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Can I use MacBook Pro as a display for AppleTV? I'm often traveling and I don't have always external monitor for testing tvOS apps on the device.

Thanks, Milos

PS. I can connect AppleTV with MBP using USB cable, open QuickTime player - movie recording and I will have MBP as a display. Problem is that AppleTV stopped working as soon as I unplugged HDMI cable from monitor or device. I tried with the turned off the monitor and it also works, so I need a way to fake it AppleTV that there is a monitor/tv.

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2 Answers 2

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Unfortunately you can't put a MacBook into Target Display Mode like an iMac, so short of disassembling your MacBook to wire the internal Display Port the monitor uses to one of the external ones (assuming your Mac has one) there doesn't appear to be a way.

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I found a solution. We simply need to connect our Apple TV device to our MacBook using USB cable, open a QuickTime player and choose New Movie Recording. Then we need to choose Apple TV as a camera and microphone source. Because Apple TV uses HDMI Hot-Plug-Detect feature that makes the source device aware that it has been connected/disconnected to/from the screen we need to use HDMI dummy plug (Display Emulator) that will emulate a monitor connected to the device. It cost only a few dollars and it can be very easy ordered from online gear markets. That's all. Work like a charm.

To summarize steps:

  1. Connect Apple TV to MacBook using USB cable
  2. Insert HDMI dummy plug to Apple TV
  3. Open QuickTime player - New movie recording
  4. Choose Apple TV as a camera and microphone source
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