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General discussion

Dual monitors for a 13 inch Macbook

by mikemgg Jul 10, 2009 7:45AM PDT

I am a student filmmaker and I have been looking at investing in higher end editing programs, but I like using dual monitors for that. I have heard it is possible to use two monitors with my macbook. Is this true? And if so, how do i connect two external monitors to one video output port on my macbook.

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3 Posts
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Dual monitors,
by mrmacfixit Forum moderator Jul 10, 2009 9:48AM PDT

Some of the answer depends on what version of the MacBook that you have.

The Macbook is capable of supporting 2 monitors in either Extended Desktop mode or Mirroring.

However, your plan to attach 2 external monitors to your Macbook is not going to fly.

One of those "2" monitors is your laptops LCD screen.

To connect ONE external monitor to your Macbook, use the adapter that should have come with it. It fits in the Mini-DVI port at the back of the machine. If it did not come with one, they are available from the Apple store.

If you are serious about the higher end editing programs, you might also want to invest in some large external drives, preferably Firewire, for storage.

I'm not sure that a standard Macbook would be the ideal for heavy editing though.

P

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Corrections...
by jedirock Jul 13, 2009 11:57AM PDT

Two corrections to that. One, the video out port is on the left side of the machine, not the back. Two, most MacBooks use Mini-DVI for one port, but the aluminum unibody MacBooks use Mini-DisplayPort, which will require a different adapter. If in doubt, someone at an Apple store or even a generic computer hardware store should be able to tell you the difference.

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And with caveats...
by ericinLA Jul 17, 2009 12:30PM PDT

As an addendum to the previous posts, the larger the 2nd monitor you attach to your MacBook, the slower it will display video. So if you have footage that is playing back at 24 fps on the laptop screen, it may degrade to only 16 or 12 fps on the second screen, because the video chip isn't robust enough to deliver fast frame rates on multiple devices. This is no big deal when you're just doing playback, but if you apply any effects or fades and need to render, it could add substantial "thumb-twiddling" time and give you choppy previews.

So if you are considering high-end software, you are certainly in the market for high-end hardware too. I mean, if you're ready to drop $1,000 for Final Cut Pro, what's another $1,500 for a Mac Pro, right?

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