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[VPhys]

Great because I planned on installing VLC anyway.



Ok last question (for now, lol feel like I'm taking over the thread).


I'm kind of backtracking and thinking of getting a macbook Air instead of the rMBP, and just keeping my external monitor. 90% of use will be at home, and I save $1000 while still having 1900x1200 IPS.

Problem is there is only one displayport on the air. I need to connect my Macbook to (1) external mointor with Displayport input and (2) HDTV via HDMI. Is this possible with only one displayport out. Through searching I don't see a cable that will do this.

I assume the ideal cable is a minidisplay port to HDMI cable, WITH a passthrough. I don't think they exist.

 

[Crazymoogle]

Still looking for opinions on this. Does anyone still feel the need for an external display when using the rMBP?

Well, the problem for you really is that this is a 1st gen product. The screen is going to look sharp, but apps are struggling to catch up and you'll need to try that tweak app mentioned to see if the 15" screen works for you with higher resolutions. If you're used to working with 24" monitors it could go either way. If you're used to working with 27" monitors then you may want to get a Cinema Display and a cheaper MBP. Or various other permutations.

I'm kind of backtracking and thinking of getting a macbook Air instead of the rMBP, and just keeping my external monitor.

Problem is there is only one displayport on the air. I need to connect my Macbook to (1) external mointor with Displayport input and (2) HDTV via HDMI. Is this possible with only one displayport out. Through searching I don't see a cable that will do this.

I assume the ideal cable is a minidisplay port to HDMI cable, WITH a passthrough. I don't think they exist.

You're right in that simply daisy chain cables don't seem to exist. As of last year you could buy a Cinema display and daisy chain with that...depending on the Macbook you owned. That's 2011 though so you might want to root around Anandtech or something to see if the new MBAs can support multiple displays...

(It's also not clear if you could substitute an HDMI screen for a thunderbolt screen via daisy chaining...)

 

[Blackhead]

Quick question guys, is it worth having both Parallels installed AND a Windows 7 bootcamp partition, or do they both just do the same thing?

I already have a W7 bootcamped for games, and had forgotten I bought Parallels on Newegg when it was really cheap a while back. Worth having both?

depends on what programs you want to run. you can use the Parallels to access the Bootcamp partition so you might as well install it...

Spoiler

I'm on team VMWare few

Great because I planned on installing VLC anyway.



Ok last question (for now, lol feel like I'm taking over the thread).


I'm kind of backtracking and thinking of getting a macbook Air instead of the rMBP, and just keeping my external monitor. 90% of use will be at home, and I save $1000 while still having 1900x1200 IPS.

Problem is there is only one displayport on the air. I need to connect my Macbook to (1) external mointor with Displayport input and (2) HDTV via HDMI. Is this possible with only one displayport out. Through searching I don't see a cable that will do this.

I assume the ideal cable is a minidisplay port to HDMI cable, WITH a passthrough. I don't think they exist.

Get an appletv and Mountain lion?

 

[Tobor]

VLC 2.0 removed dvd decryption.

Oh shit, really? I guess I'll check out your link then. You see how often I try to rip encrypted discs, lol.

 

[DemonNite]

After someone suggested that I should try the Touch to click option for the trackpad, I have to say that I find it a huge improvement in terms of paranoia in the trackpad wearing out and overall quickness.

I highly recommend anyone who hasn't given it a try to see what they think. I even converted a friend of mine who has been using the default way for years!

 

[fly high ~ayunite~]

Is there anything cool that can be done with the Magic Mouse? Like use it as a TV remote or with other bluetooth stuff?

 

[Blackhead]

Yeah, I've got an iPad, but I didn't have it with me that day and I didn't want to read on my phone, that's why I was looking for a Mac ePub reader.
BookReader seems to be at least the most good-looking, but the bugs are annoying.

I reinstalled BookReader and it does work at 1400x900 HiDPI! It still has those other bugs though :/

I also tested DjVuReader and iChm (is .chm still a supported format?) if anyone still has ebooks that need to be converted already.

 

[scorcho]

it's amazing how much grime rubbing alcohol (higher % the better) and some cotton balls will extract from the palm rest and top panel of a unibody MacBook Pro. i have 5 blackened, soaked balls next to me. it even works well on the keyboard.

looks almost as good as the first day i bought it. dat craftsmanship.

