When working I am constantly switching between my mail client, multiple browser windows, a shell terminal, a text editor and my instant messenger. Being able to keep these applications visible and accessible more of the time is a lot more usable. The only way to do that is to have more screens!
Unfortunately the MacBook Pro has hardware support for only one additional monitor. This is enough for likely 99% of users but not enough for me.
There are half way solutions like the Matrox DualHead2Go which splits a single high resolution screen over two real monitors. However that comes with big usability issues. Windows don’t snap to the edges of the screen, monitor positions are harder to arrange and the analog signal is a little dirty.
Fortunately DisplayLink recently released a beta driver for OS X for their USB monitor solution. Through simple external USB adapters you can add up to 16 additional monitors (whoa). Set up is a breeze, just plug them in and they just work.
DisplayLink is a hardware and software solution. DisplayLink creates the software and the spec. A variety of third party developers mix together the hardware. I chose to pick up a couple EVGA UV Plus+ adapters since they are simple (USB in, video out) and cheap.
Here is a YouTube video of my set up.
As you can see from the video there is a noticeable lag on the monitors connected via DisplayLink. It is still very usable but a little distracting when windows suddenly slow down when being dragged. The release notes for the beta drivers does warn that there is no 2D or 3D acceleration yet.
Overall I’m very please with the usability. I was delighted when plugging and unplugging the USB cable caused the monitors to readjust like with a regular display. Very smooth.
Here you can see the two EVGA adapters connected to the USB hub on the Dell monitor. A single USB connection goes from the Dell to the USB port on the MacBook Pro. I have the DVI to analog converter plugged into the EVGA adapters since I only had a couple of analog LCDs lying around for the test.
Here is the set up with four screens all running:
I found that three screens is a good balance. Four screens took up a lot of desk space and I often lost track of where I put a window. It is a neat experience to be able to drag a window over 4 feet of monitors. Hehe. Geek out!
[...] …Read More [...]
Hi,
Nice video - I too use a DisplayLink device (Toshiba DynaDock) with my MacBook. I have a question: will your setup (with EVGA UV+’s) work with your MacBook in “closed lid mode” ? You propably need an enternal USB keyboard to wake up the MacBook - I don’t think that you can wake it up from bluetooth. Is that something that I can persuade you to test for me ?
Thanks in advance.
Kind regards Uffe
I’ll give it a try tomorrow to see if it works in close screen mode. I have the apple bluetooth keyboard as well so we’ll see how that works. :)
Hi Ben,
Thanks for your response - I’ll look forward to hear about the results.
Kind regards Uffe
Hi Uffe, seems to work. Even the bluetooth keyboard. I have a USB mouse plugged in and needed to use that to wake up the MBP. When the system woke back up (MBP screen closed) only my two Dell LCDs came back.
The DisplayLink woke up and is working as well. After the computer woke back up BlueTooth keyboard connected and everything seems to be normal, minus the laptop screen.
Hi Ben,
Wouv that’s nice !!!
I have a MacBook and whenever I attempt the same trick the displays seem to come alive and then something in the DisplayLink driver crashes and the MacBook goes back to sleep/hibernation. I need to have the lid open in order for the DisplayLink Driver to work properly.
What driver version are you using ? 0.9b from the DisplayLink website ?
Thanks for your effort
Kind regards Uffe
Hi,
I’m using whatever version they have on their website. I have a MacBookPro but I can’t imagine that would make that much difference. I’m also running Leopard.
Hi,
I agree MacBook/MacBookPro should behave the same way.
Need to try out a UV Plus+ device instead of the Toshiba DynaDock.
But I would suspect that they should work the same way… but need to try…
DisplayLink is not very responsive - I’ve tried to contact them several times
Thanks for your effort.
Kind regards Uffe
[...] More information: http://www.mostlygeek.com/2008/06/22/multiscreen-macbook-pro/ [...]
[...] couple of months ago I wrote about setting up multiple monitors using DisplayLink technology on my MacBook Pro. At the time there was only a very basic set of beta drivers available for OS X. [...]