Pipeline & vision
Why we build Encore, and what we are building next.
Why we do this
An Intel iMac has one of the best screens ever put on a desk. The computer behind it is what got old: macOS stopped updating it, apps stopped supporting it, and it slowed down. The screen did not.
Apple's Target Display Mode used to turn an iMac into a monitor, but it ended with the 2014 models and never worked on a Retina 5K iMac. So a lot of good screens now sit in attics, offices and school storerooms, or end up as e-waste.
Encore gives that screen a second life next to your new Mac. No new hardware, nothing to throw away. Free while we finish it, because the more iMacs get a second life, the better.
The pipeline
What we are working on now, in this order. Encore updates itself, so every step reaches your Mac and iMac on its own.
In progress
More iMacs, more Macs
We are widening compatibility: more iMac models and older versions of OS X, and other Macs as a second screen too.
The goal: if it is an Intel Mac with a working screen, Encore should bring it back.
In progress
A sharper picture
Text should look as crisp as on a real monitor. On a cable, Encore sends the screen without any loss: every pixel and every colour exactly as on your Mac.
Over Wi‑Fi too, since this release: every change that fits goes out pixel‑exact in the frame it happens (typing, menus, small windows); what does not fit rides the video and comes back exact within a third of a second once the screen stops.
In progress
Ultra: pixel‑exact while things move
Your Mac has a hardware engine for ProRes, the video format film studios use. Encore is learning to send the screen as ProRes 4444: full colour, no compression artefacts, in motion. Scrolling a page of coloured text looks exactly like the original, not only after it stops.
It costs a lot of data (about 650 Mbit/s at 1080p), so Ultra is for a Gigabit cable on a 1080p iMac, or Thunderbolt and faster for larger screens. Ultra is sharper, not faster: the iMac decodes it on its own processor, and we show the measured delay per iMac model before we recommend it.
In progress
Direct: Mac to iMac, no router
A peer‑to‑peer Wi‑Fi link straight between your Mac and the iMac, the way AirDrop connects. Nothing to set up, and it works where there is no shared network: a client's office, a train, a holiday house.
We build it behind a switch first and measure it on a desk against the router and the cable; the connection type you see on the card will always be the one that measured best.
Research
As good as a monitor: the last milliseconds
A monitor on a cable shows a frame about 18 ms after the graphics chip finished it. Encore over a cable sits at about 25 ms, a design target until we publish measurements per iMac model. The difference is not the wire: it is capturing the screen, encoding it, and waiting for the iMac's own refresh.
We are closing that gap with our own technology: timing each frame to land just before the iMac refreshes, a codec made for desktop content instead of film, and capturing one refresh earlier. We measure it the honest way, glass to glass with a camera, and publish the numbers per iMac model here.
Coming next
Encore USB: for an iMac that no longer starts
Some iMacs no longer start macOS at all: a dead hard drive, a broken update, a forgotten password. Their screen still works fine.
Put the Encore USB stick in, hold the Option key at the start-up chime and pick Encore. The iMac starts straight from the stick and becomes a full monitor for your Mac, 100%. No macOS needed and nothing to set up. If you like, you can install it on the iMac itself so it starts as a monitor every time.
High quality needs a fast connection
For the sharpest picture, Encore sends your screen without any loss over a cable. That takes at least 400 Mbit/s between your Mac and the iMac: Gigabit Ethernet or Thunderbolt, not Wi-Fi and not a 10/100 adapter.