Trying to get old TV to work with laptop

Support Graphics & Display
,
1

Hello,
I’ve recently got my hands on a free Samsung LE26R73BD, and am currently testing it. It has a resolution of 1366x768.

In the manual it says that the HDMI connection shouldn’t be connected to a PC, as it will result in a blank display, however, it does give an output despite that. This output is however not scaled properly, and the initial issue seems to be that manjaro only lets me maximally use 1280x720p output for the TV. It does say that it can connect consoles to the TV though, giving a list of supported resolutions (presumably from the console): (1080i, 720p, 480p)@60hz, (1080i, 720p, 576p, 480p)@50hz, (1080i, 720p, 576p, 576i, 480p, 480i)@component

Otherwise regarding PC, it says it can do VGA, maximally at 1360x768, and supports a bunch of other resolutions.

image
image806×426 54.5 KB

I’m not exactly sure what to do to get this TV to work properly, or if it is even entirely possible, via HDMI. I don’t have a VGA adapter or VGA card available at the moment, and ideally I would want HDMI anyways. I have read through some of the arch wiki, and some forum posts on both the manjaro and arch forums, but I don’t feel confident enough in my linux abilities to entirely understand all of it. I have tried to manually add and force an output via xrandr however, but again, I’m not sure if I am doing this correctly.

cvt 1360 768

outputs

# 1366x768 59.80 Hz (CVT) hsync: 47.72 kHz; pclk: 84.75 MHz
Modeline "1360x768_60.00"   84.75  1366 1431 1567 1776  768 771 781 798 -hsync +vsync

Following that, i tried xrandr --newmode, xrandr --addmode, and xrandr --output with the relevant resolution information. In xrandr it says it has the 1360 resolution, but in the KDE display configuration it says it is 1366 instead. When selecting them in either terminal or gui, it produces a black screen on the TV with the message “mode not supported”.

I have also get and parsed the EDID of the TV, but I don’t know how to interpret it.

Section "Monitor"
        Identifier "SAMSUNG"
        ModelName "SAMSUNG"
        VendorName "SAM"
        # Monitor Manufactured week 47 of 2006
        # EDID version 1.3
        # Digital Display
        DisplaySize 160 90
        Gamma 2.40
        Option "DPMS" "false"
        Horizsync 15-46
        VertRefresh 50-61
        # Maximum pixel clock is 80MHz

        #Extension block found. Parsing...
        Modeline        "Mode 8" +hsync +vsync interlace
        Modeline        "Mode 0" +hsync +vsync 
        Modeline        "Mode 1" +hsync +vsync 
        Modeline        "Mode 2" 74.250 1280 1390 1420 1650 720 725 730 750 +hsync +vsync
        Modeline        "Mode 3" 74.250 1280 1720 1760 1980 720 725 730 750 +hsync +vsync
        Modeline        "Mode 4" 74.250 1920 2008 2052 2200 1080 1082 1087 1125 +hsync +vsync interlace
        Modeline        "Mode 5" 74.250 1920 2448 2492 2640 1080 1082 1089 1125 +hsync +vsync interlace
        Modeline        "Mode 6" 27.027 720 736 798 858 480 489 495 525 -hsync -vsync
        Modeline        "Mode 7" 27.000 720 732 796 864 576 581 586 625 -hsync -vsync
        Modeline        "Mode 9" +hsync +vsync interlace
        Modeline        "Mode 10" -hsync -vsync 
        Modeline        "Mode 11" -hsync -vsync 
        Option "PreferredMode" "Mode 8"
EndSection

Some possibly relevant inxi -Fxxn information:

Kernel: 6.10.13-3-MANJARO arch: x86_64 bits: 64
    compiler: gcc v: 14.2.1
  Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 6.1.5 tk: Qt v: N/A wm: kwin_x11 dm: SDDM
    Distro: Manjaro base: Arch Linux

[...]

CPU:
Info: 8-core model: AMD Ryzen 7 5700U with Radeon Graphics bits: 64
    type: MT MCP arch: Zen 2 rev: 1

[...]

Graphics:
  Device-1: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Lucienne vendor: Lenovo
    driver: amdgpu v: kernel arch: GCN-5 pcie: speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16 ports:
    active: HDMI-A-1,eDP-1 empty: DP-1 bus-ID: 04:00.0 chip-ID: 1002:164c

[...]

Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.13 with: Xwayland v: 24.1.2
    compositor: kwin_x11 driver: X: loaded: amdgpu unloaded: modesetting
    alternate: fbdev,vesa dri: radeonsi gpu: amdgpu display-ID: :0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 3200x1080 s-dpi: 96
  Monitor-1: HDMI-A-1 mapped: HDMI-A-0 pos: bottom-l model: Samsung
    res: 1280x720 dpi: 203 diag: 184mm (7.2")
2

Have you tried using Wayland?

I ask, as you haven’t mentioned Wayland at all. It’s safe to presume you’re using X11; as I understand it, xrandr does not work with (and may not be needed with) Wayland.

It may be worth experimenting a little.

Cheers.

3

It does not work natively with Wayland, and from what I can tell, trying to force a custom resolution seems more difficult with wayland.

4

Then, all I can do is wish you luck.

Cheers.

5

About 6 years ago, when I bought a 4K TV (HDMI) made in China,
I was able to complete it with the following three lines. It was a bit of a struggle.
It synced up reliably.
I have a record of the commands.

displayport → hdmi convertor → hdmi (TV) 4K 60Hz.

That TV was recalled by the manufacturer, so I don’t use it anymore.

This may not be of much help, but I hope it helps some comfort??

    xrandr --newmode "3840x2160R"  533.00  3840 3888 3920 4000  2160 2163 2168 2222 +hsync -vsync
    xrandr --addmode DisplayPort-0 "3840x2160R"
    xrandr --output DisplayPort-0 --mode "3840x2160R" 

cvt 3840 2160
# 3840x2160 59.98 Hz (CVT 8.29M9) hsync: 134.18 kHz; pclk: 712.75 MHz
Modeline "3840x2160_60.00"  712.75  3840 4160 4576 5312  2160 2163 2168 2237 -hsync +vsync

cvt -r 3840 2160
# 3840x2160 59.97 Hz (CVT 8.29M9-R) hsync: 133.25 kHz; pclk: 533.00 MHz
Modeline "3840x2160R"  533.00  3840 3888 3920 4000  2160 2163 2168 2222 +hsync -vsync
  • A long time ago. At that time, I had manjaro installed, but it wasn’t my main OS. I think it was ubuntu/mint.
6

Samsung LCD TV Owner’s instructions - Setting the PC

The actual screens on your PC may be different depending upon your particular version of Windows

DVI does not support PC function.

ideally I would want HDMI

“You can’t always get what you want
But if you try sometimes, you might find
You get what you Neeeed…”

7

I don’t see why it shouldn’t be possible through some hacky solution to force it to work with a PC. Its not like a game console or tv-box using HDMI would be that different regarding how it communicates via HDMI, right?

8

Argument from ignorance - Wikipedia

Argument from ignorance, also known as appeal to ignorance (in which ignorance represents “a lack of contrary evidence”), is a fallacy in informal logic. The fallacy is committed when one asserts that a proposition is true because it has not yet been proven false or a proposition is false because it has not yet been proven true