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November 2nd, 2021 12:00

U4919DW, MacBook Pro 2021, PBP split screen

Hello! Can someone please help me with the exact procedures of splitting my U4919DW monitor screen into two sections from one 2020 13" MacBook Pro laptop? I believe I need two cables (which ones??) to make use of the PBP (Picture by Picture) mode, but I honestly have no idea what I'm doing. Thanks!

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December 1st, 2021 08:00

@ioamochichi  When you're in PBP mode, each tile is 2560x1440, and with PBP mode presenting two tiles that are side by side, that gives you a total canvas of 5120x1440, i.e. the native resolution of the display.  But if you're using PBP mode with each active input connected to the same source system, it would be normal for your system to see two 2560x1440 displays.

9 Legend

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14K Posts

December 1st, 2021 12:00

@ioamochichi  Ok, I got curious about this so I whipped out my own MacBook Pro and connected it to dual external displays.  I see what you’re saying. This appears to be a limitation or a deliberate design decision on macOS. When all displays are part of a unified Space rather than using per-display Spaces, the menu bar only appears on the display designated as primary. That doesn’t have to be your MacBook’s built-in display, though. You can choose one of the tiles on your U4919DW to be primary to put the menu bar there, but you can’t have a spanned or replicated menu bar across all displays. You only get a replicated menu bar when using per-display Spaces. Maybe there are third-party utilities that will give you more customization in this regard, but if there are I’m not aware of them.

9 Legend

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14K Posts

November 2nd, 2021 15:00

@ioamochichi  Sorry, I briefly forgot that the U4919DW has a USB-C input. In that case, use a USB-C to USB-C cable and a USB-C to DisplayPort cable. That way you’ll still have power and USB data connectivity with the display. But again, this only works for the Intel version of the 2020 13” MBP.

9 Legend

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14K Posts

November 2nd, 2021 15:00

@ioamochichi  The 13" 2020 MacBook Pro was available in both Intel and Apple Silicon (M1) variants.  If you have an Intel-based system, get a pair of USB-C to DisplayPort cables and call it a day.  If you don't want to use two ports, possibly because your 13" MBP only has two USB-C/TB ports rather than the four ports that were available on the high-end versions of the 2020 Intel 13" MBP, then a Thunderbolt 3 to Dual DisplayPort adapter and a pair of regular DisplayPort cables would allow you to run both "tiles" of your display as separate tiles while still only using a single port on the MBP.

If you have the Apple Silicon (M1) version of the 2020 13" MBP, then that system only supports a single external display, so it would not be capable of running that display as two logical displays.  Yes, that is a downgrade over the Intel 13" MBP that it replaced, and it's arguably not a very "Pro" spec, but that's what Apple did.  The newer 14" and 16" MBPs that use the M1 Pro and M1 Max chips are capable of running two and four external displays, respectively.

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November 3rd, 2021 05:00

Thank you so much, all great information! It is in fact an Intel version, and also has 4 ports. I understand that the USB-C cable that comes with the laptop cannot transmit video, is that correct? So I would need to get one that transmits video? Then, after I plug in the two cables, it automatically splits the screen into two, or do I need to changes some of the settings on the monitor? Thanks again!

Community Manager

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56.8K Posts

November 3rd, 2021 05:00

Adding to the good advice from jphughan. The online U4919DW User's Guide pages 51 to 54 discusses the PBP (Picture by Picture) mode.

PBP.JPG

PBP2.JPG

PBP3.JPG

9 Legend

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14K Posts

November 3rd, 2021 05:00

@ioamochichi  Happy to help! The USB-C cable that comes with MacBook systems only supports power and USB 2.0 data, but the U4919DW comes with a suitable USB-C cable, so no problem there unless you buy it used without its originally included accessories.

On the display, you have the enable PBP as she in above and then choose which video signal should be on which side, but after that you should be good to go. Good luck!

1 Rookie

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November 3rd, 2021 06:00

Thank you again! I will have to buy the cable, since I inherited the monitor but not the original cable. So to recap, buy and connect the two cables, then set up PBP mode on the monitor per the instructions above. Sounds easy enough! 

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December 1st, 2021 07:00

Hello again! Well, I was finally able to get the two cables and set up the PBP mode. It worked! However, the resolution is only 2560x1440. I know this monitor is 5210x2880. Is there any way to improve the resolution in this PBP mode? If I click on Scaled under the settings, I only get options for 2560x1440, 1080p, and 720p.

9 Legend

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14K Posts

December 1st, 2021 10:00

@ioamochichi  You have to keep in mind that in your setup, the system believes these are two completely different displays connected.  It has no idea that they are part of the same physical display unit.  It's probably possible to manually drag the corners of an application window to cause it to span across the two "displays" (tiles in this case), but double-clicking the application title bar to maximize the window will cause the OS to size the application window to fill the display area -- which in this case will be the entire tile area.  The option to have displays use separate Spaces pertains mostly to the Spaces virtual desktop feature of macOS, described here.  But maybe that was necessary to allow a single application window to cross displays borders, since I can see how allowing each display to be switched to different Spaces independently might be tricky if you're also spanning content across display borders.

In terms of the menu bar, if the system believes there are two separate displays, it will have separate instances of the menu bar on each display.  I don't think you can have a single menu bar that spans what the system believes to be multiple independent displays.

But if you want a single spanned menu bar and the the ability to span application windows across the entire display area, then I'm not sure why you're using PBP in the first place.  You originally came here asking how to split your display into two separate sections, and the answer is to use PBP.  But now you seem to want to use the entire display as a single unit, and you're claiming that not being able to do so defeats the point of PBP.  The entire point of PBP is to divide the display, most often so that you can run each tile from completely separate systems.  But if you want a unified display, then disable PBP and connect using a single cable, at which point you should end up with a single 5120x1440 display to work with.

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December 1st, 2021 10:00

Thank you! That makes total sense. I just want to make sure that I was setting it up correctly. I was wondering if you are aware if there is a way to span windows across the two displays while keeping the menu bar on both displays? I've tried unchecking Displays have Separate Spaces, which works to span the window but not keep the menu bar. That kind of defeats the purpose of the PBP, in my opinion. Thanks again!

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December 1st, 2021 11:00

I'm sorry, I don't think I was clear. What I was looking to do was keep two separate spaces via PBP with the two separate menu bars on top, as if they were two monitors. Then, if I move a window partially from one space to the other space, such that part of the window overlaps with the other space, the whole window can still be seen. 

If I do that now, the part of the window that extends onto the second space is "behind" the space, so you can't see the whole window.

If I turn off "Displays have separate spaces", it solves that problem, but it removes the separate menu bars, leaving just the one on the Macbook. Which is not the point of PBP, as you said.

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December 1st, 2021 13:00

I figured as much, but wanted to check with a pro Thank you so much for all your help! You made it very easy for me to set up the PBP.

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