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Loss of HDMI output after a monitor has been turned off



I'm using an HD1010 for development and have a Samsung 460UX in my office that a customer has provided for testing. I've noticed that whenever the Samsung is turned off and back on using the remote or via RS232, the HD1010 has to be powered off and back on to restore video.

I assume this means that the Samsung quits communicating on the HDMI connector and the HD1010 is sensing that and going to Never-Never Land or someplace equally inaccessible.

I also have an Eiki 52" monitor in our lobby and I can turn it off and back on with the hard switch and the HD1010 will still work fine without a reboot, so I know that the Samsung is at least partially at fault.

Currently, I don't have any projects that I know this will be a problem, but I anticipate it might be in the future, especially since my customer has several of the 460UX's that we hope to use together on another job in Hawaii. I strongly doubt that Samsung could fix monitors in the field and maybe not even in later production runs. But if this is something that Roku could fix in a firmware update, it might head off future problems for me and others since those monitors are aimed at the same market as Brightsign. I've already installed 4 of the Samsung monitors with 2 HD410s but in that case the whole system is powered off and back on together, so there is no problem.

Dick

11 comments

  • 0
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    RokuLyndon


    This is the third time I've heard of a sync problem with Samsungs.



    On a semirelated note, are you using BrightAuthor for your interactive projects, and if not, you should start to. It makes things easier if you don't need custom functionality.





    I'd like to perform a test. I have modified autorun for BrightAuthor 1.2.0.13 that supports powersavemodeon and powersavemodeoff as commands. What these two is kill or restore the sync on the HDMI or VGA. I'm curious if you send a restore sync command over the HDMI if that's wake up the Samsung.
  • 0
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    RokuLyndon


    Please download and try this. Just unzip to a flash card. It's currently set to 1360x768x60p.



    Vsync Test Project
  • 0
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    Dick Trump


    Thanks.  I'll try in the morning.



    Dick
  • 0
    Avatar
    Dick Trump


    I had to tweak your script for it to run.  In spite of this monitor's published native and recommended resolution of 1360x768x60p, it apparently isn't supported.  Here is the EDID info:



    Roku> edid hdmi

    EDID:         v1.3

    Manufacturer: 0x2d4c

    Product:      0x0415

    Serial:       1297298486

    Manufactured: 2009w16

    Technology:   digital

    Image Size:   16x9 cm

    Gamma:        2.20

    Colour:       Monochrome

    Features:     preferred timing mode

    VESA Mode:    640x480@75

    Pref. mode:   1920x1080

    DTD mode:     1280x720

    Vertical:     49-61Hz

    Horizontal:   15-68kHz

    Pixel clock:  150MHz

    Monitor name: SAMSUNG

    Underscan:    0

    Basic audio:  1

    YUV444:       1

    YUV422:       1

    TV mode: 1920x1080x60i  (native)

    TV mode: 1280x720x60p  

    TV mode: 720x480x60p 16:9

    TV mode: 1920x1080x60p  

    TV mode: 720x576x50p 16:9

    TV mode: 1280x720x50p  

    TV mode: 1920x1080x50i  

    TV mode: 1920x1080x50p  

    TV mode: 1920x1080x24p  

    TV mode: 1920x1080x25p  

    TV mode: 1920x1080x30p  

    Audio mode: Linear PCM, up to 2 channels



    Best supported mode is: 1920x1080x29.97p



    Go figure!



    After struggling with multiple tries where the BS would continually reboot, I upgraded from firmware 3.1.73 to 3.2.40 (I thought I had already done that) and finally, your script ran OK, but alas, it does not wake up the output on the powersavemodeoff command.  When turned back on, the monitor simply reports "No Signal" and the script continues playing (as observed on the RS232 port of the HD1010).



    Keep in mind that I have not been able to get either this monitor or the Eiki that I've mentioned to go into standby with PowerSaveModeOn when using HDMI in some other testing.



    Dick
  • 0
    Avatar
    RokuLyndon


    Please update to 3.2.61.



    I'll ping the developers on why that power save setting wouldn't work. I tested it on two displays I have, but I know that doesn't necessarily mean anything.
  • 0
    Avatar
    Dick Trump


    Thanks!



    I just made another little discovery.  I had always assumed that if a card was inserted with content only (no scripts), that the BS would always do an auto selection of the videomode.  It appears that it sometimes remembers and uses the last forced mode even if it is not supported by the monitor.  I know that isn't always true because I just forced it to 720x480x60p (which looked awful), then removed autoplay.brp and it went back to something that looks better on 1920x1080 content but isn't exactly right.  I'm trying to discover the true native resolution of this monitor and can't seem to get perfect pixel alignment with any settings. By getting a rough horizontal pixel count (pretty hard), I'm guessing that it is indeed 1360x768, but the engine won't accept that.



    I'm rapidly losing confidence in this monitor.



    Dick
  • 0
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    Dick Trump


    Any word on this from the developers?
  • 0
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    RokuLyndon


    Nothing new on why it won't work.

    The only workaround I can think of is you could change the video mode to an unsupported mode, since this is happening at night. So, if you're using HDMI, cahnge to a vga only mode. that will kill the sync on hdmi. The same is true if you're using vga, and change to an hdmi only video mode.
  • 0
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    Dick Trump


    I think this answer must be intended for another problem that I reported where an HDMI monitor is not going into power save mode.

    This thread deals with the problem of the Brightsign stopping HDMI output if the monitor is turned off even for only a brief time.

    I will try your suggestion as a substitute for the powersave operation.

    Dick
  • 0
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    RokuLyndon


    Ok,

    It must be something to do with some monitors. I turn off my display all the time, and the signal is always there when I turn the display back on.
  • 0
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    Dick Trump


    It must be something to do with some monitors.


    Yes, I thought I was very clear in my initial post that it does not do it with our Eiki panel - only the Samsung.
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