Driving 4K Smartboard using Integrated graphics

[wordy00]

Hi All,

 

I'm in the process of buying new 4K SMART Boards for my school and was wondering what others have been using to drive them.

 

Teachers will be using a laptop with an i5 7200U/HD Graphics 620 chip. Official Intel documentation states that it supports 4K content over HDMI @ 30Hz. SMART documentation indicates you need a beefy (for school use) graphics card to run the boards without issues.

 

I always take SMART documentation with a pinch of salt so was wondering if anyone else has successfully used a 4K board with an integrated GPU?

 

Thanks

[NB9457]

What resolution are the laptops?

 

If you're like us, most teachers will prefer duplicated desktop rather than extended, so I'd just run the board to match the resolution of the laptop.

[wordy00]

What resolution are the laptops?

 

If you're like us, most teachers will prefer duplicated desktop rather than extended, so I'd just run the board to match the resolution of the laptop.

 

You've got a good point there. The laptops will be 1920x1080 but I really want them to use the extended desktop function. They complain about not being able to mark work while the kids are doing work but won't entertain the idea of extending the desktop...

[dhicks]

I always take SMART documentation with a pinch of salt so was wondering if anyone else has successfully used a 4K board with an integrated GPU?

 

We've been buying VeryPC's all-in-one Glide desktops since around June 2015, and had this exact issue in mind when we specified them. The original set we bought use, I think, the Intel HD4400 graphics chipset, and seem quite capable of driving 4k screens. We only actually have a couple of 4k screens (we've moslty wound up buying cheaper standard-definition screens), but we do have one of those Glide PCs driving a nice new Smartboard SPL-6265 with no issues that I know of. Worth pointing out that it's worth the bother of getting good-quality HDMI cables to link the two, and that seems to be the source of a couple of issues we've had getting large screens hooked up to PCs.

[wordy00]

We've been buying VeryPC's all-in-one Glide desktops since around June 2015, and had this exact issue in mind when we specified them. The original set we bought use, I think, the Intel HD4400 graphics chipset, and seem quite capable of driving 4k screens. We only actually have a couple of 4k screens (we've moslty wound up buying cheaper standard-definition screens), but we do have one of those Glide PCs driving a nice new Smartboard SPL-6265 with no issues that I know of. Worth pointing out that it's worth the bother of getting good-quality HDMI cables to link the two, and that seems to be the source of a couple of issues we've had getting large screens hooked up to PCs.

Thanks for this. That's the exact board I'm buying. If the older integrated GPU's are running it ok then the newer ones should.

[TwistedHelixis]

they complain about not being able to mark work while the kids are doing work

Most boards and projectors have a pause feature for this

 

We have a number of 4K boards but just run them in the laptops native res.

[dhicks]

Thanks for this. That's the exact board I'm buying. If the older integrated GPU's are running it ok then the newer ones should.

 

Your other option, of course, is to go the other way around - buy the screen with an integrated OPS slot PC and have the teacher's "PC" simply be a second monitor run from that.

[Rob_D]

I have to ask. Why bother buying 4k screens if you aren't going to run them at 4k? Why not save money and buy 1080p screens instead?

[wordy00]

I have to ask. Why bother buying 4k screens if you aren't going to run them at 4k? Why not save money and buy 1080p screens instead?

 

We want a board with the IQ Technology feature. As far as I'm aware SMART don't manufacture any 1080p screens with that built in.

[BenQ_Royce]

Why bother buying 4k screens if you aren't going to run them at 4k? Why not save money and buy 1080p screens instead?

 

1080p panel production is being phased out due to overall demand from all sectors, though primarily TV markets. the cost gap would be minimal if you could find like for like product, aside from aged stock cleaning.

 

as many 4K screens will be used in lower resolutions (as per this thread) from PC sources without much image pre-processing, it's important to look at the touchscreens internal scalar as images outputs as can vary a lot. When seeing a demo ask for both 1080p and even WXGA/720p. both in image quality and touch response/accuracy.

 

I know we've spent time internally on this topic to tune the best possible image.

[JasonNVSD]

I always take SMART documentation with a pinch of salt

You pretty much nailed it there. Their 4K system requirements are vague, which translates to me as "we didn't actually test this on different hardware". CPU-based graphics is often better than dedicated graphics for things like video encoding/decoding, OpenCL, etc.

 

That said, I would recommend getting one board and one laptop and evaluating it yourself before doing a big order. Dell and Lenovo will provides demos, not sure about SMART.

[Dazwold1969]

Hi All,

 

I'm in the process of buying new 4K SMART Boards for my school and was wondering what others have been using to drive them.

 

Teachers will be using a laptop with an i5 7200U/HD Graphics 620 chip. Official Intel documentation states that it supports 4K content over HDMI @ 30Hz. SMART documentation indicates you need a beefy (for school use) graphics card to run the boards without issues.

 

I always take SMART documentation with a pinch of salt so was wondering if anyone else has successfully used a 4K board with an integrated GPU?

 

 

Thanks

Hi , I would recommend the Clever Touch V series as they are 4K 65" if that helps.

 

thanks

[sted]

if youre looking at the smart 6065 just be aware a few things (i have 2 in a school)

1 no freeze/standby/remote there are literally volume/mute and sleep buttons on it and sleep is tied to some sort of motion sensor so if someone walks near it (manual says 5m) it turns on again

 

2 the inbuilt speakers arnt great

 

3 not running at even 1080p because of the monitor attached to the pc (and the pc is pretty pants) but picture is fine

 

dont you need a hdmi 2/2.2 cable to even carry a 4k signal?

[Rob_D]

if youre looking at the smart 6065 just be aware a few things (i have 2 in a school)

1 no freeze/standby/remote there are literally volume/mute and sleep buttons on it and sleep is tied to some sort of motion sensor so if someone walks near it (manual says 5m) it turns on again

 

According to this you can freeze the board by holding down the mute button.

https://community.smarttech.com/s/question/0D5U000002RQ1ZiKAL/freeze-feature?language=en_US

[wordy00]

if youre looking at the smart 6065 just be aware a few things (i have 2 in a school)

1 no freeze/standby/remote there are literally volume/mute and sleep buttons on it and sleep is tied to some sort of motion sensor so if someone walks near it (manual says 5m) it turns on again

 

2 the inbuilt speakers arnt great

 

3 not running at even 1080p because of the monitor attached to the pc (and the pc is pretty pants) but picture is fine

 

dont you need a hdmi 2/2.2 cable to even carry a 4k signal?

 

Hi thanks for the advice. I've purchased soundbars for each screen so shouldn't be a problem there.

 

Both desktop monitors will be running at 1080p which is something. Some screens are still 1024 in this school...

 

You need HDMI 1.4 or above to support 3840x2160 @ 30Hz. At another school I purchased two of the cheapest graphics cards with DisplayPort (£50) to ensure the displays ran 3840x2160 @ 60Hz.

[paulellam]

The 'mute button' still mode works a treat!

[atcoates]

According to this you can freeze the board by holding down the mute button.

https://community.smarttech.com/s/question/0D5U000002RQ1ZiKAL/freeze-feature?language=en_US

 

Only works on the V2 version of the board.

[jmak]

Only works on the V2 version of the board.

I can vouch for that - tried it on our V1 boards on Friday.

[AlanD]

I use integrated graphics with a large 4K monitor....seems fine. Not sure that 4K offers anything much in the way of real advantages...especially not for a class display ....