HDMI as the primary (only) Video on PUPs

Problems and successes with specific brands/models of computer video hardware
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gcmartin

HDMI as the primary (only) Video on PUPs

#1 Post by gcmartin »

My 22-inch 1990s video monitor is on its last legs. It has served me well. Over the years its has been a good source of heat in the winter, and for roasting marshmallows in the summer. But, as for all things made by man, there is eventual failure.

I have couple of desktops that have HDMI ports. One of them has it off the motherboard and the other has an nVidia 250 SLI adapter (No MB video) with HDMI/DVI/VGA.

Having never done this switch from VGA to, DVI or HDMI, I want to ask this community about what I should/could do in replacement understanding.

Here's my understanding of the PC video standards delivered to the system via the video adapter:
  • VGA is single direction video only
  • DVI is single direction video only
  • HDMI is both audio-video
I'm expecting to purchase video that is, at least, 1920x1080.

Selections
There are 3 types of video displays available on the market. I am looking at of the following 2 selections to choose from:
  • Monitors
  • HDTVs
Questions
  • Will someone in the community who has used these flat-screens share their thoughts and views of selection, please.
  • Is there some issue about sound that I should be aware of?
  • Are some video adapters or manufacturers better suited for audio-video than others?
I recognize that this is an nVidia adapter question, but, I trust this community to share real-world, Puppy Linux, advice versus asking nVidia.

Thanks in advance

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Flash
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#2 Post by Flash »

The HDMI specification is for both audio and video. I've never been able to get the audio part to work in Puppy, but the computer's standard audio output jack always works. It's a bit disappointing. I live with the extra wire. :lol:

Seriously, unless you buy a flat-panel display that has a powerful audio amplifier (more than 20 watts) which is matched to good quality built-in speakers, you'll wind up using the computer's audio output jack anyway.

gcmartin

#3 Post by gcmartin »

Flash wrote:The HDMI specification is for both audio and video. I've never been able to get the audio part to work in Puppy, but the computer's standard audio output jack always works. It's a bit disappointing. I live with the extra wire. :lol:

Seriously, unless you buy a flat-panel display that has a powerful audio amplifier (more than 20 watts) which is matched to good quality built-in speakers, you'll wind up using the computer's audio output jack anyway.
@Flash: Thanks for your experience. You are correct that I have thoughts of considering using an HDTV as a total audio-video experience, thus, divorcing the separate audio wire's need.
  • Are there other experiences of using HDTV as a system monitor?
  • Are there any gocha's found by others who have used HDMI as a primary means to a system monitor?
Thanks for any help from anyone on this ...

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01micko
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#4 Post by 01micko »

This is slightly irrelevant to Puppy but flat "monitors" (essentially TV's, the line is becoming blurred) are a minefield.

I have one of those blue-ray boxes hooked up to my TV (which is essentially an android arm computer}. It's connected by HDMI. The TV is a 5 or 6 year old LCD 40" unit which was a quality unit at the time. The TV has the optical audio out which is essential for good sound quality. As Flash alluded to, the sound in the units themselves are basically cr*p. Not all TV's/monitors are created equal in this regard so I'd be looking for one with the optical sound output jack or at least RCA sound output so that hooking up to external sound amplification is possible.

Actually, I have, right next to me, the Raspi which outputs HDMI, I couldn't get sound to work though BUT I do have a radeon card in my machine that has HDMI out, I might give it a try. The HDMI does show up in the MultipleSoundCardWizard, so it may work, we'll see..
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gcmartin

HDMI audio to monitors

#5 Post by gcmartin »

Thanks @01Micko. I'm sure others will be also looking at this as it has some positive implications for Puppy application in the future, especially to those of us who are ridding old monitors in favor of newer options available to all of us. HDMI certainly is forcing our understanding in our system usage.

Thanks in advance

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01micko
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#6 Post by 01micko »

Ok, after a quick test:
  • Puppy - no sound (slacko latest dev version and precise)
    Win7 - sound ootb
    Edubuntu-12.04 - sound ootb
So, we need to do some work on HDMI support.

