Apple Preps Hi-Def Macs

Ed Sutherland ()

Apple Preps Hi-Def Macs

Apple’s Mac mini could become the first line of general purpose computers to support high-definition video later this year, a report Monday suggests. A HDMI connector is located near a DisplayPort connector on prototype Mac mini units. The mini is often used to stream video to home theaters.

The AppleInsider report cites two unnamed “people familiar with the matter.” If true, the enhanced Mac mini would become the only Apple device besides the AppleTV product to provide HDMI compatibility.

Because the HDMI standard is a layer that sits on top of the existing Digital Video Interface (DVI) available in many Apple computers, providing other Mac high-def video is only a matter of a simple dongle, the report said. Although high-def video would be a simple proposition, the story gets more complicated if both video and audio are desired. Currently, only the AppleTV provides both signals.

High-end iMacs were supposed to be released with HDMI support, however, Apple’s removal of Blue-ray kept the feature under wraps.

When the Mac mini is updated, it could likely be powered by the current Intel Core 2 Duo, rather than the Nahalem i3, i5 or i7 processors due to licensing problems between the chip giant and Nvidia, according to the site.

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[via AppleInsider]

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About the author

Ed Sutherland

Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.

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  • Ymk

    What is this blue-ray you speak of?

  • MacRat

    Does HDMI even support all of the resolution a Mac can put out?

  • http://ObamaPacman.com ObamaPacman

    Mac Mini is already high def even without the hdmi port.

  • http://www.chirho.co.uk Scott

    “Apple Preps Hi-Def Macs” is very misleading and completely innacurate. I’ve had my fair share of annoyances not just being able to plug an HDMI cable into any of my macs, but they’ve been hi-def – if by the definition you mean support a 1920×1080 resolution – for years and years now.

    Although the abundance of HDMI cables/peripherals can be annoying sometimes when you’ve got a displayport totin’ mac mini, I do have to conceed that I think the DP standard is better, not only from a technological perspective, but the mini-displayport port is downright sexy in comparison to the HDMI one.

  • Nick

    My Mini (original 1.6) has been putting out 1080p from my Camcorder via a DVI / HDMI adapter for several years.

    Perhaps the news is that Applestore may now allow download of HD movies to something other than an AppleTV (which I refuse to buy)?

    Now that would be interesting……

  • OlsonBW

    I wish they would replace Front Row (that comes with every Mac) with the Apple TV software so I could use a Mini just like an Apple TV but with all the other functionality of Macs.

  • Morris

    Are you able to run the display port and hdmi at the same time?
    Can the video handle it? You can run two screens (inc laptop screen) with a macbook.

    This would make the mac min a cool living room box.

  • TheBrew

    Nah. Why would they create even less of a reason to buy their “hobby product”.

  • Camperton

    If it has a Blu-ray drive then it will be truly HD.

  • moshy

    This would give me reason to buy a mini to hook up to my home theatre…
    I can already connect my mbp to it but have to connect it to the tv via dvi-hdmi adapter and the sound to the receiver via toslink (and I’m thankful I can FINALLY get AC3 using Perian and Terminal hack) as I cannot hook them both into one input.
    I would rather use one cable to connect the computer straight to the receiver and HDMI is superior to toslink for sound quality as it can transmit formats that optical cannot such as DTS-HD and TrueHD. I just hope that Apple will finally allow proper digital audio natively as well.
    Bring on the Blu-ray, but that’s a whole other kettle of fish…