Alternatives for DualHead2Go?

mark

Dear All,

My long time collaborator Dawn Stoppiello asked me a question I didn't have a quick answer for: is there a simple (and hopefully inexpensive) device that will give you two separate outputs from one HDMI input? To be clear, we don't want a simple "Y" splitter, where the image is the same on both HDMI outputs. Instead, she is seeking the same functionality as a Matrox DualHead2Go, but in for HDMI.

Please post your responses here, as she'll be following. Thanks.

All the Best,

Mark

keftaparty

Hi Mark,

I know this: http://www.amazon.de/ZOTAC-Mini-DisplayPort-Dual-HDMI-Adapter/dp/B005FSHHHG

But it's mini-display port. I'm not sure you can adapt from hdmi.

I am afraid these "splitters" are using possibilities offered by the Displayport interface, that are maybe not supported by the hdmi.

Is the reason to avoid dualhead2go only a money question ?

Best

Mehdi

primaldivine

@keftaparty (sorry, Dawn.. veering off a bit here...)
Just wondering if you have you tried that adaptor yourself? It's a good price. :) and could be useful for a project I am doing with 3D. Does it recognise two individual stages?

primaldivine

Assuming there is already one HDMI out, and that you want to add a second, then Dawn could use a single good quality HDMI adaptor to convert a second output to hdmi.
I have done this on a Mac mini before.
There are also some USB 3.0 to HDMI converters that also carry the audio. This also might be an option, but it depends on which computer she is working on.

pd

keftaparty

Hi Jamie,

I don't have one.

For what I saw on others forums, I think it appears ( like dual/tripleheads2go ) like one monitor.

You can still use the left/right half in isadora stage preferences to make it easily 2 stages.

I find pretty few infos about it. It's not very expensive, would be great to try it and report.

I think it's compatible with macs. For pcs I'm sure it is.

Mehdi

ian

Hi Mark,

I've been down this rabbit hole a few times and come up empty every time.... Various friendly video hardware engineers have told me that the requirements of the HDMI spec (and the audio, HDCP and EDID handshaking requirements that go along with it), make it quite difficult to pull off splitting a HDMI signal like a triplehead does for a displayport/dvi or vga signal.

I can think of some ways to do this by converting to SDI first, but, that negates the inexpensive piece....

Hopefully there is in fact some little box out there, as it would be handy, but i suspect there isn't.

Ian

troikadawn

Thanks for the info Forum! It's sounding like I just need to get a dual or triple head to do what I want. My Macbook has thunderbolt (??) the little display output and the pico projectors that I want to use only have HDMI input. So if I use a Matrox I will need an adapter from VGA to HDMI. I think I saw one at the Mac store today. Anybody come across issues with that?

I only wanted to know if any sort of HDMI "spitter" would trick the computer into thinking it has two+ outputs like the Matrox does. So that I can have two Izzy stages routed to two different projectors. Probably that was already clear to everyone but you all are so much more technical than I so I can't turn some of the series of letters into meaning ;-)

I will check back in here again. In case you mad-video-geniuses find a solution!

Tanx a heap,

Dawn

CraigAlfredson

You definitely don't want to throw VGA into the mix. There are digital only versions of the dualhead which output DVI. Since DVI is compatible with HDMI, you can buy inexpensive passive adapters that go from DVI to HDMI.

Craig

keftaparty

Hi Dawn,

I think for your situation the product I linked works.

[http://www.amazon.de/ZOTAC-Mini-DisplayPort-Dual-HDMI-Adapter/dp/B005FSHHHG](http://www.amazon.de/ZOTAC-Mini-DisplayPort-Dual-HDMI-Adapter/dp/B005FSHHHG)

It's really cheaper than a Matrox. It's reported to work with mini-display port outputs of macs ( witch is what you have if I understand well ).

So you can connect directly your beamers with HDMI.

I agree with Craig : No VGA !

Mehdi

DusX

I was considering getting this item: http://ca.startech.com/AV/Splitters/DisplayPort/DisplayPort-to-Dual-DVI-Multi-Monitor-Adapter-Male-to-Female-DP-to-2x-DVI-3840x1200~SP122DP2DVI

I have not tried it, but the spec seem to show that it supports up to 1920x1200 per output, and it works the same way as a dualheadtogo, with one xtra wide output. Its DVI, but adapters can be used for hdmi.

Not sure if there is any benefit over keftaparty's option?

Colonel_Moutarde

Since Lion, DH2G and TH2G are pain in the... , not being recognized or starting with fancy resolutions. No big deal when you boot your installation yourself but unusable for unmanned setups. On some of them, I had to make an external board which check the color of the DH2G led, and power cycle it until it goes steady green !

That doesn't answer the question about Matrox alternatives :-(

DusX

Heres another I was just looking at:
http://www.lindy.co.uk/audio-video-c2/splitters-c159/displayport-c163/3-port-displayport-splitter-expander-p7296