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macOS Catalina's 'Sidecar' Feature for Turning the iPad Into a Second Display Limited to Newer Macs
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You nailed it. All the minimum supported Mac models have Intel Skylake or newer.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Macintosh_models_grouped_by_CPU_type#Skylake
My Macbook Pro 17" (the last real Pro laptop made by Apple) running Duet Display just fine.
Bought it for 2500,- in 2011
Now I can pay double for a smaller 15" at 5000,-
With: A. a keyboard that isn't reliable, B. no RAM replacement, C. no storage replacement, D. Display cables that break, E. 4 Thunderbolt slots (skipping all other ports) when 2 made way more sense, F. and the f% up T2 chip.
I want to buy a new MBP but how can I with this crappy line up?!?!
Bought it for 2500,- in 2011
Now I can pay double for a smaller 15" at 5000,-
With: A. a keyboard that isn't reliable, B. no RAM replacement, C. no storage replacement, D. Display cables that break, E. 4 Thunderbolt slots (skipping all other ports) when 2 made way more sense, F. and the f% up T2 chip.
I want to buy a new MBP but how can I with this crappy line up?!?!
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You guys are more than welcome to try force enabling it however without hardware HEVC support, it won’t look very pretty.
https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/bx3eet/sidecar_support_on_older_macs/
https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/bx3eet/sidecar_support_on_older_macs/
Code:
defaults write com.apple.sidecar.display AllowAllDevices -bool true; defaults write com.apple.sidecar.display hasShownPref -bool true; open /System/Library/PreferencePanes/Sidecar.prefPane
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Someone already beat me to it, but I think this probably actually comes down to requiring HEVC hardware encoding, which is something only available on newer intel iGPUs and latest AMD video hardware. Any system that can't do hardware accelerated HEVC encoding is probably off the list. Any system that can't do hardware HEVC encoding AND doesn't have the CPU power to do it realtime is probably on the blacklist. You can turn it on via terminal for your unsupported system if its not on the list but it may impact CPU performance drastically. The same is probably also true on the iPad side- must include HEVC hardware decode- that might be something all ipadOS supported devices have though.
g\
g\
Yes, it is. It's about hardware HEVC encoding. This limitation can be bypassed, but Apple prefers to minimize the latency (yes, that's an engineering decision but also a practical one given the use case) and that comes at the cost of video quality for unsupported Macs. It's ugly.
Sweet Jesus... That's very harsh even by their already decreased standards.
Now if that sucker hadn't been sold for MSRP still well into 2019 but maybe mid-2017 I'd say it's pretty ridiculous, but like that they are really just taking the piss...
Especially because my iMac 2011 manages to do secondary display just fine with Duet, a third-party (!) tool to connect an iPad to your Mac and do the same thing.
It's stuff like this that customers won't forget and will only worsen the impact of a product being out "too long" and hence not selling...
Glassed Silver:mac
The A9 was the first Apple chip with hardware HEVC decode. So at least that on the iOS device side, and at least Skylake Intel on the Mac side.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207022
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Macintosh_models_grouped_by_CPU_type#Skylake
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The iPad Air 2 has an A8X chipset but also seems to be compatible unless they quietly sneaked something in to help that model out.
Yeah I was just wondering about that! It sounds like some older systems can handle limited HEVC decode:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207022#working
good thought!
but My 2015 MacBook Pro and 2017 iMac are both running 4.2, so sadly that is not the culprit.
It’s a shame Tim’s name isn’t Richard, because this is a total Dick move.
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No T2 in many of the machines on that “compatible” (allowed) list
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No T2 in many of the machines on that “compatible” (allowed) list
this is exactly what I have and the only time I need the feature is when im working while traveling. A second display is part of my workflow and lord would being able to set up an iPad be amazing.
I thought that 2015 MacBook 12 Retina was also on the list. Can anyone confirm? I forgot where I saw the list but it clearly showed that the 2015 MacBook had sidecar support.
Darth Tulhu
macrumors 68020
Regardless of the obvious bummer this is for those of us with older hardware, I'm glad Apple has finally gotten their head out on a myriad of things, particularly as they refer to the iPad.
Now, once they fix the MacBooks for real, I might, MIGHT consider a setup like this (MBP + iPad).
This is the first time Apple is starting to give me things I want since 2012!
*Starting to save up...vigorously!
Now, once they fix the MacBooks for real, I might, MIGHT consider a setup like this (MBP + iPad).
This is the first time Apple is starting to give me things I want since 2012!
*Starting to save up...vigorously!
I am not exactly an expert, but maybe it's not just about performance (CPU & GPU). Maybe, Sidecar relies on more recent Bluetooth and WiFi technologies or even the port used. Does Apple even allow for another cable than USB-C to USB-C for wired SideCar?
I'm glad you posted this comment, because now I know about Luna! I was kind of excited to use my 2018 iPad Pro for drawing directly on my work Mac and at home, but they're 2015 and 2014 model laptops respectively, so that's a no go on the free Apple Sidecar thing. A two-fer on the Luna units would be great…$80 is a little steep (compared to free), but also much cheaper than having to buy a new Crapbook (A.K.A. butterfly keyboard versions)!