Cinema Display: repairing the DVI connector
Submitted by iguana on December 10, 2006 - 6:43pm.
Apple | Power Macintosh | Engineering Hack | Electricity & Optics
I posted a question in the forums about repair of a cinema display 20-inch, whose DVI connector was broken off. I finally have the solution and a working Cinema display again and as promised in the thread I would post the info regarding what color is what pin. So here it is.
I used a DVI connector from the VGA to DVI adapter from Apple, I stripped it to the bare essentials so only the black connector is left. Make sure you don't destroy the pins or else all is lost.
I needed to remove the Analog RGB part of the DVI connector, cause it is not fitted in the Mini DVI to DVI adapter of Apple.
Anyway its not needed except if you want to use it with a VGA card. But think that not the purpose of a Cinema display 
Following are some pictures of the Color coding of the cinema display cable, connected already too the DVI connector.
This is also the orientation of the chart below, so take note of that. Otherwise the display doesn't work at all.
Also note that the ground cables are not yet connected to the pins, this is just the test phase, so now its working I'm going to strip the wires again and solder them to the pins in a NEAT way
Here you can see the connector in the Mini DVI to DVI, connected too my MacBook.
Other view of the connector
And an another with more light.
From left to right the upper pins are:
Black, B.White, B.GND Blue, Yellow, Orange
Middle pins:
Brown, Br.White, Br.GND Red Brown
Lower pins:
Pink, Pnk, White, Pnk.GND, GND, Pnk/Br.White Pinkish/Brown
Some more info, the TMDS pairs are the 4 big pairs of 3 wires packed in the foil. Each pack consists of 3 wires:
1 colored
1 white
1 bare wire
The 4 packs are colored with a Pink pair, a brown pair, a black pair and a strange pinkish/brownish pair.
So in the chart below ( And up) the B.White for example means the white wire of the black package. Same with B.GND.
The other 5 pins are separated and without foil, and consist of yellow, brown, red, blue and orange.
So the only way you can go wrong is with the brown TMDS pack and the pinkish/brownish TMDS pack. Also note the both are lighter from color then the Brown that is a separate wire, so you can't go wrong there.
So here is the chart I made with the color coding. Again please note the orientation of the DVI connector. The chart depicts the orientation like on the above pictures.
Back view of Cinema display connector
1 TMDS Data 2- Digital Red- (link 1) Pink
2 TMDS Data 2+ Digital Red+ (link 1) White of pink
3 TMDS Data 2/4 Shield GND of Pink4 Not used on 20 inch
5 Not used on 20 inch6 DDC Clock GND of pinkish/brown
7 DDC Data White of Pinkish brown
8 Analog Vertical sync Pinkish/brown9 TMDS Data 1- Digital green- (link 1) Brown
10 TMDS Data 1+ Digital green- (link 1) White of Brown
11 TMDS Data 1/3 Shield GND of Brown12 Not used on 20 inch
13 Not used on 20 inch14 +5V Power for display Red
15 GND GND for pin 14/8 Brown
16 Hot-Plug Not used17 TMDS Data 0- Digital Blue- (link 1) and digital sync Black
18 TMDS Data 0- Digital Blue+(link 1and digital sync White of black
19 TMDS Data 0/5 shield GND of Black20 Not used
21 Not used22 TMDS Clock-shield Blue
23 TMDS Clock+ Digital clock+ (links 1 and 2) Yellow
24 TMDS Clock- Digital clock- (links 1 and 2) Orange