Feature Request: Dummy to advertise itself as a Thunderbolt/HDMI display source

[Dizzo786]

BetterDisplay Pro is amazing and it has simplified my workflow a lot by reducing the number of physical displays I need to have on my desk. Thanks you!

I've BetterDisplay installed on two MacBook Pos and one headless Mac Mini and I've ScreenSharing enabled on these machines. I remote into these from my iMac Pro and use these dummy screen. This way I can attach a second display to my MacBook, e.g., as a window on iMac Pro instead of attaching an actual physical monitor. I can access three remote dummy displays from one computer. This flow is not ideal but works great assuming that a Mac can actually enable ScreenSharing.

I've another MacBook which is MDM managed and have ScreenSharing blocked so I have to attach an actual physical display to it for a second monitor.

It would be great if BetterDisplay can advertise its dummy on thunderbolt/HDMI as a regular display. For example, install BetterDisplay on iMac, create a dummy display and bind this dummy to a thunderbolt/HDMI port as display receiver. Connecting thunderbolt/HDMI to another Mac should see it as an external display.

It is somewhat similar to the #334 but reversed. 334 mentioned BetterDisplay broadcasting its dummy as a NDI source and in this feature request BetterDisplay will advertise itself as a standard thunderbolt/HDMI display to be used by another Mac or (even non Macs). This feature is has some similarity to a capture card which advertise its display as a Camera input.

Not sure if this feature would be in the scope of the app and I think it would fit nicely. It could also be a separate paid feature as well.

[waydabber]

Hmm. I might not fully understand the use case. :) if you simply want to simulate a locally attached display, you can create a dummy and open a Picture in Picture window for it, so you'll have a separate display in a window. If you want to access a screen attached to a remote mac (virtual or real) you'll need some kind of screen sharing app. I don't get the part how a dummy (virtual) display advertising itself as a native display would solve the issue.

[Dizzo786]

Thanks @waydabber for replying and sorry for being somewhat cryptic in my initial request.

• BetterDisplay is installed on an iMac and if I create a dummy than this iMac thinks it has a second display. I can PiP this dummy on iMac and everything works great as you mentioned.

• feature: Install BetterDisplay on iMac as usual and create a dummy display. Bind this dummy display to a HDMI or thunderbolt connected port. If this hdmi/thunderbolt cable other end is connected to a MacBook it would see iMac as an external display. This is how the "Target Display" works but Target Display takes over the whole display, instead of showing itself as a Window on Target.

You are absolutely correct that I can remote into MacBook but the issue I have is Remoting is disabled on my MDM managed MacBook. Right now, I have an external capture card attached to MacBook (Elgato Cam Link 4K) and it kinda works ok but don't have all the feature of BetterDisplay.

[waydabber]

I get the idea. The problem with this approach is that in order for this to work, somehow we'd have to make the thunderbolt port of the iMac a displayPort or HDMI receiver unit or should somehow achieve that the iMac would advertise itself as a thunderbolt display to the connected macbook and also would have to interpret the displayport stream carried by the thunderbolt connection. This is unfortunately not possible (afaik) due to hardware limitations. All you can do is a software based solution - create a dummy on the host machine, capture the contents and encode it using some kind of algorithm and send over thunderbolt as data and there decode it and then present the data.