My a 13-inch macbook pro with retina display (macOS Catalina 10.15.6) was purchased March 2020, and with it I use an LG Ultrafine external monitor, alias "display". Both the macbook pro and the monitor have cameras. When I use QuickTime to record a video, the camera on the retina display is the input source. How can I get the computer to use the external monitor's camera instead? In Preferences, Sound, I can specify the input source for sound, but have found nothing analogous for video. As a result, if I participate in a videoconference, looking at the big screen, the camera will always have me in profile instead of facing the camera, because the laptop sits to the side. There has to be a way to change this.
Mac – how can I instruct the macbook pro to use the camera on the external monitor
displayinputmacbookvideo
Related Solutions
Assuming your "LG Electronics Ultrafine 27-inch external monitor" is the 27MD5KL 5K display that Apple co-developed with LG and resells through the online Apple store, then it's important to note a few things:
- That display needs to be connected directly to an actual Thunderbolt 3 port, not just any USB Type-C port. Some of the external USB hubs/docks/port-replicators you mentioned are NOT Thunderbolt 3 devices, they're just USB 3.x over USB Type-C. So they are incapable of passing the Thunderbolt 3 signals that your display requires, as you've already found.
- That display has a built-in 85W charger, which is plenty for your 13" MBP. Stop using your Apple charger at your desk; just plug your MBP into your display's Thunderbolt 3 cable and your display will charge your MBP. This leaves a Thunderbolt 3 capable USB Type-C port free on your MBP.
- That display has 3 downstream USB Type-C ports that do 5 Gbps USB 3.x gen 1 "SuperSpeed". If you have any USB peripherals that need 5Gbps or less, you should plug them into those ports. You can get cheap passive Type-C to Type-A adapters, or you could plug in a USB hub or one of your existing docks/port-replicators that you already mentioned. By putting your USB peripherals downstream of your display, you end up with just a single cable to plug into your MBP when you set it down at your desk.
If you have a peripheral that needs more than 5Gbps, it will have to connect via your MBP's second Thunderbolt 3 port, which is now free since you won't be using it for charging any more.
- If your peripherals that need more than 5Gbps only need 10 Gbps USB 3.x gen 2 (SuperSpeed+) speeds, and you have more than one such peripheral, you could plug in a 10Gbps-capable USB 3.x hub.
- If your peripherals that need more than 5Gbps need Thunderbolt (30-40Gbps) speeds or features, then you'll either have to connect them directly to the MBP's spare Thunderbolt 3 port, or you'll have to get some kind of Thunderbolt 3 dock that contains pass-through Thunderbolt 3 ports, not just USB ports. Note that a true Thunderbolt 3 dock must be connected to a true Thunderbolt 3 port. So you wouldn't be able to connect it to one of the downstream USB Type-C ports on the back of the LG 27MD5KL, because those three ports are not Thunderbolt 3; they're only 5Gbps USB 3.x gen 1 SuperSpeed over a USB Type-C connector.
Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are slow in comparison and thus are terrible choices for the kinds of high-bandwidth mass storage and video peripherals you've been talking about. It's hard to make Wi-Fi reach even 1Gbps, and it's usually a lot more like USB 2.0's ~480Mbps. Bluetooth is way worse; it's only good for 1-2 Mbps, limiting it to audio devices like headsets and speakers, and low-bandwidth input devices like mice and keyboards.
Best Answer
Thank you @Tetsujin, you solved the problem. To restate your solution using more words: Click on the "Movie Recording" window of QuickTime. Notice the "v" to the right of the red "record" button. Click the "v" and then there is a pulldown menu with three subdivisions: Camera, Microphone, and Quality.