Daisy-chaining multiple monitors is a great way to get the most out of your home theater. If you are using an incompatible cable or port, however, this can result in disappointing Picture-in-Picture (PIP) functionality for video sources on another display device such as TV screens – unless one has DisplayPort In and Out ports available which many do not!
If you are planning on sending media files to multiple output monitors, a daisy-chain HD system is the best way to do so. It’s the most effective way of sending media files to multiple computers without experiencing lag. But what common problems does daisy chain monitors and HDMI setup bring?
Daisy chain monitors & HDMI: Flickering and Line Artifacts
When you have multiple screens set up, there is a tendency for media to flicker or display “Line Artifacts”. Line art artifacts are visual patterns that appear on the screen. When they do, it’s usually accompanied by lag or slow performance.
As for the reasons why your screen might flicker, here are some of the most popular explanations.
1) The number of media-consuming resources might be insufficient.
When multiple screens are used together, they can generate a major amount of bandwidth consumption. If you don’t set up enough media consumers, this will lead to slow response times.
2) The output settings for the monitor might be wrong.
If the resolution and color settings of an HDMI monitor are incorrect or not compatible with the HDMI data throughput capacity, flickering can occur. When you experience such trouble, just switch your monitor’s to upgraded HDMI cable input to see whether there’s a noticeable difference in image quality and how it affects screen flicker.
3) Poor signal transmission speed
If the transmission speed of an HDMI cable is too low, it will lead to line art artifacts. You can fix this by either replacing your old HDMI cables or switching to higher-quality HDMI cables.
4) The graphics card’s GPU might be overloaded.
When you try and push more data than a GPU can handle through its ports at once, the unit will create a disturbance in its output. This leads to both slow performance and line art artifacts as it tries to adjust for each picture.
If the above solutions don’t work, you may have a bad device that is causing the problem. If this happens, try using other devices like PS4 or XBOX, etc… if there’s no problems, then that means the device isn’t compatible and you should try a different output method.
There are also other issues and solutions to common problems with daisy chaining but the ones you should anticipate to likely occur as you setup your daisy chain system includes:
- Intermittent Lag: Changing the refresh rate or resolution of your monitor helps to resolve HDMI throughput lag.
- Poor media output: The solution here is to upgrade your graphics card to one with higher output capabilities (if possible).
- Compatibility Issues: Use HDMI2.0 and above for maximum High-speed cable extensions throughout your daisy chain monitors particularly where your setup begins to show lag
- Slow and low-quality Performance: Get faster components like SSD HDDs, etc.
From personal experience, having about 6 monitors is truly amazing in terms of how much you can get done. Just like with any other tech, however, there are problems associated with daisy chaining monitors and HDMI.
The problem that most daisy-chaining ran into is the inability to connect monitors one after another without compromising on quality but also serious compatibility issues.
Daisy chain monitors Won’t Work: Why are daisy chain monitors not working?
Daisy chaining multiple monitors using incompatible cables will not work. If you want to daisy chain your screens and use this method, make sure the sender (a laptop) has an HDMI port or DisplayPort; also check if it’s capable of outputting audio through its Output jack because some laptops only offer that option when connected via USB Type-C connection rather than VGA or thunderbolt 3 ports.
On top of having compatible connections between displays themselves, graphics cards need support for display Port version 1 2 MST which is why many gamers invest in stand-alone video cards with DP 1.2 MST capabilities to get a wider range of daisy-chaining displays.
Daisy chain monitor Displayport no signal Asus: Why does my Asus monitor say DisplayPort no signal?
It can be disappointing when you do not know why your Asus monitor says DisplayPort no signal when connected to another monitor using a DP cable or via a daisy chain of monitors.
In case you’re also using your HDMI port with a controller, please turn off the console and use only the DisplayPort cable to connect it to another screen for testing purposes.
It can be very confusing when trying to solve this fault considering that multiple issues may have caused the problem even though it’s more likely a DP 1.2 MST problem rather than HDMI port issue.
In case you have a desktop computer, make sure you have all the cables connected properly and the HDMI output is enabled on your graphics card/integrated video cards. You can do this by right-clicking on the Windows Start menu button and selecting Device Manager(Display adapter).
