iPad Pro Sidecar wired/wireless connection questions

[bluesteel]

Sidecar confusion. I don’t understand this technology very well. Getting a lot of conflicting info on the connection options. A few questions. Any comments are appreciated. I’m looking for the most reliable and highest performance connection available.

When using my M1 iPad Pro as an external display with my M1 MacBook Pro, does using a USB-C cable have any other benefit other than charging the iPad?

What is the advantage, if any, to using the USB-C cable (charge+data) that came with my iPad or an Apple thunderbolt 4 cable as opposed to not using a cable?

Is bluetooth and wi-if always used with Sidecar, or is it all cable when a, say, a thunderbolt 4 cable is connected?

 

[Shirasaki]

The biggest difference between wireless sidecar and wired one is wired one is more stable. Far more based on my experience. Also performance is a bit better cause no dropout due to interference etc.
Bluetooth doesnt have enough bandwidth to actually transfer data. You need to enable both Bluetooth and wifi on your Mac and iPad to use sidecar.

 

[bluesteel]

The biggest difference between wireless sidecar and wired one is wired one is more stable. Far more based on my experience. Also performance is a bit better cause no dropout due to interference etc.
Bluetooth doesnt have enough bandwidth to actually transfer data. You need to enable both Bluetooth and wifi on your Mac and iPad to use sidecar.

That's what I hear, more stability. Appreciate the comment.

So, I was able to get a hold of an extra Apple thunderbolt 4 cable. I turned off wi-fi and bluetooth on MacBook Pro and connected the iPad with the thunderbolt cable and it works perfect, display can be mirrored or extended. No wireless needed. So that's my M1 Max MacBook Pro connected to three external displays, two Apple studio displays and an M1 iPad Pro with Apple thundebolt 4 cables. For those who are curious, when I check System Profiler, it says the iPad is connected to the USB 3.1 Gen 2 10Gbps bus, not the thunderbolt 40Gbps bus.

 

[simacc]

That's what I hear, more stability. Appreciate the comment.

So, I was able to get a hold of an extra Apple thunderbolt 4 cable. I turned off wi-fi and bluetooth on MacBook Pro and connected the iPad with the thunderbolt cable and it works perfect, display can be mirrored or extended. No wireless needed. So that's my M1 Max MacBook Pro connected to three external displays, two Apple studio displays and an M1 iPad Pro with Apple thundebolt 4 cables. For those who are curious, when I check System Profiler, it says the iPad is connected to the USB 3.1 Gen 2 10Gbps bus, not the thunderbolt 40Gbps bus.

How do you find the quality...it looks very compressed (pixely) to me...

I can confirm above statement, when connecting with TB4 cable it just says USB 10Gbps...although only used the TB cable that's bundled with a Studio Display....

 

[Coolpher]

If I remember correctly wired Sidecar is only ran over a USB bus.

 

[bluesteel]

How do you find the quality...it looks very compressed (pixely) to me...

not having this issue, everything looks grest to me.

 

[simacc]

not having this issue, everything looks grest to me.

As in it looks as good the Studio Display (or better)?

No compression artefacts on shaded dark blacks etc.?

 

[simacc]

 

[simacc]

That kinda thing...(2:10:40 from Dune fwiw...though you can see a bit of it even with default Monterey background for example)...

 

[bluesteel]

That kinda thing...

oh man, that doesn’t look good. no, mine does not look like the images above. i couldn’t use it like that. mine looks retina quality.

 

[simacc]

oh man, that doesn’t look good. no, mine does not look like the images above. i couldn’t use it like that. mine looks retina quality.

Cheers, maybe I got a lemon

(M2 iPad Pro 12.9)

 

[bluesteel]

...although only used the TB cable that's bundled with a Studio Display....

the tb cable that comes with the studio display is tb3. wasn’t there issues with apple’s tb3 cables and sidecar? i thought i remember users having unreliable connections using that specific cable. might be worth looking into more. i’m using the stand-alone apple tb4 cable sold by apple.

 

[simacc]

the tb cable that comes with the studio display is tb3. wasn’t there issues with apple’s tb3 cables and sidecar? i thought i remember users having unreliable connections using that specific cable. might be worth looking into more. i’m using the stand-alone apple tb4 cable sold by apple.

Cheers I'll have to look into that...I'll report back when I do...