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Can someone with a new iMac please test Target Display Mode ??

H

HKhalil

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 16, 2009
12
0
Hi,

I've been saving for the new iMacs for awhile now, and today I learned that they do not support Target Display Mode (i.e.: use the iMac as an external display) if the other Mac / PC does not have thunderbolt.

Can someone with a new iMac please test and see if they can connect their PC or old Macbook to it ??

I would really appreciate it.

Thanks..
 
You can use an iMac as an external display, but only over DisplayPort, and only on the 27" iMac. I do this at work with 2 iMacs.

EDIT:
Oh, I see you're talking about the thunderbolt iMacs. I think it's too soon to ask someone to test it out :p
 
If Thunderbolt -> Thunderbolt is the only way to use Target Display Mode, I'll be slightly disappointed. It'll be on my list of things to test when my 27" BTO gets here.
 
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I'm disappointed too. My MBA is less than 6 months old and I held off getting an iMac as I didn't need it straight away and now it won't even work :(
 
Surely a firmware update will remedy this yeah?

If it works when connecting the other way (i.e connecting a 2nd display using Mini-display port), why wouldn't the reverse work?
 
apple employees are worthless

I can confirm that you can't use the new iMacs as an external display (target mode) if you don't have a brand new Macbook Pro with thunderbolt. I've had 5 different Apple employees at 2 stores and the Apple support hotline all assure me that you could use an older Macbook with mini dvi to activate target mode, but alas, this is simply not true. I have returned 4 new iMac's because each time they told me the reason it didn't work was because the computer was broken. Now I've finally found confirmation online that target mode only works with a thunderbolt capable Macbook Pro and that any older Macbooks won't work.

Thanks Apple employees. You've wasted a LOT of my time.
 
Atlona Technologies;

Yes, we are in fact already in the process of developing new Thunderbolt solutions for our pre-existing line of mini DisplayPort adapters. We estimate that we will hopefully be getting these out to market within the next 3 months or so.

No promises though! We are certainly trying to get these out as soon as possible, but we won't be putting out a faulty product just to do so. :)
Click to expand...

Converter will cost like 120-180 bucks tho.
 
I have a older 27 and a new thunderbolt iMac side by side. I can't use the new iMac as a display from the older, but I can use the older one as a display for my new one. Slightly disappointed, but that's the only way I would ever use it. Would be very disappointed if it was the other way around where I could only use the more powerful iMac as a dispay.

Ps. I am not using the older iMac for a display only, it's only because I use both iMacs for different purposes and most of time only one at a time
 
And this is why I LOVE my 2.93 i7. it is better than the new 3.1 iMac in benchmarks AND when i need the extra bit of screen real estate for my laptop, its always there. I say screw the new iMacs and get a old i7, they probably cost much less. (Unless youre waiting for the beast-of-a-mac BTO i7 :D)
 
Correct, it only works with TB to TB now. I was gutted when I found out. As a result I will not be upgrading my iMac, The new Imacs are worthless for me as I ditched my external display and have been using my iMac as a monitor for my encoding PC. I hate it when apple does this. Right now the 2011 Imacs only work with the 2011 MBP...
 
It's just one in a long line of douchebag anti-backward-compatibility measures Apple likes to fire out every so often. I'm sure someone will say "that's the price of technological advancement", but that person would be an idiot.
 
NutsNGum said:
It's just one in a long line of douchebag anti-backward-compatibility measures Apple likes to fire out every so often. I'm sure someone will say "that's the price of technological advancement", but that person would be an idiot.
Click to expand...

100% agree, just as MiniDP was starting to catch on, they frack it up all up again to put in the ***** port that nothing runs on, but hey we might have a bunch of relatively cheap portable HDs etc in 2012...
 
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