4 ms·

There was an article here on hn like a week ago. Apparently a lot of manufacturers ship monitors with identical serial numbers, so the os can’t identify them.

by geon 2y ago

jstsch 2y ago
This is indeed the main problem. If you have two screens of the same model, the OS is unable to see which is which. This also goes for many USB devices (such as webcams that randomly swap).
- lordnacho 2y ago
  Ok but then it could at least say "there is a screen plugged into port 1, and the same serial in port 2, so I'll draw the things that were on port 1 there again"? That way it would be up to the user to plug the same screen into the same port, which I think I could handle. Plus I can see the serials are actually different, so just going by serials should work. Or it should just tell you "hey buddy, you've got two screens with the same serial and that's why I don't know what to do"
  - jstsch 2y ago
    Agreed. In my case with a 15" MBP M1 Max and two LG UltraFine 5K's, which I always plug in the same ports, 99% of the time it remembers which display is which correctly. On my 2018 Intel, this was hit and miss. It's obviously not a trivial problem to solve...
  - itsoktocry 2y ago
    >Ok but then it could at least say "there is a screen plugged into port 1, and the same serial in port 2, so I'll draw the things that were on port 1 there again"? Yes, this is the strange thing. It's not like it's guessing which monitor is which, it's always swapped.
noname120 2y ago
Well, BetterDisplay manages that just fine: https://cloud.paul.garden/s/eipiTJpKESPHZ6Q https://cloud.paul.garden/s/eipiTJpKESPHZ6Q
- rob74 2y ago
  Yeah, third party software will do that, Apple will probably just shrug and say, "it works with Apple displays".
  - OJFord 2y ago
    Just like the touchpad and mouse 'scroll direction' setting being tied together. It makes sense for Apple mice/external trackpad (which all have a touch surface), so sod the 100% of other far more prevalent mice that use a scroll wheel, for which 'natural scroll' is absurdly unnatural (but disable it, and lose it on the built-in trackpad too).
    - Toutouxc 2y ago
      > scroll wheel, for which 'natural scroll' is absurdly unnatural IMO there is no objective reason why turning a plastic wheel towards or away from the screen should be the natural choice for scrolling down a webpage. It's just something that some people are used to. My head sees scrolling on a touchpad, the Magic Mouse and a wheeled mouse as the same thing — and I even set my Windows gaming machine so that the mouse scrolls "naturally" like my Mac.
      - OJFord 2y ago
        Fair enough, but it is a different interface to touch, and it even has a separate (duplicated) home in settings. There's no good reason for it to be the same toggle. (To me, the scroll wheel is reflecting the scroll bar on-screen, so I'm pushing it up or pulling it down. A touch area more naturally resembles the rest of the page/window, so I'm on board with 'natural scroll' - I'm pushing the page up or pulling it down.)
      - 2y ago
conradfr 2y ago
In my case in does that with the (left) external monitor and the (right) MacBook one, while the central one (another external monitor) is fine...

There was an article here on hn like a week ago. Apparently a lot of manufacturers ship monitors with identical serial numbers, so the os can’t identify them.

by geon 2y ago

There was an article here on hn like a week ago. Apparently a lot of manufacturers ship monitors with identical serial numbers, so the os can’t identify them.

jstsch 2y ago

This is indeed the main problem. If you have two screens of the same model, the OS is unable to see which is which. This also goes for many USB devices (such as webcams that randomly swap).

lordnacho 2y ago
Ok but then it could at least say "there is a screen plugged into port 1, and the same serial in port 2, so I'll draw the things that were on port 1 there again"? That way it would be up to the user to plug the same screen into the same port, which I think I could handle. Plus I can see the serials are actually different, so just going by serials should work. Or it should just tell you "hey buddy, you've got two screens with the same serial and that's why I don't know what to do"
- jstsch 2y ago
  Agreed. In my case with a 15" MBP M1 Max and two LG UltraFine 5K's, which I always plug in the same ports, 99% of the time it remembers which display is which correctly. On my 2018 Intel, this was hit and miss. It's obviously not a trivial problem to solve...
- itsoktocry 2y ago
  >Ok but then it could at least say "there is a screen plugged into port 1, and the same serial in port 2, so I'll draw the things that were on port 1 there again"? Yes, this is the strange thing. It's not like it's guessing which monitor is which, it's always swapped.

noname120 2y ago

Well, BetterDisplay manages that just fine: https://cloud.paul.garden/s/eipiTJpKESPHZ6Q https://cloud.paul.garden/s/eipiTJpKESPHZ6Q

rob74 2y ago
Yeah, third party software will do that, Apple will probably just shrug and say, "it works with Apple displays".
- OJFord 2y ago
  Just like the touchpad and mouse 'scroll direction' setting being tied together. It makes sense for Apple mice/external trackpad (which all have a touch surface), so sod the 100% of other far more prevalent mice that use a scroll wheel, for which 'natural scroll' is absurdly unnatural (but disable it, and lose it on the built-in trackpad too).
  - Toutouxc 2y ago
    > scroll wheel, for which 'natural scroll' is absurdly unnatural IMO there is no objective reason why turning a plastic wheel towards or away from the screen should be the natural choice for scrolling down a webpage. It's just something that some people are used to. My head sees scrolling on a touchpad, the Magic Mouse and a wheeled mouse as the same thing — and I even set my Windows gaming machine so that the mouse scrolls "naturally" like my Mac.
    - OJFord 2y ago
      Fair enough, but it is a different interface to touch, and it even has a separate (duplicated) home in settings. There's no good reason for it to be the same toggle. (To me, the scroll wheel is reflecting the scroll bar on-screen, so I'm pushing it up or pulling it down. A touch area more naturally resembles the rest of the page/window, so I'm on board with 'natural scroll' - I'm pushing the page up or pulling it down.)
    - 2y ago

conradfr 2y ago

In my case in does that with the (left) external monitor and the (right) MacBook one, while the central one (another external monitor) is fine...