06-03-2007, 09:53 AM

Hi

I have a Macbook Pro and I recently got a Mac Mini as a present (the person that gave me won it in a competition so she could give it to me because she knew I loved them so much and always wish I had one, and i couldn't say no to it and now i have one!) However, I cannot afford to buy external screens right now and a Mac Mini without a screen is pretty useless. My question is (and please don't laugh as this is probably stupid, but I know almost nothing about computers) is it possible to connect my Mac Mini to my Macbook Pro and kind of use the Macbook pro as an external screen? Or switch from one computer to the other the same way it switches users on the Macbook Pro?

Thanks

CS

06-03-2007, 10:45 AM

The only thing that I can think of that would kind of help you would be to just use VNC remote desktop.

Check out Vine Server:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/osxvnc/

and
Chick of the VNC
http://sourceforge.net/projects/cotvnc/

You'll need to borrow a monitor to set that up though.

One more thing, you could just enable secure shell access, but you would have to be pretty elite with the command line to make that worthwhile.

06-03-2007, 12:26 PM

Hey

Thanks so say i borrow a screen from my neighbour, can I just use it to set that up and then I don't need the screen anymore in the future and can use Macbook pro as an external screen for Macmini from there on?

Thanks

CS

06-03-2007, 12:35 PM

Originally Posted by Charlotte_RG

Hey

Thanks so say i borrow a screen from my neighbour, can I just use it to set that up and then I don't need the screen anymore in the future and can use Macbook pro as an external screen for Macmini from there on?

Thanks

CS

That's not quite what he's saying. If I understand correctly, what you're saying is you want to use the Mac Mini, keyboard, and mouse to control your user account on the Mac Mini, but see it show up on the MacBook Pro?

If this is the case, a VNC client/server setup won't work, as this is a way to remotely control a machine...say if you wanted to use the MacBook Pro's screen AND keyboard and mouse to control the Mac Mini.

I say the best way for you to do what you're trying to accomplish is find a zero-latency video capture card (USB, obviously), plug it into your MacBook Pro, then output the video from your Mac Mini to this plug. That way, you don't run into the network latency issues that you would with a VNC client/server setup.

A good zero latency video capture setup would be the El Gato EyeTV Hybrid. Though a little on the pricey side ($150 on Apple.com), it also is a dual-mode (Cable and HDTV OTA) TV tuner with award winning TV Guide software. Kind of a two-fer.

Good luck!

06-03-2007, 02:38 PM

Originally Posted by snoslicer8

A good zero latency video capture setup would be the El Gato EyeTV Hybrid. Though a little on the pricey side ($150 on Apple.com), it also is a dual-mode (Cable and HDTV OTA) TV tuner with award winning TV Guide software. Kind of a two-fer.

The quality of that picture isn't going to be very good, keep that in mind.