M1 Macs external display + sidecar

[mkili]

Hey,

Some people have been saying that the new macs will only support one external display, but there's been no clear information whether that includes an iPad in sidecar mode or not.
Can anyone with the new M1 mac check that and confirm?

I've really been wanting to get one, but if having an external display plus an iPad isn't possible then I'll probably wait for the next release

 

[ag99uk]

Hey,

Some people have been saying that the new macs will only support one external display, but there's been no clear information whether that includes an iPad in sidecar mode or not.
Can anyone with the new M1 mac check that and confirm?

I've really been wanting to get one, but if having an external display plus an iPad isn't possible then I'll probably wait for the next release

it works with my 11' iPad Pro simultaneously with the MacBook Air display and an external monitor.

 

[mkili]

it works with my 11' iPad Pro simultaneously with the MacBook Air display and an external monitor.

Great, thank you! Another good reason to justify spending money on one 😅

 

[dl4ste]

is it possible to use 2 external displays if the macbook is closed?

 

[KPOM]

it works with my 11' iPad Pro simultaneously with the MacBook Air display and an external monitor.

It's not just Sidecar. Any AirPlay display will work. I even had my LG Ultrafine 5K monitor plugged in and a 4K TV connected through AirPlay and it worked just fine.

 

[Lukasz Rewerenda]

It's not just Sidecar. Any AirPlay display will work. I even had my LG Ultrafine 5K monitor plugged in and a 4K TV connected through AirPlay and it worked just fine.

Wait what? So I can actually have two external monitors with the m1 mbp? That would be fantastic. I never used airplay before. Is there anything preventing it from being an option for an external display meant for things like documentation or log viewing? With apple tv (or, I assume, some other dongle) plugged to another 4k display?

I don't care much about latency, but I do need the text to be crisp, so if there is a lot of compression going on it might be a deal breaker.

I am an architect and a developer, and use a lot of screens with my computers. Ordered the M1 but was disappointed with it's "1 external screen only" support.

 

[Gee4orce]

Wait what? So I can actually have two external monitors with the m1 mbp? That would be fantastic. I never used airplay before. Is there anything preventing it from being an option for an external display meant for things like documentation or log viewing? With apple tv (or, I assume, some other dongle) plugged to another 4k display?

I can’t comment on Airplay, but I use Sidecar with an iPad Air (previous gen) all day every day as additional monitor space, and it’s absolutely flawless. I forget that it’s not actually a hardwired monitor but an iPad over WiFi.

 

[KPOM]

Wait what? So I can actually have two external monitors with the m1 mbp? That would be fantastic. I never used airplay before. Is there anything preventing it from being an option for an external display meant for things like documentation or log viewing? With apple tv (or, I assume, some other dongle) plugged to another 4k display?

I don't care much about latency, but I do need the text to be crisp, so if there is a lot of compression going on it might be a deal breaker.

I am an architect and a developer, and use a lot of screens with my computers. Ordered the M1 but was disappointed with it's "1 external screen only" support.

If the monitor supports AirPlay 2, it should work. Samsung, among others sells some with AirPlay support. Alternatively you could plug in any HDMI monitor to an Apple TV. AirPlay automatically scales for the best resolution, but you can choose a different scaling.

 

[kenmtnbike]

Hi, I have a follow-up question.

I'm considering buying one of the new M1 macbooks as my first mac, so forgive my ignorance. The external display issue is one of the most important things for me. This thread has helped a lot. The one thing I'm not 100% sure of is if the external monitor connected through one of the USB-C ports can be extended, not just mirrored.

So, could I have usable the macbook screen, an external monitor, and an ipad using sidecar all with the display extended (none mirroring or disabled)?

Thanks in advance!

 

[KPOM]

Hi, I have a follow-up question.

I'm considering buying one of the new M1 macbooks as my first mac, so forgive my ignorance. The external display issue is one of the most important things for me. This thread has helped a lot. The one thing I'm not 100% sure of is if the external monitor connected through one of the USB-C ports can be extended, not just mirrored.

So, could I have usable the macbook screen, an external monitor, and an ipad using sidecar all with the display extended (none mirroring or disabled)?