 

[TUSR]

it's amazing how much grime rubbing alcohol (higher % the better) and some cotton balls will extract from the palm rest and top panel of a unibody MacBook Pro. i have 5 blackened, soaked balls next to me. it even works well on the keyboard.

looks almost as good as the first day i bought it. dat craftsmanship.

For some reason I have a feeling that rubbing alcohol might affect the annealed aluminium haha...

 

[Zapages]

Hey guys,

An update on everything. I just talked to folks on Mac Live chat. It should be possible. The first thing, I will have to do is to do a custom install of Windows 7. Then do another upgrade of Windows 7 and enter the serial key. From there everything should be fine. :0

How does this sound to you guys?

-Zapages

 

[TUSR]

Hey guys,

An update on everything. I just talked to folks on Mac Live chat. It should be possible. The first thing, I will have to do is to do a custom install of Windows 7. Then do another upgrade of Windows 7 and enter the serial key. From there everything should be fine. :0

How does this sound to you guys?

-Zapages

Sounds reasonable... Im very tentative on upgrading operating systems. I like clean installs better.

 

[Zapages]

Sounds reasonable... Im very tentative on upgrading operating systems. I like clean installs better.

yeah same here... Well technically it will be a clean install. Its weird, well I am doing the upgrade, I could ask it to do a format to NTFS...

 

[Crazymoogle]

Hey guys,

An update on everything. I just talked to folks on Mac Live chat. It should be possible. The first thing, I will have to do is to do a custom install of Windows 7. Then do another upgrade of Windows 7 and enter the serial key. From there everything should be fine. :0

How does this sound to you guys?

-Zapages

I guess I came in on this late - you're trying to do a clean install of Windows 7 upgrade?

Then yes, that's how you do it. Annoying as hell to wait through two installs but it gets the job done.

 

[Meus Renaissance]

Hey guys,

I apologize if some of my question seem very repetitive. I am coming from using Windows nearly all my life. Although I did use the old Macs back in middle school to program some simple games using Microworld, if anyone remembers that application. Anyway, I am thinking of buying a Mac Book Retina for school. I do Molecular and Bio-informatics research and I am basically looking at large sequences or doing 3D protein modeling. The data sets are in range of 7 to 15 GB at a time. My mentor (professor) recommended that I looking into and seriously consider buying the new Mac Book Pro with Retina display to help me better aid my research needs.

My current laptop's resolution is 1650x1050 is about 4 years old: Windows 7 Pro Intel Core 2 Duo P8400(2.26GHz) 15.4", Wide XGA 4GB Memory 250GB HDD (with only 30 GBs free) 5400rpm DVD Super Multi NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GS...

It'll be nice as some applications that I could use are Mac only. While some of them are really old and not supported by Apple (ie. can only run in snow leopard or older). I was wondering with some finagling will they be able to run on the latest Apple OS Version?

This is all good and all. The problem is that I use tools that very Windows centric, which are dependent on Dos. It runs in the background of a real good Windows GUI. If I buy a MBPR, would it be able to run dos applications that run fine on my home Windows 7 Desktop.

Aside from this, the main question, is will I be able to install Windows 7 Pro 64 bit on the laptop with just the Windows 7 upgrade DVD through the Apple Super Drive. If so is it possible to have Parallel and bootcamp. Also how does right click work on Apple that running bootcamp or parallel. I am considering buying the following:

MBPR with
2.6GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 3.6GHz
16GB 1600MHz DDR3L SDRAM
768GB Flash Storage
Apple USB SuperDrive
AppleCare Protection Plan for MacBook Pro
Apple Thunderbolt to Gigabit Ethernet Adapter
Mini DisplayPort to VGA Adapter

It'll be about 4000 dollars.

Thank you in advance.

-Zapages

I switched to VMware Fusion, away from Bootcamp, as Windows installation is far more customisable and simpler. Unlike Bootcamp, VMware allows you to choose which hardware components you'd like enabled or used and/or specifics like how much RAM you want to dedicate to the OS. Unfortunately I would recommend 8GB of RAM, but the retina Macbook cannot be readily upgraded (RAM is soldered into the board, and forget about buying a higher spec model from Apple unless you're wealthy).

My question is though, why do you need a Macbook Pro for this? Why not just remain with Windows?

 

[scorcho]

nevermind.

 

[Blackhead]

Any recommendations for a tiny Infrared usb receiver that works with the Apple Remote?

