When you are about to buy a new monitor or any other type of screen, you will notice that in many models the manufacturer indicates that it is compatible with PbP technology , but probably these acronyms do not tell you much if you have not previously informed yourself or have searched when reading it; In fact, it is possible that your monitor has it and that you do not use it because you do not even know what it is for, so in this article we are going to explain what PbP technology in monitors consists of and why you may be interested in taking advantage of its advantages .
There are many technical characteristics that monitors have, and when choosing a new device it is quite likely that this technology will go unnoticed in favor of other parameters such as size, resolution or whether or not it is compatible with HDR. However, as we are going to tell you below, PBP technology can be very interesting and above all very useful for certain users, so let’s get into the matter to see if you are one of them.
What is PbP (Picture by Picture) technology
PbP stands for Picture by Picture, or translated into Spanish ” picture by picture “. Its name is probably not very descriptive, but its meaning is that it allows you to use a single monitor with two different video sources and simultaneously. How? Breaking the screen in two, right in half. Obviously, all PbP-compatible monitors must necessarily have several video inputs, and you should know that this is a fairly common option on ultra-wide monitors but not so much on normal widescreen displays.
So, in essence, this technology allows you to connect two different video sources (which can be, for example, two different PCs, a PC and a console, a PC and a smartphone, etc., but never the same PC) to the same monitor. and see both in split screen mode, in the purest style of the “multiplayer” games of the consoles of yesteryear.
As a general rule, if a monitor is compatible with PbP technology, it will be configurable. In this way, when you have two video sources connected to the same monitor, you can use the input selection button to switch from one image to another or you can configure, in the monitor’s OSD menu, if you want to enable PbP. Unlike PiP, it has no possible configuration in terms of position or size, since PbP as a rule always consists of splitting the screen in half.
What do you need to make it work? And what about the audio?
For PbP technology to work you obviously need a monitor that is compatible, and as we mentioned before most ultra-wide ones support it but only a handful of high-end widescreen (16: 9) models have this functionality. The second thing you need are two different video sources, since as we have said before you cannot connect the two video inputs of the same equipment (for example, using the HDMI and a DisplayPort of the graphics card of your PC) since the system would detect it as one.
What does allow you to configure the PBP mode in most cases is its aspect ratio. As we have seen in the first image of this article, the image may be stunted because, for example, you are compressing a 16: 9 signal in a 4: 3 space, so with this option you can select how you want it to look so that the result is optimal.
As for the audio, since PbP technology is only compatible with interfaces (essentially, HDMI and DisplayPort) that also carry audio, it is generally selectable in the monitor’s own OSD, and you will be able to select (if the monitor has speakers, of course) of which video source you want the sound to be taken. In any case, it is not possible to have the audio from the two sources simultaneously the same as with PiP.
What do you want to use this technology for?
As we mentioned at the beginning, this is a technology that tends to go unnoticed but that can actually be very useful for many people, especially for those who have ultra-wide monitors since they have additional width. PbP technology can be used for many things, such as:
- See the mobile image on the screen while using the PC.
- Have two PCs connected to the same screen.
- Have a PC and a console on the same monitor at the same time.
- View a recording from a camera while using your PC.
The possibilities are really great since you can really connect any video source that you can think of, always taking into account the conditions that we have listed in the previous section.