NB: the cheap telly I'm using has a headphone jack which I plugged into my Behringer studio monitor style powered speakers, sound is ok, but the headphone jack is not the ideal setup, it does have RCA out but I didn't feel like digging around for the cables!
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Puppyt
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#7 Post by Puppyt »

I have to chase this issue too - I have 2 HD 5450 video cards in different puppy boxes, one with HDMI to TV and the other DVI to computer monitor with speakers. The video in both I'm happy with, but tweaking is needed. No sound via either setup as yet, OOTB, but will post back if (WHEN) I have success. With specs.
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[EDIT: Goose! Can't get audio from dvi -to- dvi port setup. Dunno how I thought I could]
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peterw
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HDMI Video with Sound on Puppy

#8 Post by peterw »

Hi

Came across this subject and thought I would add my observations. I have a Samsung SMART TV which has various HDMI sockets. Underneath, I have a PC based on an ASROCK E350M1 motherboard dual booting Mythbuntu and Puppy Dpup Exprimo.

Mythbuntu experience. It took quiet a little bit of work trying various audio options to get sound with Mythbuntu. It works reliably now. However, if the PC comes on first then sound is not triggered into action and it needs Ctrl/Alt/F1 followed by Crtl/Alt/F7 to get sound. On occasions I have wanted to stream recording from a different source and using VLC I recall having to adjust the Audio settings to get sound, although I can't remember how I did it on the one occasion I succeeded. It took some time to find the Cntrl/Alt/F1F2 trick and initially I used to just unplug and plug in the HDMI lead to get sound.

Puppy experience. I have had varied success with sound. The sound does not work on the hard drive installed Puppy Dpup Exprimo, however, I also boot from a usb with Fatdog600 on it and by selecting Audio HDMI I have got sound and I use this for streaming. There is a Fatdog save file on the hard drive.

I have also connected up a ADVENT laptop via the HDMI conections and with Puppy Slacko on the laptop I got video and sound. Unfortunately, having carried this experiment I found I could not get the sound back on the laptop and had to reinstall Puppy on the laptop to get sound back to it.

Looking at various forums and judging from my own experience, sound via HDMI is not automatically selected on any distribution and is not guaranteed.

Comments has been made about the quality of sound on TVs. I must say that the TV produces excellent sound. Previous ones have suffered from vibration problems, etc, on occasions, but this one and I am guessing all the SMART TVs have noise cancellation features and they work.

Regards

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#9 Post by Sylvander »

gcmartin wrote:Are there other experiences of using HDTV as a system monitor?
1. Haven't quite got around to using my...
"Sony Bravia KDL32EX 503U 32 inch widescreen full HD 1080P 100Hz LCD + HD Freeview"
...SMART TV as a monitor with some small/miniature PC [Raspberry Pi not good enough?] running some Puppy, but that's where I'd like to go.

2. What I HAVE done so far is:
Bought an inexpensive [about £20] "Mini HD Media Box" identical to this one except sold under a different name.
It connects to the TV using an HDMI cable...
No problems whatever with display...
Totally trouble free to use, and works really well.
I use its supplied remote control to get it to do stuff.
Can connect to it, various USB devices [external HDD, or Flash Drive] holding various media files, navigate to, and play those.
It's capable of playing every file type ever invented, or so it appears to me.

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L18L
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HDMI as the primary (only) Video on PUPs

#10 Post by L18L »

I have a 23 inch 5 years old fujitsu siemens monitor with 2x1.5W sound, vga and hdmi.

First usage of hdmi has been with raspberry pi that has hdmi only.

On the rpi I have berryboot from which I have downloaded openelec and puppy. In the general configuration there was the question of hdmi or vga. Sound was OOTB good in openelec.

Next experience is very fresh: My new Asrock AD2550-ITX has
vga, dvi and hdmi (fanless, 4GB RAM and USB3 )
With Puppy Precise I had to use multiple sound card wizard where there was the choice
card 0: Intel[HDA Intel], device 0: ALC892 Analog [ALC892 Analog]
card 0: Intel[HDA Intel], device 1: ALC892 Digital [ALC892 Digital]
card 0: Intel[HDA Intel], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]

Sound is working now :)

Hope this helps :)

gcmartin

#11 Post by gcmartin »

Thanks @L18L

I notice the Specs. Under the "OS" section it has a disclaimer on 64bit limitations.

This is a very interesting MB with a graphical UEFI, 64bit processor, hyper-thread, and gigabit LAN.

Time permitting, could you try either the FATDOG/LightHouse64 ISO on you PC to see if it takes you to desktop with the HDMI elements of both video and audio, OOTB.

