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Apple Thunderbolt Display with Multiple Monitors: No Daisy Chaining Mini DisplayPort Monitors
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Wow, all the more reason to wait for the next MBA.
Only one monitor on their touted new connection type? How utterly stupid (or cheap).
Plus other reductions in capability not expected.
Im now sure the 2012 MBA is the best bet.
$1000 for this monitor...are they crazy?
Only one monitor on their touted new connection type? How utterly stupid (or cheap).
Plus other reductions in capability not expected.
Im now sure the 2012 MBA is the best bet.
$1000 for this monitor...are they crazy?
It may have been said, but that iMac has no thunderbolt port.
EDIT: Way late. I didn't realize how many replies this thread had. :O I saw the 5 as a 2.
Well, perhaps not expecting to daisy-chain MDP-monitors, but at least able to use one monitor + hard disk. I have an expensive color calibrated NEC monitor. I would really like use this monitor and also get an external thunderbolt hard drive ... how would this be possible now???
Wooh wooh wooh...
Who said mini display port is backwards compatible?
I've got a lovely Thunderbolt 17" i7 MBP and a 24" LED Cinema Display.
Along with hundreds (thousands) of other people I am likely to have an epileptic fit if I use it for too long. It flashes and wobbles more than a 50s TV set. So I'm left with a very expensive display that works perfectly, but not with any thunderbolt machine.
#thunderboltfail
DUH. the point was for people to mix and match TB and existing MDP displays. dunno about you but its retarded to buy a TB display if my existing MDP screen works just to take advantage of multiple monitor support. di I actually "use" multiple screens -yes. i use it for my professional work so the gear i get ain't just for sitting pretty
Wrong, display port spec 1.4 supports daisy chaining monitors, some of the AMD graphics card can run two displays from one display port.
Wait for the next ThurnderBolt-to-MiniDP adapter with a conversion box in the middle for only $129 at Apple store
menu bar
"2nd bar" is what you need when you have dual monitors on the go with osx, its been pretty stable for me, and saves a lot of mousing around...
http://blog.boastr.net/
as for Lion's 'sea of nothing' i'm definitely on the side of hating it, but then running 2x 30inch ACD - full screen is pretty 'loud' with this old-school pixel density, almost nothing looks good taking up that much physical space. full screen app's are a bit wasted on my set up; anyway maximising is fine for me when you do want to work in the clear, the 20px lost to a menu are not so precious on 5120x1600.
"2nd bar" is what you need when you have dual monitors on the go with osx, its been pretty stable for me, and saves a lot of mousing around...
http://blog.boastr.net/
as for Lion's 'sea of nothing' i'm definitely on the side of hating it, but then running 2x 30inch ACD - full screen is pretty 'loud' with this old-school pixel density, almost nothing looks good taking up that much physical space. full screen app's are a bit wasted on my set up; anyway maximising is fine for me when you do want to work in the clear, the 20px lost to a menu are not so precious on 5120x1600.
I've had multiple displays on my macbook since 2009
It's called DisplayLink and it works fine in OSX and Windows.
http://www.displaylink.com
Uses USB2... there is a very very small lag, but it's really fine for 99% of usage. I can code, play SD/youtube videos, do photo editing, etc. I do all this over a belkin 7-port hub with monitor, external HD, iphone dock, keyboard, mouse all hanging off. Have never had glitches or screen paint issues.
The only use-case where it probably falls down is multi-screen video or games.
So yes, native multi-monitor is awesome, but displaylink is perfectly fine for me.
It's called DisplayLink and it works fine in OSX and Windows.
http://www.displaylink.com
Uses USB2... there is a very very small lag, but it's really fine for 99% of usage. I can code, play SD/youtube videos, do photo editing, etc. I do all this over a belkin 7-port hub with monitor, external HD, iphone dock, keyboard, mouse all hanging off. Have never had glitches or screen paint issues.
The only use-case where it probably falls down is multi-screen video or games.
So yes, native multi-monitor is awesome, but displaylink is perfectly fine for me.
Why bother pushing this technology so hard if it's really not ready yet? Maybe the bandwidth is less than we had been lead to believe.
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So what about using your display port as a regular display port (which is the thunderbolt port) on my macbook pro 15 inch I just purchased and wanting to use the 'speed' of the Thunderbolt port. I have a Seagate goflex drive, and was planning on purchasing the thunderbolt adapter, but looks like I won't be able to use my second display now, if I use the display port for the thunderbolt drive, right??
i tow a 20 ft boat with my 2009 silverado and now you're gonna tell me that my brand new 2011 cruze won't pull it? i should return my car and my boat!
Did you quote me? I never said mini display port is backwards compatible. I know too much to have said that. Thunderbolt IS backwards compatible, which is why you're using it
.Yes, you will be able to use it at the end of a TB device chain. See below :
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4489/promise-pegasus-r6-mac-thunderbolt-review/10
So all you ladyboys who are surprised that we are upset can see why. Assuming that bandwidth requirements are the same** and the appropriate DP spec is in use, there is no reason that one should NOT be able to run a mDP ACD at the end of a MBP -> TB ACD chain, because you CAN run the mDP ACD at the end of any other TB chain.
The whole point of multimonitors is to be able to see what is happening on 2 or more monitors at the same time, if you have a 'sea of nothing' on the other monitors, it defeats the purpose of having more than one monitor.
Apple Thunderbolt Display 27 allows no daisy chaining with ACD 27 at the very end
yes it is...
BUT it could be that the Thunderbold Display is needing the 2nd channel band width to serve up the performance for the extra ports it has to serve additionally, namely 3x USB2, GbitEthernet AND 1x FireWire 800 port...
even though i planned on connecting my ACD27 to the end of my new ATD27 its not "the end of the World"... especially when the setup would have been = MBP 17 to ATD27 to LaCie LBD TB (Summer 2011 is over you frenchies) to ACD27. When i would want to power the LittleBigDrive off i would have lost video on the ACD27 (if it had worked). so now IF i get another ATD27 i´d put the LBguy from LaCie last in the Chain and "never" loose video... how cool is that... but still somewhat expensive for the most "non-compromise"-solution...
i am dead and my life is hid w/ CHR/ST in G()D.
yes it is...
BUT it could be that the Thunderbold Display is needing the 2nd channel band width to serve up the performance for the extra ports it has to serve additionally, namely 3x USB2, GbitEthernet AND 1x FireWire 800 port...
even though i planned on connecting my ACD27 to the end of my new ATD27 its not "the end of the World"... especially when the setup would have been = MBP 17 to ATD27 to LaCie LBD TB (Summer 2011 is over you frenchies
) to ACD27. When i would want to power the LittleBigDrive off i would have lost video on the ACD27 (if it had worked). so now IF i get another ATD27 i´d put the LBguy from LaCie last in the Chain and "never" loose video... how cool is that... but still somewhat expensive for the most "non-compromise"-solution... i am dead and my life is hid w/ CHR/ST in G()D.
I wonder why LTD hasn't been by to state how great it was for Apple to do this. Maybe we are in the post Mini DisplayPort era?
I wasn't expecting magic, just a pretty display that is also a base station. 2 monitors off my MBA would have been a bonus. Would still be nice to be able to use the TB monitor with computer with only Mini Display Port.
Error on Apple.com/thunderbolt page
Looks like Apple is having some internal conflict. Hit the apple.com/thunderbolt page and you'll see this paragraph below...especially the last sentence. Am I missing something?
No project is too massive.
With Thunderbolt, youre just as likely to build a professional video setup around your MacBook Pro or iMac as your Mac Pro. If youre a video editor, imagine using a single port to connect high-performance storage, a high-resolution display, and high-bit-rate video capture devices to handle all the post-production for a feature film. Thunderbolt I/O technology allows you to daisy-chain up to six Thunderbolt peripherals, including an Apple Thunderbolt Display and the Promise Pegasus RAID or LaCie Little Big Disk. You can even add an Apple LED Cinema Display to the end of the chain.
Looks like Apple is having some internal conflict. Hit the apple.com/thunderbolt page and you'll see this paragraph below...especially the last sentence. Am I missing something?
No project is too massive.
With Thunderbolt, youre just as likely to build a professional video setup around your MacBook Pro or iMac as your Mac Pro. If youre a video editor, imagine using a single port to connect high-performance storage, a high-resolution display, and high-bit-rate video capture devices to handle all the post-production for a feature film. Thunderbolt I/O technology allows you to daisy-chain up to six Thunderbolt peripherals, including an Apple Thunderbolt Display and the Promise Pegasus RAID or LaCie Little Big Disk. You can even add an Apple LED Cinema Display to the end of the chain.
Well that sucks for me, I thought I could get 3 monitors going with my 13" MBP.
Oh well!
I really hope that one day they can squeeze a discrete gfx card into the 13". Kick that optical drive out of there already!
Oh well!
I really hope that one day they can squeeze a discrete gfx card into the 13". Kick that optical drive out of there already!
Yeah, I'm wondering, too. MacWorld did exactly that:
First Look: Apple Thunderbolt Display
I think the support document may have been a misprint.
Yes, it looks like what Apple is saying is you can't plug a 27" LCD display "directly" into a Thunderbolt display. But, according to Macworld, it works when plugged into another Thunderbolt device. Interesting!
What bothers me about this potential issue is the lack of consistency it introduces.
Consistency is important, such as knowing what will always work: e.g. up to six (or whatever) things in a chain, and a DP monitor must always be last. Adding extra, artificial, and very specific limitations is just confusing and annoying.
I find it weird that the ATD won't drive a DP monitor directly, but it works if there's another TB device in-between (as according to that Macworld article).
Consistency is important, such as knowing what will always work: e.g. up to six (or whatever) things in a chain, and a DP monitor must always be last. Adding extra, artificial, and very specific limitations is just confusing and annoying.
I find it weird that the ATD won't drive a DP monitor directly, but it works if there's another TB device in-between (as according to that Macworld article).