Trouble upgrading M4 Mini/ORICO MiniDock Stand from 1 TV/monitor to 2 TV/monitors

[landshark2]

My original M4 Mini setup had my 2-year old 50" Visio TV as monitor, using the HDMI port on the Mini. The previous setup was that Visio TV as monitor for an M1 Mini, which began its career with a 46" LG TV as its monitor. All that single monitor life was easy peasy.

Now I want to run my new Samsung 50" TV from the Mini's HDMI port, and run the Visio as a 2nd monitor from the MiniDock's HDMI port. Suffice to say that I could not figure out how to make that happen after 2 hours of trying.

I did eventually get a browser view displayed on the Samsung, but mouse and keyboard would not work, and the Visio never displayed anything from the MiniDock port. Everything reverts back to old normal when I plug the Visio back into the Mini.

I suppose I'll next try adding the Samsung as 2nd monitor via the MiniDock HDMI port, but that is not how I want it all to run.

I'm hoping that somebody here can give me some pointers that will alleviate my quandary!

 

[landshark2]

Well, after another hour pokin' and hopin' I have the system working as desired, but I suspect that powering off the new monitor will result in more finagling. The main problem has been that the oh so "smart" Samsung sees the Mac Mini as Apple TV, and opens its Apple TV app to "receive" the Mini signal.

When I say pokin' and hoping' I mean actually plugging, unplugging, plugging, unplugging, etc., both HDMI cables, with everything powered on, with no discernible logic, until miraculously the mirroring/extended option appeared. One sidetrack was that the "stupid" Samsung requested an AirPlay code from the Mini, when it was plugged in via HDMI?

I was listening to a fitting soundtrack today - Dark Side of the Moon!