it is best to keep the signals digital.  (Switching to analog and back (“digital to analog conversion” or “DAC”), can degrade the picture, even cause little boxes (called “artifacts”) or jagged, blurred edges (jaggies), or other mysterious picture “noise”. )

 

After much looking around, the salesperson tried my digital DVI cable into an adaptor that had the same pin configuration (pattern of holes) as my laptop.  It fit.  Hmmm.  We went to a MacBook Pro.  It fit.  Okay. That’s what a “DVI-I” connection is about.  It’ll handle either type of DVI cable.  My MacBook Pro at home still had a tight fit but I knew if I pushed gently it would work fine.  

 

The connection improved the picture a bit.  I’ll be looking to find more ways to make it look even better....