You should also check to see if the other screen is also in Extended mode and not clone mode for this may cause black screens. If you’re using a laptop with an HD display, ensure that it has the graphics driver updated before you connect your DP cable or try connecting it to another monitor instead of daisy-chaining two screens.
The problem is mainly caused by different HDMI standards between connected devices. You see, most computers and TVs support 1080p, which means that they have been built with HDMI ports of 1.4 version or lower.
This leads almost all computers to have issues displaying signals from any device with an HDMI port of 1.3 or higher. Just for your information, the newest version of HDMI currently is 3.0 and above, with data transfer speed rates of 18 Gbps plus!
With all of the daisy-chaining problems running rampant, there are best ways to fix these issues is by using an adapter that makes your computer think that the connected device has an HDMI 1.4 port even though it may not.
The adapter is called an HDMI Repeater and it’s the only solution that works for high-speed HDMI displays such as 4K, 1440p, and 2160p. The model we’re currently using is an HDMI splitter.
Using HDMI splitters paired with your sender and receiver device provides you with a quick fix to all your daisy-chaining HDMI problems if you know how to use it.
With this adapter, the monitors will be able to recognize one another and communicate with each other without any problems such as no signal or flickering issues on your display! You will never run into a compatibility issue again when you’re trying to connect multiple monitors via HDMI!
Now that we’ve gotten the basics down of how to use HDMI splitters, let’s get into some reasons why daisy-chaining monitors is a good idea in the first place.
Daisy-chaining monitors provide you with more free space on your desk and a more efficient way of working. You can line up all your screens for continuous work or simply create a more organized workspace by arranging your monitors accordingly.
When you’re not using some of your screens, just turn them off and save energy! You can also make a cool-looking setup for your room with a lot of screens if that’s what you’re going into this for!
Overall, using a sender, a receiver and an HDMI splitter is the best way to avoid technical setbacks with daisy chaining monitors. Also, there is no worry about running a cable from one device to another because the HDMI splitters are cheap and easy to acquire.
This way, you can enjoy your room designed with multiple screens without any stress about compatibility issues or having to repeatedly move your monitors around!
Typically in an extension system, you’ll need to use an HDMI splitter. An HDMI splitter is when you connect all of your monitors to a sender at one end, then there’s an additional cable that goes from the other side into a single input on your receiver or display TV.
There are multiple reasons why this doesn’t work very well. If the cables are not long, you can make them longer by using a device called a “splitter”. This enables you to distribute video to more than one display at a time.
There are two ways to connect the daisy-chain HD system: either using the DVI interface or HDMI interface.
The main difference in these is that in daisy-chaining HD system, each display needs to have its own video card in order to work. The problem with this is that when you are connecting between two screens, they both need to be on the same settings for it to work properly.
In the setup, the first of gadget selection for your daisy chain monitors should be one that allows you to distribute video in daisy-chain mode going from one display to the next seamlessly without any issues.
When you connect the devices directly to the sender, they will recognize one another and communicate with each other without any problems such as no signal or flickering issues on your display!
You will never run into a compatibility issue again when you’re trying to connect multiple monitors via HDMI using this daisy chain monitor setup system!
Now in the other topology, I have just outlined, you will be taking advantage of that second cat5 output in the splitter enabling anyone to branch out to up to 100 displays or more! You can even set up a video wall or multiple video walls by daisy-chaining the monitors thanks to the splitter.
For head tracking, you need to have your mouse centered on your monitor. If your monitor is larger than 1080p resolution then it’s possible that you may see some slight diagonal clipping in games or web browsers.
If you decide to go down using this system to daisy chain your gaming rig or whatever media you are putting up, here’s the breakdown of what you will need as this system it’s very simple as it only consists of a good sender which has an HDMI input.
From there, it’s going to add a cat5 output and then you’re going to add another HDMI cable and output that to your receiver and then connect the monitor directly into that.
Adding an HDMI Splitter: Now the splitter is going to look like an overkill here, but if you choose to add it as recommended, it will be able to accept that cat5 output as well as the receiver and you can branch it and daisy chain and connect your monitors to the splitter as well so that way you’re going to be able to eliminate those issues.
