Mini-DisplayPort to HDMI Cables Could Be Recalled

If you’ve been meaning to pick up a mini-DisplayPort to HDMI cable, you may want to accelerate things and pick one up as soon as possible. The folks behind HDMI’s licensing have deemed that such cables cannot be licensed, and thus shouldn’t (read: can’t) be sold. As a result, it’s expected that a major recall will take place soon.

According to the official HDMI specification, in order for a cable to be declared licensed, it must have a male HDMI port on each end. Since a mini-DP to HDMI cable doesn’t adhere to that spec (obviously), it can’t be tested or approved, and thus isn’t to be sold.

It should be noted, however, that dongles that include a female HDMI connector on one end and anything on the other is appropriate, as it’s a mere dongle and a real HDMI cable is in fact a part of the entire equation. What about other cables, such as HDMI to DVI? Good question. Given the logic here, those wouldn’t be licensable either.

While the HDMI organization doesn’t want these particular cables to be sold, there may exist loopholes that would allow companies to continue selling them. The caveat is that the cables wouldn’t be able to have an HDMI logo on them, or even be referenced as an HDMI cable at all. Some vendors might be able to get around this by calling the connector ‘HDMI-like’, but even that may have some legal ramifications.

Cables like these are most common on Apple computers, but they are also popular for an AMD Eyefinity setup, as most current Radeon cards include a mini-DP port. In that situation, a cable like this would be ideal in the event that one monitor has an HDMI connector but not a DisplayPort or DVI.

When this pull of product will go into effect is unknown, but if you’ve been contemplating picking a cable like this up, you may want to do so soon to avoid any chance that you may not be able to for a certain period of time.