DisplayLink admit mac drivers are poor. New driver 6+ months away

[MikeKulls]

I contacted Kim Stowe regarding problems with the mac driver. Her response is below. The fact that she says they are hiring someone to bring up the quality of the driver is pretty much an admission that the drivers are of low quality. Second quarter 2011 sounds nice but that is still 6.5 months away and that sketchy. I also find it particularly disturbing that the DisplayLink homepage still claims that this adaptor is compatible with Mac and that manufacturers are claiming this too. I think DisplayLink should remove Mac from their home page and inform manufacturers to stop claiming mac support. I also find it interesting that there is no announcement here.



"Hello Michael:

Okay, here is the latest scoop on DisplayLink drivers. We are actively in the process of bringing up both the quality and performance of the Mac driver at this time. And to that end, we are currently recruiting to grow our in-house Mac team to further support more rapid updates.

It's hard to be specific with dates for releases and I know these dates are probably later than everyone would like, however the current schedule is for a significant refresh of the Mac driver end Q2'11.

Kim"

[forza]

Well, at least something is happening. My major gripe with DisplayLink is the lack of communication. If they came here more often and kept us informed I am sure we would all be broadly supportive of their efforts.

[MikeKulls]

Well, at least something is happening. My major gripe with DisplayLink is the lack of communication. If they came here more often and kept us informed I am sure we would all be broadly supportive of their efforts.

It's interesting they didn't bother to inform anyone on this forum of these changes. I've sold my adaptor and given up on the idea of 3 monitors on the mac.

[wkirkham]

I've contacted my retailer to ask for a refund. Not only does mine not work correctly, it comes and goes, making the regular monitor go blank for several seconds at a time.

If enough of us demand refunds, the retailers will do the same thing. Displaylink will have to come up with cash for not supporting this product. Better than a class-action suit for deceptive advertising though...
:mad:

[dcoulson]

I've contacted my retailer to ask for a refund. Not only does mine not work correctly, it comes and goes, making the regular monitor go blank for several seconds at a time.

Maybe I am just lucky, but I got a DL195 based adapter from OWC a week or two ago and it works flawlessly feeding a display via HDMI. It sure doesn't do 1080p video, but I've not had 99% of the issues other folks have. I'm running Mac OS X 10.6.6 right now and it's pretty happy.

Certainly advocating for DL to continue to poorly support Mac users, but I am inclined to believe many issues like this are due to a bad adapter or something, rather than the drivers.

If you want the USB display on your Mac, I would highly recommend the OWC adapter (www.macsales.com) based on my own experience with it.

[feardamhan]

Hi All

If it is of any help to anyone, I have three monitors working no problem with DisplayLink drivers.

Ok, so we all know they are problematic by default, and that this is caused by the dynamic switching function in the newer MBPs (at least that seems to be cause with mine)

The answer for me was to use gfxCardStatus. What I didnt realize was before this was that using an external monitor of any kind forces the MBP to flip to the Nvidia card, so there is no value in having dynamic switching enabled when in this mode.

gfxCardStatus gives you the ability to nail it to Nvidia or intel which circumvents the driver issue

I work like this. My system stays at nvidia unless I am working undocked, at which point I simply change to intel if I want to save battery power from the convenient icon in the menu bar.

Have been working like this for three months without a single issue

Ken

[displaylinker]

If you want the USB display on your Mac, I would highly recommend the OWC adapter (www.macsales.com) based on my own experience with it.

I'm interested in the OWC adapter, but it has disappeared from their site.

Perhaps due to complaints?!

[displaylinker]

It's hard to be specific with dates for releases and I know these dates are probably later than everyone would like, however the current schedule is for a significant refresh of the Mac driver end Q2'11.
Kim"

"END" of Q2??? That's still 4months away assuming the timeline doesn't slip!

[dcoulson]

I'm interested in the OWC adapter, but it has disappeared from their site.

No, it hasn't - It's still there. I have a couple and they work great.

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer%20Technology/VIDU2DVIA/

[displaylinker]

No, it hasn't - It's still there. I have a couple and they work great. http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer%20Technology/VIDU2DVIA/

dcoulson, if you have a Mac, would you be so kindly to install the Movist app from http://www.macupdate.com/download/27642/Movist_v0.6.8.zip to test if it runs any video files at the default settings, when this OWC displayLink adapter is connected? Any .avi or .mov files would do. If it works, The "Controls > Play faster/slower" function should work properly.

This will summarily determine if the problem is with my Iogear display link adapter or the displaylink driver, no point of ordering the OWC just to realize it's the driver that's the problem.

Thanks so much in advance!!

[dcoulson]

dcoulson, if you have a Mac, would you be so kindly to install the Movist app from http://www.macupdate.com/download/27642/Movist_v0.6.8.zip to test if it runs any video files at the default settings, when this OWC displayLink adapter is connected? Any .avi or .mov files would do. If it works, The "Controls > Play faster/slower" function should work properly.

Works fine on my Mac Mini running 1.6b3. Doesn't play on the DL display, but it plays properly and responds to controls on my other two native displays.

[displaylinker]

This is exactly the kind of info I needed. Thanks!!

[dcoulson]

This is exactly the kind of info I needed. Thanks!!

So when you use it, it doesn't display anything on any of your screens? Are you mirroring displays?

[displaylinker]

So when you use it, it doesn't display anything on any of your screens? Are you mirroring displays?

Under default settings, when opening a .mov or .avi file on either main/native or DL screen, Movist doesn't want to run, giving error: "The operation couldn't be completed (Quicktime error 6)."

However, if I go to "Advanced>Codec Binding" and "Set all to FFmpeg" then Movist would play on both the main/native and DL screens.

But under this mode, the "Control>Play speed faster/slower" doesn't work anymore, which is the most important feature I need from Movist to play speed at 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 all the way to 2.5.

Can anyone verify that OWC's adapter does not exhibit the above issues? Thanks so much in advance!