 

[TUSR]

I switched to VMware Fusion, away from Bootcamp, as Windows installation is far more customisable and simpler. Unlike Bootcamp, VMware allows you to choose which hardware components you'd like enabled or used and/or specifics like how much RAM you want to dedicate to the OS. Unfortunately I would recommend 8GB of RAM, but the retina Macbook cannot be readily upgraded (RAM is soldered into the board, and forget about buying a higher spec model from Apple unless you're wealthy).

My question is though, why do you need a Macbook Pro for this? Why not just remain with Windows?

He already mentioned the build he was going with, not sure why you even brought this up...

You can change hardware components in Windows 7 and XP that you want to run... Allocating ram is strictly for VMWare, its completely pointless for bootcamp.

If hes handing data files the size he said, Bootcamp and 16GB of ram is what he needs.

 

[TUSR]

Any recommendations for a tiny Infrared usb receiver that works with the Apple Remote?

Whats the intended use? What hardware?

 

[JackEtc]

depends on what programs you want to run. you can use the Parallels to access the Bootcamp partition so you might as well install it...

Did this today, it's really sweet. If you have a Boot Camp'd Windows intall, Parallels helps make it even more awesome.

 

[Blackhead]

Whats the intended use? What hardware?

Apple didn't put an ir sensor in the MBP with retina display

 

[TUSR]

Apple didn't put an ir sensor in the MBP with retina display

Because of space limitations, I know. Wasn't sure if we were on the same page. But what program do you need to remote for?

 

[Blackhead]

Because of space limitations, I know. Wasn't sure if we were on the same page. But what program do you need to remote for?

Skim in particular and (assuming it's supported) Mira in general

 

[Zapages]

I switched to VMware Fusion, away from Bootcamp, as Windows installation is far more customisable and simpler. Unlike Bootcamp, VMware allows you to choose which hardware components you'd like enabled or used and/or specifics like how much RAM you want to dedicate to the OS. Unfortunately I would recommend 8GB of RAM, but the retina Macbook cannot be readily upgraded (RAM is soldered into the board, and forget about buying a higher spec model from Apple unless you're wealthy).

My question is though, why do you need a Macbook Pro for this? Why not just remain with Windows?

That sounds interesting. Is that like Parallel?

Our collaborator recommended using: http://macclade.org/versions.html , http://code.google.com/p/pagan-msa/downloads/list , http://mesquiteproject.org/mesquite/download/download.html and http://www.megasoftware.net/

The reasons why my professor recommended me to buy MacBook Pro with Retina:

1) The Retina display - being able to go to 2800x1600 through SwitchResX that will be very beneficial when looking at 3D protein molecules. There are Mac versions of the same application.
2) There are a lot of Bio-informatic tools that are Mac or Unix only. There are no Windows versions, which my professor uses to do some of the work. If I get Mac, I would be able to do those analysis myself.
3) Dual booting or parallel windows 7 - being able to work with both type of software at the same time. Will make my work easier.
4) The applications to view large sequences that are about a couple GBs to 20 GBs will be made easier on the eyes when going through them.
5) There is one windows application that crashes on my laptop no matter what I do. It needs more RAM to run. It runs perfectly on my home i5 desktop (windows computer) with 560Ti and 12 GB of ram.

Basically I need super high resolution screen for the work I am working on and Retina display with its 650m will makes things a bit easier.

I am mostly going to be using Windows with a dab of OSX, but the internal hardware is so awesome and the size/weight factor is making me consider the Mac Book Pro with Retina as I have yet to see an equivalent windows laptop with better features. On top of this the size, battery life and weight are another issue. I am sick and tired of carrying my 7lb old laptop that gives about 10 minutes of battery life. When my laptop was under warranty, my laptop's recharger died and it took my laptop's company took 3 months to send me a new recharger. Regardless, I've had to replace my third party charger about 4 times in the past 2 years after the new recharger that they sent died after 6 months... Now the recharger is starting to act up again. So I am sick and tired of all those issues. Hence, I am looking into getting MacBook Pro with Retina.

Here's the thread: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=366873

I guess I came in on this late - you're trying to do a clean install of Windows 7 upgrade?

Then yes, that's how you do it. Annoying as hell to wait through two installs but it gets the job done.

Yes, that is exactly I am trying to go for.

 

[Commander William Adama]

What kind of NAS system are you guys running / recommend?

