I have an Acer Nitro 5 laptop with a decent GPU but only one HDMI port (and no other display ports). Is there any cheapish ways I can run two external monitors without buying a new laptop? Thank you.
Best/Cheapest Way to Add Two External Monitors to Laptop with One HDMI Port
Duckman on 15/01/2020 - 13:15
Comments
Thanks! Is that the same as this one (with a different brand on it), do you think?
https://www.amazon.com.au/Novoo-Adapter-Macbook-Matebook-Chr…
The discounts for these adapters seems to have dried up. https://www.ozbargain.com.au/search/node/novoo
Depends what ports you have available, if you have a USB-C port then a Hub like the first commenter suggested would be the go, otherwise you could get a HDMI to USB adapter and use both your HDMI port and a USB port, or just get a regular USB powered Hub
I have a USB-C port on this laptop. Thanks!
Make sure you check the specs for your laptop that the USB-C port outputs video.
Another thing to be aware of is that some laptops can't output video via USB-C and the inbuilt HDMI port at the same time, only one or the other. eg; To run two monitors on a Lenovo ThinkPad T480s I had to use a USB-C to 2 x HDMI adapter.
@Colin2905: Does this degrade the video in any way? I think I'd actually prefer to run a USB-C to 2 x HDMI adapter so that I've got both external monitors running out of one cable plugged into the laptop. So it looks a bit neater.
@Duckman: The one I have (https://www.comsol.com.au/Products-by-Category/HDMI-Video-Ca…) worked fine for what I wanted to do (FHD @60Hz) but the specs only say 30Hz for 4K video. It's all very much dependent on what the laptop is capable of too.
If you're anywhere near Canberra, you're welcome to come and try the Comsol adapter I have.
@Colin2905: Not near Canberra unfortunately but I really appreciate the offer and the advice! FHD is all I am after so that looks like a good option for me.
Hey so I learned from doing some online research that the Acer Nitro 5 cannot output video from its USB-C port, apparently. Do I have any other options or am I stuck using one external monitor?
@Duckman: You've probably seen the same online threads that I have. The only option, which I'm not sure is cost effective, is:
HDMI splitter to split the signal to two monitors, however the laptop is still only outputting only one signal, so you'll also need:
Something like this to trick your laptop to output one 3,840x1,080 picture which is then extended over two 1,920x1,080 monitors:
https://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/products/gxm/dh2go/digita…
TL;dr is really, no, there doesn't seem to be a practical way to do what you want to do, sorry.
@HighAndDry: Hmmm what about this one? Or this one? Certainly more than I was budgeting to spend but I'm wondering whether it would work?
@Duckman: Those are USB to HDMI adaptors which afaik will introduce a pretty steep performance hit because the video will be routed from the GPU through the CPU and then through the USB connection. If you're only doing word processing or spreadsheets it should be fine, probably avoid for any kind of gaming.
@HighAndDry: Okay! Thanks very much for all your advice :) I think I will just have to settle for using one external monitor until I can afford to upgrade my computer.
I connected a second monitor to my laptop using one of these. https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/417635