5 ms·

Vintage in what sense? HDMI is literally one of, if not the most common types of display ports on TVs, Monitors, game consoles, etc. I think most people would c

Vintage in what sense? HDMI is literally one of, if not the most common types of display ports on TVs, Monitors, game consoles, etc. I think most people would choose a straight HDMI to HDMI connection over trying to find the right USB-C/lighting/whatever cable to fit their needs (which is very hard to actually do). The HDMI port has stayed the same for a long time, yet new HDMI specs come out every few years expanding the capabilities.

deleted 5y ago
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notyourwork 5y ago
What's wrong with a USB-C to HDMI cable if you need that connectivity?
- handrous 5y ago
  You can pick up a 2015 MacBook and walk away carrying nothing else, and handle a wide variety of situations that may occur. Three things enable this: long battery life (don't need your brick); a touchpad that's not absolute hell to use for more than a minute or two at a time (don't need an external mouse); and port selection. Need something off Bill in marketing's USB stick (it'll be USB-A, almost certainly, even in 2021, let alone 2016)? Need to plug into a TV or projector, or even just a normal monitor that's not super-duper-new? HDMI is far and away your best bet, especially if you're not carrying your own cables. Photographer has some pictures for you that need to go on the web site (or you are the photographer)? SDCard reader, no problem. That ease-of-use—just pick it up and walk away, you don't even need to think about it—is significantly weakened if you need a few special cables and dongles to be similarly-well-prepared.
  - somewhereoutth 5y ago
    Yes. Luckily I fetched up at that place around 2015 - so I was given the best MacBook Pro ever made, and the best iPhone ever made - the 5S. Shame to have to give it all back really. Still baffles me why there was no hash key though.
  - potta_coffee 5y ago
    This is why I never upgraded from my 2015 MBP. I'm still using it everyday, God forbid it breaks. My next laptop will be something else entirely, with Linux on it.
  - notyourwork 5y ago
    I mean let's be honest, how many of us are road warriors that need every single type of connectivity known to exist? Having a single port type on your device simplifies one half of the equation. Your device's ports are a casualty of the lack of standard data port. The HDMI on displays makes you feel like you need an HDMI on your laptop, I disagree if my USB-C port can do that AND a whole bunch of other things.
    - masklinn 5y ago
      Despite intensely disliking meetings I regularly get pulled into them, and having to go back to your desk to get an adapter wastes everybody’s time and makes you look like an idiot. It also requires carrying an adapter at all times just in case. > Your device's ports are a casualty of the lack of standard data port To my great dismay HDMI is the standard video port, that’s why it got added back. > The HDMI on displays makes you feel like you need an HDMI on your laptop No, what makes them feel that is that every video input aside from specifically desk-top computer displays is HDMI.
      - notyourwork 5y ago
        We used to have other cable's for video prior. However, today we expect interoperability across so many more devices that saying we need this to be a video cable and this to be an audio cable put us in this position in first place. Over time I imagine we will evolve to a more standard "data transfer" cable that is what USB-C is trying to do. The transition isn't always easy and will introduce friction to various use cases. Remember firewire? Today when I'm mobile I have a bookbag, a laptop and a small accessory bag. The accessory bag has various cables, dongles and adapters to ensure I have plug-ability. Going back to your desk is a work problem, the office should just have those dongles in all the conference rooms and the problem you describe is entirely moot.
