Mac Mini M1 + dual Apple 27" LED Cinema Displays?

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Level 1

38 points

Mac Mini M1 + dual Apple 27" LED Cinema Displays?

Has anyone succeeded in getting dual older apple monitors working? I can get dual monitors working but not both Apple 27".

For USB-C, I picked up some Mini DisplayPort adapters that work fine, but of course only one can work at a time with the M1.

For HDMI, I can hook up any of my other HDMI capable monitors and it works perfectly. I picked up an HDMI to Mini DisplayPort adapter off Amazon (QGeem brand) and the monitor recognizes that the Apple monitor is there (in About this Mac) and the displays preference pane shows it as part of the settings but it won't display anything - I've obviously contacted the company as its probably an issue with the adapter - but wondering if someone has found another way to hook up the 27" to HDMI?

Cheers,

p.

Mac mini, macOS 11.0

Posted on Dec 4, 2020 10:29 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

bonkers34

Level 1

4 points

Mar 2, 2021 8:40 AM in response to paulnish

I had similar challenge to get my Thunderbolt2 27" and my LED Cinema 27" Display working on the Mac Mini M1. The thunderbolt display worked without problems using the Apple Thunderbolt 2 to Thunderbolt 3 adapter.

However, getting the LED Cinema Display to work on HDMI was more challenging. I followed the same route as describer above and picked up an HDMI-to-DisplayPort Adapter and a DisplayPort-to-MiniDP adapter from Delock:

https://www.delock.de/produkte/G_62496/merkmale.html

https://www.delock.de/produkte/1048_Displayport-male---Mini-Displayport-female/65240/merkmale.html

Although it did work, I had random blackouts on the display, but it was still showing up as connected. Nothing in system logs.

I noticed that the blackouts would also be triggered when I touched the HDMI adapter, so I was getting suspicious that the HDMI port might be quite sensitive to HDMI cable quality. I also googled some posts elsewhere talking about HDMI cable issues on Mac Mini M1.

So took a chance and ordered another HDMI-to-DisplayPort adapter with higher spec:

https://www.delock.de/produkte/G_63206/merkmale.html

Instead of the STDP2600 chipset, this one is using Lontium LT6711A and has a higher spec up to 4K @ 60Hz.

This effectively solved the issue, and both screens run flawlessly.

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Answer 2

Dec 4, 2020 6:17 PM in response to paulnish

Are you using this HDMI to Mini DisplayPort Converter?

https://www.newegg.com/p/183-00BG-00004

A normal HDMI to Mini DisplayPort Adapter is for connecting a HDMI display to a computer's Mini DisplayPort, and will. not work in the other direction.

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Answer 3

paulnish Author

Level 1

38 points

Jan 3, 2021 3:05 PM in response to Coheebuzz

Happy to help. This is the adapter that I got off Amazon and so far it works great.

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B07V828R4Q

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Answer 4

paulnish Author

Level 1

38 points

Jan 15, 2021 9:10 AM in response to Faust_Tiger

@Faust_Tiger

Ya, right now the time machine drive is actually through the monitor's USB-A. Both the USB-A's on the mini are going to the monitors. Then I'm daisychaining the external drives - as I'm not concerned about speed with the backup, and I'm sure it's down to USB 2.0 speeds, its fine for now.

With only two USB-C/Thunderbolt ports, I'm using one for a monitor and the second is actually for an external 1TB USB-C that I'm booting off of as I got the 250GB config and it was almost full after install and iCloud sync of my photos and work files. Just finished working through that yesterday - was a bit hard as migration wouldn't work like it should.

The USB-C hub is the new OWC Thunderbolt Dock that supports an additional 3x USB-C/thunderbolt ports. I'll hook up the monitor to the hub and leave the external drive directly connected to the mini. Hopefully it will all work (fingers crossed). If it's all working I may also pull the hard drives off the monitor and through another adapter (USB-C to 5port).

Hope this helps.

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Answer 5

paulnish Author

Level 1

38 points

Dec 12, 2020 8:55 PM in response to paulnish

I now have both my Apple 27" LED Cinema Displays hooked up to my M1 mini.

Still using the USB-C to display port adapter. That works great. Gave up and returned the QGeeM brand adapter.

Solved it using these two adapters from CableMatters - one from HDMI to DisplayPort and another from DisplayPort to Mini DisplayPort.

