Stream only a part of the desktop to an other screen (cropping)

[waydabber]

It might be useful to be able to stream a part of the screen to an other display or dummy.

The idea is somewhat related to #197 and #200.

See this discussion for the original request: #389

[waydabber]

I just looked into this one and it is working. An UI should be added though to define boundaries. It will be implemented in a future version.

[axrs]

It is a shame this was removed from 1.3.10 :( I was really looking forward to it.

Hopefully sometime soon!

[waydabber]

Yes, this is still on the radar of course. Partly done but did not make it into 1.3.10.

[waydabber]

[waydabber]

Note: the stream source area must be defined like this:

This might be rather cumbersome, so some additional methods will be provided:

• Draw the stream area (if screen is visible): Draw stream/PIP crop area on screen #1342
• Use keyboard shortcuts to change the stream area: Add keyboard shortcuts to change Streaming/PIP cropping settings #1341

[waydabber]

Note: the feature is renamed to cropping as it was somewhat cumbersome to refer to it as stream source area

[axrs]

Soo excited I can't wait :)

[waydabber]

Well, I can give a pre-pre-release build to try the feature as I don't know when will I post a release:

https://github.com/waydabber/BetterDisplay/releases/tag/v1.3.11-beta

UPDATE: I added this version as a standard pre-release download as it seems to work fine.

I found it's best to use the keyboard to adjust the crop area. You can add keyboard shortcuts like this:

[microadam]

Just been trialing this out, and its awesome! I have created a dummy that I am streaming a part of my ultrawide to and then in meetings I can share that dummy as a "whole screen" without having to move windows to my macbook screen!

[waydabber]

@microadam - nice use of the feature!

[axrs]

@waydabber This is awesome. Thank you!

I'm able to now stream just part of my ultrawide via Microsoft Teams and Slack to those with regular monitors and they don't have to squint.

Additionally:

• Screen recording soo much simpler as I can select just the display.
• The added benefit of picture in picture helps me see what I'm sharing.
• My custom Hammerspoon overlays are also visible. ^.^

[flightmansam]

@waydabber
I know this is already closed, so I am happy to move to a brand new Issue. I have a bit of a weird one! I would like to stream one virtual display to multiple physical displays. My use case is as follows: I have two identical 1920x1080p monitors arranged vertically (display 1 bottom edge touches display 2 top edge) and I have a virtual display 1920x2160 (double height). I would like to stream half of the virtual display (100% by 50%) to one display 1 (origin 0% by 0%) and then stream the other half to display 2 (origin 0% by 50%). Is there all the nuts and bolts available to do this?

I am basically trying to simulate a LG DualUp monitor hehe.

[0xdevalias]

@waydabber Is this feature only available to Pro users, or..? Looking for the menu items as shown in #390 (comment) but I can't see them.

And if it is, it would be nice if I could see all of the pro features in a 'disabled' way on the menu's/etc; as that way I know what i'm missing out on and am more likely to want to upgrade.

[waydabber]

Hi @0xdevalias , it is there and the item should be visible for non Pro users grayed out. If you are on trial then it should work. However the name of the feature was changed meanwhile to crop.

You can also define keyboard shortcuts, it's much easier to manage the crop area that way.

#390 (comment)

[0xdevalias]

it is there and the item should be visible for non Pro users grayed out

Not sure if I am just looking in the wrong area, but I'm still not seeing it?

V1.3.14 Build 12562)

[waydabber]

Yeah, for steaming you need at least two displays (to stream from the one to the other), or one display and one dummy. With one display only the menu does not appear. You can try PIP however with the same crop feature, you can force-enable it with one display here:

[0xdevalias]

@waydabber Ah, true. That makes sense. Enabling that settings showed the PIP menu, but seems I can't check it out without going pro (and my trial long since expired unfortunately :( ) Given I only really use the app for dimming my external monitor, it didn't seem worthwhile.. though this is a feature that could make it more interesting/worthwhile to!

Seems that also true for streaming a dummy: