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acusumano

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 13, 2018
3
0
Is it possible to display the screen on my Mac on two TVs if I have one Apple TV and it's hardwired to one of the TVs and connected by airplay on the other?
 
Yes, you should be able to connect two external displays this way. If the televisions are both being connected near the computer, you could also just connect both to your computer directly.

Out of curiosity, which Mac model are you using and how are you planning to connect to the hardwired television?
 
It's a MacBook Pro and it'll be connected via HDMI.
Directly through HDMI? If you have a model with an HDMI port and Mini-DisplayPort, you could also use a Mini-DisplayPort to HDMI adapter to plug the other television directly into your laptop. That might provide a bit more stability for you, depending on what you're working with and your network setup.
 
I'll look into that for sure.

Would the desktop also be live if I set things up this way?
 
you may need to adjust some settings in "system preferences -> displays -> arrangement"
I think it defaults to everything being it's own desktop, so you could drag a window from one screen to another. But you can change that so it's displaying the same on all screens.

it might be easier, and provide a better result if you split the HDMI signal after it leaves your computer.
airplay can be a bit finicky at times, and can be quickly impacted by wi-fi issues.
it depends on the nature of the event, a slide show among friends like a birthday dinner or something, airplay might be fine, but in any kind of professional setting i wouldn't use it.

if the monitors are close, you can get a regular splitter. and some short HDMI cables.

if they're further apart, you can get longer HDMI cables with the splitter.
or there are HDMI over cat-5 devices (it uses regular ethernet cable, but you can't run them through a regular switch)
like this https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=8158

**about 50 feet is the longest a standard HDMI cable will go, they make longer, but they'll have some kind of extra electronics to boost them, and prices tend to rise quickly.

check out monoprice.com for splitters and long HDMI cables.
they've got good quality stuff and decent prices.
 
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