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B014DV2RGG/

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00JQORLCG/

Works great - happy to have both my Apple 27" monitors back in action.

Hope this helps someone else.

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Answer 6

Jan 3, 2021 9:36 AM in response to paulnish

Hi Paul, are you getting native res @ 60hz with that HDMI adapter?

I see that they offer 2 versions, the one you linked and this one which is HDMI 2 to DisplayPort 1.2 but slightly more expensive and i am not sure what to get.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08GP2H1J1/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?smid=A1AMUYYA3CT6HJ&psc=1

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Answer 7

paulnish Author

Level 1

38 points

Jan 3, 2021 1:06 PM in response to Coheebuzz

HI Coheebuzz, My apple monitor is getting full 60Hz. If you have a higher res (4K) monitor or something with the ability to take more than 60Hz, go for the other one as it will support higher faster resolution at faster refresh. However, if you have an Apple monitor the original one works just fine as far as I can tell.

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Answer 8

Jan 3, 2021 3:02 PM in response to paulnish

Thanks for the response. I have one more question, can you share which USB-C to Mini DisplayPort adapter you've been using for the other monitor for reference sakes? Many of them do not work, including the one i bought, thus it would spare a lot of people the trouble and money.

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Answer 9

paulnish Author

Level 1

38 points

Jan 15, 2021 8:22 AM in response to Faust_Tiger

Hi Faust_tiger,

The speakers and camera both work when the USB-A from the monitor is plugged in. There are two USB-A ports on the mini so that works fine. Getting a USB-C hub (arriving today) which should allow me to move those to a hub and plug in a Time Machine backup drive there instead of through the monitor. But yes, both monitors have full audio and video functionality.

Hope that helps.

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Answer 10

Jan 15, 2021 9:05 AM in response to paulnish

Thanks Paulnish,

since you mentioned it.. you decided to attach your time machine drive via the USB-A instead of the Thunderbolt/USB-4 port ? or the Display on the Thunderbolt/USB4 port prevents storage from being daisychained to it?

40G/s should make it Thunderbolt3, USB4.. not sure what the specs are on the USB-A ports.

Actually I see the USB-A are limited to 5G/sec. And need to choose hubs that are actual USB4 (and not 3.x) to get full speed there.

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Answer 11

ccecca

Level 1

4 points

Jan 29, 2021 5:44 PM in response to paulnish

Hi Paul, i have this configuration:

MACMINI m1

2 Apple Thunderbolt Display 27''

and this adapter:

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00JQORLCG/

and

https://www.amazon.it/gp/product/B08MDS4Z6J/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I have not solved the problem. I connected 1 monitor to the hdmi port (with the two MINIDP> DP> HDMI adapters) of the mac hdmi port and the other monitor to the usb c port. Is it your identical configuration, do you have any ideas or suggestions? thanks

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Answer 12

paulnish Author

Level 1

38 points

Jan 29, 2021 6:10 PM in response to ccecca

Hi ccecca,

I don’t have the Thunderbolt monitors so I can’t tell you for certain but what scenarios do you have working? Did you get them to work with HDMI or USB? I believe that the Apple thunderbolt adapter has helped some others as well.

Tell me about what you’ve tried please.

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Answer 13

Feb 6, 2021 4:22 PM in response to paulnish

Hi Paul,

I have 2 - Apple 27" LED Cinema Displays and a Mac Mini M1 as well. I just hook up the two Cable Matters adapters to the HDMI Port and plugged in the display and I am getting just a black screen. The other display hooked up the USB-C and is working fine. I also switched the 2 displays on the USB-C and both work fine. On the Cable Matters adaptor the blue light is on and the USB is plugged in, I also rebooted. Any suggestions would be most appreciated. Thank you! Carson

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Answer 14

paulnish Author

Level 1

38 points

Dec 4, 2020 6:37 PM in response to Malcolm J. Rayfield

Hi Malcolm. That is the exact adapter that I’ve purchased and trying to make work properly. As I said, the OS recognizes the monitor but nothing displays. I’m hoping it’s an OS issue but don’t know.

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Answer 15

Jan 15, 2021 8:08 AM in response to paulnish

Paulnish,

do your iSight and Speakers work in this configuration?

(interesting that High Sierra Safari can not login securely to this board, but Chrome can! )

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Mac Mini M1 + dual Apple 27" LED Cinema Displays?

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