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Mini displayport for 2x LED Cinema displays?

R

rsoerensen

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 12, 2006
19
0
Hi,

would anyone happen to know if it's possible to connect two 24" Apple Led Cinema displays to an early 2009 Macbook Pro? I can't find any information regarding this, and no cables seems to be supporting the mini displayport --> 2x display port conversion?

Thanks,
Rune
 
It is not yet**. Just like connecting two VGA monitors to a single VGA port or two DVI monitors to a DVI port is not possible*

*There are adapters that split a DVI or VGA connection into to but they just mirror meaning both displays will show the EXACT same thing.


**For DVI and VGA, there is a $100-200 adapter that will allow you to connect two displays to a single port. It does this buy telling the computer it is a display and then cutting the signal it gets in half and sending part to one display and part to the other. This means that, even though it does work, you are limited in your resolution in that the combined resolution of the two monitors cannot exceed what the port is capable of sending to a single display. Which brings me back to the 24"s. Due to their high resolution, even the 2heads2go device described above would not be able to supply them with their native resolution.
 
yippy said:
Which brings me back to the 24"s. Due to their high resolution, even the 2heads2go device described above would not be able to supply them with their native resolution.
Click to expand...

Not quite true. DualHead2Go digital edition can power 2 1920x1200 monitors, as long as you have compatible models.

However, the MiniDisplayPort on the LED ACD makes it so this is impossible to do.
 
KnightWRX said:
Not quite true. DualHead2Go digital edition can power 2 1920x1200 monitors, as long as you have compatible models.

However, the MiniDisplayPort on the LED ACD makes it so this is impossible to do.
Click to expand...

well the dual head really only creates one giant desktop that is 1920 x 2400 correct?, so if you go to preferences you see one really long display

splitting hairs :)
 
robotartfashion said:
well the dual head really only creates one giant desktop that is 1920 x 2400 correct?, so if you go to preferences you see one really long display

splitting hairs :)
Click to expand...

It's 3840x1200 actually. It's not splitting hairs, yippy was doubting its ability to power 2 24" monitors at native resolution, which it obviously can (as long as the monitors are compatible).
 
so is it possible to connect two 1650x1050 monitors via dvi connection with unibody MBP?
 
Dual Link-DVI only. So you would have to buy the $100 Dual-Link DVI adapter plus the $250 for the DualHead2Go digital addition. While possible, I am not sure it is worth $350 to connect two monitors in a questionable configuration. Having two active adapters chained like that is bound to make thing finicky.

EDIT: I seem to be missinformed all over the place about this DualHead2Go, didn't notice it was VGA in, I assumed it was Dual-Link DVI because I didn't know that VGA could support that high of a resolution (officially it can't). That suggests there is a more involved signal converting going on in those boxes.
 
thanks for the great info, I'm surprised Apple does not make one such device?
 
Just to confirm for anyone who gets to this thread:

I have a Matrox TripleHead2go Digital that I used to use with 2x24" Samsungs @3840x1200 at home; and with a DualHead2go Digital and 2x21" Samsungs @3300x1050 at work. They both worked great until I traded my 2.2Ghz MBP for a 2.8 Alu MBP with a MiniDisplayPort. The MDP just doesn't push the resolution. I've tried it with the Dual DVI adapter, the DVI adapter and even the VGA adapter. I don't see why it couldn't if it even had a portion of the specs of a standard display port and the same graphics card could do it with a dvi port.
 
dbot said:
Just to confirm for anyone who gets to this thread:

I have a Matrox TripleHead2go Digital that I used to use with 2x24" Samsungs @3840x1200 at home; and with a DualHead2go Digital and 2x21" Samsungs @3300x1050 at work. They both worked great until I traded my 2.2Ghz MBP for a 2.8 Alu MBP with a MiniDisplayPort. The MDP just doesn't push the resolution. I've tried it with the Dual DVI adapter, the DVI adapter and even the VGA adapter. I don't see why it couldn't if it even had a portion of the specs of a standard display port and the same graphics card could do it with a dvi port.
Click to expand...

that's not good but thanks for the heads up before actually getting everything and finding out it does not work. Let us know if you do find a workaround to this issue
 
dbot said:
Just to confirm for anyone who gets to this thread:

I have a Matrox TripleHead2go Digital that I used to use with 2x24" Samsungs @3840x1200 at home; and with a DualHead2go Digital and 2x21" Samsungs @3300x1050 at work. They both worked great until I traded my 2.2Ghz MBP for a 2.8 Alu MBP with a MiniDisplayPort. The MDP just doesn't push the resolution. I've tried it with the Dual DVI adapter, the DVI adapter and even the VGA adapter. I don't see why it couldn't if it even had a portion of the specs of a standard display port and the same graphics card could do it with a dvi port.
Click to expand...

MDP has better bandwidth than DVI and VGA and can push higher resolutions. It's not a problem with Displayport itself. Could be a problem with the Matrox solution and compatibility or with your own MBP. Did you try someone else's ?
 
KnightWRX said:
MDP has better bandwidth than DVI and VGA and can push higher resolutions. It's not a problem with Displayport itself. Could be a problem with the Matrox solution and compatibility or with your own MBP. Did you try someone else's ?
Click to expand...

The tech has not really caught up yet, when Apple released the MDP cables were not even available yet. One of the major gripes about the near hardware was support for the peripherals! Not a huge market but if a company can get it right you would think there is enough demand out there.
 
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