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MacRumors Giveaway: Win a Luna Display Adapter That Turns an iPad or Mac Into a Second Screen

patsfan83 said:
Even wired over thunderbolt, I noticed it takes a while for the bandwidth to start ramping up (like playing a video full screen). Support told me about the debug menu trick and ever since it launches right in to max bandwidth and is really solid with almost no latency or compression blocking.
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I’ll give this a shot!
 
I've read the Luna Display website thoroughly, but still cannot find an answer to this:

Can I extend my Mac display to a Windows computer?

Example - M1 Mac mini extended to Microsoft Surface Go 2.
 
jmantn said:
To use an 2017 iMac as a second monitor for a new MacBook Pro since newer model iMacs do not support target display mode and non T2 iMacs do not support airplay 2 screen mirroring to them as a destination. Lina’s late 2021 update will enable full resolution to those computers as otherwise I’d have to buy a new monitor. $100 for Luna vs a new 4K HDR monitor for photo and video work.

That’s just one use case.
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The 2017 iMac has a 5120x2880 10 bit, 60hz display. I don’t think there’s anything that can transfer this uncompressed. And anything like 4:2:0 color or compression artifacts would be not acceptable for desktop Use.
 
To people who asks “why this one is a thing when sidecar is so good”, not all Apple native solutions are good, for example Time Machine. Luna fills the void of what Sidecar missing: old device support, greater flexibility, more features and so on. Unless Apple locks down macOS much more like iOS, I don’t see why Luna needs to go, except if Luna is killing themselves.
 
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patsfan83 said:
Even wired over thunderbolt, I noticed it takes a while for the bandwidth to start ramping up (like playing a video full screen). Support told me about the debug menu trick and ever since it launches right in to max bandwidth and is really solid with almost no latency or compression blocking.
Click to expand...
Can you explain what this debug menu trick is? Not seeing that anywhere.
 
rawweb said:
Can you explain what this debug menu trick is? Not seeing that anywhere.
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Sorry I posted in another comment.

Hold either option or command when clicking on the Luna preferences, it'll add a debug tab. You can then set bandwidth, I use about 200Mbps for thunderbolt. Not sure why it's hidden as it makes it much more stable.
 
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mollyc said:
have you personally done this? i also have a 2017 imac and want to upgrade to a new mbp but have the monitor problem if i want a large screen. if the luna actually works as billed that would be awesome.
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I've done it with a 2011 iMac: slow but it works!
 
Hold option when going in to the preference menu.
Screen Shot 2021-11-29 at 7.02.58 PM.png
 
patsfan83 said:
Sorry I posted in another comment.

Hold either option or command when clicking on the Luna preferences, it'll add a debug tab. You can then set bandwidth, I use about 200Mbps for thunderbolt. Not sure why it's hidden as it makes it much more stable.
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Woah. When paired with the Retina resolution update they released today I can get full 5k video without pixelation on my 27" iMac. I use the Ethernet interface exclusively, so 200Mbps is very achievable.

I've been using Luna all through the Pandemic and it's been generally pretty good, but these two changes resolve 100% of the complaints I had. Really emphatically recommend it if you want to pair something like a Macbook with an iMac as a display.
 
Gizmotoy said:
Woah. When paired with the Retina resolution update they released today I can get full 5k video without pixelation on my 27" iMac. I use the Ethernet interface exclusively, so 200Mbps is very achievable.

I've been using Luna all through the Pandemic and it's been generally pretty good, but these two changes resolve 100% of the complaints I had. Really emphatically recommend it if you want to pair something like a Macbook with an iMac as a display.
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is there somewhere that describes the update? so it now works with 5k imacs?
 
mollyc said:
is there somewhere that describes the update? so it now works with 5k imacs?
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I can't seem to find any mention of it on their site, or Twitter feed. It was mentioned in the release notes for the auto-update to 5.1, but I can't seem to find a way to view that again either.

But yes, I can confirm it now offers retina resolution on a Retina 5k Mac (a 27" 2019, in my case).
 
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Gizmotoy said:
I can't seem to find any mention of it on their site, or Twitter feed. It was mentioned in the release notes for the auto-update to 5.1, but I can't seem to find a way to view that again either.

But yes, I can confirm it now offers retina resolution on a Retina 5k Mac (a 27" 2019, in my case).
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perfect, thank you. this is a much more affordable option than a whole extra monitor if I upgrade to a MBP. ?
 
Gizmotoy said:
Woah. When paired with the Retina resolution update they released today I can get full 5k video without pixelation on my 27" iMac. I use the Ethernet interface exclusively, so 200Mbps is very achievable.

I've been using Luna all through the Pandemic and it's been generally pretty good, but these two changes resolve 100% of the complaints I had. Really emphatically recommend it if you want to pair something like a Macbook with an iMac as a display.
Click to expand...
Glad its working well over ethernet too. Not sure why they have this hidden as they only mentioned it to me over a support ticket.

One thing I did since my iMac is pretty much EOL'd at this point, was make a fresh user login that will autolaunch the secondary app on start up. I also took turned off Wifi. This way it's not doing anything in the background so it runs cool and fans are at the minimum speed.
 
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