Synology. Everything else is shit.

 

[Metroid Hunter]

So GAF, I noticed some weird faded line on the bottom of my Mac today, and thought it was the wallpaper. It turns out, it wasn't.

What should I do? I'm still under warranty, but will Apple be willing to fix this? Would they replace the laptop, and would all my files (and Windows on Boot Camp) disappear? D:

 

[The Real Abed]

I'd take it to the nearest Apple Store and show them. There was a ghosting problem a few weeks ago, this might be related. Was that covered by warranty? I would hope so.

I'm still waiting for our local Mac retailer to get the Retina Pro's in. They said maybe this week or next. *sigh* It's such a long wait. I haven't seen a Retina display on anything but my iPhone 4S yet. Not even an iPad 3.. er New iPad. (I'm waiting for the New New iPad 4 before I upgrade.) I want to play with one and see how older apps look on the new display. Hopefully I'll be able to download some non-Retina apps (Or find some installed) to try out. I also want to play with the higher "resolution" settings and see if they're usable for long periods in person. I'd much rather use at least the 1680x1050 setting if it's usable enough. (That's the resolution of my aluminum 20" Apple Cinema Display I got in 2005.)

 

[VPhys]

I also want to play with the higher "resolution" settings and see if they're usable for long periods in person. I'd much rather use at least the 1680x1050 setting if it's usable enough. (That's the resolution of my aluminum 20" Apple Cinema Display I got in 2005.)

Saw the retina MacBook pro in the store the other day and I don't know what all the fuss is about. 1900 x 1200 is easily readable on the display in my opinion, text is not too small at all. I really wish that 1900 x 1200 or at least 1680x1050 was the default resolution so there was no loss in quality or performance due to scaling.

 

[The Real Abed]

Saw the retina MacBook pro in the store the other day and I don't know what all the fuss is about. 1900 x 1200 is easily readable on the display in my opinion, text is not too small at all. I really wish that 1900 x 1200 or at least 1680x1050 was the default resolution so there was no loss in quality or performance due to scaling.

In order to have a Retina resolution like that the pixel dimensions would need to be astronomically high. 3800x2400. Soooo many pixels it would have.

I can't wait for ML to come along so it can be tested with the core animation enhancements.

I really just want to see it in person so I can go apeshit over how cool it is, wish I had one, then get over it after weighing the price and the machines extra 1.5 pounds and then just end up buying the maxxed out MacBook Air I was planning on getting anyway. (Plus it's better to wait for a second or third generation anyway, also I'd much rather have a 13" model anyway.)

In fact.. I should just buy the Air now since I'm really hoping to talk myself out of it anyway. ;-)

Still can't wait to see it anyway. Even if I won't be getting it. It'd be nice to see what my NEXT machine would be like.

 

[criesofthepast]

Anyone ever put an SSD in their iMac? I have a late 2009 21.5 inch iMac and wanted to give this a shot but I'm not sure where to start. Most guides are for the 27 inch model. Any help?

I see replacing the optical drive with the SSD as one option but can I just replace my current 500GB normal hard drive and put the SSD in its place while keeping my optical drive?

If I replace the optical drive then I'd have two working internal hard drives, am I correct? Could I install apps and the OS on the SSD and put my movies and photos and music etc on the normal 500gb hard drive?

I'm a noob with this shit. I'm confident I can install it myself though. If I had some good instructions/video-photo tutorials.

 

[Mr. Wonderful]

It's kind of funny, because with Haswell, we're supposedly finally getting ~64MB of VRAM on the Integrated GPUs. More than enough for the desktop experience, and great for the MacBook Airs. But now the Retina displays come along, and all of a sudden Intel's GPUs are going to be "barely good enough(TM)" again. I don't know if this is typical, but according to atMonitor, my 1680x1050 desktop experience is taking up 36MB of VRAM, and I'm assuming you would almost double that by going to the Retina display resolution.

 

[scorcho]

Anyone ever put an SSD in their iMac? I have a late 2009 21.5 inch iMac and wanted to give this a shot but I'm not sure where to start. Most guides are for the 27 inch model. Any help?

I see replacing the optical drive with the SSD as one option but can I just replace my current 500GB normal hard drive and put the SSD in its place while keeping my optical drive?

If I replace the optical drive then I'd have two working internal hard drives, am I correct? Could I install apps and the OS on the SSD and put my movies and photos and music etc on the normal 500gb hard drive?

