For context, everyday I’m connecting my Fedora laptop to my TV using a Scart to Hdmi adaptor because the hdmi port of the TV is broken. Fedora enhanced the image quality significantly. I use Fedora 42 Workstation, I’m a new user (a bit less than 2 months into it).
My family actually wishes to gift me a newer and bigger tv. Since now the screens are bigger and the quality too, I wanna be sure I won’t encounter problems.
I have an hp pavilion 14 laptop that I bought in 2020 so I guess it supports recent hdmi quite well. Do I have a way to know the max resolution it supports, to choose the appropriate new TV ?
While I am certainly no expert,
I have a 65" LG TV that is 4k. I have an older system using an nvidia 3050 GPU and the latest nvidia drivers. When I connect to the TV the HDMI connection is at 4k 30Hz and I don’t know if the limitation is the cable, the TV, or the GPU with HDMI.
I know that some are able to achieve 4k @ 60 Hz. It seems the DP connections may achieve higher refresh rates, and some GPUs may support higher refresh as well.
Thus, I would say there are several factors that combine to determine what works best for you. If you want better than 4k @ 30 Hz it may be necessary to upgrade some other hardware as well.
I don’t really aim more than 4k tbh I think all that I use is lower quality than this. I am not using NVIDIA from what I am aware of, since I don’t encounter any of the issues that Nvidia users have.
I just wanna be sure to know what’s my laptop’s actual capabilities, and to choose my tv according to those, hoping it’s enough, if it’s still possible. Like that I won’t possibly encounter compatibility issues. But yeah, maybe it works the other way around
… Yeah, I actually wanna document myself on what to type/search in my settings to at least be aware of what my laptop can do but I don’t know where to search or what to type ? I’m sure there’s probably a grep command or something like lsblk but for ports, but as I’m very new to Linux idk what to type and other posts in the forum talked of other things so it wasn’t helpful for my simple case, since for me all is working and I just want display infos. If by chance someone could tell me, it’ll be way enough for now I guess.
I’m definitely not asking people to do homework for me, I’ll do it myself when I’ll get the good basic info, just to avoid buying something not compatible.
It’s best to lookup the specifications for the system at hp.com. Look for a users manual or maintenance manual for your specific system model.
I’d guess this might be a HDMI1.4 port that max supports 4K@30Hz.
THere is a good chance that a USB-C port has support for DP altmod (video DisplayPort),
A DP1.2 system can support 4K@60Hz if connected to a DP port. Some TV’s have DP video-in ports as well. Or you can use an active USB-C to HDMI adapter that supports HDMI2.0 with 4K@60Hz. It’s important that the adapter is active. A simple passive USB-C to HDMI adapter ( like a normal cable) is also limited to 4K@30Hz.
Damn. That’s actually such a basic idea but so relevant ! I’ll for sure do that, I feel silly not having thought of the total basics thanks reminding me. I’ll check for the usb c too then, since indeed there’s an usb c port too.
How can I know if it’s passive or active ?
According to this page, it’s a HDMI 1.4 port.
And the USB-C port is data only. No DP alt mode available.
So no chance to support 4K@60Hz with this system.
Wow you know where to search, the classic HP manual just said ‘1 hdmi port’ without any specifics/details so I was like ‘… Thank you I guess’ lol
So it’s most likely 1.4 as you found out. Does it mean it’s not supported if the TV is 2.0 or will it just play as is ?
Idk if the FPS is important as much since anyway I’m pretty sure my old TV didn’t do as much lol
Is it that saddening to have max 4k 30hz ? I’m not even sure I’d use more than full HD to be sincerely honest, it’s just that now many TVs propose 4k anyway
you can drive such TV with FHD@60Hz or 4K@30Hz.
30Hz is not nice to work with (desktop use) but for video it might be ok. It depends on what you want to do with the TV.
Okay ! Yeah it’s mostly to watch videos and play some switch games so I don’t peculiarly need a quick refresh rate or such. I can say so because I played on switch also on my old TV and I didn’t have any weird things happening, I guess my game resolution was not too demanding.
I guess I’d be more wary the day I’ll buy an external screen for my laptop, however. The info you gave me is definitely important.
As long as Hdmi 1.4 can be plugged into a 2.0 (or higher than 1.4 at least), I’m fine with it. I just want something functional, I don’t really mind not having access to 4K since anyway neither my old TV nor my laptop had access to this. The higher quality I’ve watched is Blu-ray.
I just wish to use my laptop as long as possible since it still works very well, and Fedora did it really good. As long as Full HD still works on nowadays screens, I’m alright lol
Nice to know ! I’m technically illiterate if it’s beyond everyday use so I definitely needed external help to figure this out. Seems it’s fine then, good.
I can’t deal with 30Hz on the mouse cursor and did slightly-blurry 1080p@60 instead
There’s pixel clock limits that might enforce something like 165Hz on HDMI (if it’s not detected to allow higher via HDMI 2.0 flag) and not allowing higher resolutions.
With CRU on Windows you can experiment with CVT-RB and Exact Reduced resolutions to see if you can lower the bandwidth requirement and force it, along with being able to know if it’s being limited hardware or driver-side more clearly (I notice the single-link HDMI limit easier from Windows/CRU whereas Linux doesn’t directly mention it but can be noticed from xrandr and Hz bandwidth).
I have Intel UHD 630 on a laptop that claims 4K@60Hz, but onboard HDMI is only 1.4. The claim is that it’s possible over DisplayPort, but I’ve also never seen that work (various hubs/cables).
I know it’s not HDMI bandwidth limits after experimentation, so I guess it’s something about HDMI coming off the USB-C docks not doing or supporting “something” in the DP-alt mode. I just don’t do 4K displays on this laptop
Thanks for your experience ! I don’t think I’ll ever use 4K anyway so as long as I have a good Full HD resolution I’m good to go
Honestly I’m not too picky with blurry stuff, I may not even notice it because I have bad eyes fortunately I have glasses but yeah I mean, as long as all the screen is fine, I don’t mind the mouse cursor that much.
I couldn’t deal with Windows anymore so I have a fully Fedora system. Which is actually really good for me and revived my laptop, so I’m not going back just for 4k that I don’t use lol
As long as I can plug my laptop to the TV and it works, I don’t have anything to complain for. It’s just not so well written online that 1.4 can be working on the TV while the tv is very potentially 2.0
thanks reminding me. I’ll check for the usb c too then, since indeed there’s an usb c port too.
