Use Macbook Pro as extended display.

[Ne0the1]

Hello all,

I have an iMac and a Macbook Pro both Mid 2011.

I bought a thunderbolt cable, and i'm able to use my iMac as an extended display using Target Display Mode (cmd+F2), however I cannot use the Macbook Pro in the same manner. It just doesn't work.

Is there any other way to use the Macbook Pro as the extended display, using either: a Gigabit ethernet cable or thunderbolt cable? I know you can use ScreenRecycler and JollysFastVCN but this works over the wifi network.

I'd like to be able to use a cabled connection if possible.

 

[theluggage]

I know you can use ScreenRecycler and JollysFastVCN but this works over the wifi network.

You can connect two Macs together with a Thunderbolt cable and use that as a fast network connection:

http://www.macworld.com/article/2142073/connecting-two-macs-using-thunderbolt.html

ScreenRecycler ought to work over that (but I'd expect there will still be artefacts/lag c.f. Target Display Mode)

 

[Ne0the1]

You can connect two Macs together with a Thunderbolt cable and use that as a fast network connection:

http://www.macworld.com/article/2142073/connecting-two-macs-using-thunderbolt.html

ScreenRecycler ought to work over that (but I'd expect there will still be artefacts/lag c.f. Target Display Mode)

Hi Screen Recycler does work over that, but the lag is really bad. I also tried that with a Gigabit Cable.

Appears to be a useless way

 

[snaky69]

Hello all,

I have an iMac and a Macbook Pro both Mid 2011.

I bought a thunderbolt cable, and i'm able to use my iMac as an extended display using Target Display Mode (cmd+F2), however I cannot use the Macbook Pro in the same manner. It just doesn't work.

Is there any other way to use the Macbook Pro as the extended display, using either: a Gigabit ethernet cable or thunderbolt cable? I know you can use ScreenRecycler and JollysFastVCN but this works over the wifi network.

I'd like to be able to use a cabled connection if possible.

No port on the computer is directly connected to the internal display, unlike the iMac. So the short answer is: No, it is not possible to do what you want with a hardware solution. A quick search of the forums or Googling would've told you as much. There are ways to do it with a networked or capture-card based solution, but no matter which method you use, you'll always experience the lag you're seeing.

 

[theluggage]

Hi Screen Recycler does work over that, but the lag is really bad. I also tried that with a Gigabit Cable.

Appears to be a useless way

Depends what you want to do. You wouldn't want to do graphics, games or video on it, but for displaying online documentation or other reference material, or parking tool pallettes, while you're working on the 'proper' screen, it does the job.

The other work-around I use sometimes is to use Synergy to share the mouse and keyboard so you can open and view files, websites etc. on the second computer (you can turn on file sharing so you can access the same files on both). It even supports basic cut & paste. Not the same as a second display, but can be useful. Quite useful for software/website development.