Ever since I upgraded my MacBook Pro laptop to a later model with a Retina screen I have wondered if it was possible to get the same ‘Retina’ experience on a macOS desktop computer system. Recently one of my 24-inch screens failed on my Pro Tools system and this article is the journey to see if it was possible.

An Opportunity From An Unexpected Failure

On Christmas Eve one of my Samsung 1920x1200 24-inch screens stopped working. After completing some tests it turned out that the backlight had died. What to do? 

My existing Samsung screens had long been discontinued, which meant I would need to change both screens. I looked at my options and initially decided that I wanted to keep the 1920x1200 resolution, which somewhat narrowed my choices, especially as I had a specific space between my left and right speakers that also constrained the physical size of my screens. After several hours of research on Google and Amazon, I had made my choice and was about to press the button when Russ called and I told him what I was planning. His response was to ask if I had considered ultra-high-resolution screens. I had but had quickly rejected them because Pro Tools doesn’t support ultra-high-resolution screens. 

The Opportunity - Ultra High-Resolution Screens - But Would They Work?

However, he had recently changed one of his screens and was running it scaled and was very happy with it. I followed Russ’ advice and did much more research into ultra-high-resolution screens with a resolution of 3840x2160 and also whether they would work with a Mac mini 2018 running macOS Mojave. What I found was that the Mac mini would support them and also work well in a scaled mode, which would give me an effective screen size of 1920x1080, whilst giving me a ‘Retina’ experience with 4 actual screen pixels to every 1 pixel of my ‘1920x1080’ screen. Even better, was I also was able to find some 24-inch screens that would fit perfectly between my front speakers and I was sold.

I ordered two LG UHD 24UD58 24 Inch Monitor 4K IPS screens. However, these screens support HDMI or DisplayPort and not DVI, which is what I had been using with my Samsung screens. This would also mean I would mean to replace my 15m DVI cables between my computer and desk with new ones. My research also showed that if I wanted 60Hz refresh, I would need to use DisplayPort rather than HDMI with my Mac mini and in my research, for 15m DisplayPort cables I came across fibre optic cables, which although more expensive would make sure I didn’t lose any quality because of the cable length. So I also ordered two 15m DisplayPort fibre optic cables. In addition, I ordered a USB-C DisplayPort adaptor and a mini DisplayPort to DisplayPort adaptor for the Mac mini end of the setup.

Close Up Pictures Of the Ultra High-Resolution Screens

Pre Test Went OK

Because I would need to open up all my cable ducts and pull out the old cables and pull in the new cables I decided to test everything before I started. Unfortunately, initially, I only had one DisplayPort fibre optic cable so I tried it out and then used a short conventional cable that came with the screen for the other screen and it all worked. I could get the predicted 60Hz refresh and the screens looked amazing, they gave me the ‘retina’ experience I was looking for, that had so impressed me when I had upgraded my laptop to one with a Retina screen.

It was time to pull the studio apart, get into the cable ducts and first remove the redundant cabling. I took the opportunity to remove more than the DVI cables but also the VGA cables that had preceded them as well a number of other cables that were no longer in use. That took a full day as because the ducts go round the edge of the room there are a lot of corners to pull things round!

The next day, I pulled the new fibre optic DisplayPort cables, and whilst I was I had the ducts open, I pulled in a second Mini DigiLink cable ready for the Avid MTRX Studio, which to get the full I/O count needs 2 Mini DigiLink cables.

Not A Complete Success

Towards the end of the second day I connected every up and it wasn’t the good news I was expecting. I was back to a hit and miss set up, that I had been experiencing with my new Mac mini 2018 and my Samsung screens, with the second new display only running at 30Hz refresh and having to unplug one of the screens to get the Mac mini to ‘see’ both screens when starting up the system. 

The Solution

Back to Google and research led me to consider a USB-C to a twin DisplayPort adaptor and came across and OWC one that was confirmed as supporting my Mac mini 2018 computer. I ordered an OWC Thunderbolt 3 Dual DisplayPort Adapter - available from MacSales in the US and MegaMac in Europe. When it arrived, I plugged it in and after I had cleared the PRAM, success, both screens working reliably with 60Hz screen refresh on the both. Job done!