Display Setup

DongleControl supports multiple display outputs so your team sees exactly what they need.

DC Render — The Display Engine

On macOS, DongleControl uses a companion app called DC Render to power all display output. DC Render is a GPU-accelerated rendering engine that handles your projector window, confidence monitor, and NDI streams. It launches automatically when you start DongleControl — you don’t need to open or configure it separately.

DC Render runs as a separate process, which means if anything goes wrong with the display output, your control window stays up and DC Render restarts itself automatically. No interruption to your service.

On Windows and Linux, DongleControl uses built-in rendering as a fallback (no NDI support yet on these platforms).

Projector (Primary Display)

The main projector output shows what your congregation sees. It runs fullscreen on your connected projector or external display.

Auto-Detection

DongleControl automatically detects connected displays. When you plug in a projector or external monitor, it will appear as an available output in Settings > Displays.

Manual Assignment

If auto-detection doesn’t pick the right display:

  1. Open Settings (gear icon)
  2. Go to Displays
  3. Select which display should be the projector output
  4. The projector window moves to the selected display

The projector window is always fullscreen — no title bar, no controls, no chrome. Just your content.

Confidence Monitor (Secondary Display)

The confidence monitor is a stage-side display that helps your operator or speaker know what’s currently showing and what’s coming next.

It displays:

  • Current slide — large, readable view of what’s live
  • Next slide — preview of the upcoming content
  • Service timer — elapsed time and current clock
  • Stage notes — custom cues per slide

Setting Up

  1. Connect a second external display (in addition to your projector)
  2. In Settings > Displays, assign it as the confidence monitor
  3. The confidence view appears automatically

NDI Output (macOS only)

DongleControl can send your projector output as an NDI stream over your local network. NDI is currently available on macOS only — Linux support is in progress, and Windows is under consideration.

This is useful for:

  • Live streaming: Feed your projection directly to OBS, vMix, or any NDI-compatible software
  • Overflow rooms: Display on screens in other rooms without running cables
  • Recording: Capture the projection feed for archives

To enable NDI, go to Settings > NDI and toggle it on. Once enabled, the streams appear on your network as:

  • DongleControl - Projector — main projection output
  • DongleControl - Confidence — confidence monitor feed

Any NDI receiver on the same network can pick up these streams.

Troubleshooting Displays

Projector not detected?

  • Check that the cable is connected and the projector is powered on
  • Try toggling the display in your OS settings (System Preferences on macOS, Display Settings on Windows)
  • Restart DongleControl after connecting the display

NDI not showing up?

  • Ensure both devices are on the same network subnet
  • Check your firewall isn’t blocking NDI traffic (port 5353 for mDNS discovery)
  • See the NDI Receiver Troubleshooting guide