Thanks for posting what you found that works and how you stepped to make multimedia happen. In cable management we would only need an HDMI and a LAN cable (understand that power cable there too).

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HDMI as the primary (only) Video on PUPs

#12 Post by L18L »

gcmartin, thanks for pushing me to try a 64 bit puppy. :D

The 64 bit limitation is for windblows only :lol:
I have bought this board because it was the cheapest fanless ITX I have found.

FATDOG download was too slow so have given up.
Lighthouse download very fast but it is
:arrow: not ready for HDMI. :cry:
:arrow: no 1920x1080 resolution (just 1600x1200) :x
Attachments
lh_HDMI.png
no HDMI with lh

(the specs say: double core )
(65.05 KiB) Downloaded 4398 times

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ally
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#13 Post by ally »

hey L18L

try the nluug mirror for fatdog:

http://ftp.nluug.nl/os/Linux/distr/fatdog/iso/ normally MUCH faster

or from the archive

http://archive.org/details/PuppyLinuxFatdog64

:)

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L18L
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fatdog

#14 Post by L18L »

ally wrote:hey L18L

try the nluug mirror for fatdog:

http://ftp.nluug.nl/os/Linux/distr/fatdog/iso/ normally MUCH faster

or from the archive

http://archive.org/details/PuppyLinuxFatdog64

:)
thank you

Code: Select all

wget -c http://ftp.nluug.nl/os/Linux/distr/fatdog/iso/Fatdog64-621.iso
--2013-09-24 22:50:37--  http://ftp.nluug.nl/os/Linux/distr/fatdog/iso/Fatdog64-621.iso
Auflösen des Hostnamen »ftp.nluug.nl (ftp.nluug.nl)«.... 192.87.102.43, 2001:610:1:80aa:192:87:102:42, 2001:610:1:80aa:192:87:102:43
Verbindungsaufbau zu ftp.nluug.nl (ftp.nluug.nl)|192.87.102.43|:80... verbunden.
HTTP Anforderung gesendet, warte auf Antwort... 206 Partial Content
Länge: 234881024 (224M), 200659948 (191M) sind noch übrig [application/octet-stream]
Saving to: `Fatdog64-621.iso'

88% [+++++++====================================>       ] 207.097.014 1,42M/s  eta 20s 
Less than 3 minutes 8)

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L18L
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HDMI as the primary (only) Video on PUPs

#15 Post by L18L »

FATDOG on Asrock AD2550-ITX no go

menu.lst:

Code: Select all

# Linux bootable partition config begins
  title FATDOG64-621 on /dev/sda3)
  root (hd0,2)
  kernel /fatdog64-621/vmlinuz ro vga=normal pdev1=sda3 pfix=fsck
  initrd /fatdog64-621/initrd
# Linux bootable partition config ends
After some messages "...RAM" monitor sais

no signal input

and that was it.

Maybe starting with efiboot.img would give other result :?:

- UPDATE Dec 14, 2013
Here is how Fatdog is booting from my menu.lst on Asrock 2550-ITX

Code: Select all

# Linux bootable partition config begins
  title FATDOG64-630rc1 on /dev/sda3)
  root (hd0,2)
 kernel /fatdog6-630rc1/vmlinuz blacklist=gma500_gfx
  initrd /fatdog6-630rc1/initrd
# Linux bootable partition config ends
Last edited by L18L on Sat 14 Dec 2013, 11:50, edited 2 times in total.

gcmartin

#16 Post by gcmartin »

@Libl

The reason you are seeing a difference in the 2 distros is how each of them start to desktop.

As you noticed, LightHouse starts you to a user initiation screen, while FATDOG does not do such. The initiation screen is/isn't what's important, rather the planning behind initialization getting you to that start.

Basically, BOTH distro will behave similarly assuming you can tailor each system to recognize your Video adapter properly such that there's greater controls for its ability.

AT least, with LIghtHouse, you are getting a desktop and now need to understand how to get the greatest video performance possible for that MB and multimedia monitor.

I encourage that you also post on either of those threads for additional user input to get what would allow you to achieve the simplicity you are gaining on.

Thanks for showing us the way.

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#17 Post by L18L »

gcmartin wrote:...and now need to understand how to get the greatest video performance possible for that MB and ...
Not really :lol:
My Precise Puppy is understanding it OOTB. That is enough :!:

posting from android-x86-4.3-test at 1920x1020 resolution

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