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Signal & Distro Troubleshooting

Matrixes or Passthroughs aren't Persisting or Recognizing

Headless passthroughs aren’t consistently recognized by MAC OS on M1s using USB-C to HDMI adapters. This is only true of certain adapters (passive ones).

I suspect this has something to do with active vs passive adapters. Unfortunately, none of the above tell you one way or the other in their product pages. I suspect this would be a problem on WINDOWS too, but I always use P or A cards where I’ve got EDID management, and it’s display port so it doesn’t matter.

All of these adapters support 4k60, so if you don’t have EDID requirements or persist requirements, then this doesn’t matter.

Persist Displays Apple Silicon

On M1 Studios, if you want video to persist and you’ve the same devices plugged in to multiple ports, you shouldn’t reorder or rearrange the displays (in sys prefs). From right (close to HDMI native port) to left, it will automatically order the ports. EDII0216(1) will always be far right, and EDII0216(2) will be just to the left. If you reassign these in sys prefs, it will not persist after a restart. This is old style and I suspect an OS bug.

Missing Windows

Plugged into a monitor on a PC and can’t find your windows? If you’re connected to the internet and the computer has a VNC client installed, then just use that.

Otherwise:

  • Windows-Shift-Left or RIght Arrow
  • Alt+Enter for fullscreen