I have a mac mini with a M1 chip which, though there are 2 thunderbolt ports, allows only on apple monitor. I already have one apple monitory connected and would like to add a second monitor through the hdmi port.
Will this work? There is an hdmi to thunderbolt adapter but the vendor says "** DON'T CONNECT THIS PRODUCT TO YOUR LAPTOP OR COMPUTER!!!!! ". I am puzzled because I can connect a second HDMI
LG monitor and it works fine. Help!!
Mac mini, macOS 14.4
FrostyRose wrote:
There is an hdmi to thunderbolt adapter
Probably a USB-C to HDMI adapter. One that takes USB-C (DisplayPort Alt Mode) signal from a computer, and converts it into a HDMI signal for a display. One labeled as "Thunderbolt-compatible" as a way to reassure Mac users that it is compatible with their computers, although it probably neither uses, or understands, Thunderbolt.
The 2020 M1 Mac mini has two Thunderbolt 3/USB-C ports, two USB-A ports and one HDMI port.
The M1 Mac mini only supports one display from a Thunderbolt 3/USB-C port and one display from the HDMI port.
see "Video Support" at > Mac mini (M1, 2020) - Technical specifications - Apple Support
The HDMI port only supports HDMI displays and adapters or cables to go from HDMI to DisplayPort or DVI.
The HDMI port does not support a second Apple Thunderbolt Display.
There are USB-C (DisplayPort) to HDMI adapters, and some Thunderbolt docks have dedicated HDMI ports. But as far as I know, there is no such thing as an adapter that goes from HDMI output (on a computer) to Thunderbolt (on a peripheral). HDMI is narrowly focused on video, whereas Thunderbolt is a very flexible protocol that supports video and other things.
It may help to think about this in terms of a Windows PC analogy. You can get graphics cards, with HDMI ports, that plug into PCIe slots. But have you ever seen a box that plugs into a PC's HDMI port to give you external PCIe slots? Thought not.
Thank you. I didn't know that an Thunderbolt monitor is significantly different from a cdmi monitor.
Thank you, very helpful.
You're welcome.
2nd monitor on a M1 mini
