TerraMaster Forum

I am using a TD2 Thunderbolt 3 for my third feature project in a row right now (brand new hard disks and all). It's funny that it took me two years (and two other films) to discover that the thing has a "display port".

Normally, my monitor - a Dell Ultrasharp 4320Q - used to be connected to my MacBook Pro 16inch late 2019 (the one with the big GPU), via Thunderbolt (no, not USB-C, the Dell is a Thunderbolt 4K monitor).

I tried the connection with the TD2 right now and it works perfectly well via DP.

But.
There almost NO literature or advice about how to do this and what advantage it might bring to connect the TD2 instead of the Mac - or vice-versa. Therefore I thought to create this thread and ask you gurus here. Is there a better way for different scenarios? Does the TD2 come with its own graphics card, or does it simply "put through" the Mac's graphics capabilities?

Your insights and tips for all of us who do video editing and wonder how to professionally use the TD2's DP port will be very much appreciated.

My scenario for professional video editing is usually this:
- monitor: Dell Ultrasharp 4320Q, a 43inch native Thunderbolt monitor, has one Thunderbolt port, 2 DP ports, and 2 HDMI ports
- computer: MacBook Pro 16 inch, late 2019, with 32GB of RAM and the "big" AMD Radeon Pro 5500M GPU
- SSD (several Samsung TD5s and several additional hard disks)

- the TD2 is connected to the Mac via Thunderbolt 3. It contains the rushes (the raw video and audio files, all neatly sorted in folders)
- an SSD is also connected to the Mac via Thunderbolt 3. It contains the editing folder with the editing library. My EDL (Final Cut Pro X or in some instances AVID) links the raw files from the TD with the editing library (which is what all EDLs do).
- the monitor (the Dell) is connected to the Mac via Thunderbolt 3. Max resolution is slightly above 4K (nobody needs more than that )

Again, I would be very thankful if any of you guys here have some advice about this. There is almost no literature, neither here nor elsewhere, about how this should be done properly. What advantages does it bring to connect the TD2 to the monitor instead of the Mac? Does the TD2 come with its own graphics card, or does it simply "put through" the Mac's graphics capabilities

This feature allows you better perform your video editing works on multiple screens.

Hello @OutreMer - the TD2 does not contain any GPU so from the performance point of view there is no difference whether you connect your screen to the TD2 or your mac directly. The only two benefits of connecting your monitor to the TD2 are that you will get one thunderbolt port free on your mac (you can use it for other screens or other devices) and the fact that if you are connecting your MacBook you connect only 1 cable instead of 2. Your workflow makes sense by splitting the data. I am having a bigger box (D16) but using it in a similar way to yours.