
Duet Display – Ex-Apple Engineers Turn Your iPad into an Extra Display - antfarm
http://www.duetdisplay.com/
======
cdumler
I've been using Duet for some time now.

Pros:

\- Simple to use. Install the drivers on Mac, run the program on your iPad,
and go.

\- Acts like any another monitor. You can adjust orientation with other
monitors and resolution. Different choices in performance. Adjust vertical
orientation on iPad and screen just updates.

\- Very responsive, if not always very performant. No lag or jitter in
image/sound, but graphics performance can be slower (lower FPS). You can play
video games on it, but I wouldn't do it for a living.

\- Sometimes you just want to sit down in a coffee shop and have a second
monitor handy. This does that.

\- Touch screen triggers mouse input, if that's useful for you.

Cons:

\- Your CPU is doing all the graphic card duty. On my i7 at retina resolution,
you'll chew 50% of a core. This will eat battery and your machine will run
warm. But not hot, like a video game.

\- Odd graphic issues when you also have a secondary monitor plugged in
through HTML. Works just fine, in general, but sometimes it will loose track
of what to refresh or update on the monitors. Disconnecting and reconnecting
always clears this up. Most often happens when I lock the computer.

\- Sometimes, it just gets confused about connecting. Again, stop and restart
the app on iPad fixes it.

It's not perfect, but it works well enough that I certainly don't regret
getting it.

~~~
simonh
s/HTML/HDMI

~~~
cdumler
Thank you. When you're a web developer and very tired.. Yes, HDMI.

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gutnor
Seems like the "Ex-Apple Engineers" is prominently used as a marketing. Some
review online goes on saying "Made by Ex-Apple engineers and it shows"

But who were they at Apple and what did they do there ? Does Apple endorse
them in some fashion, do they have privilege access to some technologies ? In
what fashion is that relevant ? Outside that branding, there is nothing in
there that back that claim with anything concrete.

There is nothing wrong and the application can be indeed great, but this
marketing tactic raises all my alarms. Without the positive comments here on
HN, I would not even have considered trying that product at all.

~~~
ktta
I figure it's meant to be more of a _hint hint_ 'we know the architecture
we're programming for from the _inside_ '

Now, what position they held definitely will make a difference. But the reason
they're not specifying it could be to avoid any violations of employer
agreements they had at Apple.

For example, saying "I've worked on the mac desktop interface team and know
the architecture and worked with the codebase for X years so I can implement
the same ( _proprietary_ ) architecture" would cause trouble, Obviously they
won't be as blatant as this, but it is better to occupy the vague corner and
still reap the ex-apple recognition.

------
lewisl9029
This is also by far the #1 killer feature for me in Windows 10 Anniversary
Update.

You can now use other Windows 10 PCs as wireless displays and project to them
in any display configuration as long as they're on the same local network. It
can also reroute audio output from the host to projected PCs, and even reroute
_input_ (mouse, keyboard, touchpad, touchscreen(!), pen(!), etc) from
projected PCs back to the host.

From my experience so far it has worked impeccably well. There is a bit of
input lag and the occasional compression artifact, so hardcore gaming is
definitely out of the question, but it's more than good enough for regular
media consumption and browsing.

I really can't wait to see something like this land in more OSes.

~~~
copperx
These features sound awesome for a classroom setting. Has anyone here used
them for that purpose?

~~~
Zekio
I use it, in class to turn my surface pro 2 into an extra monitor, The only
thing I wish was possible is for this to be done over Ethernet.

~~~
digi_owl
Yeah it is not really networked in the TCP/IP sense. It is Miracast, and thus
use raw wifi frames on a point to point connection.

Similar leveraging of raw wifi has been done for Bluetooth, where it would
coopt the wifi radio to do bulk data transfers. Not sure how many devices
support it, particularly after wifi direct was released.

I just wish wifi direct had something akin to OBEX that Bluetooth bundles.
Makes sure that two devices can talk to each other in a meaningful manner.

------
justinc8687
How is this different than Air Display ([http://avatron.com/applications/air-
display/](http://avatron.com/applications/air-display/))? That's been out for
a few years and as of iOS 8 supports connections over USB. I use it daily and
it works quite well. Same pros/cons as cdumler mentions above.

~~~
nicky0
It runs over the cable instead of wireless, so the latency is lower.

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Zombieball
I tried this about a year ago with the hopes of finding a use for an old iPad
(was planning on leaving Dash running on the iPad. A dedicated "doc screen").

I found that there is a noticeable latency for older iDevices with 30-pin
connectors. This latency seemed to disappear when I substituted a current iPad
Air 2.

Just something to keep in mind for anyone interested in using Duet.

~~~
aleksi
Dash 3 supports iOS remote, works like a charm:
[https://blog.kapeli.com/dash-3](https://blog.kapeli.com/dash-3)

------
mastazi
Previous discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8751414](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8751414)

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altern8tif
This pairs really well with the Mountie
([https://tenonedesign.com/mountie.php](https://tenonedesign.com/mountie.php)).

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rcarmo
Sadly, it won't work on an original iPad (iOS 5). Anyone know of a good
alternative that will work with that, no matter how slow?

~~~
martin_a
I´d love to have that too. The iPad itself works fine, but you can´t use it
for anything these days. Except it could be a display for whatever device.

~~~
gm-conspiracy
I would greatly support a kickstarter for an upgraded replacement logic board
for the original iPad and/or iPhone 4S, similar to the N900 project in
spirit...

