LG UM95 + 21.5" iMac + Mirrored 1080p TV Monitor? Is this possible?

[RJSAudio]

Hi all!

After a long wait I finally received my LG UM95 monitor. Pretty cool, worth a Google search if you're not familiar. My studio setup (audio engineer) is the UM95 centered in the middle of my desk, with my iMac (21.5") as a 2nd display a ways over to my right. To finish it off, I am looking to add a 50" 1080p TV to mirror my iMac screen (also 1080p). The TV will be centered at my desk, a little ways back and higher up above the UM95. This will allow me to have the gigantic UM95 for Pro Tools, and then I can have video on the TV for clients, making it so that we both don't have to look to our right and watch the video on the small iMac screen.

Unfortunately, it looks like plugging in all the monitors at once into the iMac isn't working. I am unable to have the TV mirror the iMac, and the UM95 be a separate display at its full 3440x1440 resolution. So, does anyone know how I can make this work? Obviously I'd prefer a solution without adding any extra peripherals, but if another box is what I need I'm happy to purchase one. I'm not too handy with video peripherals, so a little help would be much appreciated. Thanks for the help!

- Ryan

 

[Sylonien]

What are you driving all the screens from?
There's a hell lot of pixels asking from the system.

I managed to run my 34UM95 from a thunderbolt
and the retina screen alone. That seem to be quite taxing on the system already.

My spec's are

15" late 2013 MacBook Pro
10.9.4
2.3 GHz i7
16 Gb
nVidia 750M GT 2Gb

 

[RJSAudio]

What are you driving all the screens from?
There's a hell lot of pixels asking from the system. ...

I'm on a late 2013 21.5" iMac (current model), with a 3.1 GhZ Intel Core i7 (Haswell) processor, 16GB PCIe RAM, 512GB SSD, 10.9.3. Graphics card is a NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M 1024 MB. The computer is driving the UM95 just fine, no taxing noticeable even with heavy video processing through both Pro Tools + Avid Media Composer going simultaneously. Just looking to drive one more 1080p display, mirrored to the iMac screen.

And I am running the UM95 off of a Thunderbolt connection with nothing else in the chain. I tried to daisy chain the TV, but no luck.

 

[HFoletto]

Hi!

Well, I think you can daisy chain the TV thought the LG UM95 using a thunderbolt from you computer and something like this from the UM95 to the TV.

It's possible that it would be harder to drive all those pixels, 9100800 is a lot compared to 2073600, that's what your iMac was meant to drive.
Also I don't know if you can mirror one and use another. Don't you have a spare monitor around to give it a try and see how it works?

 

[RJSAudio]

Hi!

Well, I think you can daisy chain the TV thought the LG UM95 using a thunderbolt from you computer and something like this from the UM95 to the TV.

It's possible that it would be harder to drive all those pixels, 9100800 is a lot compared to 2073600, that's what your iMac was meant to drive.
Also I don't know if you can mirror one and use another. Don't you have a spare monitor around to give it a try and see how it works?

Hi there!

Thanks for the message. Yes, I have tried it, as mentioned, and it is not working correctly. When I attempt to daisy chain, I get nothing on the TV, and when I plug the TV into the second Thunderbolt port on the iMac (which isn't a real solution anyhow because my audio rig uses that Thunderbolt port), all 3 are working but they're all the same mirrored 1080p display.

I think that if this is in fact possible it will have to be through some sort of external peripheral that will allow me to mirror my iMac display, I'm just not sure if something like that exists. I know having three displays would be a hit on the graphics card, but seeing as how the iMac can support 2 Thunderbolt displays + the built-in display, it's not out of reach for the card. It's just whether or not there is a solution for a non-Apple Thunderbolt Display.

 

[Acorn]

you can only have the displays mirrored or extended. you cant combine them. even with a usb video out adapter you could not do half and half. I was thinking though you could be sneaky and hook up a mac mini to the large tv. then use airplay mirroring option under displays on your imac to mirror the desktop to the tv.

seems like a lot to go through though just to not have to drag a video window up top and expand it.

 

[RJSAudio]

you can only have the displays mirrored or extended. you cant combine them. even with a usb video out adapter you could not do half and half. I was thinking though you could be sneaky and hook up a mac mini to the large tv. then use airplay mirroring option under displays on your imac to mirror the desktop to the tv.

seems like a lot to go through though just to not have to drag a video window up top and expand it.

Not sure if I understand your explanation. For one, the studio I work at has the exact setup I'm describing, where one monitor is mirrored, and the other is extended. I'm contacting them for help on this as well. I don't understand your final comment about having to drag the video window up top and expand it - I'm looking to find a way to connect a display "up top".

 

[Acorn]

Not sure if I understand your explanation. For one, the studio I work at has the exact setup I'm describing, where one monitor is mirrored, and the other is extended. I'm contacting them for help on this as well. I don't understand your final comment about having to drag the video window up top and expand it - I'm looking to find a way to connect a display "up top".

so your studio has those connected to an imac like that and it works? news to me that its even possible with an imac. might as well ask them at work then if they have it working. i would bet they have not been using mirroring at all and just extended desktop so each screen has its own resolution.

 

[Sylonien]

Slightly different scenario in my case.

But I managed to extend my desktop to my
iMac 27" via Thunderbolt (imagine its the 34UM95)
and Target Display Mode. Use my 15" Retina screen and
drive another 24" monitor via HDMI at 1080p.

I haven't tried mirroring though.
But all 3 screens managed to work at the same time.
Taking full benefit in FCP X especially.

But I'm not sure if this can be achieved the same way
with the iMac as it doesn't have a HDMI out, right?

And I didn't try mirroring function.

 

[RJSAudio]

For anyone who is in this situation, I was able to have both the LG UM95 and a 1080p TV connected to my iMac - as all as independent, extended displays - by use of the Elgato Thunderbolt Dock, which gave me an HDMI port for the TV.

Only one display can be used in the dock, so the TV is used in the dock, and the LG UM95 is using the other Thunderbolt port on the iMac.

It's certainly a compromise, as now my audio rig (also Thunderbolt) is daisy chained off of the hub, which is by no means ideal, but it's a heck of a lot cheaper than upgrading to a rice cooker Mac Pro when I don't need anything other than the extra Thunderbolt ports. Contact me in a few years when I do make the switch to the Mac Pro if you'd like to buy a pre-owned Elgato Thunderbolt Dock!