        handrous 5y ago
        > Going back to your desk is a work problem, the office should just have those dongles in all the conference rooms and the problem you describe is entirely moot. You run into this a lot places where only some developers and maybe the artists use MacBooks. Everyone else has fat Windows machines that have every port known to man and don't need dongles. Past the initial (annoying and unnecessary, but oh well) adjustment period, it wasn't that bad for all-Mac shops, but it's a real pain in mixed shops because it's basically just a MacBook problem.
- notatoad 5y ago
  it's great if you have one. doesn't work so well if you don't have one. HDMI is great because whatever random TV you want to connect to probably already has some other device plugged in with a 6' HDMI cable that you can steal.
- cycomanic 5y ago
  It seems that you're not in a line of work where people give a lot of presentations. Where I work it was almost a certain that at the beginning of some presentation session one mac speaker had to ask if someone had an adapter because they lost/forgot... theirs. If lucky another speaker was on a mac as well and has an adapter, otherwise someone has to go find an adapter somewhere
  - notyourwork 5y ago
    In the world of covid no I don't give presentations which are not virtual. In the prior world I did and if I was traveling I would bring dongles needed for connectivity. In the office I would our company provided dongles for this purpose. I really don't see the big deal with a one-off use case like that being the reason my machine NEEDS a specific port that doesn't have a compatible adapter.
  - dalyons 5y ago
    and that would go away shortly as everything becomes usbc
rbanffy 5y ago
I was being a bit cruel. It's an HDMI 2.0 port, which is useful for presentations (a USB-C to HDMI dongle lives in my backpack for that reason). 2.0 will drive a 4K monitor at 60 fps. Never tried that, but, IIRC, the original USB-C port (and HDMI 2.1) could do it at 120 fps (which, for my terminals, would be... totally overkill, just like 60 fps already is).
- giobox 5y ago
  While I agree HDMI 2.0 on a new for 2021 machine is an odd choice, displays can still be connected to the Thunderbolt 4 ports much like the previous gen. Apple's spec sheet says two external monitors at 6k/60hz supported this way via TB4. All of this is to point out, has anyone confirmed 4k/120 on the thunderbolt port? Given the 2x6k monitor output 4k @ 120hz sounds like it should be possible, unless Apple have nerfed the output.
  - masklinn 5y ago
    > Apple's spec sheet says two external monitors at 6k/60hz supported this way via TB4. It’s 2 for the Pro but 4 for the Max (technically 3 plus I think 4K@60, because that’s the limit of the hdmi port).
deleted 5y ago
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bitwize 5y ago
Ports tend to be common until Apple deprecates them.
- rbanffy 5y ago
  Apple is still one of the large personal computer manufacturers.
  - bitwize 5y ago
    Nevertheless, when Apple excludes a port the other OEMs start wondering whether that port is necessary or if they're including it out of blind convention. Likewise, when Apple champions a non-proprietary port on their PCs, other manufacturers tend to follow suit. Apple is more than just another large OEM. They are the standard bearer for the personal computing industry. They have tremendous influence over what a computing device looks like and how it connects to peripherals and other machines. (WiFi was largely a lab experiment before Apple's AirPort.)
    - rbanffy 5y ago
      > They are the standard bearer for the personal computing industry. That they are indeed. HP has a whole line of laptops named "Envy" for a reason.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

