thunderbolt vs minidisplay port

A Thunderbolt cable is not "just wires". Some use fiber optics and have no wires at all.

Each Thunderbolt plug contains circuits to match its particular cable type and length.

A Mini DisplayPort display or adapter will work with a Thunderbolt port (except than on the back of a Thunderbolt display) but a Thunderbolt plug will not work in a Mini DisplayPort (although it will fit).

[What is the diffference between thunderbolt and minidisplay port?]

As has already been written: thunderbolt transmits the image (like minidisplay port) and a lot of data on top of that.

You should be able to connect your display to the thunderbolt port without problems as it is backwards compatible. Just make sure to use a minidisplay port cable for thar. A thunderbolt cable is active (the plugs contain amplifiers) and will only work between thunderbolt devices.

If I use an displayport to minidisplay port and an apple thunderbolt cable, it does NOT work!

Then something else is wrong. That cable is "just wires", has no conversion, and works going either direction. It should plug directly into a ThunderBolt port, provided you push hard enough so that essentially ALL of the metal cable-end is inside the jack.

Try sleeping and waking your Mac to see if it Detects the Display on wake-up.

Make certain the Display is set to the correct port -- it needs to respond on the correct port when the Mac asks, "who are you, and what are your capabilities?"

Malcolm J. Rayfield wrote:

A Thunderbolt cable is not "just wires". Some use fiber optics and have no wires at all.

Each Thunderbolt plug contains circuits to match its particular cable type and length.

A Mini DisplayPort display or adapter will work with a Thunderbolt port (except than on the back of a Thunderbolt display) but a Thunderbolt plug will not work in a Mini DisplayPort (although it will fit).

A good synopsis. While almost all 2 meter and shorter Tbolt cables aren't optical, longer versions are starting to hit the market and they are.

The reason that Thunderbolt connectors get hot is the chips processing the data in the connector. Also why they don't cost $6 like a USB cable.

A portion of a Thunderbolt connection is Mini Display Port. Adapters to DVI, to MiniDisplay Port or other display connections are not Thunderbolt but only use the Mini Display Port portion of that connection. No Thunderbolt data transfer occurs over that connection, only display.

Rick

Grant Bennet-Alder wrote:

Sorry, I did not mean to imply ..........

HATE it when that happens :^) Too often, the short answer isn't quite perfect. Yet we try and be compact. Oh well..

No problemo. Happens to all of us.

Rick

i have a macbook air with a thunderbolt port. i need to connect my macbook air to an HDMI port on a TV.

clearly i am not the most intelligent human on earth, but i want to buy a thunderbolt to HDMI cable, and all i get in search results, the store on apple.com, amazon etc is "miniport display to HMDI adapter". so i am assuming that i can plug the miniport connector into my firewire port and the HDMI connector to my TV and it will work?

why no one sells a "thunderbolt to HDMI cable" is beyond me....

ThunderBolt and Mini DisplayPort use the same connector.

Mini DisplayPort cables pick up ONLY the display subset of the Display AND Data capabilities of a ThunderBolt port, and uses these signals to drive a display.

A ThunderBolt cable is FAR more expensive, and will only drive a few Apple ThunderBolt displays directly, and will refuse to work with anything else.

Some Vendors sell hundreds of different cables, and have no idea of this subtle difference in cables, and label their cables in a completely haphazard manner. It is up too you as the Buyer to understand well enough to figure out what they Meant to say.

Sorry, I did not mean to imply that Thunderbolt cables are just wires -- they most certainly are not.

I meant to say a Mini DisplayPort to DisplayPort cable is just wires.

Grant,

Now I have to say it, sorry. You specifically did not imply that a Thunderbolt cable is just wires. I read it too fast as well. Your comment was directed at the display adapter.

Rick