Promethean Alternatives?

[Duke5A]

OK, I think I know what is happening here: it's not the Intel chipset, it's the board. This is after hours of troubleshooting.

 

• The board is capable of 4k@60Hz - USB-C connections work at this resolution and refresh.
  
• Since the board is actually capable of this spec, EDID reports this to the laptop
  
• Properly reading the EDID, the laptop will select 4k@60 if the laptop supports it, and regardless of what interface is used to hook the board up
  
• ...this is the issue. Electrically the HDMI interface on the board is NOT capable of 4k@60.
  

 

So the EDID is correct for the display, but not for the HDMI interface on the controller. This is the only conclusion that makes sense. I have never gotten anything higher than 4k@30 to work on HDMI on these things. Not even with powered optical HDMI cables.

 

The older Dell Latitude 3490 laptops worked no problem because all they're capable of is 4k@30 on the their HDMI interfaces to begin with.

 

We're going forward and replacing the HDMI cables on all 179 boards in the district with USB-C since all staff laptops have these ports. All that is left to see is if a 15ft USB-C cable will work. We know the 7ft cables work.

 

God, what a headache this has been.

[Alis_Klar]

ALRIGHT! Also for the archive. it doesn't work, nothing is reliable enough... fricking 4k60 uhd on, off, maybe, sometimes, black image, balls!

 

I've gone back to analogue. Using DisplayPort to VGA adaptor (on the dock) and running my old leads (vga with a headphone cable integrated) to the panel... wow 1080p60 all day, no issues, no buts. (the dock has a headphone port so the sound is also no issue)

 

Intel has an "active resolution" and an "actual resolution" so you pick 1080p and it sends 4k signal with a 1080p image! trying to wrangle it to not do that or default back to that, impossible!

 

^^^^^^ THIS THIS THIS ^^^^^

 

I've bought some different touchscreens and had even more issues than usual. I had thought I'd found the solution in AOC (fibre optic) cables but even these cables struggled. Intel's utilities are rubbish! Too complex and focused on gaming rigs ARGH!!

 

Convert to VGA for a easy life. Just watch out for audio interference and other forms of Electrical Interference.

[BenQ_NicolaP]

Hi, We may be able to help you with this. would you like me to give you a call to discuss?

[nathan3388]

we use viewsonic's boards and these have built in airplay, built in whiteboard apps, these seem to be the best that i have seen on the market we have around 20 of these and cannot fault them in anyway would recommend these to other schools to

[Gongalong]

Our solution has been to use Antiference HDMI cables. With Promethean screens we have got those to work with a 10m HDMI cable, wall box, and then 1-2m lead to laptop. Laptops still have to be changed to display at 30Hz which is the faff.

[BenQ_Chris]

Hi,

 

Chris from BenQ here, my understanding is the culprit of this 4K/60 issue lies at the feet of the HDMI port of the source device. Now that almost all panels in the market are native 4K/60 with HDMI 2.0 or greater ports they operate on EDID 2.0 and will tell the GPU that it can handle 4K/60. The GPUs are actually capable of 4K/60, but the HDMI port on the laptop is not and then you get image drop out. On the BenQ panels (model dependent) we have a switch to force EDID 1.4 which caps the maximum requested signal to 4K/30, meaning that the source laptop doesn't ever send a 4K/60 signal. If the panel you have is not a BenQ or is panel that does support EDID switching you still have a few options:

- switch to using VGA (not ideal and a lot of manual work)

- Manually change the laptop to output 4K/30 (not ideal as you will have to do this every time you connect the cable)

- Purchase an EDID emulator and set this to EDID 1.4 (long term fix but potentially costly to implement for every panel)

 

I hope the above is useful to you, if you have any follow up questions, let me know and I'll help if I can.

[Gongalong]

@BenQ_Chris Is the switch in the screen settings? Great idea! I wanted to switch to BenQ panels but teaching staff wanted to stick with Promethean because that's what we have had until now.

 

We currently change to 30Hz. You don't have to set it every time, a laptop will remember, and it will for any other screen that's the same model. But inevitably it still has to be set for different models, and we have at least three now.

[BenQ_Chris]

Gonalong,

 

On the RM03 & RP03 screens it is a switch in the standard menu settings. On the RE03, it is still a switch on the screen but is accessible from a hidden menu. In all cases, it is advisable to ensure the firmware is up to date, either by using the OTA method through the screens settings, DMS (free cloud based device management) or by contacting customer services who can provide the correct version for the screen. Handy that your laptops remember the setting, a lot do not, which can cause issues. If you have any other questions let me know.

[BenQ_Chris]

Gongalong,

 

Just to add that our whiteboard software (EZWrite 6) that comes with all of our new (RX03 and newer) boards is free with no subscription and will open .notebook files and .iwb files.

[Gongalong]

Handy that your laptops remember the setting, a lot do not, which can cause issues.

I've yet to see a laptop that doesn't remember, otherwise we would have a nightmare here getting laptops to connect to screens if it had to be changed every time. For all the laptops here it seems to remember the model, presumably because it presents to the laptop as the same device, so once it's set for a particular model it's fine. The problem is though as time marches on we are getting more of a spread of different models. I would much prefer that we could buy full HD screens rather than 4k where we don't have all this faff with cable lengths. So much for progress!

[Alis_Klar]

I've been trialing an "EDID Feeder" basically tells the laptop the display is only capable of certain refresh rates and resolutions. Like this one (looks the same different name) https://www.amazon.co.uk/Akozon-Emulator-Programmable-Amplifies-Equalized-default/dp/B0BDS43XJR/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?crid=1RBFRK115RR4&keywords=edid+feeder&qid=1668159438&sprefix=edid+feeder%2Caps%2C62&sr=8-2-spons&psc=1

 

I can tell the laptop (and the intel driver) that the display is only 1080p/60. Seems to work well.

 

I am ordering this as a test. A bit worried it will strip out the EDID for audio as its a dumb unit for pretending a monitor is connected at all times. So different to Lindy unit but can't get my head around how you program the Lindy unit to ignore the 4K capabilities of the display and use 1080p @60Hz

 

Found this video which explains what EDID is.

 

[Frankie76]

We used to use Promethean but now we use CTOUCH, the CTOUCH screen is great and has really good speakers built-in that meant we could get rid of our external speakers. Have a look at the links below...

 

Secondary education | CTOUCH UK

UBoardMate CC | CTOUCH UK

 

We spoke to WM Networks, who were able to supply a quote and install them. We dealt with Colin, [email protected]

 

Hope that helps!