Pi 4 HDMI woes

mitu

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.