Finally: Daisy-Chaining Monitors With DisplayPort 1.2!

[Nuspieds]

I find that the USB adapters run slow and drain the CPU. Eager to try the daisy-chain thingy.

Per my original post, prior to purchasing the SP2, I operated my second monitor on my SP1 via USB 3 and it worked great and I didn't experience any lag or performance issues whatsoever. As a matter of fact, this is what I would recommend if one could not get or afford daisy-chainable monitors; it would be the next best solution.

 

[EthanDavis]

Hello! Very interested in getting a monitor which supports daisy-chaining for my new Surface Pro 2. Just a few questions for you guys though.

1. Is this short list of 7 or so monitors the only ones that support this? (Click DP Displays Multi-Stream): Products Database | DisplayPort

2. All of these seem over my budget. But I am tempted to get the Asus one. If I wait a year or so, do you expect these to come down in price since it's a brand new technology?

3. One final thing holding me back from this investment -- what about wireless displays? Like Bluetooth monitors, do those exist yet? Or are they coming soon? Seems like that would definitely be preferable, to have multiple Bluetooth monitors in front of you connected wirelessly to your Surface Pro -- would definitely let you avoid all the trouble of daisychaining displayport, USB 3.0+adapters, etc. that we are considering right now.

Thanks for your thoughts!

 

[mtalinm]

Per my original post, prior to purchasing the SP2, I operated my second monitor on my SP1 via USB 3 and it worked great and I didn't experience any lag or performance issues whatsoever. As a matter of fact, this is what I would recommend if one could not get or afford daisy-chainable monitors; it would be the next best solution.

My mileage REALLY varies.

This was a USB 3.0 adapter by j5. Rendering on all monitors was much slower, and though it's less of a concern the machine seemed to run hotter.

 

[EthanDavis]

Hello! Very interested in getting a monitor which supports daisy-chaining for my new Surface Pro 2. Just a few questions for you guys though.

1. Is this short list of 7 or so monitors the only ones that support this? (Click DP Displays Multi-Stream): Products Database | DisplayPort

2. All of these seem over my budget. But I am tempted to get the Asus one. If I wait a year or so, do you expect these to come down in price since it's a brand new technology?

3. One final thing holding me back from this investment -- what about wireless displays? Like Bluetooth monitors, do those exist yet? Or are they coming soon? Seems like that would definitely be preferable, to have multiple Bluetooth monitors in front of you connected wirelessly to your Surface Pro -- would definitely let you avoid all the trouble of daisychaining displayport, USB 3.0+adapters, etc. that we are considering right now.

Thanks for your thoughts!

Update: As for the third point, I found something similar to what I was imagining. It's called Miracast, and supposedly it's one of the new features that Microsoft added support for with Windows 8.1. The addition of a Miracast transmitter is also one of the updates for the Surface Pro 2. I'm not sure what monitors/displays support it (let me know if you know of any which support it) but I've seen some HDMI dongles which can be plugged into any monitor to allow it to receive the siignal sent from the Surface's Mircast transmitter. Voila!

Not sure if Miracast works with 2 displays though. Would be cool if the Asus 279Q for example (which has two Displayports for Daisychaining) had a Miracast receiver built into it. In case it doesn't, though, perhaps one could Daisychain the two monitors via Displayport and plug an HDMI Miracast dongle into one of them. Anyone know if this would work?

Still would like to hear your guys' thoughts! Thank you!

 

[JustJon]

Ive had a standards,onitor plugged in using a DP to normal monitor (?) plug adapter and then miracast to TV.

Gives me 2 monitors + SP2 screen.

Miracast also great for watching movies

 

[jnjroach]

Update: As for the third point, I found something similar to what I was imagining. It's called Miracast, and supposedly it's one of the new features that Microsoft added support for with Windows 8.1. The addition of a Miracast transmitter is also one of the updates for the Surface Pro 2. I'm not sure what monitors/displays support it (let me know if you know of any which support it) but I've seen some HDMI dongles which can be plugged into any monitor to allow it to receive the siignal sent from the Surface's Mircast transmitter. Voila!

Not sure if Miracast works with 2 displays though. Would be cool if the Asus 279Q for example (which has two Displayports for Daisychaining) had a Miracast receiver built into it. In case it doesn't, though, perhaps one could Daisychain the two monitors via Displayport and plug an HDMI Miracast dongle into one of them. Anyone know if this would work?

Still would like to hear your guys' thoughts! Thank you!

Miracast is the equivalent of Wireless HDMI so you are limited to on external monitor, also there is some lag between the device and the Wireless Display. I use to stream Video or in conference rooms to wirelessly present.

 

[Nuspieds]

My mileage REALLY varies.

This was a USB 3.0 adapter by j5. Rendering on all monitors was much slower, and though it's less of a concern the machine seemed to run hotter.

On a somewhat unrelated note, I recently changed my USB 3.0 10-port hub at home.

The reason? I bought a new flash drive and the performance was not anything near what the manufacturer claimed. After I replaced the hub with a new brand completely, I then saw the performance published by the manufacturer.

It just goes to show you that anything is possible and there are defective devices out there. Never hesitate to test replacing them, rather than assume the sub-par performance is normal; you have nothing to lose.

 

[PerG]

The possibility to use multiple monitors was a requirement from my side before choosing the Surface Pro 2 since I wanted to use it as my main work computer (previously I had one external 23" monitor and a laptop with 15.6" monitor). I looked at some Dell monitors (the only manufacturer I found that had monitors with DP 1.2 out?) and finally selected two Dell U2414H since it had a very attractive price (I had a somewhat tight budget). They also look really great since they have a very thin border!

I'm still awaiting the docking station and Type Cover 2 since they were out of stock, but the setup works anyway! (I will fix the cabling when my dock arrives! )

I had some small problems (only happened two times so far) when resuming from sleep and the last monitor in the chain not wanting to receive any signal. A reboot of the Surface seems to fix that... Hoping that some driver update might fix that...

The monitors are nice since they have a USB 3.0 Hub so I have daisy chained the USB as well, giving me a total of 7 USB 3.0 ports that I use for headphones, iphone cable and wireless receievers for mouse and keyboard and so on!

 

[MikadoWu]

Bestbuy has Docks

FYI, I bought 3 Docking Stations off BestBuy.com last week they showed up in 2 days. Sent one down to my Daughter in College. So far they work great.

Thanks for posting the information on the Monitors. Been looking all day for this INFO.

 

[Omni]

Are you happy with your Dell U2414H monitors PerG? Response time on them is quite high compared to some cheaper ones. I do really like the look of them though and am considering buying one instead of the Asus one I was looking at.

 

[PerG]

Are you happy with your Dell U2414H monitors PerG? Response time on them is quite high compared to some cheaper ones. I do really like the look of them though and am considering buying one instead of the Asus one I was looking at.

Happy so far, but I'm mainly using them for work (RDP Sessions to servers, Development in Visual Studio, Mail, Web browsing) so I don't require that much from a monitor, so I guess it depends for what you are going to use it for. Haven't tried gaming (and probably never will) on them for example.

 

[mtalinm]

Wow, amzn has the U2414H for $300 right now.

I already have a 27" dell monitor that does not have DP1.2 ... does anyone know whether I could daisy-chain these two? I was thinking

SP2's displayport plugged into U2414H, then the U2414H plugged into my 27" dell monitor.

Any chance of that working? Or do both monitors need to support DP1.2?