notyourwork 5y ago

What's wrong with a USB-C to HDMI cable if you need that connectivity?

handrous 5y ago
You can pick up a 2015 MacBook and walk away carrying nothing else, and handle a wide variety of situations that may occur. Three things enable this: long battery life (don't need your brick); a touchpad that's not absolute hell to use for more than a minute or two at a time (don't need an external mouse); and port selection. Need something off Bill in marketing's USB stick (it'll be USB-A, almost certainly, even in 2021, let alone 2016)? Need to plug into a TV or projector, or even just a normal monitor that's not super-duper-new? HDMI is far and away your best bet, especially if you're not carrying your own cables. Photographer has some pictures for you that need to go on the web site (or you are the photographer)? SDCard reader, no problem. That ease-of-use—just pick it up and walk away, you don't even need to think about it—is significantly weakened if you need a few special cables and dongles to be similarly-well-prepared.
- somewhereoutth 5y ago
  Yes. Luckily I fetched up at that place around 2015 - so I was given the best MacBook Pro ever made, and the best iPhone ever made - the 5S. Shame to have to give it all back really. Still baffles me why there was no hash key though.
- potta_coffee 5y ago
  This is why I never upgraded from my 2015 MBP. I'm still using it everyday, God forbid it breaks. My next laptop will be something else entirely, with Linux on it.
- notyourwork 5y ago
  I mean let's be honest, how many of us are road warriors that need every single type of connectivity known to exist? Having a single port type on your device simplifies one half of the equation. Your device's ports are a casualty of the lack of standard data port. The HDMI on displays makes you feel like you need an HDMI on your laptop, I disagree if my USB-C port can do that AND a whole bunch of other things.
  - masklinn 5y ago
    Despite intensely disliking meetings I regularly get pulled into them, and having to go back to your desk to get an adapter wastes everybody’s time and makes you look like an idiot. It also requires carrying an adapter at all times just in case. > Your device's ports are a casualty of the lack of standard data port To my great dismay HDMI is the standard video port, that’s why it got added back. > The HDMI on displays makes you feel like you need an HDMI on your laptop No, what makes them feel that is that every video input aside from specifically desk-top computer displays is HDMI.
    - notyourwork 5y ago
      We used to have other cable's for video prior. However, today we expect interoperability across so many more devices that saying we need this to be a video cable and this to be an audio cable put us in this position in first place. Over time I imagine we will evolve to a more standard "data transfer" cable that is what USB-C is trying to do. The transition isn't always easy and will introduce friction to various use cases. Remember firewire? Today when I'm mobile I have a bookbag, a laptop and a small accessory bag. The accessory bag has various cables, dongles and adapters to ensure I have plug-ability. Going back to your desk is a work problem, the office should just have those dongles in all the conference rooms and the problem you describe is entirely moot.
      - handrous 5y ago
        > Going back to your desk is a work problem, the office should just have those dongles in all the conference rooms and the problem you describe is entirely moot. You run into this a lot places where only some developers and maybe the artists use MacBooks. Everyone else has fat Windows machines that have every port known to man and don't need dongles. Past the initial (annoying and unnecessary, but oh well) adjustment period, it wasn't that bad for all-Mac shops, but it's a real pain in mixed shops because it's basically just a MacBook problem.
notatoad 5y ago
it's great if you have one. doesn't work so well if you don't have one. HDMI is great because whatever random TV you want to connect to probably already has some other device plugged in with a 6' HDMI cable that you can steal.
cycomanic 5y ago
It seems that you're not in a line of work where people give a lot of presentations. Where I work it was almost a certain that at the beginning of some presentation session one mac speaker had to ask if someone had an adapter because they lost/forgot... theirs. If lucky another speaker was on a mac as well and has an adapter, otherwise someone has to go find an adapter somewhere
- notyourwork 5y ago
  In the world of covid no I don't give presentations which are not virtual. In the prior world I did and if I was traveling I would bring dongles needed for connectivity. In the office I would our company provided dongles for this purpose. I really don't see the big deal with a one-off use case like that being the reason my machine NEEDS a specific port that doesn't have a compatible adapter.
- dalyons 5y ago
  and that would go away shortly as everything becomes usbc

rbanffy 5y ago

I was being a bit cruel. It's an HDMI 2.0 port, which is useful for presentations (a USB-C to HDMI dongle lives in my backpack for that reason). 2.0 will drive a 4K monitor at 60 fps. Never tried that, but, IIRC, the original USB-C port (and HDMI 2.1) could do it at 120 fps (which, for my terminals, would be... totally overkill, just like 60 fps already is).

giobox 5y ago
While I agree HDMI 2.0 on a new for 2021 machine is an odd choice, displays can still be connected to the Thunderbolt 4 ports much like the previous gen. Apple's spec sheet says two external monitors at 6k/60hz supported this way via TB4. All of this is to point out, has anyone confirmed 4k/120 on the thunderbolt port? Given the 2x6k monitor output 4k @ 120hz sounds like it should be possible, unless Apple have nerfed the output.
- masklinn 5y ago
  > Apple's spec sheet says two external monitors at 6k/60hz supported this way via TB4. It’s 2 for the Pro but 4 for the Max (technically 3 plus I think 4K@60, because that’s the limit of the hdmi port).

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

bitwize 5y ago

Ports tend to be common until Apple deprecates them.

rbanffy 5y ago
Apple is still one of the large personal computer manufacturers.
- bitwize 5y ago
  Nevertheless, when Apple excludes a port the other OEMs start wondering whether that port is necessary or if they're including it out of blind convention. Likewise, when Apple champions a non-proprietary port on their PCs, other manufacturers tend to follow suit. Apple is more than just another large OEM. They are the standard bearer for the personal computing industry. They have tremendous influence over what a computing device looks like and how it connects to peripherals and other machines. (WiFi was largely a lab experiment before Apple's AirPort.)
  - rbanffy 5y ago
    > They are the standard bearer for the personal computing industry. That they are indeed. HP has a whole line of laptops named "Envy" for a reason.