Now for long cables, any HDMI v1.4c compliant cable will work including shielded cat5e or cat6 cables. There’s many different styles of adapters that allow you to connect the input of your video card to your monitor or I should say, there are multiple ways of accomplishing this.
Some people will use adapters that have an HDMI output interface and then they’ll put another adapter on top of it with a DVI-D interface which is designed for monitors.
If you’re using desktop application, you can just have one display with the computer itself. If you’re using a laptop, you can do that as well or if you decide to go with multiple monitors that are different sizes then they need to be the same aspect ratio for this to work properly.
If they are not compatible at all, your system will recognize it’s there but it won’t display anything because the aspect ratio is different so you need to have all your monitors which are being used are same.
Now let’s say you have two 16:10 monitors, well one of them has 1920 x 1200 resolution and the other one only goes up to 1600 x 1200. Well if your game supports widescreen then you should be fine. But if it doesn’t, then you’re going to get a black bar on the left and right side.
If your monitors are different sizes then they both need to be either 16:9 or 4:3 aspect ratios. If you have a monitor that goes up to 1366 x 768 resolution and another one that has a 1920 x 1080 resolution then it will work fine.
Now if you have a TV that has the ARC feature, this is going to depend on what your video card or graphic card supports as some of them will support HDCP revision 1.4, others are only supporting previous revisions which are 1.2a and lower.
Now when a good old HDMI splitter is used, the difference is that the splitter is actually going to have two cat5 outputs that will then be fed into either a receiver or another splitter.
What makes the system even more versatile is the fact that you have IR and rs-232 control features that are available.
One of the great benefits is that it’s also portable if you decide to take it with you somewhere then rather than using all these wires, you can just use one wire and connect to the HDMI splitter which has multiple outputs, daisy chain your receivers through to your displays and there’s your display system!
On the rs-232 there’s a broadcast mode in which you can actually go in and change the pixel clock, the inversion and that will allow you to do is connect your graphic card or video card directly into an rs-232 to DVI converter if it’s available.
Now if it doesn’t support HDCP revision 1.4 then we recommend adding multiple receivers or getting a splitter with cat5 output.
Now if you want to add a video card, we recommend going with the latest version which is 1.4c or above and the reason for that is because it’s going to be able to carry audio and other features such as Ethernet and Ethernet data through HDMI so there’s no need for multiple cables.
The problem with latency and ways of eliminating latency with daisy chaining monitors is you don’t have to worry about anything, there’s no need for external power source or any additional cabling.
Now when it comes to resolution, not all graphic cards are created equal and not all high definition televisions are either. It doesn’t matter if the monitor supports 1080p because what matters is whether or not it can accept 1080p or if it’s limited to 720p or if it’s only 480i.
It’s a good idea, in this case, to go to either the website of your graphic card if it’s an Nvidia or AMD and then you will see under the support section all the resolutions that it supports.
Now for laptops, we recommend going with duplicate or extended displays. Duplicate means that whatever is on your laptop screen will be duplicated at another display so basically what this does is saves you from having to scroll around.
Extended displays means that you can have different windows and programs running at the same time so it’s good for multitasking where you can open up a Word document and an Outlook email and still be able to see both on the laptop as well as your mega display.
The real benefit to having multiple displays in your setup is not just that they increase your productivity but also games look a lot better on multiple screens. If you invest in this new technology and want some cool ideas on how to arrange monitors, we have an article below outlining the best way to set it up.
Now if you want to bundle your monitors, there are two different kinds of video cards that are available. Ones that have the ability to run 3 displays and ones that can do 4. If you’re trying this for the first time then we recommend limiting yourself to 2 monitors at one go but if you already have a 4 monitor setup then go ahead and add a third.
There’s also a wide variety of active or passive type display hubs that will allow you to daisy chain multiple monitors so if your video card doesn’t support enough outputs, you want to reduce the number of cables going from one monitor to another…there are different ways for doing this!
Conclusion.
Overall, daisy chaining is a great solution for an arena, a large venue, digital signage, or the hospitality industry. In fact, there are so many applications and really the simplicity of the system makes this one of the easiest and most cost-effective solutions available today for anyone looking to daisy-chaining as their answer.
