u/coldbeers

Bought an M4 MBA last year and an M5 MBA for my wife a few weeks ago.

I was researching external monitors and planning to sell my old iMac, I re-installed it ready to sell (which was a pain btw, the Ventura online install kept failing). Then I remembered this thing has a very good 5k pannel, only 60hz but I don't game on it and great colour and resolution, it'd make an ideal, for me external monitor.

But, Apple don't support target display mode on it so searched for other solutions, here's what I found.

[Lunar Display](https://astropad.com/product/lunadisplay/) \- this was the first option I found and it apperently works well but at $100 I wondered if I could do it cheaper. Uses a proprietary cable which you buy from them.

[Retina Relay](https://www.retinarelay.com/) \- tried this one, works well, some awkwardness with display sleep and switching between Mac's, I think I would've needed a license for both MBA's so 2x $49. Uses a thunderbolt cable.

[Target Bridge](https://github.com/swellweb/targetBridge) \- what I'm currently using to type this, free, open source, connects via thunderbolt. Working really well once I figured out the sequence of plugging in, waiting a few secs for the bridge to come up before hitting connect. I found that the resolution kept dropping to low res mode each time a connected but [Better Display](https://betterdisplay.pro/) configuration protection fixes that, I may buy it for $20 which covers both MBA's or I may even have a crack at fixing it and sending the dev a Pull Request.

Overall I'm really happy, the iMac Screen connected to a new MBA feels like a premium experience.