Pi 4 HDMI woes

[Schmuppes]

@ohmycommodore Which HDMI port on the Pi 4 are you using? I've had this before when I thought I could use whichever of the two and got no signal whatsoever. Then I learned that apparently if you're using just one HDMI output, it needs to be the one next to the USB-C port.

[mitu]

@Schmuppes said in Pi 4 HDMI woes:

Then I learned that apparently if you're using just one HDMI output, it needs to be the one next to the USB-C port.

Either port should work fine, there are no constraints when using a single HDMI output.

[ohmycommodore]

Not much more that I can try here.

I have a small 7 inch HDMI screen that was originally part of my kids Kano system. That works fine with the Pi 4, just like the TCL TV I've mentioned. I expected that. My wife has a large TCL at her office that I'd expect to work. Probably not worth the drive for that.

I tried Sony once more with a variety of things like hdmi_force_hotplug=1, monitor mode (hdmi_group=2 hdmi_mode=82) instead of TV mode (hdmi_group=1 hdmi_mode=16), and framebuffer_priority=7 to force the second HDMI port. As well I turned config_hdmi_boost way up to 9 and even 11. None of this fixes the issue.

So I'm still stumped. It must be a Sony thing, but I can't isolate what exactly. The two Sonys I have are about 5-6 years apart, so I'd assume some difference there, but that's not enough for me to get a whiff on one over the other, so I'm probably done shuffling between the two as I keep experimenting.

That said... the newer Sony is a 4K model so I suppose I could look at targeting that in the config. I'd expect a big fat nothing though the way this is trending.

[Loki688]

I had a similar fight with my LG, after much frustration I traced it back to 4K detection that caused a lot of problems. Forcing the Pi to output 1080p solved all my problems.

In my (!) case I had to add /boot/config.txt:

hdmi_group=2
hdmi_mode=82

[ohmycommodore]

@Loki688 Yeah I was wondering if trying that "monitor" mode would work. I had tried it earlier today with no luck.

[Loki688]

@ohmycommodore I'm not sure where I got my values (to long ago), but I do know that other people used other values...

[Loki688]

Based on your "tvservice" output, have you tried ?

hdmi_group=1
hdmi_mode=16

[ohmycommodore]

@Loki688 Yes, one of the first things I did.

[Loki688]

Ah, after some googling, I found the table I used, my tvservice output was not helping me either:

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/9781119415572.app3

[bob1961]

@Loki688 just scanning through this thread. Not sure this will help, but I ran into a similar issue and it was driving me nuts. The problem I found is the pi itself won't let the mini hdmi cable seat completely in the socket. Shaved a bit of cable boot on the connector side with an x-acto knife so it could seat properly and haven't had an issue since.

[ohmycommodore]

@bob1961 It works fine on another TV though, a small, cheap TCL. And then I had it working on a small 7 inch HDMI screen too. So I'm not sure any literal hacking will work here. And the inputs on the Sonys work for other devices.

[ohmycommodore]

But nuts is pretty much where my head is at on this, yeah.