M1 Mac mini and 2 Apple Studio Displays?

I have a friend who has just bought the above.

Connecting the second monitor is driving him up the wall.

Apple’s support offers no help that I can find except to say that the M1 Mini will support a second display connected to the HDMI port.
Can someone please recommend an adaptor that will allow this HDMI port to connect to the Thunderbolt 3 port on the display .

Or is it easier to send the display back and buy a third party one with an HDMI port.
If so, recommendations please (to match res and all that of display number 1).
Thanks.

If the display requires Thunderbolt input (as is the case with the 2022 Studio Display), then you must connect it via Thunderbolt.

According to Apple’s spec sheet, the M1 mini only supports dual displays with one connected via Thunderbolt and one via HDMI. Which means your second display can’t be a Thunderbolt display (meaning not a Studio Display 2022).

I would say that your friend will have to return one of the Studio displays and replace it with one that supports HDMI input (up to 4K resolution).

As for models, there are quite a lot of good ones to choose from. I’ve always been a fan of Dell’s UltraSharp series. But any reputable brand with an IPS panel is probably going to be a good choice. (Gamers may prefer something other than IPS, in order to get faster frame rates, but IPS usually has much better off-axis color accuracy.)

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Cheers David.
I was just about to mail him with that thought.
I think he was a bit barmy to spend all that money on these monitors when a pair of any other brand would have done fine.
He’s not a gamer - just writer of academic books and papers who wants more screen space for his research materials.

There was some small uproar about the lack of ability to do two thunderbolt displays.

I’m wondering, are any of the M1 or M2 machines able to do it at this point?

I am wondering here - might be false hope.

He has a 27ich iMac which he is retiring(I believe it’s running Catalina). I read somewhere that is was possible to screen share TO certain iMacs with the newer OSs.

Would it be possible to share to this iMac as an extended display?

I remember looking into this when I first got my Studio, since my Display was being delayed by months and I still had my iMac. When I checked it out on the web and did some research, it was possible but involved opening up the iMac (no thanks) and was not a simple plug and play that I had hoped for.

All the M1 Pro, M1 Max, and M1 Ultra machines can do it. I know the basic M1 cannot, and I’m not sure about the M2.

Dave

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The M2 machines (MBA and MB"P", no mini [yet]) are restricted to one external display (≤6K 60 Hz) over TB.

DisplayLink allows attaching many more (≤4K) over USB, however, that’s not a viable path for a native TB monitor (Studio Display). You’ll want HDMI/DP for DisplayLink to work.

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=startech+displaylink

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You can use the Sonnet dual monitor dongle for either DP or HDMI - it works.

I use the DP one on my M1 Mini & M1 Air as it drives my Dell monitors at 60k, whilst they only do 30k HDMI.

When I get back from travelling I will try out the M2Air but I expect it to just work.

Indeed, Sonnet uses DisplayLink too to make that work.

DisplayLink is a perfectly solid solution that has been around and worked with Macs for a long time.

Those many “reviews” of the new Apple Silicon Macs that kept regurgitating this “only a single external display” line without even mentioning DisplayLink as a possible work-around for the non-Pro/Max versions of the CPU did users and customers a disservice. Lots of people have yet to learn about their options.

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Without Displaylink, the M1 will only support a 4k (not 5K) display over the HDMI port. For maximum flexibility, your friend might consider replacing the 2nd Studio Display with a monitor like the Dell U2723QE.

I bought one from Amazon as a 2nd monitor for my MacStudio. I actually connect it to the Mac Studio via a USB-C to DisplayPort setup, but have also attached an Apple TV via HDMI for watching 4K video streams (audio via headphones) and can easily plug a MacBookPro in using the USB-C port. As others have noted the Dell U…Q… series monitors have a fine reputation.

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