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Old 01-15-2012, 11:08 PM   #1
lightfoot256
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Smile Plans for Thunderbolt and Lion?

Hi,

I'm looking for a multi monitor solution for my 2011 Macbook Pro and keep hitting this brick wall that I either chose to drop nearly 2k on some thunderbolt displays throwing away all my existing kit (while having no compatibility with my existing kit) or buying an intermediary usb solution that apparently has issues with Lion and _still_ has Beta drivers.

Considering Lion was released over 6 months ago is there some fundamental reason why Lion support is so unstable (considering the Mac hardware landscape is so much more limited than the PC market ) is it apple's fault? is it a money issue? are apple just not being helpful? what it is? It seems like all the people who are on board with thunderbolt are producing devices just fine and everybody else is just sat out in the dark either purposefully ignoring the technology or there's some other underlying reason why they're not allowed to use it.

As a long time developer and computer user I must say the last couple of years have been the worst for choice; the middle ground seems to have completely disappeared.

* Why isn't there a thunderbolt -> dvi/hdmi adapter (with thunderbolt pass through)

* Why isn't there a thunderbolt adapter with 2, 3, 4, 6 dvi/hdmi ports?

* If displayLink supports up to 6? 8? devices per system why isn't there a box with a single/multiple/usb's and multiple video outputs? again, 2, 3, 4, 6 outputs?

* Why is there limited knowledge on whether displayLink works via a hub? or approved hubs?

If you can daisy chain two thunderbolt displays then there is obviously a solution so I'm curious as to why DisplayLink hasn't produced a product for this market yet; surely the bandwidth on Thunderbolt is insanely better than that of USB2; Is it a licensing issue? is it a money issue? Is it just a pride issue? Whatever it is there are large numbers of users out there that want to have multiple screens and no one provider that has a solution -- except Apple.

Maybe I've missed something but I've got to the point now that I've wasted too much time looking for a viable solution and hoping the landscape changes; I want to know why things are the way there are and if possible help towards making it better. Maybe I should apply for a Job at DisplayLink and sort out their Lion Drivers... I am a software developer after all...

Last edited by lightfoot256; 01-15-2012 at 11:59 PM.
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Old 01-18-2012, 08:48 AM   #2
forza
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Great post, for what it's worth here's my view on what you ask:

Thunderbolt being currently limited to Mac has in turn limited peripheral manufacturers interest. A few have shown devices at CES this year (and last year too) but it apparently will be much later in 2012 before we see devices that meet the requirements you are asking for - they are coming though.

Now that Intel is pushing to get Thunderbolt into the PC realm we may see a much higher uptake of this technology which will in turn drive the peripheral market forward. This will naturally take time to come to fruition, and you, like most of us have a requirement today.

Apple of course have produced displays which give you what you want, but as you rightly point out these only work with Thunderbolt and your existing kit becomes redundant. Despite this, and being very expensive, this is an available solution that meets the stated requirement.

I use a late 2011 MacBook Pro with two USB display adaptors and the built in display port powering a total of three Dell 20" monitors. I have had this setup working on Lion acceptably since the day Lion came out. With later releases of the driver it is now working very reliably. The main Lion driver issues are related to older MacBook Pro's with the nVidia video chipset. The 'fault' apparently lies with Apple, although DisplayLink have done their best to mitigate the problems. I have had no issues running my displays through a variety of hubs and currently use the built in two port hub on one of the Dell displays.

I too would like a better, higher bandwidth solution - but in the meantime I have a workable setup that gives me enormous screen real estate (4800 x 1200), that makes use of my existing kit and is far, far cheaper than any other currently available solution.

HTH
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Old 01-18-2012, 09:36 AM   #3
lightfoot256
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In the end I opted for a Dell Multimonitor Hub (MMH11); it supplies 3 DVI outputs via a DisplayPort cable (so connected my Macbook Pro via a Mini DP to DP adapter) and requires a USB port for power. This works fantastic from a functional point of view but is limited by the maximum resolution of 3840x1024; which is a fair amount off of my target 5040x1050; However, the MacBook runs it effortlessly so for gaming and such it'll be perfect (the resolution is a little blury but the surround experience is worth it - especially from a laptop!)

However, the device does allow running of just single or dual outputs; so I can run two monitors at the full 1680x1050 resolution with full hardware acceleration and complete smoothness on two monitors (and the built in display)

So I ordered a DisplayLink USB -> DVI (Kingston version) to finalise the remaining monitor; I also ordered a hub to run the mouse and the dell monitor hub to then allow the DisplayLink a direct port on the mac (rather than via a hub).

Hopefully I don't have any issues with the DisplayLink adapter, but I'll try and reply back here with my experience.

In regards to one of your points; I can see why some manufacturers have held back but in my view - if you already have a business model and an idea and it's just a case of altering the mechanism then why not get there first before some other competitor does. Which is why I was curious as to whether this was DisplayLink holding back or Apple not letting them in. I'm grateful for what DisplayLink have done thus far but it seems like they just ran out of steam all of a sudden.

Thanks,
Chris
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Old 01-23-2012, 07:22 PM   #4
lightfoot256
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So; just happened to be booted into windows on the macbook when I first gave the DisplayLink a try and a must say -- very impressed! nice and quick; aero effects, hardly any lag, youtube videos work great at full screen. Full screen video works. Perfect. Well done!

Rebooted into Lion and... erm, well... not so impressive, broken/choppy video, no menubar transparency (terminal transparency seems to work however -- but no Gaussian blur), really really laggy, occasional black flickers, heavy CPU load when moving windows around. Scrolling websites is just about okay; and thankfully very little load when viewing a static screen.

Overall I'm just happy it works; The requirement is a third screen at native resolution for viewing documentation and it does that job okay; so I'm happy from that perspective; The dell multimonitor hub is also capable of driving 3 screens for playing games (albeit at a lower resolution but still nice and immersive) so I've got that covered too (interested if the hub works with a KVM for easy switching but that's for another day)

Also running the device under a hub doesn't seem to affect it -- even on windows; running full screen youtube videos and movies works fine either way. I was hoping for a performance gain by removing the hub or chaning the usb port under lion but no such luck. Just the same.

So final impression; great. thanks for making it work -- but performance gains would be nice! Does the job. But no bells or whistles :-D.

Best regards,
Chris

Last edited by lightfoot256; 01-23-2012 at 07:23 PM. Reason: changes to issues with transparency
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