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I have been asked to assist a friend who has a 2021 iMac without HDMI input to display an incoming video feed from a work laptop's HDMI output. I have a generic HDMI->USB adaptor that (on Windows & Linux) acts like a webcam and lets me see any incoming HDMI signal on the monitor. See below:

enter image description here

I've seen people on YouTube doing the same with Mac computers, but Ifound no explanation how this is actually done and what software is used.

Can any iMac owner point me to resources that help me do this on an Apple computer, and what software to use? In the YouTube videos they mentioned using QuickTime for it but I'm open to anything else that doesn't cost anything while we test is this is possible at all.

To clear up things: I am not looking to capture the image, just display the live image from the HDMI input with as little lag as possible.

Specific video capture cards like those from Elgado usually introduce a lag that's over a second which makes it unusualbe.

576i
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  • Thanks, no. The IMac I have to help with has no video input at all. The task is to accept a HDMI input (it would be acceptable to convert this to Thunderbolt but that still doesn't get a picture onto the iMac's screen) – 576i Aug 12 '23 at 17:54
  • No Mac has video input. That why you need the video capture device in the dupe (comes with software) or the device you linked to in your question. – Allan Aug 12 '23 at 18:06
  • @Allan thanks for the reply. The linked device does not come with any software and on Linux and Windows just shows up as a webcam. On windows I'd use the VLC player to display the input. If this is the same on a Mac, what kind of software should I use? There may be an obvious choice for Mac other than VLC – 576i Aug 12 '23 at 18:39
  • I've used Elgato and I can assure you it comes with capture software. VLC is a player (it's in the name). There are lots of video capture software out there from opensource like OBS, OpenShot, or paid stuff like Logic. This requires some rudimentary investigation on your part. – Allan Aug 12 '23 at 18:45
  • @Allan - thanks for trying to help. I did some rudimentary research before which alas is spammed by questions on how to connect a HDMI monitor to a Mac. Since I don't own an iMac and was asked to help out a Mac owner who knows nothing about computers I was looking for a specific, maybe obvious choice to do this. – 576i Aug 13 '23 at 07:24
  • Connecting a video source to a Mac is no different than it is with a PC. No matter how you slice it, you need a video capture device like the one linked. You can”t use an iMac As an external monitor. It wasn’t designed like that – Allan Aug 13 '23 at 13:31
  • See: https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/393198/119271 – Allan Aug 13 '23 at 13:35
  • @Allan, I have had a chance to connect the dongle and use quicktime and it worked with some serious problems using quicktime player: the bottom 15% of the screen was missing and the picture was washed out. (The iMac owner was ready to accept the bad picture) Also I needed to activate "record mode" so I had a nasty recording icon in the picture. The lag was less than a second, that's annoying but acceptable. I will now get a different, 4K capabable dongle and try again, if the picture get's a bit sharper then that's preferrable over having to throw away the imac to replace it with a monitor. – 576i Aug 13 '23 at 23:56
  • Also tried "photo booth" but that mirrors the screen and makes it unusuable. I have not found webcam settings that would allow me to select the resolution (and have no access to resolutions on the source, which is a locked down work PC running some strange linux) - so the search for an acceptable way to get HDMI input on a iMac continues. – 576i Aug 13 '23 at 23:58

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