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pthreads
I am very curious as to how this works. Is this just using RFB protocol? Would
love to create something like this for the Raspberry Pi. I am guessing it
needs Apple's blessing given that it connects via a lightning cable.

~~~
Osmium
> I am very curious as to how this works.

I'd love to know too.

Really like Duet Display, though I wish the output quality was a bit higher
(there's a quality slider in settings, but even on maximum there're lots of
JPEG-like artefacts on the iPad display, especially around text).

~~~
eggy
I set it to the highest resolution it gave me (2xxx x 13xx, can't remember),
and it is working great. Maybe it's on the notebook end? I also switched my
NVIDIA driver to be used instead of the onboard Intel GPU for Duet.

------
dwarman
How is this different from the estimable Air Display of several years ago?

~~~
aheilbut
It runs over the cable, so the latency is lower and it ends up working much
better.

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joemaller1
I wonder if the $19 price is making up for sales volume lost to sticker shock.
That's expensive for an iOS app.

I've got a pile of old iPads that would be nice to resurrect as displays. I
downloaded the Mac app but balked and left at the double-digit price. (not to
mention the unknown in-app purchase)

~~~
graeme
If it was a Mac app, would you pay $19? That's cheap.

I don't really care that most app's are cheap. They're also mostly awful.

I'll pay for good ones. I think we should do away with this attitude that all
phone apps must cost next to nothing.

~~~
Alterlife
It's 1,150.00 Rs on the India appstore. That's not throwaway money.

There's no way to know the quality of this app until the money is paid.

~~~
sumedh
If you can buy a Mac in India then you can definitely afford this.

~~~
Alterlife
This is available for Windows as well. Besides, that not my point.

I have a Mac. 1K+ is not throwaway money to me. I don't see a way to evaluate
it. If there's no way to know if it'll work for me before putting down the
money, then forget it.

------
eggy
Can my iPad Pro now be used to draw in Clips Studio Pro on my PC notebook, or
is it only as a secondary display with touch, but no Apple Pencil support?

Downloading now...anxiously had to ask, since the download is 129 MB!

Everyday I wake up there is some new tech I was wishing for yesterday ;)

~~~
oceanswave
If you want pen functionality so that your iPad Pro functions like a Wacom
tablet, take a look at astropad [http://astropad.com](http://astropad.com)

~~~
eggy
I did, but I use a Linux/Win 8.1 notebook, not Mac. Plus the wireless
connection can't be faster than a USB Lightning can it?

BTW, the Pencil works, but no pressure sensitivity in CSP, Clip Studio Paint,
the old Manga Studio Pro. And, I can't pinch zoom, which is weird, since I am
using it on my Sony VAIO Flip 15, which has a touch screen, and I can pinch
zoom on it.

Oh, well, it is good for notes, and a second display and for my OSC music
projects.

------
onlymind
I've used this for quite some time on an unused iPad mini. Perfect for the
terminal when out in coffee shop. Resolution is low, but that's on the iPad's
end and have nothing to do with Duet. I like it.

------
greggman
I tried Air Display once. It had the issue that on a dual GPU MacBook pro the
Mac display would jank and flicker every time the GPUs switch which in my
workflow is extremely often.

Does Duet do any better?

To test reboot. Run Duet. Start Chrome. Go to google maps. Your machine should
start in integrated GPU mode then switch to discrete. Close the maps tab and a
few moments later it will switch back to integrated. Each of those switched is
usually seemless but with Air Display was janky in the same way some monitors
are janky when switching resolutions. Curious if Duet had the same issue

------
digi_owl
I seem to recall that on older Windows versions you could configure a non-
existent screen, and then send it via VNC or similar to a second device.

------
Theizestooke
What's a good analogue for Android?

~~~
fencepost
Not sure I'd go as far as "good" though it's been a few years since I used it,
but iDisplay ([http://getidisplay.com](http://getidisplay.com)) is either what
you want or a starting point to see if there are any better options out there
these days. At one point it was seeing few updates, but at least based on
their website it's got Windows 10 support so it's updated since last time I
looked at it.

It also has Mac and iPad support.

The biggest problem may be that (at least on the website) it only lists
compatibility up to Android 4.4 but it may be worth checking on newer versions
- that may just be a failure to update the site.

When I was playing with it it was functional and reasonably stable, but ended
up not being all that useful to me because I was used to working on a single
laptop screen most of the time anyway.

------
santaclaus
I've used Duet to send out a presenter display when rehearsing presentations,
and it works great for that task. The quality for day-to-day use is a bit
choppy, however, I'm not sure I'd use it as a primary display.

~~~
kalleboo
I wouldn't use it as a primary display either - I use it as a secondary
display to dump IRC, Slack, LINE etc onto. That stuff isn't moving so quickly
so it's not very taxing for the CPU to keep updated, and getting it out of the
way helps me concentrate.

------
j2bax
This has been out for years now yet the title is written as if it were just
released. Is this just blatant promotion or is there something I'm missing
about this story?

------
larf
I've had an inconsistent experience with this product, but it's great when it
works. A lot of jiggling the handle involved.

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tolmasky
What iPad stand is in the image on the site?

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flyosity
I've used this a bunch and it's really great. Recommended.

------
chrispie
Timeline

~~~
traviscj
Any more details? "Timeline" is basically an I searchable term, even when I
tried filtering by "Apple iPad app" and similar variants.

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cconcepts
Ten years ago a friend and I (both with little technical knowledge) made an
extra display on our flat wall using an old overhead projector and the lcd
display from a busted sattelite pro laptop.

A decade later achieving a similar thing using more recent technology is so
difficult that it is noteworthy.

I dont have a point. It just seemed an interesting comparison.

~~~
BoorishBears
Is that really a comparison though? This seems more like taking one of those
ubiquitous x86 Windows tablets (to form an analogy to an iPad) from years ago
and using it as a second display.

