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Dual NON MIRRORED monitors on mac Mini

H

Howismydriving

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 20, 2005
6
0
Wisconsin
I have recently been reading about a hack that lets you use an iBook or eMac to use two displays in non mirrored mode. It seems that the Mini is based heavily on these two models including the graphics card and support. Now I know that there is only one Video out port on the Mini, but is there a special DVI connector that allows you to use two monitors with non mirrored? I know some ATI cards were able to do this, and it seems like you should be able to enable this to be supported in software. I have yet to open up my Mini, but is it possible there is a pinout for another connector built into the board?
Thanks
Ben
 
jackieonasses

jackieonasses

macrumors 6502a
Mar 3, 2004
929
0
the great OKLAHOMA....
With all the work that would have to entail..... It would harldly be worth it. I really doubt that is possiable.. Unless you can handle a soldering gun.. and you aren't worried about the attached video card to the motherboard. I would think that the chance of this is VERY minimal.

kyle
 
2

26139

Suspended
Dec 27, 2003
4,315
377
Yeah...no

For all the time, trouble and expense this would take...you are MUCH better off buying an iMac with another screen or something. Besides, the 32 vram in the mini won't be able to power more than two smallish screens very well.
 
U

unfaded

macrumors 6502
Dec 12, 2002
276
0
Seattle, WA
The reason you can have two monitors on an eMac or an iBook is because they provide you with a way to connect two monitors - one internal, one external.

The mac mini doesn't do this. No way.
 
redeye be

redeye be

macrumors 65816
Jan 27, 2005
1,138
0
BXL
With a DVI splitter of some kind i do see this possible. Wether the mini would be able to is another question.

Imagine setting the resolution to 2048/768. The DVI splitter would then split this image in two 1024/768 screens.
Relative screen positioning would suck though. Not to mention the 32Mb vram.

In other words, and to answer your question Howismydriving. It would be cool but it can't be done (yet)
 
V

vga4life

macrumors 6502
Jun 16, 2004
411
0
It's conceivable

It is remotely possible that a Mac mini could support dual monitors; the DVI connector carries both a digital and an analog signal on separate lines.

If it is possible to drive the analog and digital lines separately, this is the cable you'd need: http://www.pacificcable.com/Picture_Page.asp?DataName=DVIIY-1

In the PC world, some people are using this cable to drive dual monitors from an ATI Radeon AIW 9700 Pro, so it may be worth a try to someone.

-vga4life
 
H

Howismydriving

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 20, 2005
6
0
Wisconsin
Anyone have one of these cables lying around? Not sure I would want to pay 50 dollars to see if it works. According to the ATI web site all 9200 chipsets support dual non mirrored video, so I have this sneaking feeling that with the software hack, it would work.
 
C

chv400

macrumors 6502
Dec 16, 2003
268
0
Houston, TX
how hard would it be to say.. unsolder the mini's VRAM and replace it with some larger RAM chips and then do the dual monitor hack.
 
sandman42

sandman42

macrumors 6502a
Oct 23, 2003
959
59
Seattle
Unfortunately, the guy who is responsible for the "Screen Spanning Doctor" hack doesn't think this is possible. Read this thread on his forum: http://forum.macparts.de/viewtopic.php?t=426

In fact, it doesn't even look like you can do mirroring, as the Mini seems to only put video out on the DVI pins or the VGA pins, but not both. If true, the cable linked above would be a waste of money for Mini owners.

Too bad -- it would be really, really cool to be able to do this with a Mini.
 
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