I'm a noob with this shit. I'm confident I can install it myself though. If I had some good instructions/video-photo tutorials.

you're in for a world of pain with the HDD upgrade - http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iMac-Intel-21-5-Inch-EMC-2308-Hard-Drive-Replacement/1766/1

i believe you'll also find guides, either on iFixit or other places on the interweb, that'll show you how to place a second drive and the additional parts you may need to facilitate that (OWC perhaps?). instead of going that route, i'd recommend you to get a high-quality FW800 enclosure instead. Keep the faster SSD internal, but take your old mechanical HDD, or a new one, and connect it to your iMac via FW800. it's great for backups, making a bootable image of your system partition, etc.

 

[Crazymoogle]

It's kind of funny, because with Haswell, we're supposedly finally getting ~64MB of VRAM on the Integrated GPUs. More than enough for the desktop experience, and great for the MacBook Airs. But now the Retina displays come along, and all of a sudden Intel's GPUs are going to be "barely good enough(TM)" again. I don't know if this is typical, but according to atMonitor, my 1680x1050 desktop experience is taking up 36MB of VRAM, and I'm assuming you would almost double that by going to the Retina display resolution.

1680x1050x32bpp = 7MB, so that's 14 or 21 depending on if it's double or triple buffered. The extra memory usage is probably because of how the 3D accelerated screen rendering works, combined with the resolution independent UI components. So while the frame buffer will scale linearly, the rest of the space needed probably will not.

(In addition, the Macbook Air currently tops out at 1400x900, which means 40MB or 60MB for the frame buffer at 2x or 3x respectively)

It's still an interesting point though and I think probably another nail in the coffin for a Macbook Retina Air being right around the corner, but the lineup for that is pretty long already with heavy hitters like "is this possible without discrete graphics?" "how do we maintain battery life on an ultraportable?" and "how do we not kill overall performance?"

 

[Lord Error]

That line looks like screen burn in. I've seen that happen with LCD screens, it just take LONG time for it to manifest, and only some screens are susceptible to it.

It's still an interesting point though and I think probably another nail in the coffin for a Macbook Retina Air being right around the corner, but the lineup for that is pretty long already with heavy hitters like "is this possible without discrete graphics?" "how do we maintain battery life on an ultraportable?" and "how do we not kill overall performance?"

rMBP runs fine with integrated intel for things that Air would be most used for. I think battery would be a bigger issue.

 

[jobber]

So I was replacing the hdd with a ssd in the 13" Pro and I unscrewed the hdd caddy which was attached to the sleep indicator light. The SIL doesn't light up anymore. It looks like the ribbon is in fine condition and I got the ribbon back into the board but nothing worked. Is this something only Apple can fix?

 

[RDreamer]

Hmm... I'm having an odd problem. I used to connect my Macbook Pro to my TV through the DVI to VGA. I sold that old macbook and now the new one has those mini dvi port things, so I bought the adapter so I could continue to put internet shows on my TV. It used to be so easy. I'd plug it into my Macbook, and my TV would auto connect and my macbook would auto recognize. I did that now and it looks like the macbook recognizes the TV. It's there in the display settings and everything, but the TV shows no signal at all. I've tried unplugging things everywhere and trying again to see if it would recognize it. I manually turned it to the input it should use and I still get no signal. Anyone know why this is happening?

 

[ajf009]

Anyone have any idea how I can get a program along the lines of Soundtrack pro? They discontinued it but I'm working with Final Cut pro X and I need to fix some audio issues. I don't understand why they'd discontinue Soundtrack unless they added some way to work with audio inside of Final Cut that I'm not aware of

 

[Krelian]

Hmm... I'm having an odd problem. I used to connect my Macbook Pro to my TV through the DVI to VGA. I sold that old macbook and now the new one has those mini dvi port things, so I bought the adapter so I could continue to put internet shows on my TV. It used to be so easy. I'd plug it into my Macbook, and my TV would auto connect and my macbook would auto recognize. I did that now and it looks like the macbook recognizes the TV. It's there in the display settings and everything, but the TV shows no signal at all. I've tried unplugging things everywhere and trying again to see if it would recognize it. I manually turned it to the input it should use and I still get no signal. Anyone know why this is happening?

It's not clear which adapter you bought. Did you get the Mini-DP to VGA or Mini-DP to DVI? If you got the DVI one you can't use a DVI to VGA adapter with it, which might explain your problem. If not, I don't know.

