Filed under: Hardware, How-tos
Dual displays with a Mac mini
Aniel wanted to
use two displays with his Mac mini. After some poking around, he came across the Matrox dualHead2Go ($169US), which acts as a sort of
splitter for a VGA signal. Even though the box says "Windows only," Aniel got it working under Mac OS
X.He notes that the dualHead2Go works by splitting your display's horizontal lines in half, and sending those off to each of the two displays. As a result, the mini thinks it's driving a single monitor. Occasionally windows will open in the dead center between the two, but a simple drag remedies that situation. Good work, Aniel!
[Via 123Macmini]
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Mitch Greenfield said 3:10PM on 2-13-2006
if only it was DVI!
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fra said 3:18PM on 2-13-2006
I remember a few months ago TUAW blogged about a USB dongle type thing that could do the same thing...
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cyberdork said 3:29PM on 2-13-2006
Wow, this setup looks so un-apple. Monitors, keyboard, mouse... a pure lover of the OS and not the chic hardware. Don't know if I should admire or hate him ;-)
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Ahmed Hassan said 3:47PM on 2-13-2006
Wouldn't that mean a loss in resolution/quality?
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Tomm said 4:08PM on 2-13-2006
Yeah, I'm pretty sure that thing only allows resolutions of up to 1280, regardless of the displays you use. So not really that useful. I may be wrong though...
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LD said 4:44PM on 2-13-2006
"the dualHead2Go works by splitting your display's horizontal lines in half, and sending those off to each of the two displays"
Um, no. From Matrox:
"This is done using EDID (Extended Display Identification Data), a standard data format used by computer monitors to inform a system of their capabilities. Included in this data is information on supported display resolutions. Resolution is measured in the number of horizontal by vertical pixels (the smallest display units) displayed at a time. DualHead2Go reports to the system that it's capable of standard resolutions (800 x 600, 1024 x 768, and 1280 x 1024) as well as resolutions that are effectively twice as wide as standard resolutions (2048 x 768 and 2560 x 1024). "
"Throughout the process, no pixels are added, dropped, scaled, or otherwise changed. DualHead2Go preserves all the on-screen information provided by the original monitor signal."
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UncleJerry said 6:33PM on 2-13-2006
for free, I use the script "Screen Spanning Doctor" on my 14" ibook with a 20" HP CRT monitor. Works great and I can set higher rez on the big monitor than what I can get on the ibook. Good things come free.
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Deedas said 8:35PM on 2-13-2006
If its supposed to be one huge monitor, why is the dock not split between the two monitors? Is this a haxie I do not know about?
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LD said 8:36PM on 2-13-2006
UncleJerry, how are you going to get that script to work with a Mac Mini?
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LD said 9:07PM on 2-13-2006
Deedas, perhaps reading the links would help. To help you I've even put the relevant info right here in the comment thread. You could try reading that as well.
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dru said 10:31PM on 2-13-2006
We just tested one of those DualHeads2Go on a Toshiba M3 laptop - looks like the box will mirror onto both displays unless its set to the right resolutions;
2048 x 768 @60Hz, 32bpp / 16bpp
2048 x 768 @85Hz, 32bpp / 16bpp
2560 x 1024 @60Hz, 32bpp / 16bpp
So - if you can force the mac to display any of those resolutions - it should force the box to span instead of mirror
Note - if you do play with it on a Windoze machine - download the later driver set from the Matrox website, the one of the cd was useless for our toshiba and ibm lappies at work when testing...
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Peeter said 7:46AM on 2-14-2006
UncleJerry, Screen Spanning Doctor website says:
Mac mini
These machines can NOT use the patch:
Unfortunately the patch does not work with ANY Mac mini configuration.
It is not possible to use both the DVI and the VGA part of the display connector simultaneously.
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Johan said 6:17AM on 2-20-2006
How much trouble is it to install the Matrox dualHead2Go? Do you need software for the mac or is it just plug and play?
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Dal said 8:30PM on 3-31-2006
Now that is actually quite interesting, kinda a good thing that it doesnt split the dock aswell.
A little bit pricey, but well worth it if it means working with larger documents is even easier.
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Deedas said 2:34PM on 4-18-2006
LD: What are you talking about? I've read all comments and links and have found no answer to my question.
How do you get the dock to be all the way to the right side of the screen?
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macpit said 7:36AM on 4-24-2006
Dock can be positioned with OnyX or even easier with http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/17634 "toPositionTheDock". have fun!
Did anyone try the TrippleHead2Go Splitter from Matrox ??? http://shopmatrox.com/usa/products/datasheet.asp?ID=790
What happens when rotating the monitorsetting by 90 or 270 degrees?
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