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.
[via AppleInsider]
