I just inherited a Mac Mini at our church. I would like to expand it a bit and am running into a problem. I have three things I need to attach. The three things are a pro video camera that comes in via the Thunderbolt connection. The other two are a DVI monitor and a VGA projector. The route I am going down at the moment is to get an HDMI splitter. I have an HDMI to DVI adapter and that seems to work. I was told HDMI to VGA will not work because the HDMI is High Def and it will not work to go to VGA. I was also told there is no such thing as a Thunderbolt splitter. Anybody have any suggestions?
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How to connect 2 HDMI and 1 TBolt
- Thread starter donaldz
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Assuming the mini is recent, the only native analog VGA output on the mini is going through the thunderbolt port with this http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB572Z/B/mini-displayport-to-vga-adapter I've used one to drive a 1920x1080 monitor.
Is there any other connection available for the camera? That would be the best solution and run the two monitors off HDMI/Thunderbolt. If not you can get a USB-VGA adapter http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009L14FHI however this solution is not optimal since USB doesn't provide a lot of bandwidth to drive HD displays
Is there any other connection available for the camera? That would be the best solution and run the two monitors off HDMI/Thunderbolt. If not you can get a USB-VGA adapter http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009L14FHI however this solution is not optimal since USB doesn't provide a lot of bandwidth to drive HD displays
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The camera feed comes via an HD-SDI connection that goes to a converter that changes the HD-SDI to Thunderbolt. This can't be changed. Well, actually it could be HDMI in, but the Mac Mini only has HDMI out. That leaves the HDMI out for the monitor and the projector. The other option would be to have a TB splitter, but that probably wouldn't work either as one channel would have to come in, and the other would have to go out.
From what I've read TB can carry both a video and data signal, so it may be possible with a TB splitter/dock. Problem is I've never seen a simple TB splitter, I guess because it was envisioned that people would daisy-chain devices. For the cost, it might be worth giving a USB-VGA adapter a try and see if you are happy with the results, because that sounds like the easiest solution.
Do you mean Mini Display Port not Thunderbolt? There is no T-bolt splitter, but I think you need to ask for MDP devices/adapters, not T-bolt. Same port size but different protocols. I could be wrong but I would be surprised if there is a T-bolt video camera. I say that because there are many MDP devices on the Internet.