Using a laptop with the Bigscreen Beyond is easy enough to do, but comes with some caveats. The Beyond needs to access a DisplayPort 1.4 signal capable of supporting Display Stream Compression (DSC).

This means you need a USB-C or miniDP port that's connected to the discrete graphics on the laptop above minimum specs (i.e RX 5700 XT, RTX 2060 or better), and not the integrated graphics from the CPU - laptops are inconsistent about this, so be careful when choosing a model!

• A miniDP to DP or USB-C to DP adapter will work with the Beyond.

• An HDMI to DP adapter will NOT work under any circumstances (it does not support the features we need)

Many laptops advertise their ability to output a DisplayPort signal through USB, but it won't work unless it's actually connecting to the discrete graphics on the laptop.

• Right click your desktop

• Click "configure surround, PhysX"

• Look at the little graph - it will show which ports are connected to which source on the GPU. Image example below:

  

• This comes up pretty rarely, and we're not quite sure of a reliable method to check - to be added at a later date!

Jarrod'sTech makes a great source for choosing a laptop - the videos always feature a marked sections on ports, and they will specify which ports can output a DP signal from the dedicated graphics. Example video: (see 3:41)

This is likely because...

• Your laptop does not have a graphics card capable of running the Beyond

• The port you've plugged it into does not connect to the dedicated GPU

• You're using an incompatible adapter, or an HDMI to DP adapter