Interactive TVs

[logic0101]

This Summer we have moved into a new DFE school with Smart GX 75 V2 screens, we also replaced the teacher machines with HP Elite desk 800 G4 mini's, the monitors are connected via display port cable, running at 1080p and the TVs using a display port to HDMI adapter running at 4k.

 

We are having an absolute nightmare, wrong screens defaulting to the primary display, one screen not coming on, and TV's going off mid use.

 

Has anyone had similar issues, I have looked for software solutions such as 12noon display changer, and registry tweaks but nothing that seems to resolve the issue.

 

We are down a tech and just firefighting can anyone help ?

[psydii]

Its the cabling/dongles. You need to at least get the dongles out of the loop. Also make sure the ports you connect the different screens to are consistent across the rooms.

 

All our problems went away once we had decent cables. You might think you have good cables, but you probably don't (its ridiculously hard to get good cables - we now use Bluestream and they work flawlessly every time, and the computers/screens sync up and display the image in a fraction of the time it might take with other cables...but they don't do displayport cables).

 

In contrast to some here, we never got active fibre cables to work reliably.

 

I had a chat with VESA about this a few years ago and they recommended choosing the a cable that was rated to support your target resolution/refresh and NO HIGHER. This prevents the end to end system trying to negotiate speed higher than you need, and then failing. HBR is all you need for 1080p 30, which is all you need at the front of a classroom - even with an 80"+ screen, and achieving HBR3 over a 10m run is difficult/unreliable. Perhaps reach out to them https://www.displayport.org/faq/#tab-ask-displayport ?

 

Prior to bluestream, Amazon Basics worked (for us) flawlessly, but we needed 10m cables, and amazon stopped selling their branded ones. After several attempts with other brands, Bluestream were the only ones to work as well. Assuming that experience translates (which is an untested assumption), This product might be the one for you: https://amzn.eu/d/9HliAsL

 

We have a few of these where we have displayport docks. We had a load of issues with cables, (esp usbc) docks, DP / HDMI, and ended up eliminating most DP from the site as part of our desperate troubleshooting. Ensuring Amazon/BlueStream cables and removing dongles (and docks) from the video path worked for us.

 

Now, three years later, we've started rolling out (very very slowly) usb-c docks with dual HDMI outputs... so it goes computer DP-ALT Mode over USB-C -> Dock -> HDMI 1, HDMI 2. This works well so far - with amazon/bluestream cables, and the current batch of USB-C cables (they are their own nightmare to get reliable).

 

I really feel for you.

[logic0101]

Thank you for your reply.

 

We had issues when we installed 14 screens last year, and as you say it was down to cables we found a reliable DP to HDMI adapter so used those on this project as well, but I take what you say about the cables, we didn't install or source them so I will take a known good cable and test on Monday.

 

We also found the fibre cables didn't work, but all the runs are less than 10m.

 

It's hard pinpointing the issue as it's not consistent between rooms.