 

[RDreamer]

It's not clear which adapter you bought. Did you get the Mini-DP to VGA or Mini-DP to DVI? If you got the DVI one you can't use a DVI to VGA adapter with it, which might explain your problem. If not, I don't know.

I'm still really confused on all these names of plugins and all that. I bought this Mini DisplayPort Thunderbolt to DVI Adapter. It plugs right in to the cord (DVI to VGA I believe) that I was using on my last macbook pro just fine, and the connection and everything was the same as the port on my last macbook pro. And the MBP seems to recognize that something's there, but the TV won't display no matter what settings I change it to.

So I can't use that? What the hell am I supposed to use, then?

 

[criesofthepast]

you're in for a world of pain with the HDD upgrade - http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iMac-Intel-21-5-Inch-EMC-2308-Hard-Drive-Replacement/1766/1

i believe you'll also find guides, either on iFixit or other places on the interweb, that'll show you how to place a second drive and the additional parts you may need to facilitate that (OWC perhaps?). instead of going that route, i'd recommend you to get a high-quality FW800 enclosure instead. Keep the faster SSD internal, but take your old mechanical HDD, or a new one, and connect it to your iMac via FW800. it's great for backups, making a bootable image of your system partition, etc.

Thanks so much for this scorcho. Is there a reason you suggest replacing the mechanical hard drive with the SSD and not adding the SSD as a second internal hard drive and replacing the optical drive instead? Is one more difficult to do than the other or less problematic long term? I hear fan issues being the most common with adding an SSD. I'm kinda warming up to the route of replacing my optical drive a bit more because I read that you can buy an enclosure for your optical drive once its removed and connect it via USB when you need it. I use my optical drive almost never so having two hard drives in my iMac and still having the ability to use the optical drive through USB in those rare cases I need it would be perfect.

 

[Mairu]

I'm still really confused on all these names of plugins and all that. I bought this Mini DisplayPort Thunderbolt to DVI Adapter. It plugs right in to the cord (DVI to VGA I believe) that I was using on my last macbook pro just fine, and the connection and everything was the same as the port on my last macbook pro. And the MBP seems to recognize that something's there, but the TV won't display no matter what settings I change it to.

So I can't use that? What the hell am I supposed to use, then?

http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10428&cs_id=1042802&p_id=5107&seq=1&format=2

This is what you should have bought if you wanted to connect your MBP to VGA

 

[RDreamer]

http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10428&cs_id=1042802&p_id=5107&seq=1&format=2

This is what you should have bought if you wanted to connect your MBP to VGA

But that's way too short... So I have to buy that and another long VGA cord or what?

Seriously why the fuck wouldn't this work? This makes no sense at all. I thought I just needed an adapter to change a mini plug to a regular plug. Why would I need to buy a whole different fucking cord?

So, what else can I buy that'll work that's longer than 5 freaking inches... Why are these "adapters" so goddamned short if that's what you're supposed to use and can't connect a cord to them? I just don't get all this..

 

[Krelian]

I'm still really confused on all these names of plugins and all that. I bought this Mini DisplayPort Thunderbolt to DVI Adapter. It plugs right in to the cord (DVI to VGA I believe) that I was using on my last macbook pro just fine, and the connection and everything was the same as the port on my last macbook pro. And the MBP seems to recognize that something's there, but the TV won't display no matter what settings I change it to.

So I can't use that? What the hell am I supposed to use, then?

You need this and VGA to VGA cable (normal VGA cable). If your TV supports it you could also use a DVI cable to connect DVI to DVI.

Seriously why the fuck wouldn't this work? This makes no sense at all. I thought I just needed an adapter to change a mini plug to a regular plug. Why would I need to buy a whole different fucking cord?

So, what else can I buy that'll work that's longer than 5 freaking inches... Why are these "adapters" so goddamned short if that's what you're supposed to use and can't connect a cord to them? I just don't get all this..

It doesn't work because Apple put an artificial restricion on the Mini Displayport to DVI adapters (as far as I know) so adapters for VGA won't work with it. It sucks, but there's no way around it.

 

[Alchemy]

But that's way too short... So I have to buy that and another long VGA cord or what?

What? Of course you would, these are just adapters. Just like you would need a VGA cable to connect one VGA out to any VGA in.