Thanks in advance!

Yes, both the external monitor and the iPad in Sidecar can act as extended or mirrored displays.

 

[marbaque]

No it doesn't work in real live, I am using a MacBook Pro 2019 with a second display, when I add the sidecar with an iPad Pro, everything freezes and becomes impossible to use.

 

[RossGGG]

You can also use a DisplayLink adapter/dock to connect additional external displays beyond what is natively supported by M1 Macs. This works because, like AirDisplay and Sidecar, the DisplayLink driver actually renders a virtualized display and transmits the image to the display adapter as a compressed digital video signal. The adapter decodes the signal and translates it back to an HDMI signal for the additional display. This does introduce a small amount of lag, but it's not really noticeable until you get to higher resolutions, like 4k.

A few other caveats:

• USB-C DisplayLink docks can be expensive.
• DisplayLink dongles (the cheaper option) don't seem to be available yet with USB-C connectors, so you will need a USB-C dock with some USB-A 3.0 ports on it to go this route.
• Unlocking your Mac with an Apple Watch (and maybe Touch ID) will be disabled if the DisplayLink Login Screen extension is installed.
  • The DisplayLink driver uses the Screen Recording api to capture and transmit the virtual display image. An optional system extension enables the use of DisplayLink from the Login Screen (can be installed from within the DisplayLink Manager application), but there will be a message at the top of the screen that says "Your Screen is Being Observed" and conveniences such as unlocking with your Apple Watch will be disabled out of an abundance of caution.

 

[Tagbert]

No it doesn't work in real live, I am using a MacBook Pro 2019 with a second display, when I add the sidecar with an iPad Pro, everything freezes and becomes impossible to use.

Earlier today I was using my work 2019 15" MBP working with a diagram in an external 4K display, a reference document in my iPad Pro sidecar and the document I'm editing in the MacBook screen. The only tricky thing is just to make sure you go into display>arrange and lay them out so that you can move your cursor between them in a rational fashion. I run the 4K at 1440 and when I enabled sidecar it reset the display resolution to hidpi 1080. I just had to reselect the resolution and everything worked great.

I just tried this exact arrangement out on my personal M1 Air and it works the same way, though the Air is much more stable and responsive than the MBP. I wish my office would upgrade me to an M1 machine.

 

[jake_the_tester]

You can also use a DisplayLink adapter/dock to connect additional external displays beyond what is natively supported by M1 Macs. This works because, like AirDisplay and Sidecar, the DisplayLink driver actually renders a virtualized display and transmits the image to the display adapter as a compressed digital video signal. The adapter decodes the signal and translates it back to an HDMI signal for the additional display. This does introduce a small amount of lag, but it's not really noticeable until you get to higher resolutions, like 4k.

A few other caveats:

• USB-C DisplayLink docks can be expensive.
• DisplayLink dongles (the cheaper option) don't seem to be available yet with USB-C connectors, so you will need a USB-C dock with some USB-A 3.0 ports on it to go this route.
• Unlocking your Mac with an Apple Watch (and maybe Touch ID) will be disabled if the DisplayLink Login Screen extension is installed.
  • The DisplayLink driver uses the Screen Recording api to capture and transmit the virtual display image. An optional system extension enables the use of DisplayLink from the Login Screen (can be installed from within the DisplayLink Manager application), but there will be a message at the top of the screen that says "Your Screen is Being Observed" and conveniences such as unlocking with your Apple Watch will be disabled out of an abundance of caution.

I have been using 3 external monitors with my M1 MacBook Pro.
1. DP via thunderbolt 3 dock
2. HDMI/VGA via USB Displaylink
3. Duet via USB to my iPad mini 4 (Not sidecar. Apple removed sidecar for iPad Mini 4, it was okay in iPadOS beta version!)

They are all working great. But I found a main issue when I used Displaylink and Duet together.
The displaylink monitor and Duet monitor will be mirrored to each other when I used them together. It's useless.
Don't know whether Displaylink and Duet are using the same graphics bus on MacOS.
Wrote to Duet Team and they admited it and suggest me to refund.😅
But i really want to use them all. Any idea?