[SOLVED] Friend wants to split laptop's feed into two separate monitors using an HDMI splitter. They used an HDMI splitter to no avail. What now?

[Kawaii Penguin]

This is going to be unfortunately vague, because this friend is trying to do it on a company-computer and my access is limited.

The computer is (presumably) Windows 10. They want to split the feed into two monitors because their laptop is rather small, resolution wise.

They tried to use a standard HDMI splitter (1x HDMI male to 2x HDMI female), but they said that the monitors don't even show up in the display settings.

I've seen powered splitters, will I need to use one of those?
Or, is there a setting that I can tell them to tweak in order to set up the monitors properly?

Ideally, I'd want to extend the display to the two monitors, not have identical copies on both monitors.

 

[kanewolf]

This is going to be unfortunately vague, because this friend is trying to do it on a company-computer and my access is limited.

The computer is (presumably) Windows 10. They want to split the feed into two monitors because their laptop is rather small, resolution wise.

They tried to use a standard HDMI splitter (1x HDMI male to 2x HDMI female), but they said that the monitors don't even show up in the display settings.

I've seen powered splitters, will I need to use one of those?
Or, is there a setting that I can tell them to tweak in order to set up the monitors properly?

Ideally, I'd want to extend the display to the two monitors, not have identical copies on both monitors.

You can't split HDMI into two independent displays. An HDMI splitter will create two copies of the same display.
Displayport supports multiple independent displays, but not HDMI.

 

[Kawaii Penguin]

You can't split HDMI into two independent displays. An HDMI splitter will create two copies of the same display.
Displayport supports multiple independent displays, but not HDMI.

Ah, I see. I heard so many mixed ideas online it was hard to tell what was true.