Filed under: Software, Hacks, How-tos, Tips and tricks
ScreenRecycler: Use your old Mac as a second monitor
I came across this post on MacCast about ScreenRecycler, which enables you to use your old Mac (or PC) with a built-in monitor - like an old Powerbook or iMac, for example - purely as a secondary display, provided you can get it on your network. This may have limited usefulness for many of you, but I like it as another example of things we do just because we can. To accomplish this bit of wizardry, ScreenRecycler uses VNC (a cross-platform app for remotely controlling another computer - I personally like Chicken of the VNC, but there are other clients you can try) to connect to the old machine. What's cool about this and really sets it apart from your basic VNC setup, is that ScreenRecycler makes your Mac actually recognize the connected machine as another display, so it can be configured through System Prefs just like any other external monitor. It's not exactly pretty and it's not exactly speedy, but it is really pretty cool, if you ask me.
ScreenRecycler is currently in pre-release Alpha but can be downloaded for free. It's still got some "issues" so please be sure to read the caveats posted there before you download it. If you get it working, let us know what you think!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Stuart said 5:14PM on 10-10-2006
is there anyway to use Chicken of the VNC if your other computer doesn't have internet access but is connected via an Ad Hoc network...?
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management said 6:05PM on 10-10-2006
Great idea. I just bought a new mac so this will be perfect.
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tim said 5:51PM on 10-10-2006
stu -
vnc works well over a network. you just need the ip and the port set up.
but in regards to this post/program - this would be GREAT for sys admins who want to have server stats up on a screen that doesnt need to be refreshed often (at least not quickly). a good way for a mac lab person to take advantage of older macs instead of throwing them out
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Adrian said 6:14PM on 10-10-2006
I don't think it's very economic to let your whole old pc run only for using it's monitor via VNC. If you use it as a server or load off any other load then it makes sense. But if you only need the monitor, you're better of making a direct connection to the monitor with some soldering...
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monkey said 7:59PM on 10-10-2006
Some of you might also like to check out Synergy. It's a nice cross-platform, open source package that does something similar to vnc. It's actually a lot more efficient and most people find it really amazing: http://sourceforge.net/synergy2/
And here is a picture of my setup:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/20after4/255359173
(Dual screen, Dual Processor G4 + AMD Athlon - all seamlessly connected)
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monkey said 8:03PM on 10-10-2006
Correction: that link was wrong, this is the correct link for synergy:
http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/
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Justin said 9:36PM on 10-10-2006
Couldn't you just use a direct firewire connection between the 2 macs? Just setup your own little dedicated firewire network, then there is no competition for ethernet/wireless network resources.
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Brian Stuckey said 10:10PM on 10-10-2006
Wow- I just installed this and am using my old compaq laptop as a display. Video doesn't seem to work that great, but for things like Activity Monitor or Terminal, it works fine.
Check out my additions to the group Flickr pool (abadcaffeinetrip/) to see it in action.
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Josh Kagan said 1:02AM on 10-11-2006
I tried this application today, and while the idea is a good one it's not technically feasible at the moment. Setup was quick, but real-world application performance under ScreenRecycler was a different story entirely. VNC is a neat technology for accessing static (still) screens for small system administration tasks, but it is excrutiatingly slow at drawing all of the animations and window movements in a modern UI like the one in Mac OS X, even over a fast LAN connection. Every time I accidentally moused into an exposé corner the secondary display would be unusable for at least five seconds at a time. Even though the secondary display was somewhat usable for word processing, the sheer slowness of it negated any productivity increase I would gain by using multiple monitors. Put simply, ScreenRecycler is far too slow for real-world use in its current state. Unfortunately, it’s also not likely to get much better because VNC technology is simply not well suited to the task. One other problem I noticed was that whenever the ScreenRecycler application was active, Quartz operations on my PowerBook’s main display (such as Exposé) seemed choppier and seemed to use far more system resources. Let’s hope this is only a bug in the pre-release version.
When I was a child, my father would frequently remind me to "use the right tool for the right job." That’s exactly the problem here. There’s nothing inherently wrong with ScreenRecycler as an application; it's performance was not significantly worse than any other VNC server application I've tested. It’s just that ethernet, the technology that allows our computers to exchange files over networks, is not well-suited to transporting extremely high resolution uncompressed video in real-time.
My advice to anyone who thinks they need this is that they don't. If you have a computer lying around that you only want to use as a secondary desktop monitor, sell it and buy a real secondary desktop monitor instead. You will have a nicer and less cluttered workspace, and you will be able to use your applications and OS in the way they were meant to be used: quickly and efficiently.
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Chris said 4:39AM on 10-11-2006
#5 - synergy is great, but 2 computers + synergy doesn't achieve the same result that ScreenRecycler is aiming for (i.e. ONE workspace spread across two screens).
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Patrick Stein said 12:52PM on 10-21-2006
ScreenRecycler use VNC and IS FAST. Just take a look at that video on the help page on screenrecycler.com. That is 100MBit Ethernet and playing full screen video on the second screen.
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