 

[StopMakingSense]

I'm still really confused on all these names of plugins and all that. I bought this Mini DisplayPort Thunderbolt to DVI Adapter. It plugs right in to the cord (DVI to VGA I believe) that I was using on my last macbook pro just fine, and the connection and everything was the same as the port on my last macbook pro. And the MBP seems to recognize that something's there, but the TV won't display no matter what settings I change it to.

So I can't use that? What the hell am I supposed to use, then?

Then you clearly missed this note on that product's page:

"NOTE: This adapter does NOT support analog signal. It will only output a digital signal. It can be used with DVI to DVI and DVI to HDMI cables and adapters, but NOT DVI to VGA."

It doesn't work because Apple put an artificial restricion on the Mini Displayport to DVI adapters (as far as I know) so adapters for VGA won't work with it. It sucks, but there's no way around it.

? This is a monoprice adaptor. The limitation is with their design, nothing to do with Apple.

 

[RDreamer]

What? Of course you would, these are just adapters. Just like you would need a VGA cable to connect one VGA out to any VGA in.

That's why this is so silly/confusing. I thought I was buying an adapter. A real adapter would just work the same as how I had it before, since it should turn it into the same plugin as what I had before, except it doesn't.

Then you clearly missed this note on that product's page:

"NOTE: This adapter does NOT support analog signal. It will only output a digital signal. It can be used with DVI to DVI and DVI to HDMI cables and adapters, but NOT DVI to VGA."

Bah, yeah I suppose that would have been slightly helpful had I really known much about what any of these plug names meant. I was just searching for whatever worked with the cord I already had....


Bah, oh well, thanks for the help guys. Should have asked here first, I just thought it was a no brainer purchase since that type of port worked before. Guess I get to spend more

 

[Krelian]

? This is a monoprice adaptor. The limitation is with their design, nothing to do with Apple.

What I meant was that the Mini Displayport to DVI adapters only utilize the digital signal of DVI (DVI-D) while it's possible to use both with DVI-I. Apple's adapter doesn't support DVI-I, so you can't use another adapter on top of it. I imagine it's the same with third party adapters.

Whether Apple doesn't allow DVI-I adapters or whether it's not technically possible I don't know.

 

[scorcho]

Thanks so much for this scorcho. Is there a reason you suggest replacing the mechanical hard drive with the SSD and not adding the SSD as a second internal hard drive and replacing the optical drive instead? Is one more difficult to do than the other or less problematic long term? I hear fan issues being the most common with adding an SSD. I'm kinda warming up to the route of replacing my optical drive a bit more because I read that you can buy an enclosure for your optical drive once its removed and connect it via USB when you need it. I use my optical drive almost never so having two hard drives in my iMac and still having the ability to use the optical drive through USB in those rare cases I need it would be perfect.

The reason I advocated the external option for the mechanical drive instead of adding it as a 2nd internal option is for convenience, primarily. Firewire800 has enough bandwidth to handle SATAII drives at nearly full speed and without the CPU utilization of USB 2.0. You can also daisy chain a bunch of enclosures together if you need to, as well as use it with any other Firewire-equipped Mac in your arsenal. And in case you need to service or replace the drive, you don't have to go through the hassle of removing the screen again.

For your machine I think you'll need to purchase one of these adapters to take the place of the Superdrive in your machine. The process is basically the same as adding a 2nd HDD to the non-Retina MBPs. For my machine I also opted for the single SSD and bought a Firewire external that gets plenty of rotation between my machines at home and work. YMMV, though.

 

[StopMakingSense]

Whether Apple doesn't allow DVI-I adapters or whether it's not technically possible I don't know.

Looking around, there do seem to exist MDP to DVI-I adaptors on Amazon and other places.

 

[killertofu]

I've hooked up girlfriend's Retina Macbook Pro to my 32 inch tv, but it seems like I can't see the edges...like I can't see the status bar at all right now.

Is that a OS thing or my TV?

 

[Fuu]

I've hooked up girlfriend's Retina Macbook Pro to my 32 inch tv, but it seems like I can't see the edges...like I can't see the status bar at all right now.

Is that a OS thing or my TV?

It's the OS, you can only see the menu bar in one of the displays in that setup. In order to see it on the TV you have to set it as the main display in the "displays" setting in system preferences.

You can also toggle mirroring on if you want, that way you get the bar in both screens as they'll display the same signal.