Thunderbolt vs. HDMI for projector

Question

etedesco Author

Level 1

4 points

Thunderbolt vs. HDMI for projector

Ok, I need a quick answer to this question if possible.

I have a MacBook Pro Retina Display

16 GB RAM

500 GB Flash HD

I have a movie premiere tomorrow night and the manufactor of the DVDs had an encoding issue so most likely the DVDs will not be ready tomorrow for it 😟

Now I would like to play the full HIGH quality Pro Res movie from my MacbookPro using the sites projector. Now my question:

What is the best way to do this?

HDMI

THUNDERBOLT

Or something else.

Please help if you have any knowlegde.

Thank you,

Ernie

MacBook Pro with Retina display, Mac OS X (10.7.5)

Posted on Sep 26, 2012 6:55 PM

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Answer 1

markwmsn

Level 6

16,727 points

Sep 26, 2012 9:33 PM in response to etedesco

That will depend largely on what inputs and resolutions are available on the projector. Determining that should be your first order of business.

If this premiere is at all important to you, plan to reserve all day tomorrow for making sure you can connect. This may involve buying an adapter cable, working out settings, and/or getting software support from AppleCare. Please don't assume you can just toss it together at the last minute. If you get lucky, everything will fall into place on the first try and your afternoon will be free, but it may not happen that way.

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Answer 2

Network 23

Level 6

12,351 points

Sep 26, 2012 11:28 PM in response to etedesco

The projector is definitely the limiting factor. Is it an old projector, that only has VGA video inputs? Or is it a higher-end projector that has HDMI, DVI and maybe even DisplayPort?

If the projector has HDMI, you get an HDMI cable and plug those ends into the projector and MacBook Pro.

Your Thunderbolt part is really also a Mini DisplayPort, so if the projector also has some flavor of DisplayPort (pretty unlikely actually), then you get a cable with the right kinds of DisplayPort plugs on both ends.

More likely, the projector will have VGA or HDMI on it. If VGA, then I think you get a Mini DisplayPort to VGA cable and there you are.

If this is a serious movie premiere and they have one of those super fancy 2K, 4K or 8K projectors only found in digital movie theaters, you shouldn't be asking here. You should be asking whoever maintains the projector. It may have a specific digital port that is intended to preserve maxiumum quality and I don't know what that is.

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