The latest MacBooks, MacBook Pros and MacBook Airs equipped with Apple's proprietary Mini DisplayPort connection as the sole video output to connect to HDTVs and computer monitors with HDMI ports with one adapter, courtesy of MonoPrice.com. The adapter is expected to become available late next month at the earliest. Thus far, the only way to hook up the MDP-equipped Apple notebooks to any external displays is via adapters offered by Apple, but those are limited to VGA or DVI connections rather than full-size DisplayPort or

The analog VGA solution will not allow users to send high-definition content to external displays and will not support the HDCP copy protection standard in the new MacBooks. Thus far, users have worked around the latter problem by using two adapters; a MDP-to-DVI, then DVI-to-HDMI. Users will nonetheless require a separate audio connection in order to watch videos from the newest Apple notebooks, as Mini DisplayPort, unlike HDMI, does not support sound. It's unclear whether MonoPrice will develop a splitter cable that merges the audio with the HDMI output.

The problem should become less so in due time, as Apple announced at the start of the month that it would offer the mini DisplayPort license to other hardware manufacturers for free. There is no word on a release of an Apple-branded adapter. [via MacYourself]