Ah! So that's why......

If like me you've been wondering where the latest Apple Cinema Displays have gone, you know, the ones with the built in iSight camera and HDMI port, well I think I may have a theory!

Apple have a tradition of moving forward and abandoning old devices and interface ports. Demonstrated by the adoption of USB and dumping old legacy and serial ports along with more recently, the adoption of the ExpressCard/34 slot in the latest MacBook Pro when all but a handful of cards were available.

Well, I think that is also going to be true of HDMI, and Apple will skip HDMI.

My theory is that the new Apple Cinema Displays will adopt DisplayPort, a new standard ratified by the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA). To quote Wikipedia:

DisplayPort is a new digital display interface standard (approved May 2006, current version 1.1 approved on April 2, 2007) put forth by the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA). It defines a new license-free state-of-the-art digital audio/video interconnect, intended to be used primarily between a computer and its display monitor, or a computer and a home-theater system.

DisplayPort is a competitor to the HDMI connector (with HDCP copy-protection), the de facto digital connection for high-definition consumer electronics devices. Another competitor is Unified Display Interface,[1] a low cost compatible alternative to HDMI and DVI. However, the main supporter of UDI, Intel, has stopped the development of the technology and now supports DisplayPort.

Newly featured in version 1.1 is the support of HDCP content protection and support for fiber optic cables as an alternative to copper, allowing a much longer reach between source and display without image degradation.[2] Revision 2.0 is planned for later release.

Apparently, the advantage of DisplayPort over HDMI is that it's scalable with a potential for a maximum data transfer rate of 10.8GB/sec and also is capable of transferring both video and audio in both directions supporting video chat. It's also licence free which will appeal to Apple!

Nothing other than speculation I'm afraid, but I've a feeling we'll see something like this either before or at MacWorld 2008.

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Comments

[Jeff]

Sounds cool Don , keep us informed on any new news .

I enjoy reading you're Blog , thanks and keep up yhe great posting.

[Mp3 Lagu Melayu]

nice infos here. thank you. what i know is vesa is default display driver for linux. :D

[Now Steady On There…. at]

[...] New Range of Cinema Displays - So overdue, they must be a cert! Expect to find them with built in iSight cameras and supporting the new Displayport technology (along with DVI and HDMI - they wouldn’t leave them off would they!). Dell have just announced their first 30″ display with this new technology. Previous post about DisplayPort. Expect them to announce mods to the Mac range to include the Displayport adapters. [...]

[Ahem - I Told You So! at My Ow]

[...] an update to the Cinema Displays until it had DisplayPort technology primed and ready to go. - Ah! So that’s why….. Sept 2007! I think I nailed that one too with the announcement of the first update of the Cinema Display with [...]