If you own an Apple laptop then you’re probably aware that despite their generally remarkable ease of use, these fantastic machines have one, persistent Achilles heel: their video-out ports.

For whatever reason, Apple can’t seem to decide on a single video interface for its notebooks and PCs. While this means that you, as a Mac owner, have to use some fancy footwork in order to get the right adapter for displaying video data fromyour computer, this task is anything but impossible.

Below, we’ll look at some of the Drop through longboards most common types of video ports used on Apple laptops and the adapters you need to put these ports to work.

Mini-DVI

A smaller variation of the DVI video connector, Mini-DVI allows you to transmit digital and analog video signals out from your laptop to an external display. The initials DVI stand for Digital Visual Interface. The DVI connector was originally developed as a digital alternative to analog video connector schemes (most notably VGA), and because of its unique genesis, the DVI connector is able to transmit both analog and digital video.

Apple has employed the Mini-DVI connector on Intel-based iMacs and MacBooks, as well as on the Mac Mini-a 2009 desktop computer. A box, bordered on each side by vertical lines, typically signifies a Mini-DVI port. This signifier is used by Apple to designate Mini-DVI ports on its laptops and PCs.