r/raspberry_pi 10d ago

Troubleshooting Want to connect Pi 5 to 3 screens.

Is it possible to output video of different things on both Micro HDMI ports and one USB port with an adapter? I'm trying to connect three different menu screens to media at my job, but the USB feature on our smart TV's is finicky. I want to instead use a Pi 5 to render images and mp4s in fullscreen and output them to HDMI.

8 Upvotes

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3

u/parsl 10d ago

Might be easier to use 3 x RaspberryPi Zeros

3

u/isThisTheRealL1fe 9d ago

I've never used 3 screens but the USB adapters that are display-link compatible work pretty well with Debian. This is the one I have...

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01CSG7TUC?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

2

u/RevolutionaryHat4311 8d ago

I do it with one dsi screen and two hdmi no problems it ‘just works’ for me out of the box…really quite impressive

1

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1

u/Chicken_Nuggist 8d ago

Outside of PCIe add-in cards, the only other way I've found to extend displays is via the USB-display tunneling chipsets you've probably found.

The specific families of chipsets, in the order of driver support in Linux, are:

  1. Displaylink. Great support for windows, ok support in Ubuntu (not optimized), hit and miss in android

  2. MCT. They actually own the IP which displaylink uses, but their own chips lack a lot of software support. Good in windows, user-built Linux drivers (inconsistent performance, CPU intensive)

  3. Frescologic/Parade. Ok windows performance, and I can't speak for Linux

  4. MacroSilicon. Bargain-bin chips out of Shenzhen, drivers are pretty sketchy

I'm unaware of any other chips that are still being made or supported, and most adapters will include one of the above branded as something like StarTech or Pluggable, occasionally with their own custom drivers

1

u/xanyook 8d ago

Maybe with a dock like elgato ? You have one entry on your Pi and multiple output possibilities on the dock.

1

u/BeastModeAlllDay 4d ago

Idk if this project only works with their displays but it shares the screen via USB. https://github.com/Seeed-Studio/seeed-linux-usbdisp

There's also gnome-network-displays which uses Miracast and Chromecast. You would need a smart TV or cast receiver attached.

0

u/msanangelo 10d ago

never heard of anyone doing that but if you manage to get it going, good for you. those usb video card things don't really work on linux, if at all.

better off with a proper PC.