Connect to TV

Need a little help connecting my macbook to my tv. I'm thinking of down-loading movies and playing them on my tv via my macbook. The problem here is I've misplaced my macbook manual. I was thinking I could connect using the firewire port (480 I think). My tv will accept a computer via a Cat-5 port I think...

You'll either need to use a VGA or composite connector. Apple sells adapters for both from the Macbook's Mini-DVI port to the appropriate connector for your TV.

Firewire and Ethernet are used for transferring data, not video signals.

Thanks... I clicked on your composite link there and the mini-dvi to video adapter looks good...

I just bought the video adapter a couple weeks ago, just to watch movies and stuff on my TV... I just have a plain 27" tube TV, but video looks great on it. It looks just like you are watching a DVD. FYI you need to buy a separate audio adapter though; either hook the MB up to external speakers, or buy a headphone->composite audio adapter at Radio Shack.

Thanks for the reply visualpurple... Now that you’re saying that I bet I want get Dolby Digital 5.1... If not I'm not... Well... Might not be worth the effort... That sound makes a big difference...

zyepod said:

Thanks for the reply visualpurple... Now that you’re saying that I bet I want get Dolby Digital 5.1... If not I'm not... Well... Might not be worth the effort... That sound makes a big difference...

Click to expand...

My understanding is that the audio out of the Macbook does optical 5.1 Dolby Digital through the line-out, and if you get an adapter that goes from the 1/8" jack to optical-in to a 5.1 receiver, you should be able to also get 5.1 Surround. I don't have such a device that has optical in with which to test, but that is my understanding of what the sound output options you may have.

As an aside, I just assisted my brother in law who has a Macbook and just got Apple TV. He was having problems getting it hooked up to his wireless network, so we got on a video chat with iChat AV and I was able to walk him through getting the MAC address filtering set up for his router to get his ATV to connect. Something that would have been cumbersome just over the phone. Kind of all, 'Jetsons' like.

would the composite device be suitable for outputting video from final cut studio to a TV / monitor?

yes vaughan80

thanks!